Inquiry into Kashechewan First Nation fire deaths finds First Nation people missing from jury lists
NAN press release ...
First Nation people excluded from jury roll - Illegal Jury Roll Comes to Light at Coroners Inquest
TORONTO, Sept. 11 /CNW/ - A First Nation coalition is seeking a formal inquiry into the jury roll system in Ontario following a recent revelation at a Coroners Inquest that the jury roll in the Judicial District of Kenora has systematically excluded First Nation people from jury participation even though the law requires that they be included.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto
(ALST) have called upon the Attorney General of Ontario to immediately commence a "formal inquiry into the legality of the jury selection system that has been employed in the Territorial District of Kenora since 2000 and, more generally, across the Province of Ontario."
On September 8 and 9, 2008 pre-inquest motions were heard in Toronto in the Coroners Inquest into the Deaths of Jamie Goodwin and Ricardo Wesley (the tragic Kashechewan fire deaths). During the motions, concerns were raised by the Wesley family with respect to the adequacy of the jury roll used in the Kenora District. Evidence presented by the Coroner's Counsel revealed that the legal steps required to include First Nation people that reside on reserves on the jury roll were ignored between the years 2000 and 2006. The current practice has resulted in most First Nations communities in the North being excluded from jury rolls. As a result, there are only 44 First Nations individuals residing on reserves (out of a total First Nations population of 12,111) on the Kenora District's current jury roll.
"First Nation people residing on reserves have the same right to be included on jury rolls and to be tried by a jury of their peers as non-First Nation people. These rights seem to have been ignored by the Kenora District, and possibly elsewhere in Ontario," comments NAN Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler. "A formal inquiry is required to determine the extent of the systemic problem."
Nishnawbe Aski-Nation is a political territorial organization that is responsible for 49 First Nations Communities in Northern Ontario with a total population of approximately 45,000 First Nations members. Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto is a multi-service legal agency providing services to First Nation communities across the province.
Available for comment by telephone is the coalition's lawyer, Julian N.
Falconer or Coalition members Deputy Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler and Kimberly R.
Murray.
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/For further information: To contact Mr. Falconer please contact Odi Dashsambuu at Falconer Charney LLP at (416) 964-3408 ext. 248; To contact NAN Deputy Grand Chief Fiddler please call Kristy Hankila at (807) 629-1512; To contact Ms. Murray please call Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto (416) 408-4041/
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From the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal
Inquiry sought into First Nations representation on juries
By SARAH ELIZABETH BROWN, September 12, 2008
A preliminary motion made before a coroner‘s inquest has inadvertently found that First Nations people have been excluded from the Kenora judicial district‘s jury roll, says a lawyer for the family of a man killed in a Kashechewan jail fire.
A coalition of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto is asking the attorney general of Ontario to look into the jury selection system‘s legality in the Kenora district since 2000, as well as across Ontario, said Kimberly Murray, executive director of the aboriginal legal service and the lawyer representing the family of Ricardo Wesley.
Wesley and Jamie Goodwin died in a fire at the Kashechewan police station on Jan. 8, 2006.
During pre-inquest motions in Toronto this week, Murray and the lawyer representing Goodwin‘s family had asked coroner David Eden to ensure a member of the five-person jury be from Kashechewan, or at least be Cree.
Inquest juries are selected from the same list of potential jurors used for criminal and civil trials, Murray explained.
After being told there were no Kashechewan people on the jury list, an affidavit was filed with the inquest from the supervisor of court operations in the Kenora judicial district.
“Then this whole can of worms opened up,” said Murray about discovering the incomplete jury roll.
Aboriginal people living on reserves wouldn‘t be on the municipal assessment lists the province uses each year to make up the jury roll, Murray said Thursday.
Legislation requires that the sheriff get the eligible on-reserve names in any means they can, she continued. According to the affidavit, she said, before 2000 in the Kenora district, the Indian Affairs Department provided First Nations electoral lists. In 2000, the department stopped providing those lists, though it‘s not clear why, said Murray.
“From what we know, from 2000 to 2006, (the province) never obtained the names of First Nations people to put on the jury roll,” she said.
Kenora‘s judicial district is home to 45 First Nations, including Kashechewan.
“Which means aboriginal people living on reserves were excluded, denied the right to be jurors,” she said. “And secondly, every aboriginal person who had a jury trial during that time had an illegal jury because the jury rolls weren‘t prepared properly.”
While case law says an aboriginal person can‘t expect to be tried by a jury made up solely of other aboriginals, a jury should be made up of an accused‘s peers, so the possibility of fellow aboriginal jurors must exist, she said.
“That possibility was completely taken away from them because the names of the First Nation people weren‘t even sought.”
A spokesman for Attorney General Chris Bentley said Thursday he couldn‘t comment on the issue directly because it‘s part of an going coroner‘s inquest.
“In general, the ministry is very confident that our jury panel process complies with the provincial Juries Act,” said Sheamus Murphy.
Murphy said a decision on whether to investigate the complaint will be made once the formal request letter arrives at the ministry.
The Chronicle-Journal was unable to contact the regional coroner or Indian Affairs on Thursday.
Murray said a southern Ontario chief she spoke with Thursday said he‘s never been asked for a list of band members for the jury roll, leading the coalition to ask the attorney general to expand the investigation to all of Ontario.
There may be other repercussions, she said.
“There was a case in 1993 of an aboriginal person in Sarnia who had a mistrial because they had learned that jury roll was not done properly because they had not sought out the names of people from the reserve community,” Murray said.
She said the coalition has notified the criminal defence lawyers‘ association about the possible problem in case they have coming jury trials of aboriginal accused.
According to the court supervisor‘s affidavit, said Murray, provincial officials sent letters in 2006 to 42 First Nations – Kashechewan wasn‘t among them – asking for lists of eligible jurors.
According to the affidavit, Murray said, only four communities submitted their electoral band lists. In 2007, officials travelled to 14 communities and received eight more.
“So from 2006 to today, they‘re basically saying that they have 12 (lists),” she said.
The current jury roll in Kenora‘s judicial district lists 44 aboriginals from a total population of 12,111, Murray said.