360 search results for
Provincial and territorial governments (General)
Recommendation 36:
All levels of government and police forces must end the criminalization of Indigenous peoples who are asserting their jurisdiction and rights to lands and resources.
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Recommendation 2:
All levels of Canadian government, national aboriginal organizations, and nonprofit agencies must ensure the active leadership of Indigenous women in the design, implementation, and review of programs and policies that are directed to increase the safety of Indigenous women. Strengthen and support solutions that restore the role of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people as Title-holders of their lands, traditional knowledge keepers, sacred life-givers, and matriarchs within extended kinship networks.
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Recommendation 176:
All day-to-day programs and services at remand, provincial, and federal facilities must be accessible, timely, and long term with the goal of decarceration and successful reintegration. Access must be unconditional, not contingent on classification, and not withdrawn as a punitive or disciplinary measure. Guaranteed programs and services must include:
- Independent prison legal services.
- Independent healthcare in accordance with the U.N. Mandela rules including 24/7 appropriate healthcare; mental health counselling; access to gender-affirming surgery; detox on demand; heroin-assisted and injectable hydromorphone treatment; and safe needle exchange and tattooing program.
- Culturally appropriate and non-punitive healing programs that understand physical, mental, spiritual, and sexual traumas as intergenerational collective traumas caused by colonization.
- Free phone calls.
- Nutritious food.
- Library, reading materials, and computer literacy.
- Increased visitation, including increased hours, more opportunities for physical contact, and decreased security checks for visitors.
- Access to meaningful employment and higher prisoner pay.
- Support for release planning.
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- Accessibility ,
- Accessible services and technology ,
- Corrections ,
- Culture and language ,
- Decolonization and Indigenous rights ,
- Education and employment ,
- Food insecurity ,
- Health ,
- Health, wellness and services ,
- Income insecurity and benefits ,
- Indigenous issues in policing and justice ,
- Policing and the criminal justice system ,
- Poverty and economic inequality ,
- Substance use
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Recommendation 37:
All Canadian and Aboriginal governments must ensure that Indigenous women are engaged fully and have equitable access to decision-making on issues of governance, land, culture, language, housing, child care, income security, employment, education, health, and other areas impacting Indigenous women.
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Category and theme:
- Culture and language ,
- Decolonization and Indigenous rights ,
- Discrimination and hate ,
- Economic inequality ,
- Education and employment ,
- Health, wellness and services ,
- Indigenous children and youth in care ,
- Indigenous rights and self-governance ,
- Poverty and economic inequality ,
- Public services ,
- Representation and leadership ,
- Sexism
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Recommendation 23:
Agencies working directly or indirectly with offenders and their children/families should receive training to ensure that children affected by their parents’ conflict with the law are treated sensitively and that assistance is provided to the children, the offenders, and their family to develop or maintain healthy relationships.
- Provide training on child-related policies, practices and procedures, for all correctional staff in contact with children and their parents serving a prison sentence and/or a community-based sentence.
- Provide training for organization staff who come into contact with children and their imprisoned parents in areas such as the children’s needs and rights, the impact of imprisonment on the children, or how to support imprisoned parents, their children and their families.
Enhancing the Protective Environment for Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law or Incarcerated: A Framework for Action
Group/author:
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
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2018
2018
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Recommendation 34:
We call upon the governments of Canada, the provinces, and territories to undertake reforms to the criminal justice system to better address the needs of offenders with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), including:
- Providing increased community resources and powers for courts to ensure that FASD is properly diagnosed, and that appropriate community supports are in place for those with FASD.
- Enacting statutory exemptions from mandatory minimum sentences of imprisonment for offenders affected by FASD.
- Providing community, correctional, and parole resources to maximize the ability of people with FASD to live in the community.
- Adopting appropriate evaluation mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of such programs and ensure community safety.
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Recommendation 7:
Academic scholarship and policy papers focused on children’s rights to representation point to the need for increased funding from government sources, to provide consistent and dependable counsel for children (Bala & Birnbaum, 2019; Byrne & Lundy, 2019; Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children, 2016; Collins, 2019). However, it is also notable that none of this literature provides specific guidance as to where extra funding should be sourced or how new programming may be implemented to maintain both efficient and effective legal assistance for children to facilitate the expression of their views in a legal setting. In particular, the CBA Alternative Report (2020) suggests that in B.C., absolutely no funding is set aside for children’s representation (p. 33). This is particularly problematic in relation to immigrant, refugee, and Indigenous children (CBA, 2020). This may be the case for two reasons: 1) an overall lack of resources (particularly given the current local and international economic climate in the wake of Covid-19 – see Garlen, 2020); and/or 2) a lack of awareness at the federal level of the critical importance of this issue, and the ‘domino effect’ of reduced rights for vulnerable populations. As a result, it is recommended that policy organisations focused on this issue work to demonstrate whether and how additional funding can be allocated to children’s legal representation. In New Zealand, for example, the Family Court (Supporting Families in Court) Legislation Bill forms part of a $62 million package that restores the right to legal representation at the start of a care of children dispute in the Family Court (Government of New Zealand, 2020, p. 1). Enhanced attention and funding at the federal level can only benefit both those organisations focused on this area, as well as beneficiary populations.
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Recommendation 21:
The BCHRT should discuss with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) a coordinated process for sorting jurisdictions between the federal and provincial bodies when Indigenous Peoples bring a human rights complaint. An agreement to triage claims between the CHRC and BCHRT would assist Indigenous complainants.
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Recommendation 21:
- Support the parents’ reintegration after incarceration (reintegration planning, housing at point of release, access to financial assistance, etc.) and provide support for family issues.
- Involve children’s families and caregivers in the planning of the parent’s release and return to the community.
- Work collaboratively with families to ensure a smooth transition of the incarcerated parent from custody to the community.
- Expand family contacts and increase family involvement in preparation for the parents’ release. Design and implement pre- and post-release reintegration programs that take into account the specific needs of individuals resuming their parental role in the community.
- Ensure that decisions regarding early release of incarcerated parents take into account their parental responsibilities, as well as their specific family reintegration needs and issues.
Enhancing the Protective Environment for Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law or Incarcerated: A Framework for Action
Group/author:
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Year:
2018
2018
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Recommendation 24:
- Support the development of systems, standards and practices that respect and reflect the pivotal place that culture, tradition, values, language and identity play in the lives of children.
- Help children build connection to community, culture, group, clan, and extended family when those relationships have been damaged.
- Engage community resources without a formal mandate to support the children and their families.
- Help Indigenous children and heal families by helping children preserve their aboriginal identity.
- Keep Indigenous children connected to their land, languages and culture.
- Make use of Indigenous decision-making process.
- Work closely with Indigenous communities to identify ways to protect children of parents in conflict with the law without removing them from the family or the community, and find homes within the children’s extended family or community.
Enhancing the Protective Environment for Children of Parents in Conflict with the Law or Incarcerated: A Framework for Action
Group/author:
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy, University of the Fraser Valley – School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Year:
2018
2018
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