OTTAWA-A British Columbia judge is warning that what he calls a “tsunami” of Indigenous identity fraud cases is coming to Canadian courts. Provincial Court Judge David Patterson says that’s driven by the “desire” of non-Indigenous people to access what they deem to be benefits of identifying as Indigenous. He says judges must be “alive to the issue” and require proof that ensures an offender is entitled to be sentenced as an Indigenous person. A set of guidelines known as Gladue factors requires courts to consider an Indigenous person’s background during sentencing. That could include family trauma, poverty and whether being separated from their culture could have contributed to their offence. Patterson found in the ruling that the accused person in the case provided questionable and inadequate claims to Metis identity…
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