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Jamie Sarkonak: Supreme Court downplays 'non-Indigenous legal traditions' to enshrine sentencing circles

Ruling last week requires all judges to consider the recommendations of sentencing circles, 'braid' Indigenous 'law' with Canadian law

On Friday, in deciding the appeal of a part-Mi’kmaq man who brutally beat his Mi’kmaq girlfriend in the street, a majority of the Supreme Court of Canada declared that judges are now required to hear out what sentencing circles have to say in the sentencing of an Indigenous offender.

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The five judges responsible for the decision assure us that this does “not create a parallel regime for Indigenous offenders,” but it’s hard to see it any other way. No other group in Canada is entitled to have a council of (mostly) co-ethnics lobby courts for softer sentences.

Jamie Sarkonak: Supreme Court downplays 'non-Indigenous legal traditions' to enshrine sentencing circles Back to video

Back when the Mi’kmaq man in question was first tried for beating his girlfriend, this was not the case. Offender Harry Arthur Cope had the privilege of a sentencing circle, but the judge was under no obligation to address the results at length. So, when the result of that process was a recommendation of no further jail — time served, three years — the trial judge was free to disagree.

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This should have been uncontroversial. Cope’s trial judge........

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