• About
  • Issue 8, Spring 2017
  • Past issues
  • Downtown East
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Events
  • Newsletter

Menu
  • About
  • Issue 8, Spring 2017
  • Past issues
  • Downtown East
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Events
  • Newsletter

The Canadian prison system is racist and getting racist-er: By Ivan Drury

volc8no April 22, 2013     Downtown East Newspaper, Indigenous & Colonialism, Police & Criminalization

TDTW_parc_macpheeOn March 7th Canada’s corrections investigator announced that 1/4 of people in federal prisons are status Indians; Indigenous prisoners are likely to stay in prison longer than non-natives; they are more likely also to be quickly arrested and imprisoned again after being released; and Indigenous people have an incarceration rate 10-times higher than non-natives.

And it’s getting worse. The report said there has been a nearly 40% increase in the ratio of Indigenous prisoners over the past ten years. The Conservative government, meanwhile, has cut Indigenous cultural funding in and out of prisons and alternative sentencing tools like healing lodges are not being used. The BC Civil Liberties association said the corrections system “over-polices and over-incarcerates Indigenous people. This is racist and it is unacceptable.”

The same week the Conservatives announced a new crime bill cracking down on “contraband tobacco,” with up-to 6-month sentences for minor first-time offences and a two-year minimum for repeat offenders. Someone tell the youth on the native cigarette corner to watch out; this government has a housing policy for Indigenous people and it’s called prison.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

 Previous Post

Make Vancouver a Sanctuary City Today – Make No One Illegal Tomorrow!: By Ivan Drury

― April 22, 2013

Next Post 

Standing, Walking, and Flying for Social Justice: By Harold Lavender

― April 22, 2013

Related Articles

Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations defend the coast, and their sovereignty: Khelsilem and Ta’ah pledge to stop the Kinder Morgan Pipeline
Policing Poverty: An Interview with Laura-Lin of the Surrey Strip
Killing Time – Addressing the Use of Segregation in Canadian Prisons: By Meenakshi Mannoe
Made to Kill – The History and Role of Policing and Lethal Force in Canada: By Jeff Shantz, Critical Criminology Working Group, Surrey
City of Victoria Pledges Millions More to Cops not Homes: By Dani Cooper
“There’s definitely an anti-Indigenous energy in the police here” – Indigenous land defenders targeted by police violence in the Kinder Morgan pipeline fight: By J. H. Feicken
Back to the War on Drugs – Canada’s Public Health/Public Safety response to the Fentanyl Overdose Crisis: By Ashley Mollison
Imperialism, capitalism, and the revolutionary potential of urban Indigenous land relationships: By Natalie Knight (Yurok/Navajo)
“A white man’s freedom is more important than an Indigenous person’s life” – Indigenous responses to the Boushie & Fontaine murders: By Natalie Knight (Yurok/Navajo), Sadie Morris (Nuu-chah-nulth/Irish) and Pauline Morris (Nuu-chah-nulth/Gitxsan/Irish)
Sun Peaks to Geneva – Playgrounds and Fortresses: By Art Manuel
Women supporting Women in the Downtown Eastside: By Dave Diewert
Indigenous youth in care – the continuation of the residential school system in British Columbia: By Natalie Knight
Kwantlen Nation digs in against the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion: By PJ Lilley
Worldviews – Urban Indigenous frontlines, experience, and survival: By Sadie Morris, West Coast Raindrop
Simon Fraser University kills its Indigenous education program, continuing its legacy of mismanaging Indigenous education funding: By Natalie Knight
Continuing the fight for Homes Not Jails: By Super InTent City Council
Indigenous land defenders call for the creation of the Sacred Fire Network: By Natalie Knight
BC anti-election column: BC Liberals and NDP both promise a renewed war on street-level drug dealers: By Ashley Mollison
Open letter to the City of Victoria Mayor & Council and Island Health: By No Cops on Outreach Victoria, Lekwungen Territories
Remembering Art Manuel, leader of an intergenerational struggle to unsettle Canada: Mike Krebs, Blackfoot
Under an unjust state, break unjust laws – A call to revisit our strategies and take different actions: By the Editors
The only way to survive is to break the law – Vancouver’s DTES Economic Development Plan continues the criminalization of the poor: By Maria Wallstam
Expanding our sovereignty, not Kinder Morgan’s pipelines – Kwantlen nation stands against Trudeau’s pipeline plans: Interview with Brandon Gabriel by Dave Diewert
Sex workers must break the laws that deny us protections as workers: By Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV)
Our veins run with water, not oil – fighting for our lives against capitalism and colonialism across Turtle Island: By Seb Bonet
The (Un)realities of Reconciliation: By Herb Varley
“It’s gotten creepy down here now” – Police Occupy the Strip in Surrey: By Dave Diewert
Announcement from the Feb 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee
Community Policing and the health and overdose prevention dimensions of Vancouver’s war on drugs: By the Editors with a statement by Alliance Against Displacement
New Year, Same Fight – Resisting cops as mental health workers in Victoria: By Ashley Mollison
Cancelling the promised Maple Ridge shelter is part of a broader anti-poor reaction: By Ivan Drury
Kwantlen Nation leads the fight against Kinder Morgan pipeline transgression of territorial and political sovereignty: By the Editors
Canada is not our only enemy – An anti-colonial perspective on foreign investment in British Columbia: By Natalie Knight
Against the Dakota Access Pipeline from the Concrete Guts of the Real Estate Snake: Alliance Against Displacement Standing Rock Solidarity Statement
Criminalization of homelessness continues as Thornton Park tent city forcibly displaced by police on November 25, 2016: By Alliance Against Displacement
The Police Are Not Our Friends: By Piotr Burek
Portraits of Regions in Struggle
We are all persons and we all belong: By Dave Diewert
Liberation & Decolonization – Discussion groups change our hearts and minds: By Natalie Knight
Three Pledges of Struggle: By Together Against Displacement & Dispossession Summit
Social work as social control: By Joshua Goldberg & Flora Pagan
Violence on the Surrey Strip is rooted in criminalization and dehumanization: By Dave Diewert
Trudeau just gave the go-ahead to the next Oka – Frontline Salmon Warrior speaks out about Petronas LNG project approval: By Goot Ges
The ceremony of birth and Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk ancestral wisdom: By Toni-Leah Yake
The veil of whiteness – notes on the Black revolts in Charlotte and El Cajon from Vancouver: By Natalie Knight
Oil spill near Bella Bella reveals lack of nation-to-nation relationships and respect for Indigenous territorial sovereignty: By Natalie Knight
Dispatches: Is Surrey punishing homeless protesters? By Dave Diewert
Surrey Steals from the Homeless and We Won’t Take it Anymore: By the Editors
Fighting for our lives – #NoDAPL in historical context: By Nick Estes
Will No One Heed My Call? By Sadie Morris
August 10th is Prisoners’ Justice Day, 41 years and counting: By Abby Rolston
Vancouver police violence at peaceful Imperial Metals protest: By Natalie Knight
The Journey for Joey English: By Goot Ges
“The role of the police is to intimidate and harass homeless people”- Rituals of State Power on the Strip in Surrey: By Dave Diewert
Profile of a Lelu Island land defender – A Conversation with Goot Ges: By Natalie Knight
Federal Justice Minister is Selling Decades Old Termination Plan as a New “Reconciliation” Framework for First Nations: By Russ Diabo
Court overturn of Enbridge continues pushback against colonial resource extraction: By Natalie Knight
Reconcile This! Speakers show the way towards uniting struggles against colonial dispossession and capitalist displacement: By the Editors
Reconcile This! Uniting struggles against colonial dispossession & capitalist displacement
Black Lives Matter from Vancouver to Toronto: By Natalie Knight
La mission esta cumplida Lucia no era fantasma: Por Byron Cruz
Invisible Heroes: Aboriginal Stories from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
In Memory of Wolverine: By Karla Lottini
Real Crisis, Fake Responses: Editorial
Occupy INAC – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
Caring Society vs Canada – foster care is modern day residential school for Indigenous people: By Natalie Knight
Revisiting the Tao of Deception in Canada’s colonial war on the poor: By Herb Varley
Prime Minister Trudeau and Reconciliation – The New Tokenism Is Still The Same As The Old Tokenism: By Brandon Gabriel, Kwelexwecten, Kwantlen First Nation Artist
“We Shall Not Be Moved” – Indigenous Land Defense on Lelu Island: By Dave Diewert
Fracking poisons water, destroys fish, and causes global warming and earthquakes: By Harold Lavender
No homelessness on stolen Native land? How demands for wealth redistribution can rely on colonial domination: By Natalie Knight and Ivan Drury
So much at stake at Madii Lii: An Interview with Richard Wright by Sean Phipps
Canada Has Blood On Its Hands – Justice in Honduras Requires a U-Turn in Canadian Foreign Policy: By Mining Justice Watch
Access Without Fear: By Byron Cruz
On the Frontlines: A Map of Indigenous Resistance
Wolverine calls on PM Trudeau for an Inquiry into Gustafsen Lake
How do we leap towards a better future? An Indigenous perspective on the Leap Manifesto: By Natalie Knight
Prisons in Canada Still Racist After Forty Years of Reform: By Abby Rolston
Indigenous Voices from Frontline Struggles against Dispossession: Kanahus Manuel and Dini Ze Toghestiy
A Re-occupation in Xwisten – Indigenous Struggle for Home on Sovereign Land: By Kaleb Morrison and Christine Jack
Protecting and Growing Unist’ot’en: An Interview with Freda Huson
Healthcare as Regulation and Social Control of the Poor: By Dan Oudshoorn and Dave Diewert
Indigenous women want Federal Inquiry to consult with feminist groups as well as families: By Jean Swanson
The Federal Inquiry must address Canada’s colonial legacy and Harper’s sex work laws: By SWUAV
Learning to Live on Shared Territory: By Savannah Walling with a story from Priscillia Tait
Working Towards an Open, Tolerant Society – Closing Thoughts on Phase 1 of the Right to Remain Project: By Herb Varley
Special online-only articles
Death by Cops on the Rise in BC: By Dave Diewert
From the inside out – what we free ourselves from when we get rid of prisons: By Lora McElhinney and Abby Rolston
Community Policing – Better Relationships or Better Surveillance?: By Dionne Molloy
Gangs and Drugs – Probing the Root Causes of the Shootings in Surrey: An Interview with Jagdeep Singh Mangat by Dave Diewert
Kwantlen – Pipelines and Sovereignty: By Brandon Gabriel
Unist’ot’en Oppose Bill C-51: By Freda Huson and Toghestiy
“We are human beings with heart and potential” – A message from Indigenous drug users to the medical profession: By Jean Swanson
Public Transit not a Border Checkpoint: Interview with Omar Chu of the Transportation Not Deportation Campaign
We Demand Answers – Family Statement read at a Public Vigil for Naverone Woods on February 28, 2015
New lawsuit challenges use of solitary confinement in Canadian prisons: By Stacey Bishop
“You’re still in prison” – Malcolm X and the US prison industrial complex: By Cecily Nicholson
Canada’s proposed anti-terror act is part of a government campaign to criminalize dissent: By Ivan Drury
Boom, Bust, and No-Go – Development on BC’s North Coast: By Lee Veeraraghavan

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

   
Support our work by making a donation.
 
   
Subscription options
 
 

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Search

Authors

Browse by author

Categories

Archives

Letters to the Editor

1
Sad Siren Song: By Tracey Morrison

― February 12, 2017

Community Spotlight: Jean Swanson

For our issue on the BC Liberal legacy, Volcano editors turned to our Community Spotlight on a legacy of our own to highlight her over 40 years of anti-poverty work. Jean Swanson is an editor with The Volcano alongside her work with the Carnegie Community Action Project. She previously worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and is the author of a book titled Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

You’ve been active in anti-poverty work for a long time. What has been the biggest realization that you have had with regards to poverty in this province? Has your understanding or approach to government changed over time and through experience?

My approach to government has definitely changed. Back in 1979, I actually ran as an NDP MLA candidate because I thought being involved in electoral politics was a way of implementing the things you’ve been fighting for in the community. I ran with COPE for city council too, along with my co-workers Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, who were elected. In those days it seemed possible to get city council to do some good things for the Downtown Eastside if we worked hard at it: fund the Carnegie Centre, pass a Standards of Maintenance bylaw, put sprinklers in the hotels.

In the early 90s, after the NDP cut welfare and brought in a whole poorbashing framework to justify it, I couldn’t bring myself to vote at all, let alone run for office.

Read more about Jean Swanson's commitment to anti-poverty organizing here.

The Volcano is published on traditional, ancestral, and unceded Coast Salish Territories.

Alliance Against Displacement: The Volcano is affiliated with the Alliance Against Displacement, a pan-regional anti-displacement network of local communities, organizations, and activists fighting displacement on the ground.

  • Housing struggles
  • Gentrification & displacement
  • Racism & Migrant Justice
  • Indigenous & Colonialism
  • Police & Criminalization
  • Income inequality
  • Sex workers
  • Social Movement strategies
  • Climate & Ecology
  • DTES organizations
  • Women & Gender
  • International struggles
  • Health & Harm reduction
  • Culture, art & poetry
  • City & community planning
Copyright © The Volcano