Unsettling Colonialism in the Canadian Criminal Justice System

By: Vicki Chartrand and Josephine Savarese

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Synopsis: The development of the Canadian criminal justice system has been central to the dispossession of Indigenous populations and the safeguarding of colonial relations of power. Through the mechanisms of surveillance, segregation, and containment, the justice system ensures that Indigenous peoples remain in a state of economic deprivation, social isolation, and political subjection. Contributors to this volume examine historical expressions and ongoing reinforcement of settler colonialism with a view to illuminating how it manifests in contemporary police actions and criminal proceedings. Using an anti-colonial lens, alternative conceptualizations and practices of justice are explored. The volume includes testaments from Indigenous people currently in federal penitentiaries across Canada that show current penal and carceral arrangements for Indigenous people.