THUNDER BAY – Lawyers for most of the families of seven Indigenous youth who died in Thunder Bay and were the subject of a coroner's inquest are recognizing progress in moving forward with implementing the recommendations, though they have ommitted a grade for the city police service.
Aboriginal Legal Services, which represents six of the seven families on Wednesday released their second annual report card, grading the levels of government, Indigenous stakeholders and service providers for their response to the inquest jury's 145 recommendations.
The seven youth – Jethro Anderson, Reggie Bushie, Robyn Harper, Kyle Morrisseau, Paul Panacheese, Curran Strang and Jordan Wabasse – died between 2000 and 2011 while attending school in Thunder Bay away from their home communities. The inquest spanned eight months, hearing from 146 witnesses and examined 185 exhibits before concluding with the recommendations in June 2016.
The second-year report card, which reflects progress made as of June 2018, gave an overall B+ grade. That level represents an increase from the C+ assessment that was given the previous year.
Overall, 71 of the 145 recommendations have been implemented, compared to 22 in 2017. Another 64 are currently in progress with only 10 of the recommendations having seen no activity.
Lawyer Jonathan Rudin had previously described the first-year response as "disappointing," but called this report card a good grade.
"I think what's clear when we look at the results in the Year Two reports is that the parties really took an effort to accomplish things," Rudin said. "We're encouraged."
Both senior levels of government were given an improved score, though they were each docked for submitting their report later than the June deadline that had been requested. The federal government was given the lowest grade for the second year in a row, as Ottawa went from a D to C+ to be the only named party to not achieve a B grade. Ontario rose to a B after receiving a C+ on the previous report card.
Rudin said the legal team was surprised that both Canada and Ontario were late.
"We were disappointed that we actually had to track them down and I really hope it doesn't happen again," Rudin said. "If you care about the families, then your requirement is to hand in your reports on time because they committed to do that. All the parties committed to do that and they didn't."
Rudin pointed to Canada's embracing of Jordan's Principle, which is meant to ensure that children both on and off reserve have equitable access to government funded services, as a significant factor in the federal government's improvement. He also commended Ontario for recognizing the provincial government can have a role on reserves and realizing that some of their programs and services do fit in First Nations communities.
Rudin last year was critical of the federal government for giving generic responses that did not provide any details. He said the response this year was better.
"Once we got the report, it's quite clear they moved away from just issuing talking points from a budget statement to actually engaging in what the recommendations were," Rudin said.
The City of Thunder Bay rose from a C+ in the inaugural report card to A- for 2018, fulfilling a prediction Rudin had made when unveiling the first set of grades.
Karen Lewis, the city's director of corporate strategic services, said many of the city's recommendations required partnerships with other organizations and levels of government that took time.
Lewis added it's important that many of the initiatives that are marked as completed won't stop.
"These things will be regular and recurring and we will continue to develop a better relationship and to better serve the youth that are coming to Thunder Bay," Lewis said.
The lawyers did not grade the Thunder Bay Police Service, citing last year's release of the Office of the Independent Police Review Director report that determined the investigations into the deaths of four of the seven youth were inadequate. Thunder Bay police had received one of the highest scores at 79 per cent in the first report card.
"Had the jury known that information, they would have had very different recommendations for the Thunder Bay Police Service," Rudin said. "Because the OIPRD report spoke specifically to those deaths that were subject to the investigation, we think it would be wrong to give the Thunder Bay Police Service for the work they've done when the real fundamental work of being a police service, they actually were not able to do in many of those deaths."
The Matawa Learning Centre, which was given a score of A- in the inaugural report card, was the only entity to be downgraded in the second year.
Other education authorities – Northern Nishnawbe Education Council, Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School and Keewaytinook Okimakanak – all scored A+ grades.
Rudin said their progress is going to depend on continued funding from senior levels of government, which they can't be sure is going to happen.
"It's pretty clear that the three Indigenous providers are really heavily invested in this," Rudin said.
"They didn't even really need the jury recommendations to do what they're going to do. Yes, they're completely invested. They're doing all they can but they're very stretched. Their ability to do the work depends on recognition that this is work that needs to be done, that other partners stepping up and helping. If that happens, the will is certainly there from the education providers."
Report Card Grades (previous year):
- Overall: B+ (C+)
- Canada: C+ (D)
- Ontario: B (C+)
- Thunder Bay: A- (C+)
- Nishnawbe Aski Nation: B- (C+)
- Matawa Learning Centre: B (A-)
- Northern Nishnawbe Education Council: A+ (A-)
- Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School: A+ (A-)
- Keewaytinook Okimakanak: A+ (A)
