In the wake of the recent murder of a police officer, many are asking why Randall McKenzie was released from prison despite a long history of violent crimes. Why was he released? What role did the "Gladue Principles" play in his release, and why did Canada allow him to re-offend?
00:00:00.000So, I mean, Canadians were horrified with the murder of 28-year-old OPP Constable Greg Przala last December.
00:00:06.980I mean, they were horrified then, and they were outraged to discover that one of the murderers had a long history of violent crimes, including charges for assault against a peace officer, yet he'd been released on bail.
00:00:18.520Randall McKenzie, he'd been in and out of prison for violent crimes, he was banned from possessing firearms, and of course, despite all that, he was given bail after being arrested for violent crimes, and was in possession of a firearm.
00:00:30.680Due to Canada's lax criminal justice system, an innocent young police officer was murdered by a man who never should have been free to commit the crime.
00:00:37.980But why was Randall McKenzie repeatedly released, despite the clear danger he presented to the public at large?
00:00:44.220Well, it all comes down to something called the Gladue Principles.
00:00:46.960Those principles were created through a Supreme Court case in 1999.
00:00:51.640Jamie Tanis-Gladu stabbed her common-law husband to death, and it was ruled that her Indigenous background should be taken into consideration upon sentencing.
00:01:00.160The precedent and principles set were that lighter sentences should be given to Indigenous offenders by the courts whenever possible.
00:01:06.780I mean, the Canadian government just recently, in 2020, spent $49.3 million to support the further implementation of those principles in the system, spreading it through prosecutors and judges.
00:01:16.960During one of McKenzie's parole hearings, it was stated that he had suffered the negative impacts of colonialism, and he believed his grandfather might even have attended a residential school.
00:01:57.520Now, last May, in Calgary, a visually impaired senior citizen named Leonard Smith was randomly attacked while waiting for a train to go to work.
00:02:04.100His throat was cut ear to ear, and he was lucky to survive.
00:02:07.180The man who tried to kill Smith was a violent repeat offender named Bobby Crane.
00:02:11.040Crane's going to be free in about 14 months.
00:02:13.620In the judge world, we must take into account the history of colonialism.
00:02:43.400Indigenous people are definitely very overrepresented in the prison system.
00:02:46.860The reason for that, though, is that Indigenous people are overrepresented when it comes to committing crimes.
00:02:52.640The system's failing them, and we need to understand why.
00:02:55.500But with all that said, it doesn't mean that Indigenous people convicted of violent crimes will be any less likely to re-offend upon release.
00:03:03.140And when we're going to consider bail and sentencing or parole of violent offenders, the safety of the public has to come first,
00:03:09.260no matter what the history might have been for the offender.
00:03:12.040Most sex offenders of any race experienced abuse themselves as children, and this is tragic, but it doesn't mean the offender is any less dangerous.
00:03:19.360The supposed intent of the Gladue Principles was to reduce the number of Indigenous people incarcerated.
00:03:24.460Well, it's been 20 years, more than 20 years, since the Gladue ruling, and Indigenous people are as overrepresented in the system as ever, if not actually more.
00:03:31.560So how long is it going to take to admit the principles have been a failure?