Current Problems: Justice (25-42)

Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of Ontario"

Updates on this page: 37
 

March 13, 2024


B.C. judge warns of ‘tsunami’ of Indigenous identity fraud cases

Baptist pastor charged with possessing child pornography claimed Métis status based on great-great-grandparent WARNING: This story contains details of child sexual exploitation and pornography. CBC News: After he was charged with possessing child pornography, Nathan Allen Joseph Legault discovered a figure from his past he hoped might help with his future. The Prince Rupert, B.C., man...

January 9, 2024


ONWA Calls for Action to Address Violence Against Indigenous Women

ONWA Calls for Action to Address Violence Against Indigenous Women NationTalk: Thunder Bay, ON – The Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) is saddened by the death of Jenna Ostberg, a young woman whose life was just beginning as she embraced her artistic skills and was “looked up to” for her style. ONWA will be following the...

December 21, 2023


Belleville, Ont., police officers acquitted of assault causing bodily harm in arrest of Mohawk man

One officer was found guilty of the lesser charge of assault Warning: Some details in this story are distressing CBC News: Posted December 20; Updated December 21 An Ontario court found a Belleville, Ont., police officer guilty of assault on Wednesday in the November 2019 takedown of a Mohawk man at a Taco Bell. Both...

November 9, 2023


Video of alleged police assault of Mohawk man raises questions about delay in watchdog’s probe

Ontario’s SIU took 13 months to open an investigation, eventually leading to charges Warning: Some details in this story are distressing CBC News: Ontario’s police watchdog initially balked at investigating an alleged police assault of a Mohawk man that was captured on camera and eventually led to charges against officers from Belleville, Ont., according to...

October 25, 2023


Family of Indigenous man killed in crash devastated, angry with police

George Louttit’s sister feels police interactions laced with cultural bias ‘We just don’t know how to heal,’ says family of man killed in fatal collision: Duration 1:30 Amy Louttit said her family is still searching for answers after her brother, George Louttit, was killed in a fatal collision in Little Italy on Oct. 2. Click on...

October 18, 2023


Watchdog finds race disparity in SIU probes into conduct

Black, Indigenous Ontarians overrepresented in cases, report finds Toronto Star: Black and Indigenous Ontarians are far more likely to be subject to police actions serious enough to lead to a Special Investigations Unit probe, the provincial watchdog says in a new report. Between 2020 and 2021, a Black person was 3.5 times more likely to...

October 6, 2023


People accused of killing Indigenous women less likely to be charged with first-degree murder: study

Several factors from funding to distrust of colonial systems may contribute to the sentencing decisions  APTN News: A report from Statistics Canada shows that there’s a disparity in the way homicide cases involving Indigenous women and girls are handled in the Canadian legal system. Data between 2009 and 2021 indicated that first-degree murder charges, the...

July 31, 2023


End the Sexual Exploitation of Indigenous Women and Girls

NationTalk: July 30, 2023,Thunder Bay, ON – In support of the United Nations World Day Against Trafficking in Persons (July 30), the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) is calling on all levels of government as well as law enforcement and service agencies to increase their efforts to strengthen prevention and support Indigenous survivors of human trafficking/sexual exploitation. ONWA knows that...

July 20, 2023


Indigenous people 17.7% more likely to be incarcerated in Sask.

Non-Indigenous people charged with crimes are more likely to receive bail than Indigenous people Jeremy Appel / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter / Alberta Native News Jul 20, 2023 10:00 PM NationTalk: Saskatoon Today: ALBERTA NATIVE NEWS — Saskatchewan has Canada’s highest rate of Indigenous over-representation in provincial custody, with Alberta in second place, according to new data...

July 20, 2023


Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare Voices Concern Over the Lack of Inclusion of First Nations Law Enforcement Under the New Community Safety and Policing Act

Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare Voices Concern Over the Lack of Inclusion of First Nations Law Enforcement Under the New Community Safety and Policing Act NationTalk: Toronto, ON – Ontario Regional Chief Glen Hare issued the following statement regarding Ontario’s Ministry of the Solicitor General’s decision to proceed towards finalizing their regulations under the new Community...

July 7, 2023


Rama First Nation police officer investigated for threat against APTN journalist

Officer objected to a story APTN published about her romantic partner.  APTN News: A Rama First Nation police officer is under investigation after sending emails to an APTN News journalist to express her displeasure at a story he wrote about her romantic partner being involved in an alleged assault on a Métis man in custody....

July 5, 2023


Video shows police officer punching Métis man with intellectual disabilities

By Kenneth JacksonJul 05, 2023  OPP say it’s launched two internal reviews APTN News: Police cellblock video recently obtained by APTN News shows an Ontario Provincial Police officer repeatedly punching a Métis man in the head while in a jail cell as two other officers look on. The incident happened more than a year ago in...

June 19, 2023


Is A Genocide Taking Place in Canada? Short Answer: Yes.

NationTalk: (OTTAWA, ON) – A genocide is being perpetuated against Indigenous peoples in Canada. That was the unambiguous declaration of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. But, despite a death toll that climbs year after year, many Canadians have difficulty understanding how the Inquiry reached its finding, or accepting that...

June 9, 2023


3 Indigenous police services in northern Ontario could cease operating due to lack of funding

The police services collectively serve around 30,000 people across northern Ontario  CBC News: Three Indigenous police services that serve 45 First Nations across northern Ontario say they are at risk of shutting down due to a lack of  funding.  The Treaty Three Police Service, UCCM Anishnaabe Police Service and Anishinabek Police Service have not received funding from...

June 7, 2023


Every Canadian has a role in ending the MMIWG crisis, advocate says

Empathy ‘must stay in Canadians’ hearts past the evening’s news broadcast’: Hilda Anderson-Pyrz This column is an opinion written by Hilda Anderson-Pyrz, chair of the National Family and Survivors Circle, as part of CBC’s “Mother. Sister. Daughter,” a project that tracked progress on the 231 calls to justice from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered...

June 5, 2023


Search for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls hampered by police apathy: Researchers

‘The problem of Indigenous women being overpoliced and underprotected is all across Canada’ Participants walk in the Women’s Memorial March in Vancouver to remember missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (photo by Liang Sen/Xinhua via Getty Images) Content warning: the following contains disturbing subject matter. NationTalk: University of Toronto – In Canada, research shows...

May 25, 2023


Sexual assault organizations struggling to help victims post-pandemic: study

APTN News: The preliminary findings of a new national survey is highlighting how frontline sexual assault organizations are struggling to provide timely services to victims and survivors post-pandemic. The report, which was conducted by national organization Ending Violence Association of Canada, surveyed more than 100 sexual violence organizations (SVOs) across Canada on how the pandemic impacted...

May 2, 2023


MPs call for national emergency declaration on violence against Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit people

Motion was presented by NDP MP Leah Gazan of Winnipeg Centre CBC News: The House of Commons adopted a motion on unanimous consent Tuesday calling on the federal government to declare ongoing violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people a national emergency. The motion was presented by Winnipeg Centre NDP MP Leah Gazan. It also...

April 25, 2023


This Ojibway man served his sentence, then says the Crown tried to put strict conditions on his release

Case of Shaldon Wabason, who fought and won peace bond attempt, raises concerns involving Indigenous people CBC News: A man from an Ojibway First Nation in northwestern Ontario says Crown lawyers wrongfully tried to impose unnecessarily strict conditions on his release from jail. Shaldon Wabason, who’s from Whitesand First Nation, and his lawyers say prosecutors in...

February 23, 2023


How missing Indigenous women could be saved with ‘Red Dress Alert’

Nation Talk: CTV News – One Winnipeg MP is calling for a system, similar to the existing Amber Alerts, to be established to notify the public about missing Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. “We currently have crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in this country. Something that our current prime...

February 11, 2023


It’s everyone’s job to help end the MMIWG crisis, advocates say — and here’s how

‘It starts with everybody taking responsibility,’ says author of inquiry’s final report WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: Lorelei Williams is exhausted. The Coast Salish woman has been on the frontlines of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis in Vancouver since 2012, when she founded Butterflies in Spirit to raise awareness about...

December 12, 2022


A lifetime of agony: families of missing, murdered Inuit women call for answers

APTN National News: Canadian Press – Every day on his way to work in 2016, Veldon Coburn drove past Bordeleau Park, by the edge of the Rideau River near downtown Ottawa. On a September day that year, while he drove past the park, Coburn heard on the radio that a body had been found in...

September 30, 2022


‘Why aren’t we talking about it?’ The forgotten cause of missing Indigenous men and boys

Indigenous men are much more likely to be victims of homicide than Indigenous women, but families say they don’t get the same kind of attention. Toronto Star: ENOCH CREE NATION, Alta.—There is no word for goodbye in Cree. Instead people say êkosi mâka, or “That’s it for now.”  The belief is that loved ones will always...

December 14, 2021


Call for a Miscarriage of Justice Commission

APTN – Women and people of colour “urgently” need a commission to review claims of wrongful conviction, say two retired judges. Harry LaForme, the first Indigenous lawyer on an appellate court in Canada, and Juanita Westmoreland-Traoré, the first Black judge in Quebec, were tasked with helping formulate a new Criminal Case Review Commission for Justice Canada....

October 4, 2021


SCO Survey on MMIWG Calls for Justice

Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) – “Only 53% of murder cases involving [Indigenous] women and girls have led to charges of homicide. This is dramatically different from the national clearance rate for homicides in Canada, which was last reported as 84%” (NWAC, 2011). Governments and Canadian institutions now need to fully implement the Calls for Justice....

June 4, 2021


MMIWG Inquiry – OAS Complaint

The Native Women’s Association of Canada -NWAC is taking immediate steps to file a Human Rights complaint in Canada and to request International intervention and investigation by the Organization of American States (OAS) and United Nations (UN) in forcing the federal government to take the steps necessary to end the genocide against Indigenous women, girls and...

June 3, 2021


MMIWG Inquiry – Government Action Plan Complaints

NationTalk – Ontario Native Women’s Association, Québec Native Women, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Chair in Indigenous Governance, Feminist Alliance for International Action – A consortia of Indigenous women’s advocacy groups representing 49% of Indigenous women’s voices in Canada finds that the National Action Plan and Federal Pathway on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and...

December 14, 2020


Death of Barbara Kentner: manslaughter conviction

Brayden Bushby found guilty of manslaughter. “I find that the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Bushby’s dangerous and unlawful act accelerated and caused Ms. Kentner’s death,” Justice Helen Pierce told the court....

November 12, 2020


Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights

NationTalk – 24 civil society groups attending the third ever meeting of Federal, Provincial, Territory Ministers responsible for human rights “condemned the obstructive attitude of some governments” in advancing international human rights obligations. Groups had pressed governments to commit to nation-wide law reform that will legally require governments to adopt a collaborative, accountable, consistent, transparent,...

September 18, 2020


Death of Barbara Kentner: murder charges reduced to manslaughter

CBC – Second degree murder charges have been reduced to manslaughter and aggravated assault against Brayden Bushby for the death of 34-year old Barbara Kentner. Bushby threw a trailer hitch from a moving car, yelling “I got one” after he hit the Indigenous women in the stomach. His originally scheduled judge and jury trial has...

September 9, 2020


Indigenous Journalists

Toronto Star – Increasing arrests of Indigenous journalists including: Karl Dockstader at 1492 Land Back Lane Haudenosaunee occupation regarding a housing development near Caledonia Courtney Skye, Yellowhead Institute researcher and Ryerson Fellow arrested as well Award-winning journalist Justin Brake was arrested and charged with criminal and civil contempt and criminal mischief while covering a protest...

September 6, 2020


Ipperwash Inquiry

Chiefs of Ontario – Sept. 6, 2020, was the 25th anniversary of the Ipperwash crisis, where Dudley George, an unarmed Indigenous man was killed by an OPP sniper while peacefully protesting the expropriation of land from the Stoney Point Indian Band by the federal government in 1942 for a military base. Ancestral burial grounds were...

August 31, 2020


McDonald-Laurier Report on Systemic Racism in Policing

MacDonald-Laurier Institute – “Systemic racism in policing in Canada and approaches to fixing it,” argues that the fault for this lies primarily with political leaders who set the framework conditions and constraints for the delivery of police services. This commentary is based on the author’s written submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on...

July 23, 2020


McDonald-Laurier Report on Systemic Racism in Policing

The CBC “Deadly Force” database indicates that the RCMP are 3x more likely to use lethal force than other police forces in Canada. The CBC data found that 68 per cent of people killed in police encounters were suffering with some kind of mental illness, addiction or both. “When we get broader statistical information that...

June 3, 2019


MMIWG Inquiry – Final Report

“National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl Final Report (MMIWG)” states: Indigenous women and girls are 2.7 times more likely to experience violence than non-Indigenous women. ]Homicide rates for Indigenous women were nearly seven times higher than for non- Indigenous women. One quarter of all female homicide victims in Canada in 2015...

June 3, 2019


Cutting Legal Aid Funding

Ottawa Citizen – Cuts to Legal Aid Ontario are “mean-spirited” and will push the province closer to a two-tiered legal system, where Indigenous people, the poor and refugees will be at an even greater disadvantage, Ottawa lawyers warn....

April 12, 2019


Cutting Legal Aid Funding by 30%

The provincial government is cutting funding to Legal Aid Ontario by 30% that negatively impacts the Indigenous population who are one of the most disadvantaged and impoverished in Ontario and one of the most over-represented in the criminal justice system....