Senators' report calls for release of 12 imprisoned Indigenous women

Threesenators are calling for the exoneration of 12 Indigenous women, some serving life sentences,and for theircases to be reviewed for possible miscarriages of justice.

Sen. Kim Pate, one of the co-authors ofareportreleased Monday,saidthe12 caseswere highlighted because the senators knew themwell, but there are more out there.

On Tuesday, Pate toldThe Currenthost Matt Galloway about one of the 12 cases where a woman was convicted of breaking and entering for sheltering in a schoolafter fleeing her sexually abusive father. Once jailed, she facedsubsequent charges for in-custody responses to things like strip searches.

Pate said the woman developed isolation-induced schizophrenia, spendingalmost 11 years in segregation in prison, and another almost 11 years in the mental health system.

Two of the 12 cases are sisters convicted ofmurder in the death of a former residential school caretaker who was propositioning them. Someone else later confessed to the man's killing. They have been in prison since1994.

"These are women who predominantly have responded to violence first perpetrated against them," she said.

"Eight of them are serving life sentences, which means that from the time they were convictedmany of them in their teens or early 20s they will be supervised and subject to be re-jailed until they die."

Pate said that one of the 12 women whose cases are cited in the report died last month.

Earlier this month, theOffice of the Correctional Investigator noted that Indigenous women now make up 50 per cent of women in federal prisons, a percentage that has been rising, when Indigenous women make up about fiveper cent of Canadian women.

Sen.Margaret Dawn Anderson, another of the report's co-authors,said in an emailed statement to CBC News thatshe hopes Canadians absorb the statistics and reflect on what that says about the society we live in.

"The racism and the misogyny is evident," said Anderson, who is Inuvialuk from Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.

Anderson saidas an Indigenous womanwho has worked within the criminal justice system, she is cognizant of the challenges, barriers, systemic racism and bias that exist,and she said in her position she has a dutyto speak up.

"I think that a more balanced justice system will be an outcome of successful reconciliation," she said.

"The report released on Monday is a small part of the awareness-raising that must be done as part of this reconciliation work."

The report's four recommendations call for exoneration of the 12 Indigenous women mentioned and a group review of their cases, the eliminationof mandatory minimum penalties, the elimination ofover-representation of Indigenous peoplein prisons, and for a conviction review process thatrecognizesracism, class bias and misogyny experienced by Indigenous women can lead to miscarriages of justice.

Case review commission

Justice Minister David Lametti said in an emailed statement to CBC News that he is reviewing the report by the senators and that there isa criminal conviction review processwithin his department. He said he iscommitted to creating an independent criminal case review commission.He saidthe shape of the new commission will be informed by the report.

He also saidBill C-5, tabled in December,removes 21mandatory minimum penalties that have unfairly affected Indigenous people, as well as Black and marginalized Canadians.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Tuesday, "Recent reports have just been appalling in seeing the overrepresentation, particularly of Indigenous women, in our criminal system."

Trudeau also mentioned Bill C-5 as a step forward, but saidthere is a long way to go.

"We know there's much more to do and we will because tackling systemic injustice, systemic discrimination, which is real, is a long, hard work that we are committed to," he said.

Pate said the new bill is only "tinkering"and will not address the meat of the issue. She said a fundamentally different approach is needed.

"If we really want to address this issue we have to take much clearer steps to ensure that judges have the opportunity to do their job," she said.

"A new commission might very well be available unfortunately the current process has been shown to be wholly ineffective."