Law professor says justice system continues to discriminate against Indigenous women
CBC News: Lawyers for a Saskatchewan woman want the abduction and other charges against her to be stayed, citing alleged human rights violations including unnecessary strip searches and denial of medical care.
In a court application, they list alleged individual violations against Dawn Walker, but say these cannot be separated from systemic violations against Indigenous women in the justice system. “This Indigenous woman and mother’s experience is an extreme example of how the police and justice system in Saskatchewan criminalize and incarcerate the same Indigenous women and children that they have failed to protect from violence in the first place,” states the application.
University of Dalhousie law professor Elaine Craig said the individual details of Walker’s case are one thing, but the research on systemic discrimination is clear — Indigenous women are generally not treated the same as other Canadians in the justice system. She said she’s glad to see Walker’s team raising these issues so prominently. “Frankly, that’s the way in which change actually happens, is when we start to understand this not as an individualized issue, but one that is systemic, one that is connected to the legacy of colonialism, one that is, you know, related to the intergenerational harm caused by residential schools,” Craig said.
Walker is accused of kidnapping her child and faking their deaths. Following a multi-day search for the pair in the Saskatoon area and beyond last summer, they were found by U.S. authorities in Oregon.
She was transported back to Saskatchewan, where she now faces charges of abduction, fraud and identity theft. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In a written statement, Walker has said she had to flee for their safety. No trial date has been set.
Walker’s lawyers have applied for Saskatoon Provincial Court to order disclosure of all documents related to Walker’s arrest and detention. These records are held by the British Columbia Immigration Holding Centre, the RCMP, Saskatoon Police Service, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, and other agencies. They say Walker was held in a cell without a bed or bedding, forcing her to sleep on bare concrete and use a toilet in full view of staff. They say she was strip searched on three separate occasions for no valid reason. They also say she was denied hygiene products and medical care when requested.
They say conditions inside the female prison where she was held are worse than comparable male facilities. They say that is a clear case of systemic discrimination against Indigenous women, given the fact that 85 per cent of women held there are Indigenous.
The applications says the Saskatchewan government “has dedicated merely $400,000 to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls+ Community Response Fund for 2022-2023. By contrast, the government is investing $1.6 million annually to the Electronic Monitoring GPS program that restricts the liberty of Ms. Walker and countless other disproportionately Indigenous people in the province.”
The application was provided to CBC News by Walker’s legal team. The application was sealed by the courts and not available to the public or the media. However, this week, Judge Bradley Mitchell said the sealing order remains in place, but any media obtaining the application by other means can publish stories about its content.
Walker’s case is due back in court later this month.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Warick,Reporter
Jason Warick is a reporter with CBC Saskatoon.