The Canadian national anthem promises all citizens “True Patriot Love”. Proud Canadians can confirm this patriotism is not just the cornerstone of their identity, but it is also a commitment to actualise that promise for all of Canada’s children. However, the truth is that Canada has failed to deliver for many of its own, particularly Indigenous women—especially Cindy Gladue.
THE STORY OF CINDY GLADUE
Cindy Gladue was a 36-year-old mother. She was a grandmother. She loved cooking. She always made breakfast for her mother. She laughed. She danced. She was a Cree-Metis woman. These pieces show the depth (and untold) parts of Cindy Gladue’s story.
All too often, the humanity of Cindy Gladue’s life is overcast by the horror of her death. Gladue was found dead on 23 June 2011 after being subjected to fatal sexual violence. Her cause of death was blood loss from an 11-cm vaginal laceration.
At the initial murder trial in 2015, a series of further injustices were perpetrated upon Gladue. Witnesses, lawyers, and the judge failed to even name Cindy Gladue, and instead alternated between appellations of “Native girl,” “Native woman,” or “prostitute/Native prostitute”. This dehumanisation accompanied literal objectification, where Gladue’s body was dissected to have her vaginal tissue entered into evidence at trial. Perhaps the greatest loss was how her killer received impunity: a white man absolved by a “visibly” white jury.
Over the next half-decade, a series of appeals resulted in strong statements from the provincial appeal court (Alberta Court of Appeal), and later the Supreme Court of Canada (“the Court”). The highest court in Canada took steps to recognise colonial, racial, and gendered oppression, including:
The systemic mistreatment of Indigenous women, perceived as “sexual objects for male gratification,” “available for the taking,” and under the assumption of “risk of any harm that befalls them [is] because they engage in a dangerous form of work”.
The long history of colonialism, the effects of which continue to be felt by Indigenous women.
The widespread racism within the Canadian criminal justice system, and the implicit/explicit biases, prejudices, and stereotypes producing discrimination against Indigenous persons.
One of the strongest statements by the Court recognised Cindy Gladue’s humanity and how the law failed to appreciate the totality of her person:
Our criminal justice system holds out a promise to all Canadians: everyone is equally entitled to the law’s full protection and to be treated with dignity, humanity, and respect. Ms. Gladue was no exception. She was a mother, a daughter, a friend, and a member of her community. Her life mattered. She was valued. She was important. She was loved. Her status as an Indigenous woman who performed sex work did not change any of that in the slightest. But as these reasons show, the criminal justice system did not deliver on its promise to afford her the law’s full protection, and as a result, it let her down—indeed, it let us all down.
The Court ordered a new trial—albeit limiting the scope of available charges from murder to manslaughter—returning the matter to the court of first instance. Almost ten years after the original trial, in February 2021, Cindy Gladue’s accused killer was found guilty of manslaughter.
TRUE NORTH, STRONG AND FREE
The law has continued to let Indigenous women (and “us all”) down. The ongoing genocide of Indigenous women continues unabated. A recently released report from the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability (CFOJA) found that in 2020, one in five women killed in Canada was First Nation, Métis, or Inuit.
The legal landscape is similarly bleak:
The legislation governing Indigenous communities is the Indian Act, requiring Indigenous persons to file claims for “Indian status” and providing a controversial mix of “paternalism and protection”.
To date, there has never been an Indigenous judge on the Supreme Court of Canada (less surprising considering there has never been a visible minority on the bench).
Of the 231 “imperative” recommendations made by the Inquiry for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in 2019, “little has been done” nearly two years later.
Despite an overwhelming need for reform, “little has been done”. A decade’s worth of legal processes was undertaken to achieve a result for Cindy Gladue that recognised her humanity. However, an unknown number of similar stories have gone untold, crushed under pervasive systemic oppression.
Action requires steps beyond simply responses to injustice, but also preventative work, including large scale legislative and policy reform, judicial diversity and representation, and satisfying governmental obligations (from the Truth and Reconciliation Committee and the MMIWG Inquiry). This pain is a shared burden: the promise of true patriot love is tied to the full protections of the law, for us all.
Michaela Chen is completing her LLM with a Specialism in Human Rights Law at the LSE. She is also a qualified lawyer in Canada, and previously worked as a litigator and human rights advocate.