Sentenced to Sovereignty: Sentencing, Sovereignty, and Identity in the Nunavut Court of Justice by Jeanette Gevikoglu B.A.H. , Queen‘s University, 1998 L.L.B., McGill University, 2001 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF LAWS in the Faculty of Law Jeanette Gevikoglu, 2011 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Sentenced to Sovereignty: Sentencing, Sovereignty, and Identity in the Nunavut Court of Justice by Jeanette Gevikoglu B.A.H. , Queen‘s University, 1998 L.L.B., McGill University, 2001 Supervisory Committee _____________________________ Dr. Benjamin L. Berger, Faculty of Law Supervisor __________________________________________________________ Prof. James C. Hopkins, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Business Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Benjamin L. Berger, Faculty of Law Supervisor Prof. James C. Hopkins, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Business Departmental Member In Canada, sentencing has been the target of reforming the criminal justice system with a view to alleviating the over-representation of indigenous people in the criminal justice system and the historic injustice perpetuated against indigenous communities through colonialism. My thesis explores how sentencing decisions from the Nunavut Court of Justice construct and shape Inuit identity in Nunavut. My research analyzes the sentencing decisions of the Nunavut Court of Justice since its creation in 1999. Using selected sentencing decisions as case studies, I interrogate how the Court uses notions of ―Inuit‖, ―Inuit culture‖, and ―Nunavut‖, both implicitly and explicitly. I show how rather than a tool for alleviating the historic injustice perpetuated against indigenous people through colonialism and systemic racism, the sentencing process perpetuates historic injustice through constructing binary, essentialized notions of Inuit identity. The consequences affect both the criminal justice system and the realization of indigenous self-determination. I conclude that as a result the Nunavut Court of Justice exemplifies an intractable dilemma facing the criminal justice system for indigenous people that sentencing reforms cannot solve. I suggest new ways of imagining criminal justice and indigenous self-determination that provide hope for a way out of the intractable dilemma. iv Table of Contents Supervisory Committee ...................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi Dedication ......................................................................................................................... vii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Indigenous Identity in the Canadian Criminal Justice System ..................... 8 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8 Part I: Character, Criminals, and Criminal Justice: The Relationship Between Sentencing, Sovereignty and Identity ............................................................................. 9 a. Understanding Identity........................................................................................ 9 b. Appropriating Identity: Identity, the Law, and Sentencing .............................. 12 c. Asserting Sovereignty in Sentencing ................................................................ 15 Part II: The Origins of Indigenous Difference: Colonial Criminal Justice .................. 19 a. Maintaining and Negotiating Indigenous Difference through the Criminal Justice System ........................................................................................................... 19 b. Criminalizing Indigenous Identity .................................................................... 22 Part III: The Dilemma of Delineating Difference: Perpetuating Appropriation and Asserting Sovereignty in Modern Sentencing .............................................................. 27 a. Impact of the Modern Sentencing Process on Indigenous People .................... 29 b. Providing for Indigenous Difference in the Sentencing Process ...................... 32 c. Maintaining Sovereign Space in Sentencing .................................................... 39 Conclusion: Sentencing, Sovereignty, and Transformation ......................................... 44 Chapter Two: Appropriating Inuit Identity: Creating Canada, Creating Nunavut ........... 50 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 50 Part I: Occupying the Inuit: Asserting Canadian Sovereignty ...................................... 51 Part II: Occupying the Arctic, Occupying Inuit: Law‘s Role ....................................... 61 a. Delineating Inuit Identity through the Law ...................................................... 61 b. Imposing Criminal Law on Inuit....................................................................... 65 Part III: Nunavut Rising? Inuit Resistance, Self-Determination, and the Creation of the Nunavut Territory ......................................................................................................... 78 a. Inuit Voices ....................................................................................................... 79 b. ―The Road to Nunavut‖ .................................................................................... 85 c. Maintaining Sovereign Space in The Nunavut Court of Justice ....................... 91 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 93 Chapter Three: All the King‘s Horses and All the King‘s Men: Maintaining Sovereign Space in Nunavut .............................................................................................................. 95 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 95 Part I: Imagining Inuit Lifestyle: ―The Genuine Inuk‖ ................................................. 97 Part II: Imagining Inuit Law: ―There Was No Rape in the Old Days‖ ....................... 108 v Part III: Imagining Inuit Justice as Restorative Justice ............................................... 117 Part IV: Imagining Inuit Self-Government: The Trials of Nunavut ........................... 130 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 142 Chapter Four: Reconciling the Irreconcilable? Indigenous Identity and the Criminal Justice System ................................................................................................................. 145 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 145 Part I: Delineating the Dilemma ................................................................................. 147 a. The Dilemma in Nunavut................................................................................ 147 b. Exposing the Broader Implications: Beyond Nunavut ................................... 152 Part II: Re-Imagining the Criminal Justice System .................................................... 157 a. Culture and Conflict: Re-imagining the Sentencing Process .......................... 157 b. In Our Hands: Re-Imagining Ethics of Activism in Sentencing..................... 163 Part III: Re-Imagining Indigenous Self-Governance .................................................. 169 a. The Structure of Self-Governance .................................................................. 169 b. Revitalizing Indigenous Identity ..................................................................... 176 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 183 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 185 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 189 Appendix A ..................................................................................................................... 204 vi Acknowledgments Although I refer to my experience working as a Crown attorney in Nunavut, none of the research I conducted for my thesis was as a Crown attorney. All the opinions I express herein are entirely my own and in no way represent the views of the Public Prosecution Service, Justice Canada, or the Attorney General of Canada and are not based on any confidential information communicated to me in my practice as a Crown attorney. I have benefited greatly from the financial support of the Law Foundation of B.C., the Law Foundation of Nunavut,