•  
  •  
 
The Supreme Court Law Review: Osgoode’s Annual Constitutional Cases Conference

Article Title

Ewert v. Canada: Shining Light on Corrections and Indigenous People

Abstract

In Ewert v. Canada, the Supreme Court considered an Indigenous federal inmate’s claim that the continued use of actuarial tools to assess his risk was contrary to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act and sections 7 and 15 of the Charter. The case offers an important opportunity to consider issues of substantive equality; access to justice; and how Correctional Service Canada’s (CSC) current practices contribute to the larger problem of Indigenous alienation from the criminal justice system. Given the opaque nature of the correctional system, it is only through cases like Ewert that we get a glimpse into this type of decision-making.