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“Nearly half of all youth who end up in custody across Canada are Indigenous, a statistic that a Manitoba activist says shows unacceptable and systemic racism.
Data released by Statistics Canada shows Aboriginal youth made up 46 per cent of admissions to correctional services in 2016-17 while making up only eight per cent of the youth population.
“It’s not actually surprising to me to hear those numbers,” said Michael Redhead Champagne.
“As a member of the Indigenous community, with First Nation, Metis and Inuit people around me, I see the overrepresentation of Indigenous people going into the justice system,” he said.
Champagne founded Aboriginal Youth Opportunities in Winnipeg’s North End neighbourhood in 2010 to support Indigenous youth. Working with kids in the inner city area, he has seen how “Indigenous people often get the short end of the stick.”
“I see Indigenous and non-Indigenous people literally doing the exact same crime and not experiencing the same amount of jail time, probation, etc.””
– The Telegram, Nearly half of youth incarcerated are Indigenous: Statistics Canada.
“All children now in detention in the Northern Territory are Aboriginal, according to data from the families department, prompting calls for reform of the justice system.
In response to questioning at an NT estimates hearing late last week, the department confirmed that “as of today, 100% of the children in detention are Aboriginal. The proportions have not changed since the royal commission.”
“There are 17 young people in Don Dale Youth detention centre and 21 in Alice Springs. Four of those in Don Dale are from the centre, two from Alice Springs and two from Tennant Creek,” the deputy chief executive of operations for the department, Jeanette Kerr, told the committee. “In terms of Indigenous children, they are all Indigenous.””
– The Guardian, All children in detention in the Northern Territory are Indigenous.
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Download the 18″x24″ poster (.pdf), Indian Country 52 #28 – Incarcerated Youth.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
