Indigenous Peoples and the Criminal Legal System is an elective course in Osgoode’s Professional LLM in Criminal Law and Procedure. The course examines the mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s criminal legal system and explores the historical, legal, and systemic factors that continue to shape that reality. Designed for experienced lawyers and judges, it challenges students to think critically about how criminal law operates across jurisdictions and how it intersects with Indigenous communities.
The course is taught by Jonathan Rudin, Special Projects Director of Aboriginal Legal Services (ALS), which he helped establish in 1990. A graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School (LLB, LLM), Rudin has appeared before all levels of court, including the Supreme Court of Canada, and has written and spoken extensively on issues of Indigenous justice. His decades of frontline advocacy and policy work bring both depth and practical insight to the classroom.
As Rudin explains, meaningful engagement with criminal law in Canada requires confronting a central reality: the mass incarceration of Indigenous peoples. “You can’t talk about the criminal legal system without talking about the mass incarceration of Indigenous people,” he notes. Without grappling with that context, “we are losing the vital understanding of how the system actually works.”
While the Criminal Code is federal legislation, one of the key insights students gain is that its implementation varies significantly across provinces, territories, and even within regions. “We often assume the law is implemented the same way everywhere,” Jonathan Rudin explains, “but in fact it’s very different from province to province, from territory to territory, and even within provinces.” Exploring these differences becomes a central focus of classroom discussion.
Delivered as a two-and-a-half-day intensive, the course is structured around sustained engagement and dialogue. Students bring experience from Crown offices, defence practices, and the judiciary, creating a space for informed comparative discussion. The format allows for careful examination of case law, policy developments, and evolving jurisprudence, while also making room for reflection on professional practice.
Because students come from jurisdictions across Canada, the classroom becomes a forum for examining how discretion, institutional practice, and local legal culture shape outcomes. Hearing how colleagues approach similar issues in different regions often challenges assumptions and prompts reconsideration of entrenched practices.
Course materials include current case law, policy developments, and Rudin’s own published work. The course evolves each year in response to emerging issues in criminal justice, ensuring that discussion remains closely connected to contemporary practice.
Students complete a final research paper focused on an issue connected to their own jurisdiction or professional context. Many papers address practical challenges encountered in day-to-day work, while others examine broader systemic questions. Several have gone on to be published or cited elsewhere, reflecting both the depth of student engagement and the practical relevance of the subject matter.
By the end of the course, students leave with a more holistic and practice-informed understanding of how the criminal legal system affects Indigenous peoples. They are better equipped to apply this knowledge in their professional contexts and to reflect critically on how established practices operate within Canada’s broader justice framework.
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