Canada's Aboriginal Justice System

"She was not a street person. She was missing, and she was murdered."

"It was horrific and I try not to dwell on it. Its like trying to get out of a dark pit."

"[Muchieiwanape is] evil [and] sadistic [he] should be locked up permanently."

"While incarcerated, he has received his education and job skills. How nice. What supports were put in place for my sister and her family after he washed my sister's blood from his hands?"

"I'm filled with anger. They should be held accountable for being lenient with these dangerous inmates. What now? Who's to blame if he harms another innocent person?"

Darlene Clarke, Aboriginal heritage, Selkirk, Manitoba

Darlene Clarke, left, is pictured with her sister Kimberley Clarke, right, in an undated family photo. The woman in the middle is their late mother, Sarah Clarke. (Submitted by Courtney Bear)

"When a person is sentenced in federal custody, a big part of that sentence is supposed to be tied to the severity of the crime, and some kind of deterrent or punishment factor. But once that person starts their sentence, another big part of what becomes part of the decision process is what is that person's needs for rehabilitation?"

"Often first-degree murderers may end up in the maximum type of prison environment, but over time ... they're continually evaluated. In some cases, that means taking down steps in their security levels at their institutions."

"...But for the majority of people that are serving federal sentences, there is a lot of value in the rehabilitation activities they do."

Mary Campbell, director, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of New Brunswick

The issue in Canada of 'missing and murdered Indigenous women' is a sad and sorry statement of malfunction and dysfunction; malfunction on the part of government penal agencies and dysfunction out of the larger Aboriginal population. Indigenous, First Nations women and children have a higher degree of violence committed against them than their counterparts in the general population. The same can be said for First Nations men; who also suffer violence disproportionately.

 

More First Nations children are taken into protective custody than are non-Aboriginal children in the general population. Substantially greater numbers of First Nations men are incarcerated for all manner of crimes, and again hugely disproportionate to their numbers in society. Many First Nations people live in remote, isolated communities, but those who have left their ancestral tribal communities to live in urban centres are prone to the same behavioral frailties as their tribal cousins living on reserves. 

Addiction to drugs and alcohol run rampant through their communities, much of it driven by bio- and cultural-inheritance. Colonialism takes its fair share of responsibility for the plight and neglect of First Nations people. Tribal leaders have great influence over the course of events of their people, exerting that influence persuasively in issues such as non-integration into non-Aboriginal social streams and allegiance to their heritage and lands. Which keeps them isolated, living in remote communities where health care and social services are less accessible.

Kimberley Clarke, 36, was murdered under Winnipeg's Redwood Bridge in 1998. She had three children. (Submitted by Jade Frost)

 

The issue of violence in native communities is an ongoing failure of both First Nations and government agencies tasked to give aid, to solve. Criminal behaviour is too common but much worse is the violence enacted against one another, and most particularly toward girls and women. Missing and murdered Aboriginal women has its start right there, with the responsibility that should be laid directly at the feet of those leaders who fail to address it but point a finger of blame at 'white colonists' and issues such as residential schools whose purpose was to give Indigenous children a contemporary education to enable them to meld into the greater society.

Many Aboriginals have done just that, with and without the aid of residential schools, propelling themselves into respected positions in the professions of law, medicine, journalism, government, social services and more. Just as some tribes have succeeded in pioneering for themselves positions as leaders in commercial ventures that have been hugely successful and remunerative, while others are dismal failures, led by reserve councils that are corrupt and unaccountable.

 

Escaped prisoner Roderick Muchikekwanape. Photo by U.S. Marshals Service

Through all of this, the federal government and provincial governments tread a fine line between honouring Aboriginal traditions and culture and imposing the laws of the land. Unevenly, as it happens, with heavy consideration to treating First Nations law-breakers more leniently than non-First-Nations criminals. In the case of Canadian murderer Roderick Muchikekwanape, 42, freedoms of a nature ill-deserved by his murderous past. He bludgeoned an Aboriginal woman to death and sexually assaulted her.

The two met at a party in Winnipeg in 1998. They were seen walking together, when security at a nearby business called police after hearing screams and seeing someone running from the source of the tumult. When police arrived they discovered a trail of blood which led to the river. Kimberley Clarke's body was discovered after two days; she had been beaten to death. Roderick Muchikekwanape was found guilty at trial and sentenced to life imprisonment. Months ago, he walked away from a minimum-security Mission Institution in British Columbia.

These are open grounds, with few security features, where those institutionalized are on an 'honour' system to remain within the grounds. Accommodation is casual, there is no resemblance to the usual penal institutions where hardened criminals and murderers are kept in federal prisons. And these minimum-security alternatives are meant exclusively for the Aboriginal criminal class. It is thought that these places are more in keeping with First Nations cultures and systems of justice for malefactors. Several months ago Roderick Muchikekwanape walked out of Mission Institution and he is still at large.

The minimum-security Mission Institution in B.C. where Roderick Muchikekwanape was serving his life sentence has a long history of inmate escapes. Photo by Francis Georgian/Postmedia/File

 

A video capture last saw him in Washington State where U.S. Marshalls feel he is likely to "claim to belong to a tribe in the U.S." Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at the time of his escape, said he has "a history of significant violence". Correctional Service of Canada issued a news release that he was unaccounted for at an evening count, leading to a warrant being issued for his arrest. His has not been the only high-profile escape from the Mission Institution which houses hundreds of medium- and minimum-security Indigenous prisoners.

Barb Van Vugt, the then-warden in 2017 described no physical barrier preventing inmates from leaving the prison. "We believe a gradual release into society is safest and best for everyone", she stated following Robert Dezwaan, serving a sentence for the sexual assault of 16-year-old Cherish Billy Oppenheim whom he had beaten to death and buried under rocks, had also decided to leave the prison. Convicted of a 2004 fire-bombing in Calgary where two young children were killed, Michael Sheets was another escapee. And there are more.

As for Muchikekwanape, the Pacific North-west Violent Offender Task Force is looking for him. Just over six feet in height, black hair, brown eyes, he has a number of aliases. He was last seen, according to the U.S. marshals, boarding a bus to Mount Vernon, another bus to Everett, on his way to Sumas, Washington -- on the Canada-U.S.border.