Council unanimously votes to join coroner’s inquest into deaths of seven Aboriginal youth

Council voted unanimously to seek standing at the joint inquest into the deaths of seven First Nation youth who died while attending school in the city.

Council made the decision at Monday night’s regularly scheduled meeting. Upon approval of the coroner, the city plans to present the number of programs and support available for First Nation youth when they moved from their home community to the city for school.
The hearing date for standing at the joint inquest into the sudden deaths of seven Aboriginal youths has been set for June 11.

Kasabonika Lake’s Jethro Anderson, 15, was the first to die, on Nov. 11, 2001. Other victims included Reggie Bushie,15, Robyn Harper, 19, Kyle Morriseau, 17, Paul Panacheese, 21, Curran Strang, 18, and Jordan Wabasse, 15.

Mayor Keith Hobbs said it was a no brainer to seek standing as the deaths occurred in the community. Hobbs hopes that the inquest will find answers and not resort to finger pointing.

“We can learn something from this as a community,” Hobbs said. “Inquest always come out with recommendations on how things can be done. It has been very important for this term of council to build relationships with Aboriginal people and we’re doing that in a big way. That doesn’t get enough exposure. We’re going to be able to tell the world how we are an inclusive community. Yeah, we’re not perfect but we’re getting there.”

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in Auditorium A of the Ontario Government Building on Red River Road.

David Eden is scheduled to be the inquest coroner.

In other business, council also approved the renewal of the Universal Pass or more commonly known as the uPass for both Confederation College and Lakehead University. The city made an agreement with both school’s student unions to a three-year term starting Sept. 1.

The agreement allows college and university students to gain unlimited access to all conventional transit services from Sept. 1 to April 30. It’s expected that the deal will generate roughly $700,000 annual for the city.