Canada, Indigenous Peoples, Autonomy, Criminal Justice, Prairie region, First Nations 

LRI research report 

"For more than 20 years the Canadian criminal justice system has been the subject of reforms designed to address overwhelming evidence of the system's disproportionate and discriminatory impact on Aboriginal peoples. For the most part, this approach has been unsuccessful, primarily because of a failure to recognize the critical nexus between justice reform and the demand of the First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples of Canada for constitutional recognition of their right to govern in their own communities. An examination of several recent reports of Aboriginal justice inquiries suggests that this connection is finally being made, with the consequence that community-based autonomy has emerged as the underlying principle of justice reform initiatives. Recommendations for the establishment of comprehensive Aboriginal justice systems as a component of the inherent right of Aboriginal self-government are illustrative of a dramatic and encouraging re-direction of the reform agenda. However, before this major restructuring of the Canadian justice landscape can be effected, several key issues including the role of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the jurisdictional framework for Aboriginal justice autonomy, must be resolved."  

Contents
Part A
1 The 'problem' of Aboriginal over-representation in the criminal justice system
2 'Tinkering' with the justice system: The dominant theme of conventional reform strategies
3 The Aboriginal justice inquiry of Manitoba
4 The impact of recent Aboriginal justice inquiries: A review of four reports
5 The emergence of autonomy as a justice solution: A new direction
Part B
6 Aboriginal self-government: A context for justice autonomy
7 Aboriginal justice systems and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
8 Setting the 'limits' of autonomy: Developing a framework for the creation of Aboriginal justice systems