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Full-Text Articles in Law
Making Matters Worse: The Safe Streets And Communities Act And The Ongoing Crisis Of Indigenous Over-Incarceration, Ryan Newell
Making Matters Worse: The Safe Streets And Communities Act And The Ongoing Crisis Of Indigenous Over-Incarceration, Ryan Newell
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
The Safe Streets and Communities Act (SSCA), a recent and wide-reaching piece of the Conservative Party of Canada’s tough-on-crime agenda, will exacerbate the ongoing crisis of Indigenous over-incarceration. In this article, I review the extensive literature that addresses the causes of Indigenous over-representation in the Canadian criminal justice system before assessing the impact of R v Gladue, nearly fifteen years after the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision. I analyze how the SSCA will restrict courts’ resort to Gladue, thus resulting in the incarceration of increasing numbers of Indigenous people. I then develop one avenue of constitutional challenge to the SSCA’s …
The Nullification Of Section 718.2(E): Aggravating Aboriginal Over-Representation In Canadian Prisons, Renee Pelletier
The Nullification Of Section 718.2(E): Aggravating Aboriginal Over-Representation In Canadian Prisons, Renee Pelletier
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article considers the disproportionate incarceration rate of Aboriginal offenders in Canadian prisons and the effectiveness of Parliament's attempts at alleviating this problem through the enactment of section 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code. This article focuses primarily on two recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions-R. v. Gladue and R. v. Wells. It is argued that the Court's narrow view of systemic factors, the Imitation it places on section 718.2(e) through its discussion of serious offences, as well as a number of practical problems inherent in the framework provided by the Court, strip the provision of its remedial intent. The article …
Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentencing And Systemic Racism, Faizal R. Mirza
Mandatory Minimum Prison Sentencing And Systemic Racism, Faizal R. Mirza
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
This article discusses the relationship between racist policing, the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, and the disproportionate imposition of mandatory prison sentences on Black-Canadians It argues that the retention and expansion of mandatory prison sentences for serious offences will serve as a powerful means to perpetuate systemic racism in the criminal justice system. Reporting and applying surveys on systemic racism in the criminal justice system, the article sets out to demonstrate that mandatory prison sentences enhance the quasi-judicial role of prosecutors, providing Crown attorneys with greater leverage to convict a disproportionate number of Black persons. In addition, it argues that if …