In July, a pre-inquest was held to determine whether First Nations were adequately represented on jury rolls. Dr. David Eden released his ruling Friday. His findings state the 2011 jury roll for the Judicial District of Thunder Bay is not representative and does not comply with the Juries Act.
The inquest into the death of 15-year-old Bushie cannot proceed until the jury roll is representative.
Beardy said hopefully this is the first step in ensuring the justice system works for everyone.
“We’re hopeful the problem will be addressed,” he said. “It’ll be documented and corrected over time.”
Regional supervising coroner Michael Wilson told tbnewswatch.com Monday he misspoke when he said that Eden’s ruling does not agree that First Nations were systemically excluded from the jury rolls.
After further review of Eden’s ruling, Wilson noticed in paragraph 24, sub-paragraph 9, Eden stated: “The use, in many cases, of lists which are now more than a decade out-of-date would reasonably have resulted in the systematic exclusion of young adults who turned 18 in or after 2001.”
The ruling also said court services has not done enough to make sure First Nations are represented.
“The result of this was that court services are directed to make greater efforts to make sure the jury rolls is representative,” Wilson said. “Assuming they are able to get to that within the next half of the year or year, there should be nothing further to slow things down.”
It was announced by the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General in August.
