Two Tier Justice System

As a rule the left are adamant that they will not allow a two tiered health care system but you don't hear word one about the abuses that occur under a two tiered justice system.

Criminally unjust
By MINDELLE JACOBS

Service station attendant Grant De Patie died an excruciating death that horrified the country -- dragged under a car for more than 7 kilometres by a teenager in a gas-and-dash outside Vancouver.

The 16-year-old, inebriated punk driving the stolen car with $12.30 in swiped gas heard De Patie's tortured screams, but never stopped.

When Darnell Pratt pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the shocking 2005 crime, the judge fittingly sentenced him as an adult and hammered him with a nine-year jail term.

This week, however, the B.C. Court of Appeal lopped off two years from his sentence because he's native.

You may have assumed that offenders are expected to be treated equally under the law. This is, after all, Canada. Well, you're wrong.

More than a decade ago, in a misguided attempt to stem the disproportionate numbers of aboriginals in jail, Ottawa passed legislation that essentially gives a break to native offenders.

All reasonable sentences other than prison are to be considered for every criminal, "with particular attention to the circumstances of aboriginal offenders," states the Criminal Code provision.

It doesn't matter whether a native offender has fully immersed himself in native culture or has no current attachment to his aboriginal heritage.

Judges are still supposed to take into account an offender's native background.

Aboriginal people are "unique" and judges must consider background factors which may have contributed to natives committing crimes, reasoned the Supreme Court in a 1999 case that set out guidelines for interpretation of the provision.

"The jail term for an aboriginal offender may in some circumstances be less than the term imposed on a non-aboriginal offender for the same offence," the Supreme Court explained.

"The drastic over-representation of aboriginal peoples within both the Canadian prison population and the criminal justice system reveals a sad and pressing social problem," the high court added.

No one would argue with such an assessment. Natives only account for about 2% of the Canadian population but they make up more than half of the inmates in some provincial jails and a significant proportion of the federal prison population.

But after a decade, where has this strange legal prescription for so-called restorative justice got us? Absolutely nowhere. Natives are still disproportionately breaking the law and ending up in jail in staggering numbers. Why? Because we've given the responsibility of curbing native crime to the wrong people.

Try as it might, the criminal justice system can do very little to reduce crime -- native or otherwise. Let the courts do what they do best -- punish and denounce. And let's banish this politically correct gibberish that native offenders deserve leniency because of their heritage and the collective calamities they've faced.

It's inequitable, it's insulting to law-abiding natives who take responsibility for their actions and it feeds public skepticism of the justice system.

University of Alberta law professor Sanjeev Anand, one of the few academics who shares my criticism, says the law essentially grants an "aboriginal discount" in sentencing.

"As a fundamental principle of fairness, I find it somewhat offensive that we would engage in what I'd call race-based sentencing," he says.

"Once (natives) have committed offences, we should be treating them like we treat any other offenders in like circumstances." Anand is right that the way to reduce over-representation of natives in jail is to tackle why they're offending in the first place -- inadequate housing, substance abuse and lack of education.

Instead, we give killers like Darnell Pratt a break.