WARNING: This story contains details of experiences in residential schools.
As the judge of the Provincial Court of Tofino, Alexander Wolf, sentenced a man to jail for assaulting his girlfriend while he was intoxicated, claimed to recognize the intergenerational trauma of man.
His father and grandfather were survivors of residential schools, and many of his family members have had problems with alcohol consumption.
“You have a lot of trauma and part of that trauma is not your fault,” Wolf told man on Monday. “When I send an indigenous person to jail, I am aware that there are too many indigenous people in jail.”
The sentence did not occur in a typical court room, but at the site of an old residential school.
An indigenous old man opened the session with a prayer. Wolf was not sitting in a elevated judge bank, but in an stackable banquet chair, at the eye level with everyone else in the room.
Any person present in the gallery, including members of the victims’ family, could stand up and share their thoughts during procedures.
The Tofino Provincial Court was transferred to the traditional territory of the first TLA-O-QI-AHT nation, in an effort to indigenize the criminal justice system. All cases, not only involving indigenous people, will be heard there in the coming years.
The first nation says that it is seeing a positive progress of the measure, since it incorporates indigenous values into a colonial system.
“We are changing the judicial systems to fit our needs instead of having to adapt and work with their systems,” said Dezerae Joseph, coordinator of the Women’s and Girls project of TLA-O-QI-AHT.
Court housed in the old residential school
The space that houses the new Palace of Justice has seen several iterations. It used to be the gym of the Residential School of Christie Indian, which closed in 1983.
The school was originally inaugurated in 1900 on MEARES Island, near Tofino. At least 23 students died at school, according to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, before Tofino moved in 1971.
Years later, the first Tla-O-Qi-Aht nation converted the school gymnasium into a conference center as part of a tourist complex that the nation still possesses and operates today. The space has seen positive events, including weddings and potlatches. The first nation says that, despite its problematic past, the building has become comforting for community members.
Thomas George, who was forced to attend school in Tofino when he was 13 years old, said he still feels disturbing sometimes to return to the building.
“Many bad things happened there, and it is difficult to talk about that,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
Justice Committee
Now 63, George is one of the nine members of the Tla-O-Qi-Aht Justice Committee, which supports victims and alleged criminals through the judicial process.
The members of the committee, who have lent an oath of confidentiality, update the victims in the cases and help them present the victim’s impact statements.
During the Court, the members of the committee greet those involved in cases and offer them coffee or tea to inform them that they are not alone.
“Knowing that you have support in your family, in your community, I think that makes a big difference,” George said.
For minor crimes, the committee also works to organize alternative forms for families to resolve disputes outside the justice system, even through peace circles.
The first nation of TLA-O-QI-AHT says that the relocation of the Tofino Provincial Circuit Court will help the justice system to be less intimidating for indigenous peoples. Dezerae Joseph, coordinator of the Women and Girls project of Tla-O-Qi-Aht, says that it is more a safe space where people appear and feel that their voices can be heard.
Joseph, who is also in the committee, said he has noticed that some community members are now less intimidated by the judicial process.
She says she believes that the changes could lead to more people denouncing crimes.
“It’s about building relationships and teaching our community that we can inform things and that we can end certain things such as violence and sexual assault,” he said.
No unique approach approach
Kory Wilson, president of the BC’s first nations Council, said it is great to see a first nation to incorporate traditional forms of justice in the conventional judicial system.
“I think it is fantastic that TLA-O-QI-AHT has a chance because it is a community opportunity, a community desire to do this,” he said.
With about 200 nations in BC, he said that each community’s approach to the justice system will be different.
“It won’t be a unique approach to everyone,” he said.
This year, the Federal Government published an indigenous justice strategy, which establishes 26 priority actions aimed at addressing systemic discrimination and overrepresentation of indigenous peoples in the justice system, through the reform of the existing system and revitalize the laws of the first nations and traditional justice systems.
“We know what the answers are. We just have to work together to make the real systemic differences that are required,” Wilson said.
TLA-O-QI-AHT said that he has reached an agreement with the provincial government to hold the court of its territory until 2028, although the first nation hopes that it may be there permanently.
In a statement to CBC News, the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Office said: “It is committed to work respectfully with partners in the region to guarantee continuous access of the Court in Tofino.”
Ultimately, TLA-O-QI-AHT says that their goal is to see fewer indigenous people in the criminal justice system.
Indigenous peoples are overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system as victims and criminals, despite representing only about five percent of the total population. On an average day in 2020-2021, there were 42.6 indigenous people in provincial custody per 10,000 population compared to four non-indigenous people, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada.
It is a feeling that Judge Wolf resonated when he sentenced the man for assaulting his partner.
“I don’t want to sit here in 10 years sentenceing to a person who hit his daughter,” Wolf said.
“I need you to step.”
A national 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis line is available in 1-866-925-4419 for emotional services and crisis reference for survivors and those affected.
Mental health advice and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness Direct Line at 1-855-242-3310 or By online chat.
