Our commitment to Indigenous reconciliation-February 2026

Calls for Justice

BC’s first Indigenous Diversion Centre: a milestone achievement in Indigenous-led justice reform 

A recent Statistics Canada report highlights the significant overrepresentation of Indigenous adults in provincial and federal custody in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. Thirty-three point two percent of the adult custodial population are Indigenous despite the fact that Indigenous people represent only 4.3 percent of the overall adult population in these provinces. 

In response to the report findings, Kory Wilson, chair of the BC First Nations Justice Council stated, “The numbers in this report are staggering, but not surprising. Indigenous people are not inherently more criminal — we are more criminalized.” 

Unfortunately, the over-incarceration of Indigenous women is disproportionately higher. Forty-nine percent of female admissions to federal custody were Indigenous women whereas 32 percent of male admissions were Indigenous men. In BC, the population of Indigenous women in custody is growing — in 2023, 49 percent of women in provincial custody in BC were Indigenous, compared to 41 percent in 2013. 

The criminalization of Indigenous women  

“The over-criminalization of Indigenous women is largely a result of colonialism … Poverty, food insecurity, mental health issues, addiction, and violence, all parts of Canada’s past and present colonial legacy, are systemic factors that lead to the incarceration of Indigenous women.” National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, 2019. 

Indigenous women are charged, prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned as a result of the systemic failures of the criminal legal and prison systems to recognize, contextualize or address the inequities, racism, sexism, violence and trauma they experience.   

The majority of incarcerated Indigenous women have a history of domestic physical or sexual abuse, experienced physical or sexual violence, are residential school survivors or have family members who are residential school survivors, or went through the child welfare and youth detention systems. 

Most crimes Indigenous women are charged for are non-violent and are committed to meet their basic survival needs — property and drug offences such as theft, fraud, trafficking of stolen goods. The violent crimes that Indigenous women are charged and convicted for are most often “defensive or reactive to violence directed at themselves, their children, or a third party.” 

Diversion supports healing, safety and equity 

The BC First Nations Justice Council’s (BCFNJC’s) Indigenous Diversion Centre (IDC) is the first of its kind in Canada.  The IDC, located on Lheidli T’enneh territory (Prince George), hosts an innovative pilot program that will divert Indigenous people from criminal justice system involvement through the presumption of diversion.  

The presumption of diversion requires considering and applying culturally appropriate and least restrictive approaches at every point in time of an individual’s journey through the justice system, with the presumption that, whenever appropriate, these alternative responses should be the first option pursued.   

The IDC aims to help break harmful cycles of reoffending, decrease Indigenous representation in jails (See Call to Action #30), and offer pathways to accountability, healing and culturally appropriate supports and resources. The IDC houses a trauma-informed multidisciplinary team of dedicated professionals who support IDC participants with long-term wrap around support. Participants can join Ceremony, attend land-based and Elder teachings, learn skills in ‘Atsoo’s Kitchen (grandmother’s kitchen), and access social work support, clinical counselling, among other services. 

With financial support offered through Public Safety Canada’s Northern and Indigenous Crime Prevention Fund (NICPF), pre-charge and post-release programming is available to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit adults living in Prince George. 

The pre-charge program diverts Indigenous people from being charged with eligible non-violent offences to the IDC (e.g., shoplifting, fraud or mischief), where they commit to following an individualized 90-day diversion plan to have their charges dropped. The pre-charge program focuses on the root causes of offending by providing a caring and cultural environment where healing can occur, intervening early to prevent reoffending and offering participants with an alternative path. 

“People often think it’s a get out of jail free card, but in fact it’s much harder to face a group of your elders, and to face your victim and the people that you’ve wronged and harmed and to take ownership over that,” said Wilson.  

The post-release program supports Indigenous individuals after their release from provincial or federal custody to reintegrate into community. 

Lheldi T’enneh Elder Marcel Gagnon, the IDC’s elder-in-residence, shared, “Hopefully when they come and work with us, with the social workers, clinical counsellor, all these talented people we have here to assist them in housing and all those basic needs, I think it’s going to be very successful. Especially reconnecting with ceremony and being on the land.” 

For more information on the Indigenous Diversion Centre, visit BCFNJC’s site.