Judge directs mini-hearing
TORONTO–The Honourable Justice Edward Belobaba of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ordered there to be a “mini-trial” with representative Plaintiff Marcia Brown to present oral evidence “on the following narrow issue”:
If Canada had consulted with Indian Bands (as per s. 2(2) of the 1965 Agreement) what ideas or advice would have been provided that could have prevented the Indian children who had been removed and placed in non-Aboriginal foster or adoptive homes from losing their Aboriginal identity?
The date of the hearing has not been fixed, but the Judge has indicated that it should take place the second half of January or early February and that His Honour’s decision on the summary judgment motion will follow soon thereafter.
If you wish to read the Judge’s decision about the mini-hearing, click here.
If you intend on coming to the mini-hearing, click here.
This is an opportunity to tell Canada, whose lawyers say our country owes no obligation whatsoever to protect the cultural identity of its First Nations peoples, what it could have done if it cared to listen and if its purpose was other than assimilation, if not extermination, of aboriginal identity.
We will post the date of the mini-hearing as soon as it is known.
If you would like to receive a copy of a season’s greeting letter we recently sent to the Honourable Prime Minister and other persons concerned about human rights, click here.
If you want an electronic image of the poster that we sent to the Honourable Prime Minister, click here.
Stay tuned.
Meegwetch
Ontario Sixties Scoop Steering Committee