Justice report calls for Gladue report office for Yukon

A report on the Yukon justice system says judges are still not getting the information they need when sentencing aboriginal offenders, 16 years after the Supreme Court of Canada ordered special consideration be given in order to tackle the overrepresentation of aboriginal people in the justice system.

To fix that, a report on the Yukon justice system makes the case for an independent office that would take charge of writing and editing Gladue reports for the territory's aboriginal offenders.

• Yukon First Nations look at aboriginal sentencing reports

Gladue reports document the factors in an aboriginal person's life that may have contributed to their criminal history. They're meant to guide judges in crafting a "fit and proper"sentence.

About 50 Gladue reports have been filed in the Yukon courts since 2010.

"All of the reports were provided on an ad hoc basis by report writers who have received little or no formal training and who took on the responsibility with no additional funding or support to supplement their existing positions," says the report.

'Very valuable' in sentencing

Jim Tucker, who speaks for the Yukon Law Society, says the reports aren't designed to create a two-tiered system of justice.

"It's to address the fact that right now there is a two-tiered system of justice, and we are calling on government to do something about it. They have to put some money in there."

John Phelps, achief federal prosecutor for Yukon, agrees.

"Those reports are very valuable in the sentencing process, however nobody in the Yukon is taking responsibility for creating them."

Right now, seven jurisdictions in Canada have a funded Gladue report program.

"Yukon's comparatively high rate of crime and disproportionately high numbers of Aboriginal people in the Yukon justice system do make it a good candidate for such a program," the report notes.

The report, funded by the federal Justice department, is based on input from Yukon judges, federal prosecutors, legal aid lawyers and First Nation justice workers.

"The current reality in the Yukon is that many aboriginal offenders are still being sentenced with only a superficial summary of their life circumstances and little to no information about community or culturally relevant resources at their disposal," the report reads.