*Certain details of this story, including names, have been withheld or changed to protect the confidentiality and safety of our clients and staff.*
The fluorescent lights of the Nanaimo courthouse hallway hummed steadily as Joseph adjusted the collar of his crisp button-up shirt. It was the first time in fourteen months his skin had touched cotton that wasn’t correction-issued red. The simple act of wearing real clothes, dark slacks that fit properly, a shirt with buttons instead of a zipper, made his hands tremble as he straightened the fabric.
The red sweatsuit he’d worn since his arrest now sat folded in a correctional center property bag at his feet, its synthetic fabric still holding the sterile smell of institutional laundry. Dressing like a free man, even temporarily, reminded him of a self he’d nearly forgotten existed, someone who belonged to a family, a community, a Nation.
Stacked Systems
Joseph’s case file told a familiar story in Canada’s justice system, two drug trafficking charges from a contested police search that turned up cocaine and heroin, followed later by an additional commercial break-and-enter charge. Like so many Indigenous people caught in the legal system’s web, he found himself repeatedly denied bail on all counts, left to wait in custody while the machinery of justice slowly turned. The charges on paper told one story, but the real narrative, of intergenerational trauma, systemic neglect, and a life shaped by forces beyond his control, remained buried in the fine print, waiting to be uncovered by someone willing to look deeper.
Previous lawyers had focused solely on technical defenses. The Staff Lawyer at the Indigenous Justice Centre, Jessica, saw something else, a 32-year-old man from a strong Nation who had spent half his life cycling between foster care, shelters, and jail.
“The Gladue report will be crucial here,” Jessica explained as they prepared for trial. The specialized pre-sentence report for Indigenous people who have been charged through the justice system, mandated by a 1999 Supreme Court decision, would contextualize Joseph’s life experiences, something Canadian courts had failed to do for generations.
Turning Point in Court
The wood-paneled courtroom hummed with tension, the Crown’s drug evidence stacked neatly on the table, cold, clinical, and utterly disconnected from the truth.
Joseph took the stand and told the judge about his struggles with addiction and the churn of criminal charges. The Judge heard him and accepted that he had the substances on him for survival, not profit.
Jessica stood, her gaze steady on the arresting officer. “Constable,” she began, ”when you saw the marks on Joseph’s arms, did you see a criminal? Or did you see a man trying to survive what was done to him?”
The question hung in the air, heavy with unspoken history. The Gladue report on the judge’s desk told the real story, Joseph lived a life shaped by residential school Survivors, a childhood spent in foster care, and a system designed to disappear his people, not heal them.
The conviction stood.
Canada’s laws still bent toward punishment, not justice, but the sentence shifted. Because survival is not a business plan. Addiction is not a choice. And Joseph was never the crime; he was the consequence.
The Law of the Land vs. The Law of the People
Months later, at the bail hearing, Jessica presented a legal argument that was a lifeline, one woven by Joseph’s mother, his Nation, and the land itself. Letters from Elders, counselors, and even chaplains spoke of returning. Of a man rediscovering his place in a web of kinship that colonization had tried, and failed, to sever.
The judge studied the papers, then Joseph. Noticing he had something rare, a way back. The judge agreed that he had served his sentence, and now it was time for Joseph to go home.
It wasn’t mercy. It was the barest flicker of recognition that Indigenous justice had already begun its work long before the courts caught up.
Justice as Healing, Not Punishment
Today, Joseph walks the forest trails in his homelands working for his Nation, a life he may have never known if it weren’t for the way his support people walked with him through his hard times. The Crown stayed his final charge after hearing the witness of his new journey.
For Joseph, standing tall on his homelands, the truth burned clear, the day they finally saw him as human, the day he buttoned a good shirt for court, held his head high, was the day the system failed a little less. But his people? They had never needed a courtroom to know his worth. Their recognition ran deeper than any judge’s gaze, older than any law. While the courts struggled to see a man, his Nation had always seen a relative.
Why This Matters
Cases like Joseph’s demonstrate what criminal justice experts have long argued:
Gladue Reports Tell the Full Story: These documents reveal the systemic harms behind charges, not to excuse, but to show the truth. Demand real justice, such as healing programs, land-based sentencing, and community-led solutions.
Survival Is Not a Crime: Reframe the narrative, substance use is a response to trauma, not criminality, and poverty is imposed, not chosen.
Bring Indigenous Law into the Courtroom: Submit testimony from Knowledge Keepers, Nation leadership, and cultural programs. Show the court how Indigenous ways restore balance.
A Message for the People:
Your Presence Changes Everything: Colonial courts erase our people, but they cannot ignore our collective voice. Stand beside your relatives in court. Speak their true names.
Healing Is Our Right: When our people return to ceremony, language, and land, we prove what justice really looks like. Their systems often fail us, our ways rebuild.
We Are the Answer: Canada’s courts call our relatives “offenders”, we call them family. Where they see ‘criminals,’ we see human beings. Make the courts face that reality.
Client Service Summary
Stakes: Incarcerated man faced three criminal charges: two for drug trafficking and one for break and enter. Trials were scheduled in Supreme Court – a total of three across four weeks.
IJC Approach: Recognizing and honouring the dignity of the client and purchasing new clothes for trial, relational approach to support with true listening and understanding.
Legal Approach: Strong case law, strategic timing, strong bail application which included fulsome Gladue factors (Gladue Report).
Cultural Support: An Indigenous-led, trauma informed interview process that led to an informative Gladue Report. Support from the client’s Nation, by way of employment and housing.
Preparation: The IJC Lawyer supported the preparation of a Gladue Letter and healing and bail plans for the client while the IJC Resource and Support Worker worked closely with the client post-release. He stayed sober and continued with counseling. The preparation and support allowed the client to start working for his Nation and begin exploring education programs to grow his career opportunities.
Outcome: Court entered a stay of proceedings, cancelling a seven-day Supreme Court trial.
Success: Joseph no longer has conditions or court dates hanging over him. He’s living on reserve, working for his Nation, planning for school, and staying on a positive path.
