Courts/Justice

"From 1927 until the early '50s, there was a law in Canada that forbade Indians to raise money and hire lawyers to fight land claim suits. They had actually been shut out from using the law on the basis of race; this was a discriminatory law that would have done credit to the apartheid regime of South Africa."
                                                                                                     Ronald Wright

"RECEIVING MONEY FOR THE PROSECUTION OF A CLAIM
141. Every person who, without the consent of the Superintendent General expressed in writing, receives, obtains, solicits or requests from any Indian any payment or contribution or promise of any payment or contribution for the purpose of raising a fund or providing money for the prosecution of any claim which the Tribe or Band of Indians to which such Indian belongs, or of which he is a Member, has or is represented to have for the recovery of any claim or money for the said Tribe or Band, shall be guilty of an offense and liable upon summary conviction for each such offence to a penalty not exceeding two hundred dollars and not less than fifty dollars or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two months."
The Indian Act, 1927

[This section of the 1927 Indian Act placed an impossible burden upon Bands that wished to take legal action against the Crown or file a claim:]

"The 1927 Indian Act amendments, which were in force until 1951, brought about a shameful period in Canada's  history. Our people were, by Canadian law, virtually forbidden to leave our reserves without permission from the Indian agent, who now controlled almost every aspect of our lives, and the courts were effectively cut off to us as an avenue for addressing a land claim against the government. Our reserves began to resemble the internment camps that were set up during the world wars for enemy aliens."
                                        Arthur Manuel, Unsettling Canada A National Wake-up Call

"Unions discriminate against Indians trying to break out or reserve ghettos and get jobs in industry because Indians are not accepted as members. Local mines and construction projects are particularly hard places for Indians to gain employment."
Frank Calder, Vancouver Province, 13 March 1969 

"Where are the Eskimo managers of Hudson's Bay posts? Where are the Eskimo police, the radio operators, the nurses? I'll tell you where they are. They are down at the welfare office drawing relief."
                                                                           Duncan Pryde, Time, 2 May 1969

"The Delgamuukw decision of 1997 provided judicial affirmation of Aboriginal Title by the country's highest court."

The Hon. Frank Iacobucci releases report on First Nations people and the Ontario justice system
"Ontario’s justice system is in a "crisis" concerning First Nations people who are over-represented in the prison system yet cut out of participating in juries, says an independent review released Tuesday. Former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci revealed 17 recommendations he said must be urgently implemented in order to get First Nations involved in the court process and sitting on juries. . .
It is clear that the jury system in Ontario, like the province’s justice system more generally, and its counterparts . . . has often ignored or discriminated against aboriginal persons," stated Iacobucci in his report on First Nations Representation on Ontario Juries.
If we continue the status quo, we will aggravate what is already a serious situation and any hope of true reconciliation between First Nations and Ontarians generally will vanish."
26 February 2013

"Why, for almost forty years now, have Aboriginal peoples won virtually every time they go to the Supreme Court? Because or history and the law, if fairly interpreted, cannot but re-establish our long-standing – long betrayed – agreements."
                                                             John Ralston Saul, The Comeback, 2014

"In 2016 Indigenous and Black people accounted for 4.8 per cent and 3.5 per cent of the Canadian population but made up 25.5 per cent and 8.7 per cent of those in federal prison [Statistics Canada]. . . There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that there is systematic racism in federal corrections, says Dr. Ivan Zinger, Canada's correctional investigator."
                                                             Globe and Mail, Toronto, 24 October 2020