Racial bias is built into Canada’s justice system

The fallout from the anti-racism protests has created a discussion about policing and the culture that surrounds it.

This is a good start, but in order to take a serious look at racism in society, it isn’t fair to look at only one institution. We must agree that racism permeates throughout society and care must be taken to include a wide range of institutions when discussing the effects of racism on minorities.

The police are simply one cog in the wheel of control and colonialism that plague our people.

When the Canadian government took control of the second largest country in the world 150 years ago, it had no army capable of subduing the Indigenous people like the Americans to the south had.

The government was aware that it would be a race to assert sovereignty over the new land known as Rupert’s Land that it had purchased from the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The North-west Mounted Police were able to gain a foothold in the area through diplomacy and the co-operation of the First Nations on the plains. The treaty party travelled around, signing up First Nations. Once that was done and the speeches of co-operation and friendship concluded, the government then used the racist Indian Act, Indian agents and the RCMP to clear the plains for settlement.

What followed was the sorry legacy of the residential schools; the pass system; permits to sell produce; culture, language, and religion under attack or outlawed; and a total lack of self-government.

This was our introduction to Canada, and while times and legislation have evolved, we are still part of a colonial regime that has taken away the control over our lives.

Canadian society contains a minefield of racist structures. The police forces are the most visible and the tip of the iceberg. The whole justice system from the police, courts, jails and parole to other social work areas all contain a racial bias. It’s built right into the system.

For example, Indigenous children can be taken from their parents by social workers, raised in white foster homes with little or no oversight and, when they reach age 18, they “age out” and are put on the streets with no support. Within a few months they can be in trouble with the law and have no way to defend themselves in court. They can get a jail sentence and their life can spiral downward from there.

To the south, the demonstrations against the cruel murder of George Floyd have coalesced around the call to “defund the police.” What does this mean?

Like most evolving concepts, it takes on various meanings, including everything from getting rid of the police altogether to restructuring police forces and reducing their power and resources.

In the past few decades, police forces across North America have become more and more militarized. The cops are now equipped with body armour, automatic weapons and military style assault vehicles.

The argument is that they have to keep up with the bad guys, who are organized and dangerous.

I agree that there is an arms race between the criminals and the police, but police are not always dealing with the most sophisticated criminals. More often they are on traffic duty and neighbourhood policing. They are most likely to pick the low hanging fruit of petty criminals, drug addicts and low-level drug dealers. While these hapless losers get rounded up and sent to jail, the big-time white-collar criminals, gang leaders and top king pins in the drug supply chain have the resources to avoid detection.

While I agree that defunding the police out of existence is a non-starter, the public must be allowed to have input into the role of policing and peacekeeping. The police are meant to be the protectors of the people, not an outside force.

Every public institution must undergo scrutiny and be prepared to grow and evolve to meet changing conditions. The police are a very public institution, but the courts and the justice system are regarded as sacred and the jails and social agencies operate under a shroud of secrecy.

It’s time for a full review of the institutional racism that affects all people of colour in Canada. The Black Lives Matter movement and the upheaval created by the COVID-19 crisis have crested a crucial time for change.