Indigenous Background Report Rights

About Indigenous Background Reports

If you are Indigenous, have been charged with a crime, and may spend time in custody as a result, you have a right to an Indigenous Background Report (previously known as a Gladue report). This report will tell the judge about  any unique special circumstances, which may affect the sentence you are given. See the brochure linked below for further information: 

Brochure

When an Indigenous person has been charged with a crime and may spend time in prison or custody as a result, the judge must consider any special circumstances of Indigenous peoples, and the individual’s connection to these factors, when sentencing them. This is in response to the historical discrimination towards Indigenous peoples in the justice system. Judges must also consider traditional Indigenous approaches to justice, and try to give a sentence that does not involve time in jail, if possible.

An Indigenous Background Report gives the judge information that helps them to understand how these factors apply to the offender’s unique circumstances. This information will help the judge give an offender a just sentence that addresses the effects of discrimination and colonization on Indigenous peoples. A lawyer can also help provide the judge with information about how these factors have played a role in their client’s life.

An Indigenous Background Report will sometimes, but not always, result in a different sentence for an offender; however, the Report can tell the judge the story of the Indigenous person’s life, and the impacts that racism and colonization has had on them.

The forms linked below are for use by Defense Counsel only, after the Court has ordered that a Gladue Report be prepared for sentencing purposes.

Indigenous Background Report Request Form

Formule pour demander un Rapport D’Origines Autochtones