This dissertation explores the promise of bail-oriented interventions vis-à-vis the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in Canadian prisons. While this research project argues that the bail system's underlying risk logic is inherently discriminatory against Indigenous peoples, it is proposed that specialized courts for Indigenous peoples - Gladue Courts - may be well-positioned to overcome systemic barriers to Indigenous peoples' release on bail. This research explores the extent to which two Toronto Gladue Courts have been able to produce equitable bail outcomes, as well as potential downstream effects of these outcomes, utilizing two unique and complementary longitudinal datasets from the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General which span from 2006 to 2017. Analyses examine i) bail case characteristics, ii) bail processing and court processing measures, and iii) final case outcomes and sentences for Indigenous peoples' bail cases which were processed in these Gladue Courts compared to (predominantly non-Indigenous people's) bail cases processed in the conventional bail courts of these same courthouses. Study findings suggest that while these two bail populations shared many similarities, charges against the administration of justice were particularly widespread among Gladue bail cases. While Gladue Courts appeared largely successful in producing substantively equitable bail outcomes, the impact of these courts is limited by Gladue bail cases' disproportionate early guilty pleas and waiving of the right to bail. Despite the apparent successes of Gladue Courts with regards to bail, Indigenous peoples in Gladue bail cases continued to be disproportionately convicted and sentenced to custody compared to their conventional bail counterparts. Study findings are considered within the wider context of settler colonialism and Indigenous peoples' overincarceration and possible targeted solutions to this phenomenon are discussed.

ABSTRACT This thesis explores the R. v. Gladue (1999) decision and whether it is applicable to federal corrections and parole release. I outline a Cree relational approach—wahkotowin—that can be employed as a Gladue method of analysis to help us understand Cree history through a kinship relational lens. In Chapter 1, I share an overview of the teachings of wahkotowin, as taught by knowledge keeper and respected author Maria Campbell. With the help of her circle teachings diagrams, I outline our relationships and obligations to one another. I also outline the shattering of wahkotowin through imposed colonial and present-day policies, programs, and legislation, and the resulting inherited intergenerational trauma. Chapter 2 locates my personal story, exploring family and community history, and its connection with First Nations and Métis history on the prairies. Chapter 3 reviews the Supreme Court of Canada’s R. v. Gladue and R. v. Ipeelee (2012) decisions, the duty to properly consider the unique social history of Aboriginal peoples, and the applicability of Gladue to section 84 of the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. Chapter 4 outlines the qualitative data, including interviews with legal experts working with Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto and the Gladue Court. The data explore best practices of interviewing, researching, and report writing necessary for obtaining Gladue evidence. In Chapter 5, I propose a Gladue-through-wahkotowin approach that explores how Gladue’s duty to consider social history evidence can be expanded to all phases of the criminal justice system, from sentencing to parole release, and can include a Cree relationship-based way of interviewing an offender, carrying out in-depth family and community interviews, attaining oral and documentary historical research, and applying a broad Indigenous approach to interviewing and the writing of Gladue Reports.