CassandraTaylaPodcast

The podcast discusses the issue of over-representation of Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system in Canada. They highlight the historical factors such as residential schools and the impact of intergenerational trauma. They emphasize the importance of cultural identity, love, care, and healing circles as ways to prevent youth from entering the criminal justice system. They suggest incorporating culture and identity approaches in schools and foster care systems before youth come into contact with the justice system. Restorative justice practices are also mentioned as important for healing and addressing underlying factors. Hello, everyone. I am Cassandra Bedard. And I am Taylor Grace. And today, we will be discussing how we can help the over-representation of youth in the criminal justice system. We will have one guest speaker today, but first, Cassandra will give us a short land acknowledgement. I come from an Indigenous background myself. I am Shikwemik, which is part of the Canoe Creek region, and it is protocol and tradition when being guests on an unceded territory that we acknowledge the land it sits on. Vancouver Island University sits on the land of the Sunemo people. I, as well, have Cree-Métis history, and I'm very passionate about Indigenous rights. My mother is an Indigenous liaison. She works with Indigenous youth and sees the impact of colonialism, as well as intergenerational trauma, on a day-to-day basis. Today, we will be interviewing her and discussing the over-representation of Indigenous youth in juvenile incarceration. And what we should do to reduce this number. In Canada, Aboriginal adults only represent 4% of the Indigenous population. Isn't that crazy? And only 8% of the Canadian population is Indigenous youth, which also represents that there are 48% admissions of Indigenous youth in custody in 2017 and 2018. That's a very large number for the amount of Indigenous communities Canada even has left. Hey, Jayla. It is! You know, from the 1870s up until 1996, there were approximately 100,000 Indigenous children taken from their families and homes and then placed in residential schools. This is cultural genocide. Can you imagine the effects that this has on a vulnerable youth, even up until adulthood? These kids, as they grow older, did not know how to parent, as they were taken away from their families and betrayed by their own country, and not to mention, completely stripped of their identity. I bet we can all imagine that growing up in an isolated setting would create an isolated lifestyle, which could potentially incorporate a crime and high-risk lifestyle. Due to the intergenerational trauma that Jayla mentioned, sometimes youth will follow suit in their parents' footsteps, whether it be a life of crime, alcohol, drug abuse, and so on. Sometimes they'll even leave home early to avoid such lifestyles, and then they end up homeless and target to getting victimized. We have a guest speaker coming on today, and Jayla will be doing the interview. Thank you, Jayla, for interviewing Starr. That was very informative and good to hear insight from somebody who works with Indigenous youth directly. I truly do believe that what Starr said about knowing your culture and identity is the first step to avoiding the criminal justice system altogether. And she also mentioned about love and care, and how those things are one of the most important things as well. In the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Canada, the courts already look at each circumstance with an Indigenous youth and take their culture into consideration due to the unfortunate circumstances of residential schools. We believe that it would be important to have culture and identity approaches while the youth are young, maybe through their schools or maybe through the foster care system, before they even come into contact with the Youth Criminal Justice Act. You are absolutely right. Another important factor for Indigenous healing and crime prevention are the healing circles, as well as other Indigenous forms of restorative justice. According to Justice Canada, the healing circles are supposed to signify the closing of the conflict. They also are meant to be a safe place to talk about personal healing journeys in a way that touches on how they dealt with the underlying factors in the first place, thus bringing their experience, quote, full circle. This really does try to mend the pain that intergenerational trauma and racism causes, and it's very important to use in youth criminal facilities. That is all for today on our podcast. Thank you, Taylor, and thank you to all of our listeners. Thank you, Cassandra, and I hope we opened your mind a bit on the next steps we can take in order to help the over-representation of Indigenous youth in the criminal justice system.