Would it be unreasonable to interpret Indigenous shoplifting in Winnipeg as reparations?

By Hymie Rubenstein

There is more than a little truth to the belief that racial profiling in countries like the United States is based on stereotypical assumptions about groups like African-Americans differentiated by race, colour and ethnicity. But it is equally true that certain stereotypes are rooted in the fact that a disproportionate number of crimes are committed by certain racial, colour and ethnic groups.

The same is true In Canada. While representing an estimated 4.9% of the Canadian population, 38% of persons accused of homicide in 2017 were identified by police as Indigenous. The rate of Indigenous people accused of homicide in 2017 was 12 times higher than the rate of non-Indigenous accused. Indigenous adults also are overrepresented in custody and the numbers are increasing.

In 2017/2018, Indigenous adults accounted for 30% of admissions to provincial/territorial custody and 29% of admissions.

What these and other figures show is that crime stereotypes about Indigenous people have a relationship to real behaviour despite the fact the most Aboriginals are peaceful, honest, and law-abiding.

Indigenous criminality, whether based on stereotypes or not, is also geographically centred. As elsewhere in Canada, shoplifting is in runaway mode in downtown Winnipeg, a metropolis with one of the largest per-capita and absolute Indigenous population levels among major Canadian cities.