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Executive Director Year in Review
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December 19, 2024- Toronto - This past year has been very busy as well as exciting for Aboriginal Legal Services. This year would not be possible without the support of our ALS Board, the ALS team, and our community support. ALS is pleased to highlight this past year’s successes.
This past February, ALS hosted a Restorative Justice Conference for Gladue Caseworkers as well as Community Justice Workers from across Manitoba. We were able to provide training on healing plans, workshops on breaking intergenerational impacts, sentencing circles, and information on the Giiwedin Anang Council (Indigenous Family Dispute Resolution). We had nearly 200 people in attendance. The positive evaluations that were handed demonstrated that the conference was a huge success.
In March, Aboriginal Legal Services had national news coverage as we had a joint media announcement with Arif Virani, the Justice Minister and Attorney General of Canada. The Justice Minister announced $2.1 million in funding to address the over-incarceration of Indigenous people. This funding will support the Community Council Program, Giiwedin Anang Council, and Gladue Aftercare. This media announcement provided a platform to showcase the work that the ALS team is providing to the address the mass incarceration of Indigenous people.
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Acumen Law Corporation
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2024 was another year of change at One of more the significant changes is that bail hearings for Indigenous accused persons were moved from the TRBC, located in northwest Toronto, to the Gladue Courts at the NTC – Courtrooms 907 and 908.
As a result of this change Courtroom 907 now operates five days a week and Courtroom 908 three days a week (with the possibility of holding sentencing circles and other special sentencings on the other two days).
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There have been a number of developments with the Giiwedin Anang program in 2024. One of the significant changes is that the program has moved back to our head office at 211 Yonge St. and is once again the location for much of our work. In addition,
new funding will allow us to offer our Dreams For Growing Children program on a 5 day a week basis allowing participants in that program greater access to services and one-on-one counseling.
The move back to 211 Yonge has allowed us to increase the number of circles we are holding. We are also using the space at the Indigenous Learning Centre at the NTC for some of our larger circles. We are receiving many referrals for the program, not only from clients and their lawyers, but also from staff at Native Child and Family Services and we're glad that our two programs are working so well together.
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As always, our Gladue program remains very busy. In the first six months of this fiscal year, we have written 200 Gladue Reports and Letters. We are clearly back to working again at pre-pandemic levels. This means that literally
every day an Indigenous person is sentenced with the benefit of one of our Gladue Reports or Letters in courts in southern Ontario and the near north.
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Welcome Home
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The Welcome Home program is really Dorothy Peters, our traditional teacher, and her oshkabewis (helper). In addition to counseling with individual clients, Dorothy also leads sentencing circles, opens and closes events, and conducts
ceremonies both within ALS and in the community. As an example, Dorothy conducts seasonal ceremonies for the Gladue Court, which now take place at the ILC and are open to everyone in the courthouse. The first half of this fiscal year. Dorothy's work reached almost 450 people. Dorothy is an incredible asset to all of our programs.
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Yoha:Te Ne Kahsen:na: The Road to Your Name
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The Road to Your Name offers people in the Brantford/Six Nations region a range of culturally based programming that is interactive and fun – and also provide valuable teachings from a range of incredibly talented and wise individuals. This year the program offered a series of events for adults and some designed specifically for youth.
The program also has a global reach through the Road to Your Name podcast (available through your favourite podcast provider). Work is now underway on season six, which will air early in 2025. If you haven’t listened to it yet, catch up on the previous seasons while you wait for the next one to drop.
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Indigenous Knowledge Helper
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Indigenous Knowledge Helpers assist the Indigenous Persons Courts in the Brantford and Niagara Regions. They open and close the court in a good way, they offer counselling and support to Indigenous people in the court and they lead sentencing circles.
In March of this year, for the second year in a row, we held a very well attended one-day conference providing information in Indigenous ways of learning and knowledge to a broad range of those involved with the justice system that focused on the wisdom of our Knowledge Helpers.
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The Community Council, the first urban Indigenous alternative justice program in Canada, began diverting cases from the criminal courts in 1992 and its work continued this year. Earlier this year we held our annual Honouring Ceremony, an event that
was on hold during the pandemic. The Ceremony honours clients who have completed their diversion agreements over the year and also those working in the system who have been supported the clients and the program.
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Youth Mental Health and Addictions Worker
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Our Youth Mental Health and Addictions Worker focuses on young people facing challenges in their life that have led, or could lead, to involvement with the legal system. In addition to individual meetings, we offer group pragmas as well. Many of these programs focus on healthy activities that the young people would otherwise not be able to access.
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Indigenous Justice in Toronto
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Earlier this year, Silent Drums, a firm led by former Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Ovide Mercredi, completed their report for ALS on an Urban Indigenous Justice for Toronto. The report, grounded on information gathered at two
community forums, provides an important perspective and direction for how the Indigenous community in Toronto can continue to forge a unique path towards achieving justice in Toronto, a city that is home to Indigenous people from many different nations. Funding for the report and the consultation meetings came from the Department of Justice.
Jonathan Rudin, Special Project Coordinator
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2024 Legal Clinic Highlights!
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In the past year, the ALS Criminal Staff Lawyers (Matthew Malott and Maxwell Hill) have served over 100 clients, ranging from summary legal advice to full trial representation. In nearly all of our direct representation cases, we have secured outcomes for our clients that exceeded either their expectations, or defeated the position of the Crown.
In particular, our criminal services found much success in advocating on behalf of Indigenous women who had been charged with assault after standing up to habitual domestic abuse. We have been able to present persuasive arguments to the Toronto Crown Attorney's office highlighting the impact of stereotypical depictions of Indigenous women on the conduct of police and Crowns in assessing cases of alleged domestic violence where the accused are themselves victims.
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Child Protection
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This past year the Child Protection Staff Lawyer ('CPSL') has provided a wide variety of legal services. Although the scope of this role is predominantly targeted at clients located in the GTA, the CPSL has also assisted eligible clients across the province with summary advice, general information, process mapping, resources and referrals. For clients located in the GTA, the CPSL has been able to provide all of these services, plus "enhanced" summary advice and formal retainers too. The CPSL has represented clients in Protection Applications at the Ontario Court of Justice, and assisted in matters involving the Child and Family Services Review Board tribunal ('CFSRB'), as well
as the Information and Privacy Commissioner ('IPC'). In order to improve outcomes for clients, the CPSL has worked hard to develop positive working relationships with the Children's Aid Societies especially Native Child and Family Services; and with other community partners such as Métis Nation of Ontario and Tungasuvvingat Inuit. The CPSL has been invited to speak at several conferences including at the Organization of Counsel for Children's Aid Societies and has represented ALS on various committees such as the 311 Jarvis Indigenous Child Protection Committee and the Child Protection Best Practice Committee.
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Litigation, Inquests and Reform done over the past year:
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In addition to providing poverty law services and representation at administrative tribunals, ALS does appeal litigation, law reform and inquest work. Below are some of the larger cases and advocacy we did this past year.
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Quequish Inquest
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ALS lawyers Caitlyn Kasper and Emily Hill represented the family of Ruthann Quequish at the inquest into her death held in Thunder Bay July 29 to August 16, 2024. Ruthann was a mother of three who lived in Kingfisher Lake First Nation when she passed away in April 2017 at the age of 31 from DKA, a preventable, treatable complication of diabetes. At the inquest, her mother Edna Quequish, brother Jordan Quequish, sister Samaria Quequish and partner Aaron Sainnawap all provided evidence about Ruthann’s friendly, outgoing nature and the important role she played in her family. They also gave heart-breaking testimony about their efforts to get her the health care she needed in the 10 days
before she died.
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ALS Legal Clinic
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Aboriginal Legal Services will be at the Supreme Court of Canada on December 3. Senior Staff Lawyer Caitlyn Kasper will be representing ALS in a case called J.W. v Ontario. The case is about how a judge should decide a fit sentence for an Indigenous offender (referred to as J.W.) who has significant cognitive delays, including FASD, and who had been detained in a psychiatric facility before his sentencing.
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Tending to Grief and Loss
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I was in a workshop titled Indigenous-led grief and loss journey.
I carry a lot of grief,
Etched and inked onto my skin.
It's what I do with my grief and in my grieving that is important.
Not everyone grieves the same.
We must hold space for each other,
Without fake platitudes.
Are they really in a better place?
That depends on what your belief structure is around loss and death.
Instead of trying to fill an empty seat,
Offer support.
Tending to the sorrow means,
Listening without intent to respond,
Holding space,
Not trying to fix the other,
Being present in the moment,
And knowing your capacity to support.
Be a heart
helper.
We are to help others through their grief to the best of our capacity.
While tending to our own grief in a gentle, loving way.
As the ancestors surround us to teach and guide.
© Melanie Garant
November 28, 2024
Based on the words and teachings of Angela Lavallee from Wasakamon Wellness Connections
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