Ottawa allocates cash to tackle overepresentation of Red River Métis in Manitoba justice system

The Canadian government is earmarking money for the Manitoba Métis Feder‐ ation (MMF) to tackle the overrepresentation of Red River Métis in the province's justice system.

The disproportionate number of Indigenous people locked up in Canadian federal prisons has been well docu‐ mented, but numbers specific to Métis in Manitoba, or in any other province, are hard to come by.

That gap in the data is one of several issues a five-year, $1.68-million cash allocation announced Tuesday by Jus‐ tice Minister David Lametti promises to address.

MMF President David Chartrand, speaking along with Lametti at a virtual news conference, said it's a "guess‐ ing game" trying to determine how many Indigenous prison‐ ers in Manitoba are Métis, rather than First Nations or Inuit.

"It's been a challenge. No one seems to want to collect the data," said Chartrand, adding that the federation has sought this information for decades.

"We don't know the ratio but we definitely know there's a crime concern in our villages right now that's starting to grow," he said.

According to a 2004 Cor‐ rectional Service of Canada re‐ port, Métis offenders ac‐ counted for four per cent of the prison population but on‐ ly one per cent of the general population.

Since then there has been an increase in the number of people identifying as Métis.

The money will go toward MMF initiatives including two community justice pro‐ grams, a new mediation ser‐ vice, development of new training and education re‐ sources, and development of part of an overall Indige‐ nous Justice Strategy.

It comes via the federal In‐ digenous Justice Program, where last spring the Liberal government injected $10 mil‐ lion to help address the in‐ creasing overincarceration of Indigenous people in Canada over the next four years.

'One of Canada's most pressing human rights is‐ sues'

These numbers have in‐ creased steadily over the last decade, something Correc‐ tional Investigator Ivan Zinger has tracked with rising alarm.

Zinger, the country's prison ombudsman, issued a statement last December urg‐ ing "much bolder and swifter reforms" as the number of In‐ digenous women behind bars neared 50 per cent of the overall female prison popula‐ tion.

Zinger also noted Indige‐ nous women and men ac‐ counted for 32 per cent com‐ bined — or just less than one third — of the federal peni‐ tentiary population, despite comprising less than five per cent of the general popula‐ tion.

"On this trajectory, assum‐ ing overall declines in new ad‐ missions to custody, Canada will reach historic and uncon‐ scionable levels of Indigenous concentration in federal peni‐ tentiaries," Zinger's release warned.

"Overrepresentation of In‐ digenous people in correc‐ tional settings remains one of Canada's most pressing hu‐ man rights issues, and is evi‐ dence of public policy failures over successive decades as no government has been able to stop or reverse this trend."

The numbers are even more disproportionate in Manitoba, where three out of four people admitted into federal custody in 2019 were Indigenous, while the compa‐ rable countrywide average was about one in three, ac‐ cording to Statistics Canada. Indigenous adults represent‐ ed 16 per cent of the popula‐ tion in Manitoba and 14 per cent of the population in Saskatchewan.

Minister defends record In response to calls for more urgent reform, Lamet‐ ti defended his government's record and told reporters the Liberals have put "one major part of the puzzle" in place by tabling Bill C-5, currently be‐ fore the Senate.

If passed, C-5 would repeal certain mandatory minimum penalties that impose manda‐ tory prison time on people convicted for certain offences.

"We are trying to attack this very serious problem," Lametti said.

"We accept that it's a seri‐ ous problem, and hopefully within a few years we'll begin to see a real turnaround."

However, Bill C-5 has its critics who dispute Lametti's claims.

Sen. Kim Pate and former senator Murray Sinclair issued a news release earlier this year calling for an overhaul to the bill, saying it "will not" ad‐ dress systemic racism in the sentencing regime.