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Too many gone under the bridge
May 10, 2012 - 1:20pm
A heartbreaking article that few outside First Nations probably know little about.
In today's Ottawa Citizen
I never knew of this story. Why the silence?
Tisme, I saw this last year. If you have 45 minutes to spare, I hope you'll appreciate it as much as I did:
Fifth Estate: Stories from the River's Edge
The inquest into Reggie Bushie's death was supposed to finally get under way this month. I haven't heard if it did. He died five years ago.
This was from May 2011 - and the inquests still haven't begun:
Province causing delays in Native teen inquests: NDP
From September 30, 2011:
Nishnawbe Aski Nation rejects alternatives to Commission of Inquiry request
I know there has been news pieces That I found quite easily. What I was unable to find other than this piece in the Citizen was any editorail or comment. The Citizen article is editorial comment big difference from the news piece in the Star,
You may be right, McS. Glad Farber took up this issue and got an op-ed published. Maybe that will inform or shame others into taking a stand.
I have yet to see even. One letter responding to this article.andi too am to blame for my own silence
I was curious why the coroner ruled the jury roll invalid, but reading through this Ontario Court of Appeal ruling from March 10, 2011 explained it. It appears that initially there was concern that the jury for the inquiry was not representative as the process omitted First Nation's participation in the jury roll... the appeal court agreed with the concern. The process needed to be more representative.
And, where in the past a coroner relied upon the jury act and prescribed jury roll processes for the selection of coroner's juries, the court ruled that the coroner does have juridiction to question the "representativeness" of coroner's juries by virtue of the "necessary implications" of their responsibilities as coroner. So the coroner can question the jury selection process and the court also ruled that the coroner can summons the sheriff who produces the jury roll.
The appeal court also ruled that a new inquest into the death of Jacy Pierre should occur because of the lack of confidence in the inquest system and unrepresentative coroner's jury.
In September of last year the coroner ruled that the Reggie Bushie inquest was invalid due to the unrepresentative nature of the jury selection. It now appears that a pre-inquest hearing has been finally scheduled for May 23, 2012. I can't find anything regarding Jacy Pierre's reopened inquest though.
Wow, these processes take way too long. I don't remember timeliness being excluded from the definition of Natural Justice.
I just read the Toronto Star article on the inquest. I am guessing that the Fifth estate piece, the Citizen article and other issues helped move this forward. Hopefully its not just a flash in the pan