Canada's apartheid: racism impacts upon people's lives in many ways but it is in the justice system that Canada's First Nations experience the most readily apparent examples of institutional racism. Many Aboriginals believe the police and courts are used to suppress Native People in the same way as they were used in South Africa to keep down Blacks.

Neil Stonechild, a 17-year-old Cree Native who lived in Saskatoon, had had a few brushes with the law. On a cold night in November 1990 he had his last encounter with police. He was taken into custody following a disturbance at a housing complex.

Five days later, Neil Stonechild's body was found frozen in a field outside the city. He had been taken on what the Saskatoon police ghoulishly called a "starlight tour."

It was the habit of some city cops to take troublesome Natives to the edge of town on cold nights and make them walk home. The night Neil Stonechild was taken on his "starlight tour" the temperature dropped to a deadly -28[degrees]C. It was too cold for him to survive in the clothing he was wearing.

Ten years after Mr. Stonechild's death, two more Aboriginal men were found frozen outside Saskatoon. Both were apparent victims of "starlight tours." But, in February 2000, Darrel Night survived after being dumped out of town by police. He went public with the story of his ordeal and this encouraged other Native People to come forward with tales of brutality at the hands of the Saskatoon police.

The official reaction is that these are isolated cases. So too must be case of Matthew Dumas, an 18-year-old Anishnabe, shot to death by a Winnipeg police officer in January 2005. And, Dennis St. Paul, shot and killed by an RCMP officer on the Norway House reserve a month ear-liar.

In 2004, there were the "isolated" police shootings of Lorraine Jacobsen on the Kwakiutl reserve, Alert Bay, B.C., Geronimo Fobister of the Grassy Narrows reserve in Ontario, and Gerald Chenery, a Nisga'a, in Vancouver. In 1998, Frank Paul, a Mi'kmaq, was dumped unconscious and in soaking clothes in a Vancouver alley. He froze to death. Or, there's the isolated case of Anishnabe Dudley George, shot and killed by the Ontario Provincial Police at the Ipperwash Provincial Park in September 1995.

To Canada's First Nations People these are not isolated incidents: they are part of a pattern of discrimination and harassment. Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, has spoken about how these and similar events are viewed by Native People. "When something particularly horrifying and tragic happens," he said. "my reaction and the typical reaction of my people is to understand the killings in the context of an historical pattern of state behaviour directed at Aboriginal People generally ... Behaviour which has disrespected and devalued us, seen our women as inferior mothers and grandmothers, and failed to give us the same consideration and protection White people routinely take for granted."

Native people can point to scores of other examples in which the justice system has failed them.

The death of Helen Betty Osborne in The Pas, Manitoba in 1971 is a famous example. The 19-year-old Native woman was murdered by several young, white males against whom the RCMP had strong evidence. But, because of racism and indifference, it took 16 years to bring her killers to trial.

Journalist Warren Goulding, in his 2003 book, Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference, (ISBN: 1894004515) describes a serial killer at work in Western Canada. John Crawford's victims were mostly young, Native prostitutes. The criminal investigations into the deaths were either late or flawed; the media ignored the slaughter or under-reported it; public reaction was apathetic or nonexistent.

An almost identical story played itself out in Vancouver. In 1983, Rebecca Guno, a prostitute, vanished from the city's downtown eastside. Over the next 20 years more than 60 other women, mostly prostitutes, and mostly Native disappeared from the same area. Vancouver police ignored evidence a serial killer was responsible and did little to solve the crimes. Eventually, the RCMP took notice and investigated. In 2002, Robert William Pickton was charge with 15 murders; another 12 murder charges were added in 2005.

What First Nations leaders say these and other cases like them illustrate is the indifference of Canadians to the plight of their people. This is a perception supported by evidence from the Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC).

In its 2004 Portraits of Canada study CRIC found that Canadians placed improving the quality of life of Aboriginal Canadians second-last on a list of 11 federal government priorities. Among other findings, "almost one in two Canadians (49 percent) said that the situation of Aboriginal Canadians is about the same or better than that of other Canadians."

That is not the day-to-day reality for First Nations as revealed by the Debwewin Project. This was a 2004 study of racism in the Ontario cities of North Bay, Timmins, and Sault Ste. Marie. As the study's report says, "Let's get past the question of whether or not racism is an issue in our three cities. It is ...

"In North Bay 45 percent of all Aboriginals surveyed said they were discriminated against because of their race in the past year. In Sault Ste. Marie it was 70 percent, and in Timmins 60 percent."

The most likely place for Native People to come across racism was stores and restaurants. The next most likely place was schools, but there were incidents with housing, transit, police, social and medical services, and recreational settings.

Something that Phil Fontaine knows all about, "What we see, experience, and understand on a daily basis, is racism interwoven in the very fabric of the social system in Canada ...

"Most white people have never had their children spat upon, or taunted at school, or at the hockey rink, or at the park. Nor have they had their daughters subjected to obscenities as they walk down the street ...

"To paraphrase Patricia Monture, a Mohawk woman and legal scholar, if the white society cannot bring itself to understand the pain that Aboriginal men, women, and children go through, you are never going to understand anything."

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Two Worlds Colliding is a 49-minute documentary about relations between Native People and police in Saskatchewan available from the National Film Board. Arrange a screening of this film as a prelude to a discussion of racism.

2. In 1988, Manitoba Native leader J.J. Harper was shot and killed by a Winnipeg police officer. Subsequently, a book and a film, both entitled Cowboys and Indians, tom the story of the shooting and the police attempt at a cover-up. Research and discuss.

3. Read Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada (Paperback) 2000 (ISBN: 0802081533) by J. R. Miller.

FACT FILE

During World War II (1939-45) First Nations People almost exclusively enlisted in the army because the air force had a role that recruits be of "pure European descent" and the Royal Canadian Navy required applicants to be a British-born subject, of a White Race."

Websites

Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission--http:// www.ajic.mb.ca/

Debwewin Project--http:// www.debwewin.ca/ debwewinreport.pdf

National Anti-Racism Council of Canada--http://www. narcc.ca//index.html

Racial Discrimination Report--http://www. turfleisland.org/news/cerd. pdf

DEFINITION

Apartheid: A policy developed in South Africa (in place from 1948 to 1994) and used to keep all nonwhite people apart from whites and that forced on the former an inferior standard of living.

OVER-REPRESENTED

The Canadian Race Relations Council quotes some statistics that paint a grim picture of the relationship Native People have with Canada's justice system. "First Nations peoples in Canada are the most over-represented group in the criminal justice system. Studies show that provincially, First Nations peoples are incarcerated at rates that are six to seven times the overall provincial rate. For example, in Manitoba, 60 percent of prisoners in provincial jails are First Nations peoples, while 70 percent of women in provincial jails, and 75 percent of juveniles in Winnipeg's detention centres are First Nations peoples. Taken alone, these statistics tend to perpetuate stereotypes and misconceptions about First Nations peoples. This is why it is essential to consider not only the results of racism, but also the processes that lead to the current realities."

Willie Littlechild is the first Treaty Indian elected to Canada's Parliament. In 2004, he sat on a Saskatchewan commission on First Nations and the justice system. Mr. Littlechild made the point that the "Commission believes racism is at the heart of the criminal justice problem in Saskatchewan, the reasoning being that the system has been evaluated repeatedly, and that nothing has changed."

DOING BATTLE

William Semice walked more than 800 kilometres so he could volunteer for the Canadian Army and fight for his country. He was one of 7,000 Native People who fought under the Canadian flag in the two world wars. More than 500 of these men died defending a country that still denied them the right to vote.

Mostly because of racism the Native contribution to the Western world's freedom went largely unreported and unnoticed. When the survivors came home they faced official discrimination. Non-Aboriginal veterans of the military were offered the choice of educational opportunities, land benefits, or funds paid on the basis of a certain amount of money per day of service. These benefits were not extended to Natives.

The neglect of Aboriginal veterans continued for decades. It was not until 1992 that Native veterans were allowed to place a wreath at the cenotaph during Remembrance Day services. Traditionally, they had to wait until the end of the official service before showing respect for their fellow comrades.

Only in 2000, more than half a century after the wars, did the government set up a national round table on First Nations veterans issues. This investigation led to an offer of $20,000 each to the small number of surviving veterans and their spouses. But to get the money, Natives had to sign away their right to sue for more compensation. Also, the offer was not extended to non-status Indians, Inuit, and Metis.

"INSIDIOUS AND VICIOUS"

The deaths of Helen Betty Osborne in 1971 and J.J. Harper in 1988 prompted the Manitoba government to take a close look at relations between police and Native People. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission was appointed to do the looking. What it found isn't pretty.

In the Osborne case the Commission reported in 1991 Mat "we have concluded that racism played a significant role ..." The findings in the Harper case were no more encouraging: "The evidence is clear that racism exists within the Winnipeg Police Department." The Commission also gave us a useful definition of racism: "Racism is a particularly insidious and vicious form of discrimination because it stems from a mistaken belief in the superiority of one race of people over another. It is discrimination which occurs when people or institutions conduct themselves in a way harmful to others because of their race, or perceived race."

How this plays out in daily life was also addressed by the Commission: "There has been a disturbing lack of employment opportunities in The Pas for Aboriginal People, a lack of their involvement in civic affairs, and a general lack of interaction between the two cultures. We believe that stems from and reveals the very real racism (intentional and unintentional) which underlies the attitude of our society generally toward the original people of this country.