Aboriginals not represented on juries
Former high court justice warns action ‘desperately needed’ to address ‘crisis’
Canada needs to urgently address a “crisis” in the justice system that creates unfairness for First Nations peoples because aboriginals are under-represented on juries, says a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.
In an interview with Postmedia News, Frank Iacobucci called for a “national conversation” on the issue.
His remarks came as he released a report Tuesday commissioned two years ago by the Ontario government in which he concludes that aboriginals in the province aren’t sufficiently represented on juries.
In the interview, Iacobucci said he examined other provinces during his independent review, and he believes the problem exists throughout the country.
He said that in a judicial system based on a long-standing principle that an accused has a right to be judged by a jury of his or her peers, this glaring shortcoming must be fixed.
“We are in a crisis situation with our First Nations people, our aboriginal people, in the justice system of Ontario and I would venture to guess that it is comparable in other jurisdictions,” said Iacobucci.
“I’m not an alarmist, by my nature or my record. But if this isn’t a wake up call for us to start doing something, I don’t know what will be.
“Peoples’ lives and liberty are at stake in this whole issue.”
Iacobucci, who served on the Supreme Court from 1991 to 2004, was appointed in the summer of 2011 by Ontario’s attorney general to conduct an independent review into how aboriginals on reserves were being picked for potential juries on trials and coroners inquests.
His review found a gaping hole in the system. For instance, potential jurors are picked in Ontario from municipal assessments lists. Because aboriginals on reserves don’t own land, they don’t appear on the lists.
As a result, when an aboriginal on trial looks into the faces of the jury that will decide his fate, he is less likely to see First Nations people.
In his report, Iacobucci said this is just a “symptom” of a broader problem in which aboriginals are underrepresented as court officials, prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges. He warned in his report that action is “desperately needed.”
“Doing nothing will be a profound shame especially when there has been a greater recognition throughout Canada of the tragic history of aboriginal people, with many examples of mistreatment, lack of respect, unsound policies, and most importantly a lack of mutual trust between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people,” he wrote.
Outside of Ontario, other provinces use a range of methods to choose juries, but Iacobucci — while stressing he does not speak for those provinces — concluded nonetheless that the jury-selection systems need to be improved for aboriginals throughout Canada.
“The problems that I have encountered in Ontario certainly seem to exist in other jurisdictions in Canada,” he said.
Iacobucci’s report, which was unveiled at a news conference in Thunder Bay, contains 17 recommendations. Among them are suggestions aimed at increasing the number of aboriginals on juries — such as possibly using health-records databases to find jurors and letting residents on reserves volunteer for jury duty.
As well, he calls for initiatives to provide public education about how the jury system works.