Papers by Thomas L McMahon
SSRN, 2022
This paper describes the author's history of learning about capital punishment in Canada. For mos... more This paper describes the author's history of learning about capital punishment in Canada. For most readers, they will be especially interested in the summaries of executions of indigenous peoples in Canada over time, as well as wrongful convictions of murder. There is a relatively detailed executions surrounding Louis Riel, Thomas Scott and the 1885 Riel Rebellion.
SSRN, 2023
Spain's own Catholic lawyers and the language that resulted had little to nothing to do with the ... more Spain's own Catholic lawyers and the language that resulted had little to nothing to do with the doctrine of discovery. The vocabulary of the doctrine of discovery and of international law is the chosen vocabulary of the invaders, chosen to create make-believe justifications for their invasions. When anyone chooses to adopt the vocabularies and justifications of the invaders, then the true reasons for the invasions are ignored and forgotten. Agriculture, chain of beings, slavery, white supremacy, war, "might makes right": this is the accurate vocabulary. Not the doctrine of discovery. Not "civilization." Not terra nullius. Not eternal salvation. Not stages of progress and evolution; those are the words that the invaders want you to use. Seven historical papers on the causes of Indian Residential Schools This paper is one in a series examining the laws relating to Canada's Indian Residential Schools. The papers attempt to provide a comprehensive review of the laws and court decisions that made Indian Residential Schools possible, the laws and court decisions that ended them, the criminal and civil court cases concerning the schools, the laws and events that led to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, and the administration of the Settlement Agreement. I have created a subset of research papers dealing with what happened before Indian Residential Schools that made their creation possible and, in the opinion of powerful white men, justified. Of this subset, the first deals with the effects of 10,000 years of the agricultural revolution. 3 This includes the creation of the idea that humans are superior to nature (the great chain of beings), that there is only one god, that god made humans in god's image, the creation of surplus hoarding, wars to defend land and property, slaves to do the farming and building of irrigation and walls, the invention of writing, taxes, laws and creation of nation-states and empires. The second paper deals with the ascension of Christianity to superiority in Europe, the forcible proselytization of Christianity (the great commission), the development and use of papal bulls over the course of the middle ages, especially as they relate to the doctrine of discovery, and the abandonment of papal bulls of discovery by every European monarch almost as soon as Columbus "discovered" the "new" world. The effect of papal bulls of discovery has been outrageously exaggerated. This paper documents the numerous times that Spain, Portugal, France, England and the Netherlands, among others, ignored the papal bulls of discovery. 4 The third paper examines the real doctrine that motivated European colonialism: white supremacy and slavery. This paper traces the origins of white supremacy to the present day. 5 The fourth paper in the series concerns how, when and by whom "modern" international law was invented to give a vocabulary to colonial whites to ignore the popes and articulate justifications for white colonialism. 6 This is now the fifth paper in the series. It examines the reasons that really motivated whites to invade and colonize the rest of the world. It was not popes or the doctrine of discovery; it was a commitment to agriculture, slavery, white supremacy, permanent war, science (made possible by the agricultural revolution and slavery), codfish, spices, gold, silver, piracy, sugar, tobacco, cotton, fur and bison. In a word: money. These were the 'doctrines' that truly explain colonialism. of discovery," there was only ever the doctrine of white people, with their weapons, taking anything from anyone anytime they chose. Part I: The collapse of the doctrine of discovery Papal authority has always been exaggerated a humiliation and a defeat that was ... suffered by the entire papacy for the next 100 years ... the consequent great schism of the Western Church of 1378-1417 that nearly tore the entire Church into shreds. It was a defeat of the medieval papacy, from which it never recovered again. 7 As I discussed in my paper on papal bulls of discovery, 8 of which this section will be a review, the popes were losing followers from the collapse of the western Roman Empire in 476 while the eastern Roman Empire continued until 1453. What follows is a brief discussion of the erosion of the unity and power of the Roman Catholic church. Although east and west disputes within the church had already existed for centuries, the great schism between the two was in 1054. Of the 25 popes immediately before 1059, 21 were appointed by emperors and five dismissed by emperors. Church control over who would hold church offices, and therefore who could control church property, was a major issue. The church wanted to stop emperors and kings from choosing church leaders and wanted to stop church leaders from passing church property and offices to their children. Church control of appointments was strongly resisted by Henry IV, then king of Germany and later Holy Roman emperor. This was known as the Investiture Controversy. It ended in 1122, with the Concordat of Worms, agreed upon by pope Callixtus II and emperor Henry V. While the church could now select bishops without the monarch's approval, those bishops had to swear fealty to the monarch. In Germany only, the emperor would continue to preside over the church's elections of abbots and bishops and had the right to arbitrate disputes. Holy Roman emperors did not retain the right to choose the pope. There was also a short (1103-1107) investiture struggle between pope Paschal II and king Henry I of England, resolved by the Concordat of London, which was similar to the subsequent Concordat of Worms. 9 Through the two Concordats, the church became more independent and powerful, including keeping better control of its lands, titles, and revenue and collecting its own taxes as tithes while untangling itself from local politics. The church created its own legal system and improved its internal organization. On the other hand, the Concordats led to a much clearer separation between church and state, which ultimately led to a reduced role for the church in people's lives. Despite animosities between Christians, by 1071, a group of Turkic people, the Seljuks, had taken over eastern Islam and defeated the Byzantines. Islam was spreading and Africans were coming into ever closer contact with Europeans. The defeated Byzantine emperor in Constantinople asked the Roman pope for help in reclaiming lost territory. The first crusade led by the Roman pope in 1095 was ostensibly to save the church in Constantinople from Muslim invaders, but the fourth crusade in 1204 saw the western Christians capture and sack the eastern Christian capital of Constantinople, because that was where the money was. Between the 12 th and 17 th centuries, Europeans had imagined that there was a powerful and wealthy Christian king Prester John somewhere east of the Muslim strongholds, probably in Africa somewhere, as well as a devout Christian population in India. Perhaps they would be helpful in surrounding the Muslims. Finding Prester John and getting him to join in the crusades against the Muslims was one more reason for Europeans to explore ways to get around the Muslims by sailing south to Africa. The Crusades were about pillaging and plunder, not just attacking Muslims and further motivated whites to explore beyond Europe. While Europe was a patchwork of small fiefdoms and relating weak monarchs, the church was building its land holding, wealth, power and bureaucracy. Monasteries acquired land and money and protected local citizens. Nobles donated land to the church. Popes traded favours with kings to acquire land, money, estates for papal-5-children, armed protection and more. The church's legal system was another critically important part of developing its power. In 1302, pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unam sanctum, 10 including the statement "that it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff". 11 The primacy of the Roman Catholic church had reached its maximum extent. The Black Death pandemic killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia and peaked in Europe between 1347 to 1351, but outbreaks continued for hundreds of years. How could a loving god permit random tragedy on this scale? It was certainly time for some to question religious teachings. Adiele writes, [T]his glorious image [one universal church with power over all humanity] was checkmated in the early part of the fourteenth century as a result of the emerging new nation-states in France, England and Germany, who were poised to establish kingdoms that are independent of the papal sovereignty and dominion. The struggle of the medieval papacy of this century to repress this awakening national consciousness of these kingdoms was met with abysmal failures and even led to the fall of the papacy and the humiliation of the powerful pope Boniface VIII by the king of France Philip IV in 1303 at the Italian city of Anagni, where the pope was kidnapped, beaten up and taken into hostage by the troops loyal to the king of France. It was indeed both a humiliation and a defeat that was suffered not only by pope Boniface VIII, but also one, which was to be [226] suffered by the entire papacy for the next 100 years in the ecclesiastical history, when the papacy was thrown into the worst calamities in its history: the so-called 'Babylonian captivity' under the watchful and suppressive hands of the French kings in the French city of Avignon for over a period of 70 years (1305-1377) and the consequent great schism of the Western Church of 1378-1417 that nearly tore the entire Church into shreds. It was a defeat of the medieval papacy, from which it never recovered again. Even the clarion call made by the humiliated pope Boniface VIII shortly before this fall that: 'It is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff,'...
SSRN, 2022
White supremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern world what it is today. ... more White supremacy is the unnamed political system that has made the modern world what it is today. 2 The colonial encounter with indigenous peoples was central to the formation of international law. 3 [modern international law was] conceived from the perspective of the conquerors, which ultimately served to legitimize armed conquest. 4 "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do." 5 To speak today of the 'colonial origins of international law' is arguably no longer a standpoint of dissent, or of a radical revisionism, but one which is situated in the centre-ground of accounts of international legal history. 6 1580: Queen Elizabeth I writes to Spain: [T]his donation of what does not belong to the donor [the pope] and this imaginary right of property ought not to prevent other princes [monarchs] from carrying on commerce in those regions or establishing colonies there in places not inhabited by the Spaniards. Such action would in no way violate the law of nations, since prescription without possession is not valid. Moreover, all are at liberty to navigate that vast ocean, since the use of the sea and the air are common to all. No nation or private person can have a right to the ocean, for neither the course of nature nor public usage permits any occupation of it. 7 1770: advice from the president of the Royal Society given to and ignored by Captain James Cook: [indigenous peoples] are the natural and in the strictest sense of the word, the legal possessors of the several Regions they inhabit. No European nation has a right to occupy any part of their country, or settle among them, without their voluntary consent. Conquest over such people can give no just title, because they could never be the aggressors. 8-1-Stanislaw of Skarbimierz and Paweł Włodkowic: defenders of the rights of pagans Pope Martin V invents modern international law The 1400s take their toll on papal authority Spanish lawyers invent modern international law Montesinos: are we not obliged to love indigenous peoples as we love ourselves? Debates at Burgos, 1512: laws to subjugate indigenous peoples, the encomienda and Requerimiento Bartolomé de Las Casas: protector of the Indians (sort of) and promoter of transAtlantic slavery Popes agree with war against indigenous peoples but forbid enslavement of indigenous peoples (African slavery is fine) Francisco de Vitoria invents modern international law The Great Debate at Valladolid: Las Casas and Sepulveda The kings of France invent modern international law The kings and queens of England invent modern international law The Newfoundland Charter invents modern international law Hugo Grotius invents modern international law Puritans invent modern international law Westpahlian sovereignty invents modern international law The Enlightenment invents modern international law
Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) Call to Action #6 calls for the repeal of s. ... more Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2015) Call to Action #6 calls for the repeal of s. 43 of Canada's Criminel Code. Section 43 creates an exemption to the criminel offence of assault when it comes to school teachers and pensons in the position of parents who assault children, provided that the assault is "reasonable under the circumstances".
This paper reviews the findings of the TRC with respect to corporal punishment in Indian Residential Schools, and the record of Canada's nearly complete failure to protect children from assaults and to bring prosecutions for assaulting children.
This paper is a submission to Canada's Parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Committee studying Bill C-273 to repeal section 43.
Journal of Information, Law and Technology, 1999
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
This article will discuss a variety of issues relating to free electronic access to the law. It s... more This article will discuss a variety of issues relating to free electronic access to the law. It starts with a survey of what Canadian laws are available for free on the Internet at the time of writing. The article then asks whether there is a legal obligation for governments to publish the laws, and if so, whether this includes a legal obligation to publish using current technologies. The article examines claims of "ownership" to the laws and recent court cases (in Canada, the U.S., and Australia) that deal with requests for access to the electronic formats of statutes and court decisions. These requests have been rebuffed by some governments by applying exemptions under freedom of information laws and by claiming copyright in the laws. Private publishers have also made some copyright claims relating to the laws, and these claims are also examined. The article goes on to examine the best examples in Canada, but also in Australia and in the United States-so far as this author can tell-of electronic access to the laws. I discuss in some detail the Cornell University Legal Information Institute and the Australasian Legal Information Institute. I look at these examples as benchmarks for Canada to follow. "ignorance of the law is no excuse" would be manifestly unjust. (7) In fact, the law does allow ignorance of the law to be an excuse in some circumstances. (8) Aside from general theories about the meaning of "law" and the requirements of the "rule of law," the importance of publishing law is recognized in more concrete ways. The Constitution Act, 1982, expressly states that Canada is founded on the rule of law. Section 133 of the Constitution Act, 1867, s. 23 of the Manitoba Act, 1870, and s. 18 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982, make it a constitutional requirement that statutes and regulations of the federal government, Quebec, Manitoba and New Brunswick governments be published, although the purpose of these section is not so much to require publication, but instead to ensure that publication is in both official languages. Sections 10 and 15 of the Official Languages Act of the Northwest Territories contain a similar provision, and in the Yukon, s. 4 of the Languages Act and the Enactments Publication Act contain similar provisions. The desire to publish in both official languages clearly reflects an intent to ensure that the laws are accessible to all English-and French-speaking Canadians, in their own language. (9) Are there other constitutional obligations to publish the laws? In my view, there are number of provisions in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that require publication of the law in some circumstances where the government seeks to limits people's rights and freedoms. Section 1 of the Charter, for example, permits limits to constitutional rights only where those limits are "prescribed by law" and where they would be reasonable and demonstrably justifiable in a "free and democratic society." For example, if a government believes that interfering with freedom of expression is justified in particular circumstances, these limits must be prescribed by law. Section 7 of the Charter protects everyone's life, liberty and security of the person, and any derogations of those rights must be in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice. The Supreme Court of Canada and other Canadian courts have used both s. 7 and s. 1 of the Charter to insist that laws provide adequate guidance to people before such laws that infringe constitutional rights will be considered to be constitutional. In other words, it is not enough to be enacted by proper procedure and published: in addition, the law must not be unduly vague. (10) Another provision in the Charter is s. 8, which provides that everyone has the right to be secure from unreasonable search or seizure. The Supreme Court has said in more than twenty decided cases in relation to s. 8 of the Charter, that for a search to be reasonable, it is must be authorized by a reasonable law. (11) Thus, a reasonable search is not enough, there must also be a law that authorizes the reasonable search. The "prescribed by law" requirement appears to derive from the European Convention on Human Rights. One of the principles established by the European Court in deciding whether a limit is "prescribed by law" is that the limit should be accessible to those affected by it. (12) The Supreme Court of Canada recently interpreted s. 53 of the Constitution Act, 1867 as a requirement that Parliament must be the body that approves the imposition of taxes (in this case, probate fees). "The provision codifies the principle of no taxation without representation, by requiring any bill that imposes a tax to originate with the legislature." (13) Thus, s. 53 is another "prescribed by law" requirement (actually, it is a "prescribed by statute" requirement). Outside of constitutional obligations to publish the law, there are a variety of statutory requirements to publish the federal laws in the Publication of Statutes Act, the Revised Statutes of Canada 1985 Act, the Statute Revision Act and the Statutory Instruments Act. Most jurisdictions have laws requiring the publication of regulations, and some have laws requiring the publication of statutes. On October 1, 1998, the federal government introduced Bill C-54-"Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act". Bill C-54 contains amendments to the Statute Revision Act. The amendments to Parts I and II of the Act would allow for the publication in future of not only revised statutes but also revised regulations, in either print or electronic form. The amended Part III would authorize the Minister of Justice to publish, in either electronic or print form, an official version of the consolidated statutes and regulations of Canada that can be used as evidence. These amendments would be brought into force when the Department of Justice has the production systems and technology in place to ensure the delivery of a reliable and secure product. The bill would also amend the Statutory Instruments Act to provide for the electronic distribution of the Canada Gazette. Canada's international trade agreements include transparency, notification and publication requirements (see, for example, Canada's adhesion to various trade agreements under the World Trade Organization). For example, NAFTA Articles 1802 and 1803 set out general publication and notification requirements. I have highlighted portions and added notes to the provisions that would be especially progressive if they applied to publication of all Canadian laws for the benefit of Canadians generally. Article 1802: Publication 1. Each Party shall ensure that its laws, regulations, procedures and administrative rulings of general application respecting any matter covered by this Agreement are promptly published or otherwise made available in such a manner as to enable interested persons and Parties to become acquainted with them. Other U.S. states have differently worded laws and thus different approaches to access to the electronic version of the statutes. (32) With respect to freedom of information relating to access to electronic databases of court decisions, there are two American cases on this topic. In Tax Analysts v. U.S. Department of Justice, 913 F.Supp. 599 (D.D.C. 1996), the District Court of the District of Columbia considered a request for the Department of Justice's "Justice Retrieval and Inquiry System" ("JURIS"), an electronic database of federal cases, regulations and digest material. The system was developed by the Department of Justice and became operational in 1974. However, in 1983, the Department of Justice contracted with West Publishing to provide 80% of the information in JURIS. West collected, organized, and computer-formatted cases, opinions, and digests to make them ready for use on JURIS. The contract limited how the U.S. government could use the data it had contracted for. The data could not be (1) used outside the JURIS system; (2) used by anyone other than authorized JURIS users; (3) transferred or assigned; (4) stored, reproduced, transmitted, or transferred for consideration; (5) distributed by JURIS users without obtaining a written agreement from the transferee not to further disseminate it; and (6) used in any way once the contract was terminated.
Canada requires new citizens and an assortment of legislators, law enforcers and public servants ... more Canada requires new citizens and an assortment of legislators, law enforcers and public servants to swear an oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth the Second and her heirs and successors. This paper examines the history of the oath of allegiance in both England and Canada; the history of how the monarch of England came to be the monarch of Canada through the doctrine of discovery; a history of case law surrounding the oath to the Queen in Canada; the history of Canada steadily moving away from laws and symbols of England to establish Canada's independence; the rights of indigenous peoples to refuse to swear the oath of allegiance; and how the oath to the Queen offends the constitutionally entrenched principles of equality and freedom of expression. The paper refers to the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concerning the doctrine of discovery and the oath to the Queen. The paper concludes that the Canadian courts have trivialized and made a mockery of almost all of this.
Canada's Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) will soon begin its work. This... more Canada's Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) will soon begin its work. This paper reviews the history and current ways that Canada's laws and legal system have and continue to discriminate against indigenous women, from Indian status, to property rights, to marital separation rights, to protection from abuse, to health care, reproductive rights, drugs and prostitution laws. The paper asks various questions for the MMIW Inquiry to answer. This discrimination against indigenous women has lasted longer than Canada's existence. The 150th celebration of confederation is coming; the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is more than 30 years old. When will the discrimination end? When will the Charter finally provide equality and security of the person to indigenous women? When will Canada's legal system finally stop hating indigenous women?
For more than a century, Canada and the major Christian churches put more than 150,000 indigenous... more For more than a century, Canada and the major Christian churches put more than 150,000 indigenous children into residential schools. After more than 12,000 law suits for compensation, Canada and the churches reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. Among other things, the Settlement Agreement created a new Independent Assessment Process (IAP) to deal with compensation claims for physical and sexual abuse. There were more than 38,000 claimants. Under the settlement agreement, the IAP was supposed to give the claimants a choice about what would happen with their claim documents. The IAP never gave them that choice. The matter has now been appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, which will soon decide whether to hear the appeal. If the Supreme Court refuses to hear the appeal, or upholds the decisions of the lower courts, there will be a consent program, a decade too late. It is probable that many thousands of claimants will not respond to that consent program, in part because many of them will have already died. What will happen with their documents (and audio recordings of their participation in the IAP)? Will they be destroyed without their consent? This paper examines the underlying facts and law. The paper argues that if IAP records and the recordings of their voices are destroyed without the consent of the claimants, and after they have died, it will be the last and final abuse that Canada, the churches and the courts will inflict on the residential school children.
Why did it take so long before civil lawsuits went to court for Indian Residential Schools in Can... more Why did it take so long before civil lawsuits went to court for Indian Residential Schools in Canada? This paper notes that in 1857 Canada enacted a law for the "gradual civilization" of Indians. The paper questions who needed to be gradually civilized? This paper traces the major developments (gradual civilization) in Canadian law from the Second World War until the early 1990s that collectively made it possible for civil lawsuits for Indian Residential School claims to come to court. Some of the changes are directly relevant to the circumstances of racial discrimination and indigenous rights, but other changes may surprise some readers, such as Crown liability, limitation periods, class actions and more. The paper discusses briefly some of the most important indigenous rights cases and explains just how limited these "victories" were. The paper also notes that there is still a lot more civilization needed within the Canadian legal system. Hopefully, Canada's civilization will not be so gradual over the next 50 years.
This paper provides a chronological sequence of the laws that were used to create and enforce Ind... more This paper provides a chronological sequence of the laws that were used to create and enforce Indian Residential Schools in Canada. The paper provides extensive excerpts from the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The excerpts are chosen based on how directly they are related to law, and the excerpts are re-organized to be presented in a chronological manner. The table of contents of the paper can serve as a time line of the laws that created and enforced and ended Indian Residential Schools. Other sources are also cited.
This paper is one of series written by the author in attempting to understand and explain why it was nearly impossible for indigenous peoples to use the legal system to protect themselves or obtain compensation for the abuses they suffered in the residential schools until well into the 1990s.
This paper presents a chronological history of the criminal law convictions relating to Canada's ... more This paper presents a chronological history of the criminal law convictions relating to Canada's Indian residential schools. This paper relies on extensive quotations from the report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; adjusted by combining information that is across several chapters within the report and presenting that collected information in a chronological fashion, which the report does not do. Further, this paper provides a concise summary of the criminal convictions; provides citations and quotations from the few court decisions that reported these convictions; provides an extensive summary of the criminal case of Bishop Hubert O'Connor, the only IRS criminal court case to go to the Supreme Court of Canada. The O'Connor case is essential for anyone studying how Canada's legal system treats indigenous women. Finally, this paper provides details on the many ways that records were not produced, investigations did not proceed or did not result in charges or proceeded far too late or sentences were far too lenient.
Canada's new Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will study how the criminal law system, and especially the police, investigated crimes against indigenous women. This paper on the IRS criminal cases argues that there is an extremely long history of the criminal law being used against indigenous people and failing to protect them. That history must serve as a backdrop to the work of the MMIW Inquiry.
For 17 years, between 1988 and 2005, victims of the multitude of abuses at Indian Residential Sch... more For 17 years, between 1988 and 2005, victims of the multitude of abuses at Indian Residential Schools tried to obtain justice through Canada's civil court system. They were fought at every stage and with every litigation manoeuvre available to Canada and the churches. Their claims for loss of parental affection, language and culture were not allowed in court. Their claims of genocide were rejected. Their claims of inadequate education, food and health care were rejected. Their claims on inter-generational harms were rejected. Many of their claims were rejected for being filed too late. Many of their claims were rejected on the basis that the employer of their abuser was not vicariously liable for the abuse and in the policy choice between whether the child victim should go without compensation or whether the employer corporate/government/church should be required to pay for the abuse, too often the courts decided it would not be fair to allow the child victim to be compensated. This paper seeks to consolidate in one place all of the Indian Residential School civil court decisions and citations, and provide summaries of those cases. In so doing, this paper also deals with other cases of institutional child abuse during this period. This paper also details the various court decisions in which the Canadian justice is complicit with the Roman Catholic Church in refusing to acknowledge the Roman Catholic Church as a legal entity that can be sued. In the author's view, no one can claim to know how Canada's civil court system really works until they learn how that system dealt with the claims of abused indigenous children.
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Papers by Thomas L McMahon
This paper reviews the findings of the TRC with respect to corporal punishment in Indian Residential Schools, and the record of Canada's nearly complete failure to protect children from assaults and to bring prosecutions for assaulting children.
This paper is a submission to Canada's Parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Committee studying Bill C-273 to repeal section 43.
This paper is one of series written by the author in attempting to understand and explain why it was nearly impossible for indigenous peoples to use the legal system to protect themselves or obtain compensation for the abuses they suffered in the residential schools until well into the 1990s.
Canada's new Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will study how the criminal law system, and especially the police, investigated crimes against indigenous women. This paper on the IRS criminal cases argues that there is an extremely long history of the criminal law being used against indigenous people and failing to protect them. That history must serve as a backdrop to the work of the MMIW Inquiry.
This paper reviews the findings of the TRC with respect to corporal punishment in Indian Residential Schools, and the record of Canada's nearly complete failure to protect children from assaults and to bring prosecutions for assaulting children.
This paper is a submission to Canada's Parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Committee studying Bill C-273 to repeal section 43.
This paper is one of series written by the author in attempting to understand and explain why it was nearly impossible for indigenous peoples to use the legal system to protect themselves or obtain compensation for the abuses they suffered in the residential schools until well into the 1990s.
Canada's new Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women will study how the criminal law system, and especially the police, investigated crimes against indigenous women. This paper on the IRS criminal cases argues that there is an extremely long history of the criminal law being used against indigenous people and failing to protect them. That history must serve as a backdrop to the work of the MMIW Inquiry.