ABSTRACT
Sentencing is an enterprise in which each community feels a very pronounced interest and may be able to play a very important role. Central to sentencing deliberations is an assessment of the individual accused. Sentencing is nothing more than an institutional response to an act or a word. Sentencing Native people—or people from any other culture—poses a very substantial challenge. A growing chorus of voices across Canada is calling for the establishment of alternate systems of criminal justice for Native people. Conventional wisdom has it that general deterrence focuses on the Canadian community as a whole. Lengthy sentences, save where required for community protection from uncontrollable accused, seem to be viewed as exercises in gratuitous punishment serving little useful long-term purpose. Native refusals can just as easily be strong indicators that they maintain a determined allegiance to ethical considerations, amongst which may well be a heartfelt desire to see to it that they never repeat their anti-social act.
