E/CN.4/2005/88/Add.3 page 14 Special Rapporteur visited one Mi’kmaq fishing community in Nova Scotia, Indian Brook, where the Department’s licensing regulations are not in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling on Aboriginal fishing rights, leading to confrontation between Mi’kmaq fishermen and government officials, and to renewed litigation. RCAP wisely suggests that the federal administration should proceed to protect Aboriginal rights in the light of Supreme Court rulings rather than to treat Aboriginals who exercise their rights as adversaries. In the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, that approach would also be consistent with international human rights practice. 51. Environmental concerns are widespread among Aboriginal peoples. The Arctic ecosystem is particularly vulnerable to the severe effects of global warming on the food supply, health and lifestyles of local Inuit communities. The Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, Sheila Watt-Cloutier of Nunavut, declared: “We have gone from the ‘ice age’ to the ‘space age’ in one generation …. The human rights of Inuit are under threat as a result of human-induced climate change. When we can no longer hunt on the sea-ice, and eat what we hunt, we will no longer exist as a people” and, referring to Persistent Organic Pollutants, added: “a poisoned Inuit child means a poisoned Arctic, means a poisoned planet”. The Special Rapporteur shares this very serious concern and would like to draw the urgent attention of the Government of Canada and all members of the United Nations to the need for concerted action in this remote area of the world concerning the human rights implications of environmental changes for Arctic peoples. E. Aboriginals in the criminal justice system and related justice issues 52. The human rights of indigenous peoples are often measured by the performance of the criminal justice system. The Supreme Court of Canada finds “systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system”. (Report to the Special Rapporteur, Native Law Center of Canada, College of Law, University of Saskatchewan, August 2002). In its final report, the Commission on First Nations and Métis Peoples and Justice Reform of Saskatchewan notes that “the issues facing First Nations and Métis people - and the reasons they come into conflict with the justice system - are rooted in failures in the areas of education, health and economic development”. (Legacy for Hope - An Agenda for Change, vol. I (June 2004), p. 1). Whereas Aboriginal peoples argue that their own legal systems are recognized in the Constitution and have been affirmed by the Supreme Court, this recognition is not forthcoming in governmental policy or widespread practice, and it has not yet been implemented or recognized in ordinary legislation. The Native Law Center suggests the creation of an Aboriginal Attorney-General. 53. Innumerable studies note that the rate of crime is higher in Aboriginal communities. The arrest rate for Aboriginal crime is nearly double and the rate of incarceration nearly four times higher than the national average. In 1995, the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics found that Aboriginal people were 5 times more likely to be charged with a crime in Calgary, 10.5 times more in Saskatoon, and 12 times more likely in Regina. While forming only 4.4 per cent of the total Canadian population, Aboriginal offenders make up 17 per cent of federal penitentiary inmates. The numbers reach critical levels in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. 54. A number of complaints concerning alleged incidents of police brutality against Aboriginals were presented to the Special Rapporteur. In Saskatoon, several urban Indians were found frozen to death on the outskirts of the city. Some, who had made it back home alive, later told that they had been picked up by the police, harassed, and while in custody, dumped on some lonely road. They were lightly dressed and under the influence of alcohol. Colloquially, these