There has been an increasing demand for colorism as a means to acquire privileges and preferences and due to the fear of perceived discrimination against people with dark skin since there is evidence that there is a relationship between skin color and access to services and socio-economic status. This is due to racial category breakdown. Traditionally, dark-skinned individuals were considered to be less intelligent and trustworthy.
Social justice in Canada is considered both as a cause as well as a remedy for justice. It serves the purpose of the protection of property, upholding of equality among all people, as well as the protection of all individual groups against any form of discrimination. The justice system is characterized by various inequality patterns based on race and color that can result in discrimination. There existed disparity in the treatment of the Aboriginals and the blacks. This was confirmed by the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba, which concluded that the entire justice system was problematic for the Aboriginal population since there was a high tendency that an Aboriginal is likely to be charged for multiple offenses and always have a higher chance of being taken into jail and to serve for long jail terms. All these were attributed to systemic discrimination based on their color.
Current reforms, changes, and legislation are aimed at making the aboriginals change and not the other way around that can make the system change to accommodate the Aboriginal people. This system of justice that can single out a particular identifiable group is latently and manifestly discriminatory. Because of their color, the aboriginals are subjected to unequal treatment.
Racial and color-based discrimination is a feature of the Canadian justice system; the Aboriginals experience discrimination in jails. This was the main reason why there was the formation of a justice inquiry into systemic discrimination to bring an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon. Racism is the central factor in Canada’s justice system though it does not emphasize enough the historical relationships of the overrepresentation of the Aboriginals in the justice system. The justice system is the only institution that was used to enforce and reinforce the colonial relationship with the Aboriginal population.