Applying Gladue in the Bail Court
In sentencing an aboriginal offender, the judge must consider,
among other things, the unique systemic or background factors which may have
played a part in bringing the particular aboriginal offender before the courts.
See R. v. Gladue, [1999] 1 SCR 688, 1999 CanLII 679 (SCC)
In R. v. Sledz, 2017 ONCJ
151, the Court in considering whether or not to grant judicial interim release
(bail) for an indigenous accused recognized the causal relationship between the
general and woeful historical treatment of aboriginals in Canada and the
particular and contemporary situation of the indigenous accused seeking bail
but with no person willing to come forward to act as his surety.
The lack of a surety was not a bar to interim release.
There is a disproportionate number of indigenous persons in
jail…too many indigenous persons compared to their overall population in this
country find themselves behind bars. Too often this starts at the
pretrial stage when they cannot get bail. Finding a solution means we must
start at the bail stage.
R. v. Sledz, 2017 ONCJ 151, at para.
18.
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