Justice System Works Well, but Not for All.

Tina Fontaine, a young 15 year old Ojibwe Child found dead, wrapped up and thrown in the Red River.

Jackie Traverse 

In one recorded conversation on July 17, 2015, Cormier said: "15-year-old girl f--k. I drew the line, and that's why she got killed. She got killed, I'll make you a bet. She got killed because we found out, I found out she was 15 years old."

Cormier was recorded telling a woman that he would make a bet that Tina was killed because he had had sex with her and then “I found out she was 15 years old.” In another recording, Cormier was heard arguing with a woman and saying that there was a little girl in a “grave someplace screaming at the top of her lungs for me to finish the job. And guess what? I finished the job.”

______________________________

The Justice system in Canada works the way it should work. Trouble is the system is not designed to keep out the structural bias held by people. The many reports looking at disparity in the justice system clearly show a bias. So what gives? 

Today and yesterday(s) there have been marginalized groups (why do we label them as marginalized: GBLT, Black, Indigenous, Brown Immigrants?) who have stood up and said "Hey! What the heck? We are getting killed here."  

Yet the system endures. I have no clue on how to change the system. It has been designed by non-Brown communities but yet is the standard of how we measure justice in the world. 

There is the notion (or sales pitch) that Justice is colour blind. That maybe so, but everyone in the system is not. We have many, many instances and examples of the various segments (people) doing harm to People of Colour (I use this label but include GLBT and other so called misfits and marginalized folk here). From the police officer interviewing a victim of crime or the stop and frisk because they are not White, to  the brutalizing of kids. The manner in which the police address an investigation rests on who is making the complaint or on who is the victim. The Justice system is ripe full of rotten fruit. The results: lot of harm to the community.  Murderer goes free, innocents jailed, stereotyping, rudeness and assaults on innocents, and a myriad of wrongs. In Toronto a serial killer has finally been caught but the severity of his actions will never be really known. The Gay community in Toronto had brought up the missing men for a long time before the police took a serious look. The same pattern in British Columbia with both the Pickton murders and the Highway of Tears. Police were alerted but for some reason the cries went unanswered. 

I have no clue as to what can be done, but you must? How do you address the inherent bias, racism, sexism in the hearts of people? And a system that protects a certain class and race in society?

We see the Justice system in fact works for certain groups. Not for all.