The development of the Canadian criminal justice system has been central to the dispossession of Indigenous populations and the safeguarding of colonial relations of power. Through the mechanisms of surveillance, segregation, and containment, the justice system ensures that Indigenous peoples remain in a state of economic deprivation, social isolation, and political subjection.

Contributors to this volume examine historical expressions and ongoing reinforcement of settler colonialism with a view to illuminating how it manifests in contemporary police actions and criminal proceedings. Using an anti-colonial lens, alternative conceptualizations and practices of justice are explored. The volume includes testaments from Indigenous people currently in federal penitentiaries across Canada that show current penal and carceral arrangements for Indigenous people.

Dr Chartrand is Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Bishop’s University, Québec. She is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa.

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Josephine Savarese is an associate professor in Criminology and Criminal Justice at St. Thomas University.

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