Foreclosing Accountability: The Limited Scope of the Seven Youth Inquest in Thunder Bay, Ontario

Abstract

Between 2000 and 2011 seven students from First Nation communities across northern Ontario lost their lives while attending high school in Thunder Bay. These losses of Indigenous life became the subject of a joint provincial inquest that concluded in the summer of 2016. In this article the author offers a critical examination of the scope of this inquest as well as a broader chronological review of its proceedings. The focus is on the ways in which the presiding coroner shaped the scope of the inquest to include things like the alcohol consumption of the students and to exclude things like the quality of police investigations. The issue of First Nation Jury Representation and its role in delaying the inquest for several years is also contextualized. Ultimately, it is argued that the Seven Youth Inquest conforms closely to what Sherene Razack (2011; 2015) has written about the colonial function of inquests into the deaths of Indigenous peoples: mainly that such proceedings stage decontextualized narratives of First Nation dysfunction that are hostile to structural analysis and unlikely to animate opportunities for institutional accountability. Finally, it is argued that non-Indigenous coroners – who are trained in forensic pathology but lack training in federal Indian policy, treaty rights, and Indigenous histories – are unqualified to preside over provincial inquests into the deaths of First Nation people. In fact, this training (or lack thereof) may facilitate setting woefully limited scopes and therefore reproducing victim-blaming of First Nation youth in Canadian courtrooms.ResumeEntre 2000 et 2011, sept etudiants Autochtones ont trouve la mort alors qu’ils poursuivaient des etudes secondaires a Thunder Bay. Ces derniers venaient de plusieurs communautes des Premieres Nations a travers l’Ontario. La mort de ces jeunes Autochtones a ete le sujet d’une enquete du coroner de la province de l’Ontario qui a ete conclue a l’ete 2016. Les auteurs de cet article offrent une explication critique de la portee de cette enquete ainsi qu’une analyse chronologique plus vaste des procedures. Le theme principal est la facon dont le coroner qui presidait l’enquete a oriente sa portee afin d’inclure, entre autres, la consommation d’alcool des etudiants tout en excluant d’autres elements tels la qualite des enquetes policieres. Le probleme de la representation des Premieres Nations sur la liste des jures et le role que cela a joue sur le retardement du proces pendant plusieurs annees sont aussi mentionnes. De plus, l’enquete sur la mort de ces sept etudiants se rapproche beaucoup a ce que Sherene Razack a ecrit au sujet du role colonialiste des enquetes qui touchent la mort des personnes autochtones (2011 ; 2015). Son argument principal etant que ces procedures mettent en scene des recits decontextualises du dysfonctionnement des Premieres Nations qui vont a l’encontre de l’analyse structurale et qui rendent la possibilite de demontrer la responsabilite institutionnelle peu probable. Pour finir, ils disputent le fait que les coroners non autochtones ne sont pas qualifies pour presider les enquetes provinciales liees a la mort des personnes autochtones. Bien qu’ils aient la formation necessaire en medecine legale, ces derniers manquent de formation quant aux Lois sur les Indiens, aux droits issus des traites et a l’histoire des Autochtones. En effet, cette formation (du moins, ces lacunes) faciliterait la fixation d’une portee manifestement limitee, permettant, par consequent, la condamnation repetee de la victime chez les jeunes des Premieres Nations dans les salles d’audience canadiennes.Mots cles: Enquete du coroner; colonialisme de peuplement; loi sur les Indiens; education des Premieres Nations; etudes autochtones; histoire des traites; Thunder Bay

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