Indigenous Awareness Justice Day (Formerly J.J Harper Day)

Office of the Chief and Council

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Friday, February 23, 2024

Indigenous Awareness Justice Day (Formerly J.J Harper Day)

Treaty Five Territory– Today, the Opaskwayak Chief and Council are echoing the call of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) for all governments across the country to respect and implement the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Calls to Justice, specifically:

5.1 We call upon all governments to immediately implement the recommendations in relation to the Canadian justice system in: Bridging the Cultural Divide: A Report on Aboriginal People and Criminal Justice in Canada, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1996); and the Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba: Public Inquiry into the Administration of Justice and Aboriginal People (1991).

“In the Indigenous community, today is an important day where we pay respect to the late J.J Harper,” said Chief Maureen Brown. “Tragically his life was cut short because he was profiled for the colour of his skin. Now, 36 years later, we continue to struggle for equality, especially when it comes to the justice system. Implementation of both the National Inquiry and the AJI would ensure a safer place to live not only for all First Nations people, but for the Metis and Inuit communities too.”

In March 1988, Winnipeg Police shot and killed John Joseph “J.J.” Harper, a former leader from Wasagamack, Manitoba. He was unarmed and walking down a Winnipeg street when a police officer misidentified Harper as someone else. The killing was originally ruled as an accident but the Indigenous community was persistent in putting pressure on the government to call an inquiry into the shooting.

The J.J. Harper killing happened not long after the Helen Betty Osborne trial, where only one out of four white men, was found guilty for the brutal rape and stabbing of Osborne. Both tragedies were looked at as part of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry, to which 296 recommendations were brought forward.

Among the recommendations, the AJI championed for federal and provincial justice systems to recognize the inherit right of First Nations people and their authority to create their own justice systems.

During this past week’s AMC general assembly all Chiefs unanimously supported a resolution to resurrect the AJI recommendations and in doing so, will continue to apply pressure for the creation of our own system. Opaskwayak leadership supports this idea and believes it would help to lower the disproportionate rate of the overrepresentation of Indigenous people within the criminal justice system.

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For more information, please contact:

Opaskwayak Communications

Email: tiar.wheatle@opaskwayak.ca

To download the release please click here.