The N.W.T. justice system doesn't use Gladue reports. Some say that should change

As people across the country mourn the Honourable Justice Murray Sinclair, some in the Northwest Territories justice system are reflecting on his contributions to the country — one of those being Gladue principles. 

Established in 1996, Gladue principles are a legal requirement for courts to consider the background of Indigenous offenders and alternatives to prison when sentencing.

There is no standard way of how to include these principles, although in some provinces and territories, specific stand-alone reports, referred to as Gladue reports, are used.

In the Northwest Territories, Gladue principles are written into pre-sentence reports. Lawyers and neighbouring Indigenous nations question whether those reports do justice for Indigenous offenders.

"The Northwest Territories is not certainly the only jurisdiction I'm aware of that does not have Gladue reports, but it does stand out a little bit in that it is a jurisdiction where the population is more Indigenous," Alex Corbett, a criminal defence lawyer who practises in the N.W.T. and Alberta, told CBC.

The percentage of people remanded in the Northwest Territories is the second highest in the country, according to a report from the federal government — with 89 per cent of sentenced people in the N.W.T. being Indigenous. 

The Indigenous population in the N.W.T. is 49 per cent, according to the 2021 census.

In Alberta, defence lawyers can request a Gladue report on the Court of King's Bench of Alberta website. Writers are Indigenous and generally from the communities they are writing about. 

"I think those have been very valuable, not only to myself and to Crown prosecutors, but also to judges in learning a lot more about what might have gone into why somebody is coming before the court having committed a criminal offence," he said.

He added the pre-sentence reports used in the Northwest Territories do include Gladue factors "but it's not of the same length and thoroughness as a Gladue report in Alberta would be."

The issue of whether to use the stand-alone reports was recently brought up in territorial court when a lawyer filed an application for a court-ordered Gladue report.

In 2023, the application was rejected by territorial court Judge Vaughn Myers, who said the pre-sentence reports in the Northwest Territories compare "very favourably to the Gladue reports produced in Alberta."

The judge rejected the presumption that pre-sentencing reports would be inadequate.

"There is not a shred of evidence adduced to support that proposition," Myers wrote in the decision.