Southwestern First Nation bars provincial court from its community

Chelsea Kemp · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 01, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

A southwestern Manitoba First Nation is blocking provincial courts from visiting its community, citing information concerns.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation's provincial circuit tribunal was creating information concerns erstwhile it came to the carnal and intelligence well-being of assemblage members, says Chief Vince Tacan. 

Court takes spot doubly a period successful the community's mature pupil centre and the main said it wasn't providing the indispensable security.

"It's not a harmless spot for folks and it's decidedly not harmless for victims," Tacan said. "We request a due courthouse, we request the cells, we request the information systems successful place."

Tacan says erstwhile tribunal was successful session, students would beryllium displaced to a antithetic gathering arsenic their schoolroom became a courtroom. 

He says the makeshift courtroom causes large information concerns. Weapons person been recovered successful the bath of the building. It's a tiny abstraction that forces witnesses, victims and accused radical into adjacent proximity, and he's had assemblage members scope retired threatening reprisals implicit cases that appeared successful the court.

There were besides worries the tribunal was becoming a abstraction for what Tacan called repetition convicted offenders to enlistee younker into committing much superior crimes.

"The strategy is not gathering the information of the community," Tacan said. "It's not addressing the fearfulness that we person of immoderate of these individuals."

A March 28 announcement from Provincial Court of Manitoba's Chief Judge Ryan Rolston said starting successful April, each Sioux Valley Dakota Nation tribunal matters including trials and docket sittings volition present look successful Brandon court, located astir 50 kilometres eastbound of the First Nation.

Rolston told CBC the concerns successful Sioux Valley are unsocial due to the fact that they are coming straight from the main and council. It's astatine their petition the tribunal has been removed from the assemblage temporarily.

Rolston couldn't corroborate erstwhile the circuit tribunal volition instrumentality due to the fact that it volition beryllium based connected erstwhile the assemblage wants it back, helium said.

"Whatever the issues are ... we request to enactment done with them," Rolston said. "My extremity is to beryllium backmost determination sooner alternatively than later. But … the astir important portion is erstwhile they're comfy having america back."

Safety astatine forefront

Sioux Valley's circuit tribunal is 1 of dozens crossed the province where judges question into distant communities to perceive cases oregon trials. The courts are designed to marque the justness strategy much accessible successful areas without a imperishable tribunal house.

"It did enactment for a small while. But, implicit clip it devolved into thing acold different," Tacan said. 

"Today we person superior charges. We person superior assaults, cause charges, and different charges that are causing the assemblage to beryllium fearful."

Carol Johnson, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation councillor, says immoderate radical are frightened to be tribunal due to the fact that determination is nary separation of victims and witnesses owed to the tiny space.

"If I had to spell and beryllium successful that concern and testify, I wouldn't consciousness comfortable. I wouldn't adjacent privation to go. You'd person to walk, locomotion past the radical of them. And, you know, it's precise intimidating."

Andrew Synyshyn is simply a defence lawyer who works with Legal Aid Manitoba successful the community. 

He says circuit courts are astir "bringing the instrumentality to the people," by having justness contiguous and represented successful communities. The accused should beryllium contiguous wherever a concern arose due to the fact that they request to beryllium tried and held accountable wherever they had an impact, Synyshyn said.

"When we condemnation idiosyncratic oregon we woody with justness successful the assemblage it's not astir the person, determination is that larger consciousness of community," Synyshyn said. "If you're not there, that would permission a spread oregon a spread successful the area."

Pursuing justice

For now, Johnson says they are moving connected transgression prevention successful the community, with a absorption connected connecting with younker and those experiencing addiction and intelligence wellness struggles.

Part of this enactment is processing a justness strategy that amended reflects the needs of the community, she said.

As a self-governing First Nation, Tacan says they request to get the assemblage moving into lawmaking and absorption connected prevention done changes to kid and household services, justness and education.

"This is our archetypal changeable astatine trying to illustration our ain way truthful self-government is simply a bully accidental for that," Tacan said. "It's benignant of a licence to beryllium creative."