The Alberta Court of King’s Bench says a longstanding type of court report will be renamed. As of Aug. 21, the term Gladue reports was replaced with Indigenous background reports. A statement on the Court of King’s Bench website says Indigenous sentencing reports is a “more descriptive and respectful phrase.” The Gladue report refers to sentencing principles outlined in s. 718.2(e) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which were enacted in 1995 and order courts to examine the life circumstances of Aboriginal offenders and consider all available sanctions other than imprisonment. The purpose was to address the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system as a result of colonialism and systematic discrimination. The first time the principles were used was during R. v. Gladue in 1999 in the sentencing of Jamie Tanis Gladue in B.C. Gladue pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her common-law husband and was sentenced to three years imprisonment. The case went to the Supreme Court of Canada after the original sentencing judge failed to consider mitigating factors of Gladue’s Indigenous background. The judge’s decision said 718.2(e) should not apply to Indigenous people who lived off-reserve. The Supreme Court upheld the three-year sentence, but ordered that lower courts must apply 718.2(e) to all Indigenous persons, no matter where they reside. The Alberta Court of King’s Bench said the decision was made in conjunction with the Courts of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Court of King’s Bench of Alberta, and Alberta Court of Justice.
