Bail reform bill ‘will put more Inuit in jail’: Nunavut lawyer
Nunavut Legal Aid’s Angnakuluk Friesen, Patrick Smith testify before Senate committee
Lawyers Angnakuluk Friesen, left, and Patrick Smith testify before a Senate committee on bail reform legislation Thursday morning in Ottawa. (Screenshots courtesy of SenVu)
Two Nunavut Legal Aid lawyers are warning that a federal bail and sentencing reform law may have negative consequences for Inuit in the territory.
Angnakuluk Friesen and Patrick Smith brought their testimony to the Senate’s Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs meeting Thursday morning in Ottawa.
Senators are studying Bill C-14, which aims to tighten bail laws and impose stricter sentences for people convicted of violent crimes.
“When we say that Bill C-14 will put more Inuit in jail, it will,” Smith told senators.
Smith and Friesen, who was a Crown prosecutor before switching to defence, focused on a few areas of the bill, including a provision that aims to prevent people convicted of indictable offences in the past 10 years from acting as sureties.
When someone is charged with a crime and released on bail, they may be placed under the supervision of a surety, who could be a family member, friend or neighbour.
Nunavut courts “highly depend” on sureties, Friesen said. And in a territory where “a lot of individuals” have criminal records, she added, the lack of available sureties means more people will stay in jail.
“The judicial discretion that goes into deciding whether a surety is suitable is quite extensive in Nunavut, and often they are cross-examined in court on their criminal record,” she said.
“Our sureties are already highly scrutinized, along with struggling themselves with food insecurity and home insecurity.”
Both Friesen and Smith spoke of how a general lack of resources is contributing to crime.
“We cannot afford to place more Inuit at risk by relying on a system of detention without addressing first the real issues that plague Canada’s North,” Friesen said.
“Every neighbourhood is severely lacking in rooms, home, food, mental health services, even just space. And we’re in a really dire state right now, and we really can’t afford having more people being put in our jails.”
The “nature of crime” in Nunavut is different from the south, Smith said.
Alcohol addiction is a factor in about 70 per cent of his cases.
Despite that, the territory does not have a rehabilitation facility. The Aqqusariaq Recovery Centre in Iqaluit has yet to open.
Smith described some of his clients as “broken people” in need of support.
“We have violent offenders, we have violent offenders against women, there’s no doubt about that,” he said. “When I talk to my guys, it’s broken guys… You can see the trauma dripping off them.”
Bill C-14 has been approved by the House of Commons. It passed first and second reading at the Senate.
After committee approval, it requires third reading at the Senate and royal assent before it becomes law.
If you do the crime you do the time regardless of who you are and where you are. Remember, courts are supposed yo be their fir the victims, not the criminals.
Most victims are Inuit too. Their safety matters. Tightening bail for serious crime isn’t the problem it’s the bare minimum we owe them
End the Gladue Principle. Stop releasing people over and over and over. People with over 50 separate breaches of court imposed conditions are not good candidates for conditional sentence orders. Wake up court. Some people need to removed from society. Stop considering the needs of the offender over the safety of the victim. Offenders are not victims.
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/man-handed-two-year-sentence-for-january-assault-in-iqaluit/
Broken people in need of support who break more people and cause misery.
More criminal in general need jail time not those who use trauma as their crutch for causing harm to others.
Imagine advocating against keeping sex offenders, PDF files and murderers in jail
If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime. It’s time our courts give tough sentences to violent and repeat offenders.
In my view, Nunavut’s justice system needs significant improvement. The current approach can feel disorganized, with uneven case management and sentencing that too often seems inconsistent or insufficient to deter repeat offenses. That undermines public confidence and leaves victims and communities feeling unprotected. While Nunavut faces real, unique challenges—remoteness, resource constraints, and the importance of culturally appropriate, restorative practices—those realities should be matched with stronger structure and accountability. Clearer sentencing guidelines, more consistent application of consequences for serious and repeat crimes, and better support for courts, prosecutors, legal aid, and victim services would help. Investments in case management, timely hearings, and transparent public reporting on sentencing outcomes could improve both fairness and deterrence. Rehabilitation and restorative justice remain essential, but they should be paired with meaningful, predictable penalties where warranted. A system that is organized, adequately resourced, and consistent will do more to protect communities while still respecting local context and promoting long-term social stability.
Nunavut’s justice system is failing on the basics: deterrence, consistency, and public safety. Lenient sentencing, weak bail and breach enforcement, and chronic delays have created a climate where repeat and violent offenders expect minimal consequences. Victims absorb the damage while communities lose trust in the courts.
Accountability must be non-negotiable. For serious and repeat crimes, impose clearer, tougher sentences, real time in custody, and strict supervision on release. Breaches should trigger immediate consequences. Eliminate backlogs with more prosecutors, judges, and court time. Expand correctional capacity and probation so orders are actually enforced. Publish sentencing data to ensure consistency and transparency. Restorative approaches have a place, but they cannot substitute for firm, predictable penalties when people continue to offend.
The Justice system is sadly a great big joke in Nunavut.