Tansi. Nanaskomin, kâhkîyaw.

My name is Mark Arcand. I'm the tribal chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council. I'm taking this call on Treaty 6 territory in the city of Saskatoon.

With regard to Bill C-5, I want to be very clear—mass incarceration of indigenous peoples, period. It's a strong statement, but it's an accurate statement. As of December 2021, 32% of people incarcerated in federal prisons were indigenous, a new historic high. Over the last decade, the number of federally sentenced indigenous women increased by 60%, rising from 168 in March 2009 to 270 in March 2018. Indigenous women account for nearly half of the women in federal prisons yet represent fewer than 4% of Canadian women. Those numbers are astonishing. They are repulsive and unacceptable.

Then we can look at youth incarceration. In the city of Saskatoon, 98% of the female youth in one youth facility are indigenous. That leads to the correctional system, the provincial correctional system and then the federal penitentiary.

When you talk about Bill C-5, I agree with your previous speakers who talked about the violence against women. That's never taken into consideration in the MMPs. When we look at all of these things, Bill C-5 fully repeals only 13 out of 73 MMPs. That's less than one in five MMPs. It fully or partially repeals only 20 out of 73 MMPs. That's less than one in three MMPs. It addresses only 10 out of 28 MMPs that courts have found unconstitutional. That's only about one in three MMPs found unconstitutional.

This is not in line with the call of the federal government to repeal all restrictions on the use of conditional sentences and MMPs in line with the TRC calls to action 30 and 32, calls for justice 5.14 and 5.21 of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, and countless other sentencing and law commission reports. In particular, paragraph 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code mandatorily requires judges to consider an individual's indigenous history and consider all reasonable alternatives to prison when determining a sentence, including options for treatment in the community. MMPs can prevent judges from carrying out this duty to acknowledge and redress racism and colonialism.

When we talk about all of these things, it's very important that we also look at the fact that the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls stressed that mandatory minimum sentences are especially harsh for indigenous women and girls. The TRC said that the failure to provide sufficient and stable resources for the community and treatment programs that are necessary to implement Gladue and Ipeelee helps explain why those decisions have not slowed increasing aboriginal overrepresentation in prisons.

Bill C-5 is a baby step in the right direction, but it must be amended to be a good step forward. For any MMPs that are not repealed by Bill C-5, an amendment could be added to the bill to ensure that judges have the discretion to not apply MMPs if doing so would result in injustice. In appropriate exceptional cases, judges would have to be able to consider lesser sentences, including such alternatives to prison as community-based and culturally appropriate treatment options.

I apologize for not wearing a shirt and tie for the House of Commons, but I had to make a statement about residential schools, with the orange shirt that I'm wearing, and about all the harms that have been done to indigenous people. When we talk about MMPs, these are things that have to be really considered in regard to the sentencing of individuals for minor crimes to major crimes like murder. A lot of our indigenous women who were in self-defence mode will end up serving a life sentence because of the abuse they endured in their relationship. It's unacceptable. Judges have to have the ability to make those decisions by hearing the evidence, not by following MMPs all the time. Moving forward, it's not acceptable.

Even when we look at simple drug charges, we should be asking that our people be sent to treatment based on the residential school system and the intergenerational trauma that has led to all the negative impacts on people. I've talked about the young women, but in the city of Saskatoon, where I work, out of 450 men in one correctional system, 80% are indigenous. That's a high number.

They then graduate to the federal penitentiary, where we have a higher number. This is just in the province of Saskatchewan. Imagine those numbers across Canada. We have the lowest percentage.

Thank you very much.

Nanaskomowin.

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