Committee to address justice inequities
The likelihood of spending time behind bars in Nova Scotia depends on the colour of your skin.
“About 40 to 45 per cent of the people we work with, our clients, are Black or Indigenous,” said Emma Halpern, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia.
“That’s extraordinarily high,” Halpern said. “Of course, that’s who Elizabeth Fry is working with and not the numbers that Corrections may provide.”
Corrections or the provincial Justice Department could not provide updated numbers but the statistics that do exist on their website are not positive.
A Corrections in Nova Scotia key indicators report released in April 2019 found that Indigenous and African Nova Scotian people made up a “greater proportion of people in correctional facilities than in the general population” in 2017-18, the last data available.
While Indigenous people make up six per cent of the population of Nova Scotia, they accounted for eight per cent of admissions to remand in the province in 2017-18.
Indigenous females represented 15 per cent of female admissions to remand while male Indigenous persons represented seven per cent of male admissions.
African Nova Scotians make up about two per cent of the Nova Scotian population but represented 11 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, of admissions to remand and sentenced custody.
Halpern said federally, Indigenous women are the fastest growing prison population in Canada.
“Our numbers are low in Atlantic Canada, but we are still seeing 40 to 50 per cent of our population in the federal (women’s) prisons are Indigenous, compared with three or four per cent of the overall population,” she said.
Halpern will take part in a virtual legislative community services committee meeting to discuss the over-representation of minority groups in the justice system Tuesday morning.
Robert Wright, a Halifax social worker and a member of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition, said it’s important to have the conversations.
“We need to keep having the conversations, but then we have to decide how are we going to have the conversations affect our behaviour,” Wright said.
Wright said the Black population still has to fight and push and coerce for the implementation of answers provided by the Wortley report and other studies and committees.
He said an example is the specialized sentencing assessments for Black offenders that have been introduced so judges can have a better picture of who it is they are sentencing, kind of like a Gladue report — a pre-sentencing and bail report that a court can request for Aboriginal offenders — for Black people.
Wright pointed to the decision released in March 2020 by Chief Judge Pam Williams to sentence Rakeem Rayshon Anderson, 24, to a conditional sentence of two years less a day for five firearm-related charges.
“Sadly, both the federal and provincial systems of incarceration have failed to address the needs of African Nova Scotians,” Williams said in sentencing. “Perhaps it is time to look to community to help address those needs for offenders like Mr. Anderson, who I find does not pose a substantial risk to public safety.”
The Crown, which had recommended two to three years of federal incarceration, appealed Williams’ decision.
“When we do take actions to address the systemic racism that exists, and is known to exist in the criminal justice system ... when judges make decisions to address that systemic racism, then the state doubles down on the history and pattern of racism by appealing the very decisions that are supposed to be taking us out of this hole,” Wright said.
Halpern said Black and Indigenous women face the indignity of being more likely to be charged then to be seen as a victim.
“We do a lot of work around human trafficking and the rates of victimization of Indigenous women and girls and Black women and girls in human trafficking is very, very high, but they are often seen as part of a gang or connected to the criminal world,” Halpern said.
Halpern said very high rates of Black and Indigeous children end up in child welfare systems and “we see them aging out of care and then ending up alone and again involved in the criminal justice system.”
Halpern said the average age of her clients is getting increasingly younger and she sees more Indigenous and Black women and girls being criminalized for administrative breaches.
“They may have a shoplifting charge or something like that but then because of other factors such as poverty, homelessness and mental health or addictions, they will end up in circumstances where they breach a condition of their court order. They may breach a curfew or not residing at a residence they are supposed to be at. ... The most common reason why someone is incarcerated provincially is a breach of a court order.”
Halpern said police, usually the first contact with the justice system, can often harbour racist and discriminatory viewpoints and that police and first responders require more comprehensive and in-depth education on dealing with minorities.
Wright said the systemic racism identified from stem to stern in Donald Marshall Jr.’s wrongful imprisonment 50 years ago is still prevalent today.
Racism affected “the way the police saw the matter, the way the prosecutor acted, the way the defence responded and the way the judge saw the matter,” Wright said.
Living in a world that is inequitable, in which “you have to be afraid of an encounter with the police rather than feeling like that is an institution that will protect you, that’s a scary reality for African Nova Scotians and Indigenous people,” Halpern said. “It’s one that we sort of imagine as being an American problem predominantly, but in fact, it’s very prevalent here in Canada.”