Indigenous healing lodges came under scrutiny this past week.
Many Canadians were outraged by the news that the woman who murdered a young girl in Ontario had been transferred to one months ago.
The Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge on the Nekaneet Territory in Saskatchewan has been described as everything from a health spa to a vacation resort.
Many people are strictly focused on the punishment aspect of the criminal sentence and they cannot accept that rehabilitation is the absolute desired outcome of any incarceration. At some point most inmates, no matter what the crime, will be back in society and for that reason anything that encourages and promotes their recovery and their ability to become a productive member of their community is the right thing to do. Even our standard prisons work toward prisoner rehabilitation and in this instance I feel that it is with the word “healing”, as in “healing lodge” that many people are taking issue. It is a soft, caring word…seemingly not to be used in association with what people see as an evil murderer.
Many people are strictly focused on the punishment aspect of the criminal sentence and they cannot accept that rehabilitation is the absolute desired outcome of any incarceration. At some point most inmates, no matter what the crime, will be back in society and for that reason anything that encourages and promotes their recovery and their ability to become a productive member of their community is the right thing to do. Even our standard prisons work toward prisoner rehabilitation and in this instance I feel that it is with the word “healing”, as in “healing lodge” that many people are taking issue. It is a soft, caring word…seemingly not to be used in association with what people see as an evil murderer.
Why would they send child killer to a some sort of a Aboriginal Healing Lodge? The child killer belongs in jail not in a healing lodge. This is outrageous and pure stupidity.
The concern expressed was not necessarily about the facility, but rather that a person known to have abused and murdered a child, would be at a facility where she had access to other children, without having shown any signs that she had accepted responsibility for her former actions. There is also the ongoing question as to her indigenous qualifications, as these facilities are expressly for indigenous peoples, to deal with the overwhelming over-representation of indigenous people in the system.
Why would they send child killer to a some sort of a Aboriginal Healing Lodge? The child killer belongs in jail not in a healing lodge. This is outrageous and pure stupidity.
Maybe ask Howard Sapers the Corrections watch dog. Would be nice if he had access to see for himself and let us all know what it is really like. My understanding is a prison is a prison. You still have no personal freedom and live in an adversarial environment with other criminals who have committed serious crimes, and your table mate’s only goal might be just to make your life a living hell. Put feces in your food, urine in you drink or smear your only cell home with excrement. Spit on you curse you, threaten to hurt your family, and sleep? Mostly forget that!
The concern expressed was not necessarily about the facility, but rather that a person known to have abused and murdered a child, would be at a facility where she had access to other children, without having shown any signs that she had accepted responsibility for her former actions. There is also the ongoing question as to her indigenous qualifications, as these facilities are expressly for indigenous peoples, to deal with the overwhelming over-representation of indigenous people in the system.
Maybe ask Howard Sapers the Corrections watch dog. Would be nice if he had access to see for himself and let us all know what it is really like. My understanding is a prison is a prison. You still have no personal freedom and live in an adversarial environment with other criminals who have committed serious crimes, and your table mate’s only goal might be just to make your life a living hell. Put feces in your food, urine in you drink or smear your only cell home with excrement. Spit on you curse you, threaten to hurt your family, and sleep? Mostly forget that!
This Lodge is a wonderful place for a person to change and come to terms with their healing. Despite their crime who is really to judge they are all still human all still try a survive and strive for love, hope and dignity.
This Lodge is a wonderful place for a person to change and come to terms with their healing. Despite their crime who is really to judge they are all still human all still try a survive and strive for love, hope and dignity.
People need to do their homework and get some facts before they write things. It has been described as such because no one bothers with finding out the truth. Media twists and causes problems for everyone nowadays.
People need to do their homework and get some facts before they write things. It has been described as such because no one bothers with finding out the truth. Media twists and causes problems for everyone nowadays.