A new booklet designed for people working in the criminal justice system aims to give more context and understanding when working with Indigenous people involved with the system. 

It provides information about the Indigenous groups in Atlantic Canada, a brief history of Indigenous-Crown relations and The Indian Act, as well as how generational trauma, such as the residential schools, are still having an effect today.

Bringing Balance to the Scales of Justice was designed by the Mi'kmaq Confederacy of P.E.I. in partnership with the Elsipogtog Restorative Justice Program in New Brunswick, the Miawpukek First Nation in Newfoundland and Labrador and the Mi'kmaq Legal Support Network in Nova Scotia.

It was released in the last month and is now being distributed to police, court officials, probation officers, judges and lawyers throughout the Atlantic region.

"The trauma that the parents, or grandparents or great-grandparents had experienced comes down through the generations," she said. 

To read more of the CBC News article, please click here.