Current Problems: Justice (25-42)

Exploring Theme: "Court Cases"

Updates on this page: 52
 

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...

March 11, 2024


Opposition parties call for the day school settlement agreement to be reopened

NDP MPs, Green Party deputy leader want day school survivors to be able to resubmit their claims CBC News: The federal NDP and the Green Party are urging Ottawa to reopen the multi-billion-dollar federal Indian day school settlement agreement. The opposition lawmakers issued the call in response to a CBC News report about day school survivors who...

March 5, 2024


Day school settlement has paid out $5.7B in claims. A Supreme Court petition says survivors were shortchanged

Multibillion-dollar deal was supposed to bring justice but brought more pain for some WARNING: This story contains details of experiences at Indian day schools. Click on the following link to read the original article and view all videos: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/day-school-survivors-supreme-court-1.7132933?cmp=newsletter_Morning%20Headlines%20from%20CBC%20News_1613_1424097 CBC News: A Cree survivor of the federal Indian day school system is asking Canada’s top court to...

March 4, 2024


MNC Statement on Bilodeau Unescorted Absences

NationTalk: The Métis National Council is deeply disappointed by the unescorted temporary release (UTR) of Roger Bilodeau despite the many of objections of the victims’ families, and community. Bilodeau was convicted of manslaughter 2020 for the shooting deaths of two Métis men, Jacob Sansom and Morris Cardinal. The MNC adds our voice in supporting the...

February 29, 2024


Proposed class-action lawsuit aims to compensate children of residential school survivors

Lawyer feels it’s time to seek redress for what Indigenous leaders refer to as the ongoing effects of inter-generational trauma. Matthew Brandon (centre) is flanked by his guardians, Chris Gardiner and Shannon Berard-Gardiner. Photo: Submitted  A new class-action lawsuit is being proposed to compensate children of residential school survivors for inter-generational trauma, APTN News has...

February 21, 2024


Wet’suwet’en Law Cannot ‘Coexist’ with BC Court Order, Judge Determines

Chief Dsta’hyl has been found guilty of criminal contempt. The Tyee: The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that a traditional Wet’suwet’en trespass law cannot “coexist” with the injunction order issued to Coastal GasLink in response to pipeline protests from the nation’s hereditary leadership.  As a result, Chief Dsta’hyl, a Wing Chief of the Likhts’amisyu Clan of...

January 24, 2024


Treaty commissioner questions ‘colonial’ nature of James Smith massacre inquest

Mary Musqua-Culbertson also skeptical that any jury recommendations will be implemented WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC Indigenous: Saskatchewan’s outgoing treaty commissioner is echoing the growing concerns of James Smith Cree Nation residents who say their voices are not being heard enough at an inquest into the mass stabbings there in 2022. “This process...

January 24, 2024


Parole officers appear at James Smith Cree inquest in Saskatchewan

APTN News: Myles Sanderson was a man who opened up once you got to know him, attended programs he was supposed to, and didn’t breach his conditions says Natasha Melanson. Melanson, the parole officer who was in charge of the man who would kill 10 people in James Smith Cree Nationwas and another in nearby...

January 19, 2024


Experts delve into killer’s psychology at James Smith Cree Nation massacre inquest

Myles Sanderson ‘had many psychopathic traits,’ psychologist and behaviour specialist testifies WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: It might not have been on paper, but experts say Myles Sanderson went into the tragic James Smith Cree Nation massacre with a plan.  “It was very simple. His mission was to attack, injure, murder those...

January 11, 2024


Probe into release of Myles Sanderson should be made public ahead of inquest: lawyer

Photographs of those killed during the mass stabbing on the James Smith Cree Nation and in the nearby village of Weldon in 2022 are on display as Saskatchewan RCMP provide a preliminary timeline presentation of the events during a media event in Melfort, Sask., on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Photo: Liam Richards/The Canadian Press.  APTN...

January 4, 2024


Class action seeks compensation for Indigenous day school survivors in Quebec

Lawsuit seeks $20K on behalf of each survivor who attended provincially run schools CBC News: A new class-action lawsuit is seeking compensation for Indigenous people who attended day schools in Quebec that were under the jurisdiction of the provincial government.  A Quebec Superior Court judge authorized the lawsuit last month on behalf of Indigenous people...

December 1, 2023


Divesting the RCMP of Abuse Investigations in Indigenous Communities

The BC First Nations Justice Council testified about culturally appropriate policing alternatives at a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearing. Amanda Follett Hosgood 1 Dec 2023The Tyee Amanda Follett Hosgood is The Tyee’s northern B.C. reporter. She lives in Wet’suwet’en territory. Find her on Twitter @amandajfollett. The Tyee: The BC First Nations Justice Council says it has already...

November 30, 2023


Woman arrested during Wet’suwet’en pipeline blockade found not guilty

Sabina Dennis was acquitted on 1 charge of criminal contempt in B.C. Supreme Court  Jackie McKay · CBC News · Posted: Nov 29, 2023 10:08 PM EST | Last Updated: November 30 CBC Indigenous: Posted: Nov 29, 2023 10:08 PM EST | Last Updated: November 30 B.C.’s Supreme Court has ruled that a person charged with contempt of court...

November 27, 2023


‘This justice system is failing our people’: Report meant to help Indigenous people in court often causes harm

In response to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (also known as TMX), elders of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation in B.C. asked Will George to “warrior up” and defend their land and waterways. “It was quite the honour to be recognized … to be selected from the community to do this very important work for our...

November 17, 2023


Fate of Yukon’s safe communities law in the hands of judge

Petition asserts a section of Yukon’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act which allows for evictions with five days notice violates charter rights of life, liberty and security. APTN News: A First Nations woman who is challenging Yukon’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods law, also known as SCAN, in the territory’s Supreme Court is now waiting for a...

November 8, 2023


Yukon judge hands ex-priest 3 year sentence for sexual abuses against First Nations boys

Disgraced priest David Norton is already serving a 13-year sentence in Ontario for sex crimes against young boys.  Ex-priest David Norton is currently serving a 13-year sentence in Ontario. The Yukon sentence will add three additional years. Photo: Diocese of Huron  APTN News: A Yukon judge has sentenced ex-Anglican priest David Norton with two three-year...

November 8, 2023


What do we know about Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe? Details still scarce as her alleged killer is in court

‘It’s tragic that her family … hasn’t found their loved one,’ MMIWG advocate says CBC Indigenous: Just steps away from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, red dresses blow in the wind.  They serve as a symbol of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, including the four police allege were killed by...

October 18, 2023


B.C. imprisons people we should listen to

Swaysən Will George outside the courthouse in Vancouver. Photo by Donna Clark Listen to article Canada’s National Observer: Swaysən Will George’s name in hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ means, “When he speaks, they listen.” The B.C. Supreme Court did not seem to be listening well to Tsleil-Waututh member Will George when they sentenced him to 28 days in jail for upholding his sacred responsibility...

August 24, 2023


Retired judge visits Nunavut to hear Inuit sexual abuse claims against priest

By Kathleen Martens The leader of a new Oblate Safeguarding Commission has begun investigating the handling of clergy abuse allegations in Nunavut. APTN News: A retired judge was in Nunavut this week to hear more about historical allegations of child abuse against an Oblate Catholic priest. André Denis, formerly of the Superior Court of Quebec, was...

August 22, 2023


Quebec judge authorizes class action by Atikamekw women alleging forced sterilizations

Lawyers believe more women will join lawsuit now that it can move forward CBC News: A Quebec Superior Court judge has authorized a class action against three doctors accused of sterilizing Atikamekw women against their will.  One of the two women leading the class action — which is on behalf of all the women from the...

August 16, 2023


Ottawa won’t regulate how lawyers bill First Nations clients after concerns raised over ‘unfair’ fees

PATRICK WHITE The Globe and Mail: One of Western Canada’s largest law firms has petitioned Ottawa to legislate “unfair and unreasonable” legal fees that it says some rival firms are charging First Nations involved in historic claims against the government. In June, two lawyers from MLT Aikins, which has more than 300 lawyers across Western Canada,...

August 14, 2023


Judge ‘erred’ in conviction of Elder after TMX pipe ceremony, higher court rules

Charges have been dropped against watch house guardian Jim Leyden after the B.C. Appeal Court set aside Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick’s ruling IndigiNews: A B.C. Supreme Court judge made an error when she convicted an Elder after he held a pipe ceremony outside of a Trans Mountain terminal, according to a ruling from the province’s highest...

August 9, 2023


Settlement reached in class-action lawsuit against convicted ex-priest who abused First Nations youth

Ralph Rowe is believed to have abused up to 500 children in northern Ontario, Manitoba  WARNING: This article contains details of sexual abuse. CBC News: A multi-million dollar settlement has been reached in a class-action lawsuit against a former priest convicted of 75 sexual crimes, his employer, the Anglican Church’s Synod of the Diocese of...

July 14, 2023


Defiant protesters burn injunction after Manitoba judge orders landfill blockade to come down

Police liaison asked protesters if they would leave after injunction came into effect CBC News: Protesters at Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill remained defiant Friday night, ignoring a judge’s order to stop blocking the main road into the facility and burning a copy of the injunction he issued earlier in the day. The main entrance to...

July 11, 2023


Inside the RCMP’s Investigation into a ‘Well-Known Canadian’

The lead investigator was in close contact with the lawyer for ‘A.B.,’ but didn’t collect a statement or request a polygraph. [Editor’s note: This article contains stories about trauma and abuse. It may be triggering to some readers.] The Tyee: RCMP senior brass kept close tabs on a historical sexual assault investigation into a “well-known...

July 10, 2023


Nunavut judge’s denial of bail to repeat offender gives rare look into court proceedings

The Globe and Mail: The case of a Nunavut man with a dozen convictions for beating up his intimate partners is raising questions about how federal authorities address violence against women in the North, after the RCMP and a prosecutor supported the man’s release from custody on multiple new charges. The man, known as A.I., had just...

June 19, 2023


RCMP says there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to lay charges in SNC-Lavalin affair

Police service confirms it has closed the file CBC News: The RCMP says it found “insufficient evidence” to lay criminal charges related to the SNC-Lavalin affair and confirms it has since concluded its file. It’s the first time the national police force has officially confirmed that it’s no longer probing the political scandal that rocked...

June 15, 2023


Ex-Anglican priest found guilty of sexually abusing 2 Yukon First Nations boys in the ’80s

David Norton, 77, admitted convictions ‘appropriate’ after hearing testimony, despite pleading not guilty Warning: Some readers may find this story distressing CBC News: An ex-Anglican priest has been found guilty of six criminal charges for molesting two Yukon First Nation boys in the ’80s. The verdict came Wednesday after a two-day trial in Whitehorse described by...

June 14, 2023


Day school survivors reluctant to speak to Mounties: Canadian Human Rights Tribunal testimony

Mountie testifies about lack of cooperation from witnesses, his own Indigineity and ‘revolving door Natives’.  APTN News: A Mountie learned first-hand how much First Nations people dislike the RCMP while investigating allegations of abuse at an Indian day school 50 years ago, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard Wednesday. Sgt. Quinton Mackie said he couldn’t...

June 13, 2023


Judge reserves decision on motion to extend Indian day school claims deadline

Six Nations chief calls Justice Canada’s arguments against extension ‘a slap in the face’ CBC News: Indian day school survivors who haven’t claimed compensation under a national class-action settlement will have to wait a little longer to learn if they’ll ever get the chance. Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond reserved his decision Tuesday after a two-day...

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...

April 16, 2023


Justice miscarried

Book explores convictions where accused entered false guilty plea EXCERPTED FROM “WRONGFULLY CONVICTED: GUILTY PLEAS, IMAGINED CRIMES, AND WHAT CANADA MUST DO TO SAFEGUARD JUSTICE” BY KENT ROACH. PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER CANADA. COPYRIGHT © 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Toronto Star: Beyond the infamous cases, Canada has a major problem with wrongful convictions, argues...

March 30, 2023


Ex-priest, 93, acquitted of indecent assault at Manitoba residential school

Arthur Masse was charged last year in alleged incident at Fort Alexander dating back more than 50 years WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: A retired priest accused of assaulting a First Nations girl at a Manitoba residential school more than 50 years ago has been acquitted. Victoria McIntosh alleged she was assaulted by Arthur Masse,...

March 27, 2023


Saulteaux sisters jailed for nearly 30 years to be conditionally released

Sask. sisters had been awaiting decision more than 2 months CBC News: Nerissa Quewezance, 48, and her sister Odelia Quewezance, 51, will be conditionally released while they await results of a ministerial review of their second-degree murder charge and conviction. People in the Yorkton Court of King’s Bench applauded when court closed just before 11 a.m....

March 26, 2023


My visit with Odelia Quewezance — jailed for a murder she says she didn’t commit — stirs up hope but opens old wounds

Quewezance, convicted with her sister in a killing her cousin confessed to, may be on the cusp of freedom. Why a visit to her home stirred old emotions. The Toronto Star: RHEIN, Sask.—Odelia Quewezance knew she had to stay strong, at least for a few more weeks. The slender 51- year-old Salteaux woman smiled often...

February 24, 2023


New registry shows Indigenous Peoples largely shut out of wrongful conviction cases

Reporting by APTN News helped inspire new Canadian Registry of Wrongful Convictions APTN News: A team of Indigenous law students have built Canada’s first registry of wrongful convictions. Their database, which went live this week, confirms that mostly white, middle-class men have been exonerated so far. “It does not reflect the most vulnerable people in...

February 19, 2023


Hereditary Chief refuses to leave job, but band members have voted to oust her

The Globe and Mail: The Chief of a tiny Fraser Valley First Nation is refusing to leave the job her father appointed her to 30 years ago, saying the band’s oral laws mean she is its legitimate leader. But a group of opponents within the Kwantlen First Nation are escalating their four-year fight to fire...

February 8, 2023


They fought for decades to be recognized as Indigenous. Now they want to take the federal government to court

NationTalk: Canada’s National Observer: Daphne Young is Ojibwe. But she grew up in Nipigon, Ont., estranged from her culture and people at Red Rock First Nation. Her family was removed from band lists more than a century ago when her great-grandfather, Frank Hardy, joined the Canadian Armed Forces before the First World War.  Like most...

January 24, 2023


Métis survivors sue Saskatchewan, Canada over residential school

Class-action suit launched over the Île-à-la-Crosse school in northern Saskatchewan after Métis were left out of previous settlements. Toronto Star: For survivors of one of the oldest residential schools in Canada, it’s been a long time coming. Métis survivors who attended the Île-à-la-Crosse residential school in northern Saskatchewan have launched a class-action lawsuit against the...

December 21, 2022


Indian Day School (IDS) Survivors Demand Fair Timeline to Seek Compensation

NationTalk: SIX NATIONS OF GRAND RIVER, ON, Dec. 21, 2022 – Legal action has been launched against the federal government over a class action Settlement Agreement (The Agreement) providing compensation for systemic abuse suffered by First Nations children attending government-run IDS. The Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council (Six Nations) and class member Audrey Hill (Ms. Hill) assert...

November 10, 2022


Saskatchewan Justice department seeks to muzzle media in Saulteaux sisters’ case

APTN News fighting publication ban on Quewezance sisters’ bail hearing Crown attorney in Saskatchewan is arguing in a Yorkton courthouse that media shouldn’t be able to report on bail hearing for the sisters. over a bail hearing for Nerissa and Odelia Quewezance.  APTN News: A Saskatchewan prosecutor has applied to keep the details of a pivotal court...

December 17, 2021


Incarceration rates of Indigenous people

Correctional Investigator – The Correctional Investigator, Dr. Ivan Zinger, released new data that shows that the proportion of incarcerated Indigenous women has continued to increase unabated, and is nearing 50% of all federally-sentenced women. On January 21, 2020, the Office of the Correctional Investigator reported that the proportion of Indigenous men and women in federal...

February 12, 2021


Cindy Gladue murder trial: manslaughter conviction

Edmonton Journal – Bradley Barton convicted of manslaughter in his second trial for killing Cindy Gladue in an Edmonton hotel room in 2011. Unlike in his first trail, the repeated references to Cindy Gladue as a native girl, a native woman and a prostitute were not allowed since they promoted “discriminatory beliefs or biases about...

January 12, 2021


Custody Rating Scale lawsuit

Globe and Mail – A class-action lawsuit filed in federal court challenges the Custody Rating Scale, a 12-question risk assessment tool developed by Correctional Services Canada in the 1980s and in widespread use. The suite is file on behalf of tens of thousands of inmates over systemic bias in its security classifications which affect inmates’...

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....

September 25, 2020


MMIWG Class Action Lawsuit

Southern Chiefs Organization – Strongly disagrees with the federal government’s arguments that Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people do not face a “special threat from a special source” and are not unique victims of criminal violence. SCO believes they fly in the face of the findings of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous...

September 21, 2020


Supreme Court on Indigenous laws

Clarification and validation of Indigenous rights and treaty as asserted by the Supreme Court of Canada in Delgamuukw, 1997. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) – AMC will be intervening at the Supreme Court of Canada…to argue that First Nation constitutional orders are distinct but equal to Euro-Canadian laws. The Court will address the most fundamental...

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...

July 2, 2020


Supreme Court: Trans Mountain Pipeline appeal

BIV – Business in Vancouver – The Supreme Court of Canada has refused to hear an appeal of the federal government’s approval of the $12.6 billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which is already under construction. The Tsleil-Waututh and Squamish First Nations and Coldwater Indian Band had appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada to hear...

July 9, 2019


Indigenous Cannabis Dispensaries

Policy Options – Saskatchewan Justice Minister Don Morgan urged the federal government to shut down cannabis dispensaries opened in Pheasant Rump Nakota Nation and Muscowpetung First Nation because they do not have provincial licences. Morgan’s comments reflect a deeply held belief in a hierarchy of laws that devalues and delegitimizes the law-making capacity of Indigenous...

May 24, 2019


Cindy Gladue murder trial: Background

Background Context – Assembly of First Nations – AFN was an intervenor in Supreme Court R vs Barton 2019 SCC 33 in support of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and for more respectful treatment of Indigenous women in the justice system. Bradley Barton was charged with first-degree murder in the death...

October 11, 2018


Duty to Consult vs Indigenous laws and treaties

The Conservation – Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada Supreme Court Decision ruling on the application of the Duty to Consult doctrine and if it can be applied to the federal legislation-making process. The case originates from Mikisew Cree First Nation’s challenge of the 2012 Omnibus bills introduced under the previous federal government that made...

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