JORDANA HUBER
Canwest News Service
Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said yesterday he has no plans to call a formal inquiry into why members of First Nations appear to have been left off
A coalition of First Nations demanded an investigation into the legality of jury selection in the province after it was revealed the prospective jury list in Kenora, Ont., included only 44 of the 12,111 people living in First Nations communities in the district.
Human rights lawyer Julian Falconer said the exclusion of First Nations from jury lists denies members their right to participate in the justice system and the right to be tried by a jury of their peers.
"Frankly, this is one of the most systematic and massive human rights violations I have ever had experience to see - that is, the most systematic exclusion of a community based on race that I have ever seen," said Falconer who is representing the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) and Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto.
According to an affidavit filed by Rolanda Peacock, supervisor of court operations in the Kenora district, the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs stopped providing band lists to the provincial jury centre in 2000.
Falconer noted past inquiries into the justice systems in
"It's not restricted to this province, which makes it even more egregious that there would be a failure to formally look into this," Falconer said.
In 2006, letters from the court services division were faxed to the chiefs of 42 northern bands requesting electoral lists, but only four communities responded.
Eight more lists were received after court officials flew to 14 remote reserves in 2007.
Falconer said no one ever informed First Nations leadership, such as
But Bentley said the province has tried to update the jury lists to include members of First Nations and in 2002 sent a letter to
"It's not a case for an inquiry - it's a case for the assistance that we have been asking for from First Nations leadership for some number of years," Bentley said.