Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights

Indigenous peoples in Canada demand self-determination over criminal justice for a number of reasons. Indigenous approaches to justice that resemble restorative justice are thought to be more effective in dealing with Indigenous criminality, to promote the healing of offenders and victims, and to pr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Milward, David Leo
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: University of British Columbia 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/14525
id ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-14525
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-UBC-oai-circle.library.ubc.ca-2429-145252018-01-05T17:23:52Z Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights Milward, David Leo Indigenous peoples in Canada demand self-determination over criminal justice for a number of reasons. Indigenous approaches to justice that resemble restorative justice are thought to be more effective in dealing with Indigenous criminality, to promote the healing of offenders and victims, and to promote relationship reparation in Indigenous communities. Indigenous punitive sanctions such as corporal punishment may also provide a briefer deterrent alternative that avoids the hardening conditions of prisons. Indigenous peoples have little room to pursue these visions of justice. Canadian laws and policies accords only minor accommodations of Indigenous approaches to justice. This is sustained by a political culture that often demands harsher sentences to assure deterrence and public safety. Judicial treatment of the Aboriginal rights provision of the Constitution Act, 1982, provides limited scope for Indigenous peoples to litigate or negotiate for rights to substantive criminal jurisdiction. One approach to overcoming this is to litigate for an Indigenous right of internal autonomy. It gives Indigenous peoples a better position to demand greater accommodation for their justice practices. Another approach is for Indigenous communities to explore avenues for their own economic development, so that they can their own justice systems, free of external influence, to meet their needs. If Indigenous self-determination becomes a reality, there is another issue that is imperative to address. What happens when Indigenous individuals assert their legal rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms against their own justice systems? This engages a tension between Indigenous justice traditions that emphasize collective well-being and individual rights. There is a method for resolving this tension. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples explored the concept of culturally sensitive interpretation of legal rights, re-interpreting legal rights under the Charter to better reflect Indigenous justice traditions while still leaving in place meaningful safeguards against the abuse of collective power. This dissertation puts culturally sensitive interpretation into action by exploring specific proposals with reference to specific rights in the Charter. Law, Faculty of Graduate 2009-11-02T19:50:18Z 2009-11-02T19:50:18Z 2009 2010-05 Text Thesis/Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/14525 eng Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ 2114529 bytes application/pdf University of British Columbia
collection NDLTD
language English
format Others
sources NDLTD
description Indigenous peoples in Canada demand self-determination over criminal justice for a number of reasons. Indigenous approaches to justice that resemble restorative justice are thought to be more effective in dealing with Indigenous criminality, to promote the healing of offenders and victims, and to promote relationship reparation in Indigenous communities. Indigenous punitive sanctions such as corporal punishment may also provide a briefer deterrent alternative that avoids the hardening conditions of prisons. Indigenous peoples have little room to pursue these visions of justice. Canadian laws and policies accords only minor accommodations of Indigenous approaches to justice. This is sustained by a political culture that often demands harsher sentences to assure deterrence and public safety. Judicial treatment of the Aboriginal rights provision of the Constitution Act, 1982, provides limited scope for Indigenous peoples to litigate or negotiate for rights to substantive criminal jurisdiction. One approach to overcoming this is to litigate for an Indigenous right of internal autonomy. It gives Indigenous peoples a better position to demand greater accommodation for their justice practices. Another approach is for Indigenous communities to explore avenues for their own economic development, so that they can their own justice systems, free of external influence, to meet their needs. If Indigenous self-determination becomes a reality, there is another issue that is imperative to address. What happens when Indigenous individuals assert their legal rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms against their own justice systems? This engages a tension between Indigenous justice traditions that emphasize collective well-being and individual rights. There is a method for resolving this tension. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples explored the concept of culturally sensitive interpretation of legal rights, re-interpreting legal rights under the Charter to better reflect Indigenous justice traditions while still leaving in place meaningful safeguards against the abuse of collective power. This dissertation puts culturally sensitive interpretation into action by exploring specific proposals with reference to specific rights in the Charter. === Law, Faculty of === Graduate
author Milward, David Leo
spellingShingle Milward, David Leo
Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
author_facet Milward, David Leo
author_sort Milward, David Leo
title Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
title_short Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
title_full Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
title_fullStr Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
title_full_unstemmed Raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary Indigenous visions of justice in Canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
title_sort raven grows new feathers : realizing contemporary indigenous visions of justice in canada through the culturally sensitive interpretations of legal rights
publisher University of British Columbia
publishDate 2009
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/14525
work_keys_str_mv AT milwarddavidleo ravengrowsnewfeathersrealizingcontemporaryindigenousvisionsofjusticeincanadathroughtheculturallysensitiveinterpretationsoflegalrights
_version_ 1718582238005690368