How the Law is Dealing with Indigenous Vulnerability to Victimization
In the words of the Alberta Court of Appeal, “there is clear and overwhelming evidence that, when it comes to protecting Aboriginal women from violence and discrimination, more needs to be done.”[1] Indigenous women are almost three times more likely to experience violent victimization than non-Indigenous women, and their homicide rate is six times higher. Given these disproportionate rates of violence and homicide, advocates have urged that an offender's victimization of an Indigenous woman be expressly treated as a sentencing factor: The sad fact is that Aboriginal women are disproportionately affected by domestic violence and violence in general and this reality should inform the sentencing process if there is to be any hope of achieving the fundamental purpose of sentencing and meeting the objectives set out in section 718 of the Criminal Code , which include denunciation and deterrence.[2] In 2019, Parliament responded by amending the Criminal Code to mandate that se...