Select only one of the following 4 topics for this Research Assignment. The assignment must reflect a combination of original thought as well as properly documented research. 1. Broken Promises …...

Select only one of the following 4 topics for this Research Assignment. The assignment must reflect a combination of original thought as well as properly documented research.
1. Broken Promises
… There was a time when many acres of land in what we now call Canada were sacred to Aboriginal Natives. Therefore, today many of us are living on, building on, and in some case, destroying the remains of Indian lands where people’s roots run deep. Given this, how would you deal with the problem of an Aboriginal native trespassing on someone’s land when he or she claims to be visiting an ancestral burial ground, for example? What could you say or do so as not to totally alienate the Aboriginal native and thereby risk losing trust and co-operation?
2. Racially and Culturally Rooted Conflicts
Over the past, there have been a number of conflicts between the police and the First Nations People (i.e. Oka, Caledonia, etc.). What training does the Ontario Police College (Aylmer, Ontario) provide on defusing racially and culturally rooted conflicts? What training does your provincial or municipal police department in which you live or work provide to officers? Is training enough to understanding the underlying conflicts? What community agencies (private or public) are available as referrals, or for mediation of such conflicts? Discuss what should be provided to police officers to defuse, mediate, and resolve racially and culturally rooted conflicts yet maintain trust and co-operation?

3. Aboriginal Women in Law Enforcement


How many women police officers are there in Canada (in the federal, provincial, and municipal law enforcement agencies), and within the law enforcement agency in which you live? How many aboriginal women police officers are there in Canada, and within the law enforcement agency in which you live? Explain the numbers? How many of those aboriginal women are in supervisory or management positions compared to non-aboriginal women? Are any of the aboriginal women assigned to non-traditional roles such as the Emergency Task Force, Community Relations Unit, etc.? Have there been incidents of harassment of aboriginal women employees, and how were the cases resolved? Compare the results to the cases of non-aboriginal women?


Explain what you would recommend to turn these results around, and why?

4. Sentencing in the Criminal Justice System
In dealing with individuals from diverse cultures, the criminal justice system has considered the cultural values and norms of some offenders before sentencing them. This has meant giving these offenders lighter sentences than others who have committed the same offence. Explain this in respect to sentencing cases involving aboriginal offenders. An alternative view is that the law applies to all people equally and that culture should not enter into the criminal justice system. Another view is that the First Nations People should have autonomy in respect to their own criminal judicial system (aboriginal judges, criminal procedures, sentencing circles, restorative justice, etc.). Discuss this issue, and the implications for law enforcement.