R v Gladue

On September 16, 1995, Jamie Tanis Gladue, a young Indigenous woman, was celebrating her birthday with some friends in Nanaimo, British Columbia. She suspected that her boyfriend was having an affair with her older sister. Following a confrontation, her boyfriend repeatedly insulted Gladue, at which point she stabbed him in the chest. Gladue was subsequently charged with manslaughter and was sentenced to three years imprisonment.[3]

At Gladue's sentencing hearing the judge took into account many aggravating factors. The court also took into account the absence of any serious criminal history. The court did not take into consideration Gladue's traumatic past, such as the fact that Gladue's mother was killed in a car accident, when Gladue was 14 years old.[1] The trial judge held that s. 718.2(e)[2] did not apply to Indigenous people who were off-reserve. The British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld the sentence.[3]

Justice Cory and Justice Iacobucci held that the courts below erred in taking an overly narrow approach of s. 718.2(e). The purpose of this provision is to address the historical and current problem with the severe over-representation of Indigenous people within the criminal justice system. In Canada, Indigenous people make up 25% of the Federal prison population, despite representing only 4% of the Canadian population. [4]

Gladue was not on reserve land at the time of the offence and therefore her s. 718.2(e) rights were never taken into consideration. It was later noted and stated that section 718.2(e) applies to "all aboriginal persons wherever they reside, whether on- or off-reserve, in a large city or a rural area".[1]

In 1999, the Gladue Courts and Gladue reports were created following R v Gladue. Gladue reports were implemented in an attempt to lower the severe over-representation of Indigenous people within the Canadian criminal justice system. Some of the items noted on a Gladue Report include the tragic history, cultural oppression, poverty, abuse suffered and residential school attendance of the Indigenous offender.[5]

• List of Supreme Court of Canada cases (Lamer Court)
• R v Ipeelee
• R v Wells
• Healing lodge
• Gladue report and process for application of "Gladue principles"
• Gladue court
• Indigenous Peoples and the Canadian Criminal Justice System