Norway House chief believes meeting with judges will bring change

Norway House Chief Ron Evans believes a day-long meeting between Manitoba chiefs and judges will lead to change.

"I certainly believe it will, yes. We came away with that understanding," Evans said on Wednesday, the day after his community hosted the meeting.

• Manitoba judges visiting Indigenous leaders to try to boost access to justice
• First Nations leaders, judges meeting to tackle problems with justice system

A group of five Manitoba justices from the Court of Queen's Bench, Evans and nine other chiefs met in Norway House from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday so the judges could hear from First Nations leaders about their concerns with the criminal justice system.

Some community justice workers also were present while leaders in other communities watched a live stream of the meeting, Evans said.

The visit was a chance for the judges, including Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, to listen to community leaders, the Norway House chief said.

The majority of issues that were raised were about the need to deal with the drug dealers in our community. How can we exercise ourcollective rights when you're dealing with individual rights?-Norway House Chief Ron Evans

"We need to find ways of working in partnership with the courts where we can have some sort of a system set in place, you know, whether it's working through a restorative committee or a justice committee, in dealing with the internal community issues and addressing the problems that we put forward and giving a sense of empowerment back to the community so that they can deal with its challenges."

There are offenders who believe the community and the leadership can't do anything about their actions, leaving people feeling powerless, Evans said.

"The majority of issues that were raised were about the need to deal with the drug dealers in our community," Evans said. "How can we exercise ourcollective rights when you're dealing with individual rights?"

Evans said the judges have made a commitment to meet with chiefs again and he looks forward to that.

"They wanted to listen and start, you know, the long task towards reconciliation," he said.

"It was understood right at the start that they were there to listen to the concerns and make a sincere effort to working with us and having more ongoing dialogue."