KEVIN MENZ
Associate News Editor

The University of Saskatchewan Indigenous People’s Justice Programs will shut down next year.

Many students and faculty fear that this will cause Aboriginal education to suffer unless the program’s content can be incorporated into other courses.

IPJP began in 2001 and consists of four classes which, when paired with specific native studies courses, can go towards an arts and science minor. The program’s main objective is to explore Aboriginal People’s roles, relations, conceptions and mistreatments within the criminal justice system.

Marilyn Poitras, a College of Law professor who teaches one of the IPJP courses, said that the program’s content — while important — tried to fit too much into only four classes.

“It was going to be all things to all people,” she said. “[We thought] it was going to answer everything and now we’ve learned that you can’t do that.”

The program only had three faculty members and found it difficult to develop relationships with Aboriginal communities, to create a graduate studies program and to establish research projects for faculty members.

“The provost office has decided we are going to wrap this up and make those resources available for new initiatives in the area of Aboriginal-Indigenous knowledge,” said designated dean for IPJP Harley Dickinson. “Now it’s time to build on the knowledge, build on the skill, build on what we’ve learned and try to construct something with a bit more of a solid foundation.”

The light IPJP shines on past and present Canadian oppression against Aboriginals may be hard to look at, but Canadians need to learn about these things.

-Breen Ouellette
IPJP student

He said that the program will be closed next year for future registrants but that currently registered students will be allowed to finish their studies in IPJP provided they finish the courses within five to 10 years.

“We will be making money available to hire instructors and the courses will be offered until currently registered students are done.”

For future students who had planned on registering in IPJP, the university is hoping to incorporate the program’s content into other political science, sociology and law courses.

“They won’t be called IPJP courses anymore, but my guess is that there will be course revisions and maybe new courses which try to capture the principle of this discussion between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspectives around justice issues,” said Dickinson.

Current IPJP student Breen Ouellette hopes that the program’s content does not get ignored with the removal of the program.

“IPJP is a real eye opener,” he said. “The light it shines on past and present Canadian oppression against Aboriginals — practices that included slavery and genocide — may be hard to look at, but Canadians need to learn about these things to come to an understanding of how to correctly address the problem”¦ of high incarceration rates [amongst Aboriginals].

“If the university is shutting down this program completely then I would definitely disagree with the decision,” he said. “However, the university has made indications that something else, something better, will take the place of IPJP.”

He hopes this is the case.

“The responsibility of addressing this [issue] rests with the administration.”