Conversation

I went to listen to the annual multicultural lecture at the Chan Theatre at University of British Columbia last night. It was very interesting for me being a Canadian. My ancesters were among the very first to settle this great country. I always wondered why Canada's relations with its Aboriginal peoples was so much better than our neighbours.

Our neighbours and many other countries settled the same way treated Aboriginals like they were the interlopers. Aboriginals were pushed out of the way for immigrants to take the land and resources. Maybe not right away, but as soon as the European settlers became numerous enough to survive without help, they did so.

Canada's early settlers would not have survived their first winter without the help of the Aboriginal peoples in the area. That they did survive is a testiment to them, and a testiment to the Aboriginal peoples who taught them what was safe to eat, how to make a shelter from the cold, and so much more. Canada began right off the hop with a dialogue, a conversation with the native peoples.


Unfortunately, that dialogue no longer is helping the survival of Canada. My son, Derik Lord, is Metis. One of the aboriginal peoples of Canada. Since he has been in prison for a wrongful conviction, I have learned many things about the ongoing conversations in Canada.

I have discovered that there is a very large discrepancy between the percentage of European descent prisoners and Aboriginal ones. White prisoners get out of prison faster, get programs to help them faster, and are generally better treated than aboriginals. Aboriginal prisoners are kept in prisons longer, denied parole much more often, treated like scum and not given programs that will help them.

The Correctional Investigator for the Correctional Service of Canada has been pointing these facts out to the government and to the citizens of Canada for more than 20 years. So what has changed?

The Correctionsl Service of Canada now says they have special programs for Aboriginal prisoners. Just try to get into one of them! Derik has tried many times and always gets turned down as not needing the programs. He finally gave up.

He was convicted with another young man at the same trial and they both received the same sentence. Life - 10 means a life sentence with parole eligibility after 10 years. The other young man, white, got out at his 10 year eligibility. One parole hearing is all it took. Derik, Aboriginal, has now been in for 17 years, with 5 separate parole hearings all turning him down for release. Is this system fair? I think not.

It is good to talk about the conversations between the various poeples who made Canada what it is today, but where are the conversations when it comes to punishment?

The Correctional Service of Canada has a mandate to get its prisoners back out of prison, to resume a normal life outside the bars without criminal activity. It is supposed to be concerned with correcting, not punishing. After this long time, it is no longer in a correcting mindset, it is in a punishment mode. Derik has maintained his innocence all these years. The fact that he has not confessed should not be used to keep him in prison forever, but it is happening. He has been told, orally and in writing, and I have been told, orally and in writing, that if he would just confess, he would get parole. They make it sound like it would be that easy. It is not.

I don't believe that one bit. If he suddenly changed and said he did it, then they would just a quickly put him in line for all those programs designed to correct his behaviour. I feel very strongly that those programs would make it worse for him, not better. He will not learn what he should not do, but what he should have done. He already knows what he should not do and one of those things is he should not lie.

I am very proud of the man my son has become despite the events that have brought him to this day. He is a caring man. He volunteered for many years as a peer counsellor for other prisoners, helping them in many ways. I know he has saved marriages, prevented suicides, prevented murders and helped some kick their drug habits. His strength shows in the fact that he did not get involved with the drugs which are rampant within Canada's prisons.

Where is the conversation that will get him released? No one on his case management team will speak to me now.

Coach Elouise
604-794-3218
Skype elouise.lord
Email: lordelouise@gmail.com
rascal60@shaw.ca

http://www.canadianinjustice.com for more of the story.