Open events

This panel presents the preliminary results from a research partnership between the Sarnia-Lambton Native Friendship Centre (represented by Ms. Johnson and Mr. Stone) and Professors Drake and Murdocca. The goal of this project is to develop a methodology and assessment criteria which will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of two Indigenous Persons Courts: the Bkejwanong (Walpole Island) First Nation Court and the Sarnia Indigenous Persons Court. The project asks how we can reimagine the criminal justice system in a way that instantiates Indigenous (and in this case, Anishinaabe) laws, norms, and ways of knowing. The first paper in the panel presents the preliminary findings of the project, including a summary of the assessment criteria which participants recommended that we use to measure the effectiveness of the two Courts. The second paper cautions that virtual court proceedings—despite some conveniences—present drawbacks for Indigenous Persons Courts, including barriers to satisfying the criteria identified in the first paper. The third paper examines whether the Arbitration Act provides a viable means of implementing Indigenous jurisdiction to address harms, such as those caused by commercial enterprises.