Current Problems: Justice (25-42)
Exploring Theme: "Court Cases"
Updates on this page: 81
November 5, 2024
Defence questions reliability of RCMP officer’s report on Wet’suwet’en Coastal GasLink blockade
Abuse of process hearing resumes in Smithers, B.C., courtroom CBC Indigenous: A lawyer representing three people arrested for blocking work on the Coastal GasLink pipeline questioned whether an RCMP officer’s report on an encounter with blockade members was reliable, on Monday in B.C. Supreme Court in Smithers. Justice Michael Tammen is hearing an abuse of process application brought...
October 31, 2024
Syilx Okanagan woman files lawsuit alleging historic abuse at Vernon Catholic school
Laurie Wilson claims she was physically and sexually assaulted by staff and white students at St. James Parish WARNING: This story contains details of experiences similar to those suffered by residential school survivors. CBC News: A Syilx Okanagan woman has filed a lawsuit against church authorities and the Canadian government alleging she was physically and sexually...
September 27, 2024
Oneida family relieved police officer’s appeals come to an end
Debra Chrisjohn died in 2016 after her arrest by the London police. APTN News: A police officer’s bid to quash his conviction in the death of an Oneida mother in 2016 has come to an end. On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed a request for leave to appeal from Const. Nicolas Doering of the London,...
September 9, 2024
Kanien’kehá:ka man on why he joined B.C. pipeline blockade
Corey Jocko testifies in support of abuse-of-process application CBC Indigenous: A Coastal GasLink blockade participant told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing on Monday that going to Wet’suwt’en territory gave him closure after being arrested in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, Ont., during the Shut Down Canada movement. The movement was a series of protests and blockades that took place across...
September 5, 2024
Norval Morrisseau’s legacy ‘irrevocably damaged’ due to art fraud, says judge giving man 5 years in prison
David Voss, 52, was in Thunder Bay, Ont., court on Thursday for massive fraud case CBC Indigenous: The man who oversaw the creation of thousands of forged artworks in Thunder Bay, Ont., falsely attributed to Anishinaabe artist Norval Morrisseau faces a five-year penitentiary sentence. David John Voss pleaded guilty on June 4 to counts of forgery and...
September 4, 2024
Use of the Gladue principle has ‘largely failed’ Yellowhead Institute report finds
It’s been 25 years since the Supreme Court’s Gladue decision but a new report finds the landmark ruling has failed to live up to much of its initial promise. APTN News: The application of what are called Gladue principles has “largely failed” in Canada because of several factors including a disorganized Gladue process, limited resources...
August 28, 2024
“‘Shattered” doesn’t explain how I feel’: Sentencing for serial killer hears from families of murdered women
Sentencing hearing in Winnipeg court hears about horrific impact of Jeremy Skibicki’s crimes WARNING: This story contains details about violence against Indigenous women. CBC News: For some, it’s the sight of a garbage truck on the street that can suddenly bring them back to the worst day of their lives; for others, something as ordinary...
July 28, 2024
Court battle against Ottawa restarts over Indian Act gender discrimination
Bill C-38 introduced to resolve issue is stuck at second reading since passing in Dec. 2022 CBC News: A group of First Nations families has reactivated a court challenge against Ottawa over ongoing gender discrimination in the Indian Act because a bill created to address the issue is stalled in Parliament. Indigenous Services Minister Patty...
July 22, 2024
Winnipeg serial killer knew what he was doing was wrong, judge says
Nearly 200-page written decision sheds more light on why Jeremy Skibicki convicted earlier this month WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: Serial killer Jeremy Skibicki knew what he was doing was wrong, a judge said in a lengthy decision outlining why he convicted the Winnipeg man in the murders of four vulnerable Indigenous...
July 16, 2024
A white supremacist confirms what Indigenous inquiries have been trying to tell us for years
In finding Jeremy Skibicki guilty, Chief Justice Glenn Joyal dismissed the evidence put forward by the defence as ‘fabricated’ and said the Crown had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Skibicki understood the planned and deliberate killings were legally and morally wrong. Toronto Star: Last week in Winnipeg they were dancing in the streets when...
July 15, 2024
Nunavut prosecutors form new team dedicated to tackling sexual violence cases
The chief federal prosecutor is under no illusion about the challenge of gaining people’s trust CBC Indigenous: Nunavut now has a team of prosecutors dedicated to sexual violence cases. Launched in April, the team within Nunavut’s Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) office will assist in all sexual violence files in the territory. On the team...
July 11, 2024
Judgment in unusual trial of admitted Winnipeg serial killer coming Thursday
Lawyers for Jeremy Skibicki argued he should be found not criminally responsible for killing 4 women in 2022 WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: The fate of a Winnipeg man who has confessed to killing four women but denies criminal responsibility will be decided Thursday after an unusual trial for the admitted serial killer. ...
July 10, 2024
Fight continues against secret hearings in challenge to CSIS spying on environmental groups
NationTalk: Ottawa, ON (unceded Anishinabe Algonquin Territory) – The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has appealed a recent Federal Court decision related to our 10-year fight for government accountability and transparency following our complaint against the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for secretly and illegally spying on Indigenous land defenders and environmental groups. If...
July 9, 2024
Judge in murder trial weighs motivations of admitted Winnipeg serial killer
Jeremy Skibicki confessed to killing (left to right) Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Buffalo Woman in the spring of 2022. Photo illustration: APTN News This story contains information from a murder trial. Please read with care. APTN News: The Canadian Press – judge is expected to decide this week whether a man who...
July 2, 2024
3rd Pinaymootang First Nation man’s conviction overturned in 1973 Winnipeg murder in light of new evidence
Evidence suggests ‘miscarriage of justice’ in Clarence Woodhouse’s conviction, federal justice minister says CBC News: A new trial has been ordered for a third First Nations man convicted for the murder of a Winnipeg man 50 years ago. Clarence Woodhouse, now in his early 70s, was one of three men and members of Pinaymootang First...
June 2, 2024
How Jeremy Skibicki’s ‘unusual’ defence compares to other serial killer cases
Skibicki’s lawyers plan to argue he was suffering from a mental disorder when he killed 4 women in 2022 WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: Admitted Winnipeg serial killer Jeremy Skibicki’s plan to argue he’s not criminally responsible in the deaths of four women due to a mental disorder strikes several experts as...
May 28, 2024
Woman questions court’s authority, cites Indigenous rights; her case involves Victoria police chief
Kati George-Jim is charged with obstructing police as they tried to arrest a person believed to have thrown water on the police chief at a memorial The Tyee: The Times Colonist – A T’Sou-ke woman on trial for obstructing Victoria police officers trying to arrest another person believed to have thrown water on the chief...
May 14, 2024
Judge orders psychiatric assessment of admitted serial killer
Crown’s forensic psychiatrist to interview Jeremy Skibicki. Warning: This story contains disturbing details. Please read with care. A Winnipeg judge has ordered a self-confessed serial killer to undergo a psychiatric assessment at the request of the Crown prosecutor. Manitoba Chief Justice Glenn Joyal overruled the objection of Jeremy Skibicki’s defence lawyer Leonard Tailleur Tuesday to...
May 10, 2024
Women’s remains believed to have spent 2 weeks in same Winnipeg dumpster before going to landfill, trial hears
Surveillance video revealed Jeremy Skibicki disposing of bodies in numerous garbage bins Caitlyn Gowriluk · CBC News · Posted: May 10, 2024 1:40 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago WARNING: This story contains distressing details. CBC News: When police learned a woman’s remains were discovered in a Winnipeg garbage bin nearly two years ago, they had no...
May 9, 2024
Police find DNA of another 12 women at self-confessed killer’s apartment in Winnipeg
DNA belonging to Ashlee Shingoose was found in Jeremy Skibicki’s apartment. She has been missing since 2022. Photo: Winnipeg police. Warning: This story contains disturbing details. Please read with care. APTN News: The Winnipeg Police Service confirmed the DNA of four Indigenous women inside the home of their self-confessed killer, a court heard Thursday, along...
May 8, 2024
Court, family hears how Indigenous women were murdered in Winnipeg
Defence claims Jeremy Skibicki has borderline personality disorder and PTSD Warning: This article contains content that may be disturbing to readers. Discretion is advised. APTN News: Serial killer Jeremy Skibicki calmly took detectives through the last minutes of his victims’ lives on a video played in a Winnipeg courtroom Wednesday. The seven-hour conversation-turned-confession shows a...
May 8, 2024
Mother of Tim McLean talks about his murder and use of not criminally responsible defence in court
Carol de Delley says she tried to change it after son’s killer found not criminally responsible due to mental illness. Tim McLean was murdered on a Greyhound bus in 2008. He stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized. Photo: APTN file. APTN News: When her son was decapitated, Carol de Delley thought it was the worst thing that...
May 7, 2024
First Nations launch lawsuit against Ontario and federal governments claiming discrimination in policing
The lawsuit claims it is unconstitutional to refuse to require police to enforce First Nations laws and bylaws. Toronto Star: The Chiefs of Ontario have filed a lawsuit against the province and the federal government claiming it is unconstitutional to refuse to require police to enforce First Nations laws and bylaws. The case filed in Ontario Superior Court of Justice...
May 6, 2024
Trial of Winnipeg man who admits to killing 4 women to be heard by judge alone
Jeremy Skibicki asks to be found not criminally responsible in the deaths CBC News: The jury trial of a man accused of killing four women in Winnipeg will now instead be heard by a judge alone, a change that comes after Jeremy Skibicki’s lawyers said he admits to killing the women but will ask to be found...
May 1, 2024
When your duty to protect the land clashes with settler laws
By Sidney Coles | Opinion | May 1st 2024 Rainbow Eyes in traditional headwear at Fairy Creek. Photo by Glenn Reid Listen to article Canada’s National Observer: OPINION – In British Columbia, Indigenous Peoples are expected to move seamlessly between two worlds and two sets of laws — sacred law and colonial law. When these are in conflict, they are asked...
April 24, 2024
Nunavut court frees defrocked Oblate priest on bail
Eric Dejaeger has been convicted of dozens of sexual offences in Canada, involving children, adults and animals Former Nunavut priest Eric Dejaeger during his trial in Iqaluit. Photo: APTN file APTN News: A defrocked priest convicted of sexually abusing children in Nunavut will be flown to Kingston, Ont., to live in a federal half-way house...
April 12, 2024
Former Thunder Bay police chief arrested and charged in misconduct probe
A former Thunder Bay police chief has been arrested and charged as part of an ongoing misconduct investigation, Ontario Provincial Police said Friday. Toronto Star: The Canadian Press – A former Thunder Bay police chief has been arrested and charged as part of an ongoing misconduct investigation, Ontario Provincial Police said Friday. Police arrested Sylvie...
April 9, 2024
OPP charges former legal counsel with Thunder Bay police with breach of trust, obstruction
Holly Walbourne in an undated photo. Photo courtesy: TBnewswatch.com APTN News: The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has laid several charges against a lawyer who acted as legal counsel for the Thunder Bay Police Service. The OPP’s Criminal Investigations Branch announced the charges against Holly Walbourne on Tuesday. Walbourne is facing five charges including three counts of...
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...
November 2, 2023
Judge orders 1-year sentence for Sask. woman who abducted child and forged IDs to flee country
Dawn Walker will serve her jail sentence in the community CBC Indigenous: A Saskatoon woman has been given a one-year jail sentence, to be served in the community, for abducting her child and using false identification to take the child illegally across the border into the U.S. Dawn Walker pleaded guilty on Thursday at Saskatoon provincial court...
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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