Less Than Half of Canadians Support Separate Indigenous Justice System

A plaque is seen outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in Kamloops, B.C., on May 27, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Snucins)

Less than half of Canadians were in favour of the implementation of a separate indigenous court system, a Department of Justice survey has found.

Only 45 percent of Canadians agreed that Canada’s indigenous peoples should be able to administer their own legal systems of justice, a report on the 2023 National Justice Survey showed. As part of the proposed system, they would be able to enforce indigenous laws and bylaws on their own land.

Seventy percent of First Nations respondents agreed that indigenous people should administer their own legal systems compared to 57 percent of Métis respondents and 53 percent of black respondents.

Forty-four percent of white respondents agreed, while 36 percent of those who identified as East Asian or Southeast Asian were in favour of an indigenous court system.

The survey found that respondents living in Québec—36 percent—were less likely to agree that indigenous people should administer their own legal systems than respondents from the rest of the country. The other provinces ranged from 43 percent to 50 percent support while the territories averaged 52 percent support.

Support for the proposed change decreased with age. Fifty-three percent of those in the 18 to 24 age group were in favour compared to 42 percent of those aged 35 and older, according to the survey results.

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The results of the survey were based on answers from 4,487 people polled nationwide by Canadian marketing firm Advanis Inc.

The government’s report on the poll results did not say why it sought Canadians’ opinions on the implementation of indigenous courts.

An indigenous court system is not a new idea, however. Canada’s justice department handed a $500,000 grant to British Columbia’s Secwepemc First Nation in 2021 for a special tribal council project that focused on the revitalization of indigenous legal systems and traditions.

Then-Justice Minister David Lametti said in a press release that the grant aligned with the federal government’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action 50.

The grant, which was part of Ottawa’s commitment “to walking the shared path of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples,” came just three months after the First Nation said it discovered the remains of 215 children buried near a former Indian Residential School.

“We are committed to supporting the development, use and understanding of Indigenous laws and access to justice,” Mr. Lametti said in the August 2021 press release.

Former Chief Wayne Christian said practising traditional laws “is an act of sovereignty and effectively serves as a process of decolonization through the assertion of the aboriginal right to govern oneself.”

“Secwépemc legal traditions are part of and derived from the legal orders which are embedded within the social, political, economic, and spiritual institutions of our people,” he said in the press release. “It is known that traditionally Secwépemc had laws that governed all aspects of the social order.”

The Shuswap Nation Tribal Council’s project is being done in partnership with the University of Victoria’s indigenous law research unit. The goal is to develop training materials to increase community knowledge and understanding of Secwépemc traditional legal principles to support the implementation of Secwépemc Laws on the First Nation near Kamloops.