Conclusion

Moving beyond Settler Justice

In the final chapter of this volume, Mark Jackson joins with many Indigenous scholars and writers who seek to subvert and disrupt colonialism. In outlining the continued injuries toward Indigenous peoples, Jackson points to the inherently anti-Indigenous nature of the colonial worldview, as “evidenced by the violence of the imperial paradox, by extractivism, by the accelerating destruction of habitats, cultures, and by worlds who parse lived relationality differently.” He reminds us to listen for “the shriek of our ecological present” and suggests that we acknowledge “the ongoing, systematic, structural injustices that continue to harm Indigenous peoples and their lands” (389).

Some of what Jackson’s provocative findings suggest can be found in a poem like Chevelle Malcolm’s “Human to Human,” as well as in the experiential writings of incarcerated persons living under carceral sentences. When Malcolm calls upon wider society to put down its stones, she seems to be issuing a call to the pluriversality that rejects the “truths” produced by dominant structures which present Indigenous disorder and crime as inevitable. She does so in favour of a world which honours a diversity of truths, including findings about the hideous nature of state crime and the value of Indigenous governance systems, which Jackson sees as necessary conditions for moving beyond our current impasse. One of the aims in this collection has been imagining and setting out parameters for a plural, multifaceted justice system that serves a diverse society where it is “safe to breathe,” or acceptable to live outside of dominant scripts. As Clara Affun-Adegbulu and Opemiposi Adegbulu, state in their call to decolonize public health, we could begin by “acknowledging that there are many ways of being and doing, unlearning the universality of being and actively engaging with pluriversalities of being” (2020, 3). The authors’ comments on the health system have a similar application to this call for changes to justice systems. “True decolonisation,” they argue, “is based on demythologising the origins of the concept, desilencing/legitimising other systems of thoughts, practices and knowledges, and embracing the impossibility of objectivity in knowledge production” (3).

Lorinda Riley’s call for united efforts echoes Perley’s own remarks. In her chapter, Riley outlines how collaborations between the nations and peoples in Turtle Island, the Indigenous territories in lands known as the United States and Canada could enhance justice methods and models that resist colonialism and increase Indigenous sovereignty.

Acclaimed legal scholar, Val Napoleon, has published scholarship that also affirms Perley’s words and that comments on the justice systems that were scrutinized in this text by Riley and others. In a 2019 text written specifically on the establishment of respectful relationships between the state and Indigenous legal orders, Napoleon writes that

for reconciliation to be possible, there has to be awareness of the past, acknowledgement of the harm that has been inflicted to the legal order, acknowledgement of the causes, and action to change behaviours so that it is possible to build an ongoing mutually constructive and respectful relationship between legal orders into the future.

The host agency of the June ceremony in Fredericton, the Wolastoq Grand Council, is also worth noting as an example of a grassroots organization that is promoting work to achieve the reconciliation essential to the realization of justice, including criminal legal justice. The mandate of this organization—to connect right existence to the Indigenous laws, traditions, and languages of this territory—is inspirational and sets the tone for this concluding chapter. The Wolostoq Grand Council and Grandmothers hold visions for the future that echo those expressed throughout this edited collection that call for the end of colonization, particularly in relation to the structures of justice that are empowered to police, prosecute, imprison, and parole Indigenous peoples. The various chapters in this text have stressed the collective memory of the people, who can use those remembrances to foster action and build better approaches to justice.

The discovery of the suspected remains of hundreds of children at residential schools in Canada that led to the ceremony in New Brunswick and others like it across Canada affirmed the memories of survivors as well as the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In response to the findings, Indigenous advocates and scholars, Cindy Blackstock and Pam Palmater stressed “Canada’s continued failures” to take meaningful action on the ways its laws, policies, and practices have “created and maintained high rates of race and sex-based discrimination, including children in care, overincarceration, homelessness and violence” (Blackstock and Palmater 2021). These are issues addressed in the chapters in this text and, in keeping with this invitation to reveal the deep infiltration of Eurocentric ways into Indigenous lands and bodies, Andrew Woolford’s chapter is directly on point. Woolford counters claims that the “good intentions” and perceived benevolence of some staff members disproves the genocidal nature of residential schools.

With Woolford’s chapter, it is obvious that the small kindnesses of intimate colonialism are components of a strategy aimed at the “erasure of Indigeneity and the consolidation of Canadian settler colonialism” (67). An action that flows from this text is resisting this erasure. This type of resistance appears in “‘You’re Reminded of Who You Are in Canada, Real Quick’: Racial Gendered Violence and the Politics of Redress,” where Carmela Murdocca asks that we remain vigilant in our efforts to identify the extent of violence in settler colonial states. Her analysis of the documentaries produced by Enquête invites scrutiny of racial difference and its contents, and gestures toward the limitations of reparative justice. The collective testimonies ground and engender reflection on the historical dimensions of the role of racial gendered violence in settler colonialism.

While the discovery of the suspected remains has galvanized public sentiment and concern, the necessity for change to Canada’s justice structures and institutions is long-standing. During her tenure in Parliament, Jody Wilson-Raybould was one of the advocates in Parliament who pressed for change. As the former Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of Canada, Wilson-Raybould provides a unique perspective on the ways the justice system might be altered and modernized to address the disproportionate number of contacts between Indigenous people and the justice system as well as the discriminatory impacts of this contact. In an address in 2018, Wilson-Raybould affirmed the call for unity that opens this conclusion:

By being vigilant, honouring the sacrifices of generations of Indigenous peoples who have been fighting for justice in the face of colonialism, and re-shaping laws and policies based on the real meaning of recognition of rights, we will effect a fundamental and positive change in the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the criminal justice system. We all have a role to play.

In a 2019 lecture, Wilson-Raybould contended that the problems are evident across the gamut “of political, economic, cultural, and social issues” that Indigenous peoples face, and that the country confronts (9). She affirmed the importance of texts like this one when she stated, “Nowhere is this clearer than in . . . the relationship of Indigenous peoples with the criminal justice system” (9–10). In an earlier address in 2018 to the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School and the University of Saskatchewan, Wilson-Raybould called for a reconciliation with Indigenous peoples that was based on “real and fulsome recognition, affirmation, and implementation of the inherent rights of Indigenous peoples.” In her view, repairing relations through Indigenous self-determination was an “urgent and compelling” issue (2018, n.p.). Notably, she stated that transforming the criminal justice system was an essential step “in the path towards reconciliation.” For Wilson-Raybould, rebuilding Indigenous systems of justice and re-establishing systems and institutions beyond the structures created under the Indian Act are vital. Earnest efforts are needed to create a system with roles for Indigenous laws and governance. Although she noted a myriad of problems, Wilson-Raybould concluded her 2019 address by stating that she remained “optimistic and hopeful” that progress and change were possible (2019, 20).

While the Canadian state publicly expresses support for reconciliation, recompense, and respect, the criminal justice system continues to foster and justify the ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous and other colonized peoples, including the cruelties and casualties documented in this text. These cruelties range from the continued, underacknowledged trauma of residential schools (Woolford) to the overincarceration of Indigenous peoples (Pate; Palmater), particularly women, who are also missing in record numbers (Chartrand), sentencing disparities in the post Gladue and Ipeelee context (Balfour), harm-based policing (Shantz; Murdocca), and a host of disappearances. The injustices range across colonial records, museum displays (Walby and Piché), and legal inquiries (Savarese). The chapters in this book outline the need for experiential voices to be heard (Baker; McIntosh; Delorme; Hachey; Ewert; Jamieson). Both David MacDonald and Stands with the Wolves write with outrage on the murder of Colten Boushie. They ask us to see the ways in which settler law is valorized and how the responsibility for a homicide is placed on the deceased victim, Colten Boushie. MacDonald’s efforts to contest this valorization resulted in the vicious online attacks that he outlines in his chapter. For Stands with the Wolves, there is heartbreak in the finding that “the judicial system shows that the whites can murder Indigenous / Without the consequences of living as federal prisoners!” (104). Writing on the topic of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, Vicki Chartrand also urges that we bear witnesses to the losses and asks that we affirm the grassroots activism that offers a different vision of justice than that which is mobilized within a retributive, punitive system.

Another clear example of a chapter that sets out directives for change is Kim Pate’s “Women in Prison.” Pate is a well-known prison abolitionist and former executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies. Senator Pate reminds us that “there are many positive ways that we can move forward” (248). Senator Pate’s comments address the changes many of the writers in this text promote, either directly or indirectly, that would see to the human rights of Indigenous and all peoples—particularly those in prison—respected and upheld. Her recommendations are paralleled in “Gendered Genocide: The Overincarceration of Indigenous Women and Girls,” by Pamela Palmater. Palmater is another contributor who sets out a clear plan of action on the national crisis of Indigenous overincarceration. In her chapter, she argues that urgent remedial action is required beyond surface-level recommendations. She offers several core recommendations that reverse the current trends. Palmater notes that her chapter cannot address every action on how to move forward to end this critical crisis within Canada’s larger genocide against Indigenous women and girls. Importantly, she offers several core recommendations that reverse the current trends. In her conclusion, Palmater demands that Canada and its provinces, territories, and municipalities make full reparation and compensation for the harms suffered by Indigenous women and girls within prisons and youth corrections.

El Jones’s poem “Shit” is dedicated to all incarcerated sisters and calls to women in prisons, jails, and carceral systems. She reminds them to resist the messages and practices of oppressive systems and invites remembrance of the fact that “out of cocoons come butterflies” and that one’s “true value” cannot “be priced.” The women are reminded not to let “shit demoralize.” In fact, they are “the shit” [read awesome] and they “can never be denied” (259).

For Jeff Shantz, it is important that solutions to colonial violence be centred in an anti-colonial framework that results in fuller analysis and actions against lethal uses of violence. Within Canada, he argues that we must confront the colonial nature of policing and address the continuation of the colonial conquest, control, and violence that remains threaded into institutions of national identity and symbolism, such as Canadian police forces. Looking at policing from a somewhat different angle, Kevin Walby and Justin Piché analyze police museums to bring awareness to the ways museums depict and describe Indigenous and Métis peoples and policing in Canada. They argue that decolonizing police museums in Canada is a necessity that needs to occur in tandem with a concerted effort at decolonizing police agencies themselves.

In the opening chapter, “Memoryscapes: Canadian Chattel Slavery, Gaslighting, and Carceral Phantom Pain,” Viviane Saleh-Hanna articulates a demand that Canada unearth its past and centralize it in “our understandings of colonialism and criminal justice” as a step toward “locating and articulating Canada’s consequential carceral phantom pain” is an important one for this text. While Saleh-Hanna’s focus is on chattel slavery, her call to make visible that which has been cut off and dismembered is one that resonates at a time when details about hidden remains come to the surface. For Saleh-Hanna, a starting point for change is acknowledging the hidden racisms and rewritten histories that mask historic and present injustice.

Concluding Thoughts

This conclusion outlines what the contributors imagine moving forward, what they pinpoint as necessary to plans of action. The various contributors work to hold the government to account for its failure to fully acknowledge those realities, the starting place toward reconfiguring the relationship between Indigenous nations, communities, and families and the Canadian state and those who act in allegiance with it. Hayden King and Shiri Pasternak have written about the proposed Indigenous Rights Framework, a legislation and policy initiative announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons of Canada during a speech on 14 February 2018. King and Pasternak were concerned that the framework includes “nothing of the ‘transformational’ change the government has promised and certainly no indications of jurisdiction over traditional territory” (2018a). While couched in the language of human rights, this framework is only one of the more recent examples of a long-standing pattern of dominance and indifference in governing policy. This edited collection is grounded in further comments by King and Pasternak that it is the “institutional and structural changes” that are in need of examination and action given that these structures offer the greatest potential “to affect our collective relationship for generations to come” (2018b).

One of the key objectives of this edited collection has been to set out the extent of pervasive injustice when Indigenous and other colonized peoples are caught up in the Canadian justice system. We can change the system by making the problems more visible and urgent, and for this reason, the wide-ranging and robust examination of varied issues presented here was deliberate: it underscores the pervasiveness of systemic injustices. The text was aimed at a wide audience of academic and non-academic readers who share an interest in exploring the numerous fields in Indigenous justice issues, including law, criminology, sociology, and Indigenous studies. In addition to the chapters, the text includes poetry and the expertise of experiential writing to ensure that readers hear the broad range of voices calling for justice.

As Mark Jackson argues, scholars, policy makers, advocates, and those working in solidarity with colonized people should embrace an understanding of political responsibility grounded in the concept of “care.” Critique must accordingly be founded on the “relational, ontological grounds” articulated in the work of Indigenous scholars (370). In Jackson’s analysis, “violence against Indigenous peoples and the earth is a violence against everyone, human and non-human,” a violence that betrays “love’s lack and, hence, a lack of justice in our public worlds” (389). His call that we recognize this truth undergirds this text and its vision for change.

References

1. Affun-Adegbulu, Clara, and Opemiposi Adegbulu. 2020. “Decolonising Global (Public) Health: from Western Universalism to Global Pluriversalities.” BMJ Global Health 5, no. 8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002947.
2. Austen, Ian, and Dan Bilefsky. 2021. “Hundreds More Unmarked Graves Found at Former Residential School in Canada.” New York Times, 25 June 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/world/canada/indigenous-children-graves-saskatchewan-canada.html.
3. Blackstock, Cindy, and Pamela Palmater. 2021. “Canada’s government needs to face up to its role in Indigenous children’s deaths.” The Guardian, 8 July 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/08/canada-indigenous-children-deaths-residential-schools.
4. King, Hayden, and Shiri Pasternak. 2018a. Canada’s Emerging Indigenous Rights Framework: A Critical Analysis. Vol. 5. Toronto: Yellowhead Institute.
5. King, Hayden, and Shiri Pasternak. 2018b. “A Different PM Trudeau, Same Buckskin Jacket. But Where is the ‘Real Change’ for Indigenous Peoples?” Indigenous Policy Journal 29, no. 1. http://www.indigenouspolicy.org/index.php/ipj/article/view/546/535.
6. Napoleon, Val. 2019. “Ngā ture o ngā iwi taketake—Indigenous law Legal Pluralism and Reconciliation.” Māori Law Review. November. https://adric.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Napoleon-Legal-Pluralism-published-version-2019-11.pdf.
7. Wilson-Raybould, Jody. 2018. “Recognition, Reconciliation and Indigenous People’s Disproportionate Interactions with the Criminal Justice System.” Notes for the Inaugural Houston Lecture, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 13 September 2018. Open Collection, University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubcpress/641/items/1.0380799.
8. Wilson-Raybould, Jody. 2019. “From Denial to Recognition: The Challenges of Indigenous Justice in Canada.” Notes for an address to the First Nations Provincial Justice Forum Richmond, British Columbia, 24 April 2019. Open Collection, University of British Columbia Library, Vancouver. https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubcpress/641/items/1.0380741.