More jurors could be sent home if jury roll issue isn’t fixed, lawyer warns

If the fight over who is responsible for providing the courts with a jury roll for First Nations people isn’t resolved, more trials in Thunder Bay could face delays.

Superior Court of Justice Helen Pierce dismissed about 100 potential jurors for Andre Wareham’s second-degree murder trial on Monday. Pierce said the dismissal was in response to a lack of Aboriginal representation on the jury pool, adding that it did not reflect the Thunder Bay community.

Under the Juries Act, a sheriff or other law enforcement official prepares the jury roll each year for the area. The jury roll consists of a randomly selected group of Canadian residents in the province selected from the municipal assessment lists.

Until 2000, The Ministry of Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada provided an electoral list for First Nations communities.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Deputy Grand Chief Terry Waboose said they would be happy to provide the courts with a list of its band members, but at the moment that would be a difficult task to complete.

"I would be willing to facilitate a process for having an up-to-date jury roll in conjunction with each individual community," Waboose said on Tuesday. "But for NAN to start compiling a list and having to contact all the First Nations, particularly in our area, would be quite difficult and would require resources.

“We wouldn’t want to do it but it would take time and resources."

The biggest obstacle for providing proper representation on jury rolls is that Aboriginals aren’t listed, he said. It is up to the province to update and provide a list that should include First Nation communities, he said.

"We tried to make the provincial government aware of this situation and they chose to ignore us," he said. "When we tried to work with them on this they basically stonewalled us.
INAC used to submit the band list from each First Nation but since that time, it hasn’t happened for whatever reason."

He added with the high Aboriginal population in Thunder Bay and in the district, it was important to have proper representation in the jury roll.

Gen Guibert, spokesperson for INAC, said she didn’t understand why NAN would need financial assistance to create a list that already exists.  

"They need more money for what? I don’t see why," Guibert said in a phone interview on Tuesday. "Every First Nation has a band office and every band office manages what goes on in the First Nation community. So they would have their own members list."

Guibert added that the INAC stopped providing the list upon the request of the First Nation people.

"It was determined that it was more appropriate for First Nations themselves, not the federal government, to decide if their electoral lists would be shared with other levels of government," she said.

Criminal defence lawyer Neil McCartney said jury dismissals, similar to the one that happened last week, isn’t new. Although he admitted it hadn’t happened to him.

He said Pierce’s ruling to dismiss the jury was because of two inquiries involving the death of two Aboriginal men in 2007.

In late October 2007, 27-year-old Jacy Pierre died of a drug overdose in the Thunder Bay District Jail. At about the same time, 15-year-old Reggie Bushie drowned in the McIntyre River near Thunder Bay. Two coroner’s inquests into their deaths were ordered.

From those inquests the families of the deceased expressed concern about proper representation in the jury roll and felt there was a lack of Aboriginal representation. The Ontario Court of Appeal found evidence to have the inquiries done all over again.

"I think the court, and the lawyers in the criminal proceeding for Mr. Wareham’s case, recognised they couldn’t ignore the ruling, especially since it was strongly worded in the context of a criminal trial," McCartney said. "I think for that reason they had to pull the plug on the proceedings last week."
 


 –with files from Scott Paradis