One Last Starlight Tour
It seems it sucks to be aboriginal if you run afoul of the law in the true north strong and not always so free. Howard Sapers, correctional investigator and ombudsman for federal prisoners, has just released his annual report in which he discloses some disturbing facts.
Aboriginals, says Sapers, face systemic discrimination in Canada's prisons. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day officially tabled the report in the House of Commons but felt obliged to note that there was "no empirical evidence" for Sapers' claims. My trusty dictionary tells me that empirical means provable or verifiable by experience or experiment. Day has either never read any accounts of the "starlight tours" that Saskatchewan natives have been subjected to, or he just plain refuses to give the stories any credence. Unless Day is willing to listen to the experiences of Aboriginals who have experienced this type of discrimination, he'll need to conduct his own experiment, in the style of John Griffin's "Black Like Me" trek through the biased world of white America. I don't know how convincing Griffin managed to look but there's something slightly nauseating about the idea of Day with his hair in braids and a medicine pouch slung from his belt.
If Day has heard of the accounts but is refusing to accept them, then there is empirical evidence. It just doesn't fit his agenda to acknowledge it. It's often easier to play word games then to admit to the truth. After all, it might turn out to be an inconvenient truth, to borrow a phrase from Al Gore.
Jim Maddin, 25 year veteran of the Saskatoon police force, is now sitting on city council. Confronted with the stories about these starlight tours, Maddin responded with "If somebody asked me does this happen --- I couldn't look them in the eye and say absolutely no, it's never happened; never will happen. I couldn't say that ... I've heard stories of people where this has happened to (sic) in other cities. Who's to say it didn't happen here? I can't say it didn't happen..."
OK, OK, Maddin, we get the point. You don't want to give a straight answer. Isn't that the norm from someone who has jus stepped in a pile of shit but still refuses to say they got it on their shoe? If Day has any problem accepting accounts of police taking discriminatory action against aboriginals, then he just has to look at Maddin's "I've heard stories".
The police, surely, must be acknowledged as a link in the chain of criminal justice, the same as the prisons are. If the first link of the chain is rusty and needs cleaning, why doubt that there is a need to polish dirt off other links?
Sapers charges that aboriginals are regularly classed as higher security risks than non-aboriginals; that they have a harder time winning parole and receiving rehab and are more likely to have their conditional releases revoked for technical reasons than non-aboriginal prisoners. In his report, he makes reference to "well-documented" overrepresentation of aboriginals in Canada's prisons.
The ombudsman says these disparities need to be "addressed on an urgent basis". By the time the politicians finish playing their word games, it'll be too late for so many imprisoned by discrimination here in their own country. At the same time as this is going on, the immigration system continues to allow known criminals into the country and the justice system continues to mollycoddle murderous individuals like the 17-year-old who shot a Toronto woman in the face. He hasn't been taken on any starlight tour and dropped off in sub-zero temperatures somewhere in a field 70 km north of Toronto. Nor is he likely to be. There have been no stories of this happening to non-aboriginals.
Canada is a wonderful country, indeed, a country to be proud of in so many ways. In our treatment of the First Nations, however, we need to hang our heads in shame. There is so much needing to be done to even begin to right the wrongs. Stockwell Day and his ilk are not likely to be people who make any positive contribution to the situation at all.
Maybe, just before we close the history books on starlight tours, we could organize a last one for Day and his fellow "empiricists". Some quiet little locale on Baffin Island might be a good destination to consider.
Aboriginals, says Sapers, face systemic discrimination in Canada's prisons. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day officially tabled the report in the House of Commons but felt obliged to note that there was "no empirical evidence" for Sapers' claims. My trusty dictionary tells me that empirical means provable or verifiable by experience or experiment. Day has either never read any accounts of the "starlight tours" that Saskatchewan natives have been subjected to, or he just plain refuses to give the stories any credence. Unless Day is willing to listen to the experiences of Aboriginals who have experienced this type of discrimination, he'll need to conduct his own experiment, in the style of John Griffin's "Black Like Me" trek through the biased world of white America. I don't know how convincing Griffin managed to look but there's something slightly nauseating about the idea of Day with his hair in braids and a medicine pouch slung from his belt.
If Day has heard of the accounts but is refusing to accept them, then there is empirical evidence. It just doesn't fit his agenda to acknowledge it. It's often easier to play word games then to admit to the truth. After all, it might turn out to be an inconvenient truth, to borrow a phrase from Al Gore.
Jim Maddin, 25 year veteran of the Saskatoon police force, is now sitting on city council. Confronted with the stories about these starlight tours, Maddin responded with "If somebody asked me does this happen --- I couldn't look them in the eye and say absolutely no, it's never happened; never will happen. I couldn't say that ... I've heard stories of people where this has happened to (sic) in other cities. Who's to say it didn't happen here? I can't say it didn't happen..."
OK, OK, Maddin, we get the point. You don't want to give a straight answer. Isn't that the norm from someone who has jus stepped in a pile of shit but still refuses to say they got it on their shoe? If Day has any problem accepting accounts of police taking discriminatory action against aboriginals, then he just has to look at Maddin's "I've heard stories".
The police, surely, must be acknowledged as a link in the chain of criminal justice, the same as the prisons are. If the first link of the chain is rusty and needs cleaning, why doubt that there is a need to polish dirt off other links?
Sapers charges that aboriginals are regularly classed as higher security risks than non-aboriginals; that they have a harder time winning parole and receiving rehab and are more likely to have their conditional releases revoked for technical reasons than non-aboriginal prisoners. In his report, he makes reference to "well-documented" overrepresentation of aboriginals in Canada's prisons.
The ombudsman says these disparities need to be "addressed on an urgent basis". By the time the politicians finish playing their word games, it'll be too late for so many imprisoned by discrimination here in their own country. At the same time as this is going on, the immigration system continues to allow known criminals into the country and the justice system continues to mollycoddle murderous individuals like the 17-year-old who shot a Toronto woman in the face. He hasn't been taken on any starlight tour and dropped off in sub-zero temperatures somewhere in a field 70 km north of Toronto. Nor is he likely to be. There have been no stories of this happening to non-aboriginals.
Canada is a wonderful country, indeed, a country to be proud of in so many ways. In our treatment of the First Nations, however, we need to hang our heads in shame. There is so much needing to be done to even begin to right the wrongs. Stockwell Day and his ilk are not likely to be people who make any positive contribution to the situation at all.
Maybe, just before we close the history books on starlight tours, we could organize a last one for Day and his fellow "empiricists". Some quiet little locale on Baffin Island might be a good destination to consider.
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