Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Policing

Recommendation 147: Implement existing recommendations by Human Rights Watch in Those Who Take Us Away: Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Legal and judicial reform

Recommendation 148: End the counter-charging and criminalization of Indigenous women who defend themselves or their children from abuse and violence.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Legal and judicial reform

Recommendation 156: Increase the ways in which failures to appear and other violations can be quashed early in the judicial process and take proactive steps to clear bench warrants for Indigenous women.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Legal and judicial reform

Recommendation 157: Legislation should require Gladue factors to be used as mitigating factors only, unless the victim is an Indigenous woman in which case her wishes should take precedence over an offender.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 158: All levels of government must commit to using non-incarceration measures especially for poverty-related minor offenses. Governments must also provide sufficient and stable funding to Indigenous communities and organizations to provide alternatives to incarceration including community-based rehabilitation, diversion, community courts, and restorative justice methods geared towards Indigenous women.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 160: Increase Indigenous women’s Access to justice by extending funding to guarantee all Indigenous women have access to full legal aid for criminal and civil legal matters including family, criminal, mental health, and poverty legal aid.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 161: Gladue is a legal requirement. All levels of government have an obligation to ensure that all Indigenous women in the DTES have timely, appropriate, and high-quality access to Gladue reports when involved in the criminal justice system.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 162: Expand the number and scope of courts like B.C.’s First Nations Court that emphasize healing plans over punishment.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 165: The Federation of Law Societies of Canada, law schools in Canada, and the Canadian Judicial Council must provide mandatory training to all law students, lawyers, and judges on the legacy of residential schools, Canada’s obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous legal traditions, Gladue principles, and the systemic failure of colonial legal systems to uphold justice for Indigenous people.

Recommendations to end criminalization of Indigenous women in the DTES

Access to justice

Recommendation 166: Implement existing recommendations of the Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission.