First Nations inquests in Ont. move ahead with volunteer jurors

History will be made in Ontario when the inquest into the death of Romeo Wesley in Cat Lake begins next month in Sioux Lookout.

It'll be the first time the province has selected a jury for a coroner's inquest from a list that includes First Nations volunteers.

That list is needed after Ontario's usual way of compiling its jury pool was found to discriminate against First Nations people living on reserve. The problem has stalled criminal cases and inquests involving Aboriginal people in northern Ontario since 2008.

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"I really see an inquest as a pursuit of fairness or of justice for individuals and communities and this has been denied or delayed for far too long," said Dr. Michael Wilson, the regional supervising coroner for the north region. "So, I'm extremely gratified to see this now going forward."

The inquest into Wesley's 2010 death, while in police custody at the Cat Lake Nursing Station, is one of 20 cases delayed by Ontario's jury roll problem. That inquest is scheduled for June 8.

The inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations youth who died while attending school in Thunder Bay is expected to proceed this fall, along with two other inquests involving Aboriginal people in the region, Wilson said.

"I can tell you that it is a huge relief for me to be able see this go forward," he said.

The use of volunteer jurors is made possible through a revision to the Ontario Coroner's Act. It applies only to the Kenora and Thunder Bay districts, and affects only the jury selection for inquests, not criminal trials. The new legislation stipulates that selection for an inquest jury must be made before December 31, 2016.

The Nishnawbe Aski Nation established a team that travelled into First Nations in northern Ontario to collect names of people willing to volunteer for jury duty for inquests into the deaths of First Nations people. More than 300 people signed up.

That list will be combined with the regular jury roll which uses the municipal enumeration list to randomly select names. The number of First Nations volunteers included in the combined pool will be proportional to the First Nations population in the region, Wilson said.

From that combined pool, 70 to 100 prospective jurors will be randomly selected and interviewed to screen out people with bias or a relationship with the deceased, he said.

The process does not guarantee that the group of five people eventually selected as the inquest jurors will include a First Nations person.