By Monica Lamb-Yorski
A First Nations community court should be ready to take cases in Williams Lake by Sept. 1, said the RCMP’s community safety co-ordinator Dave Dickson.
Speaking to Williams Lake council on March 8, Dickson said in the First Nations Court system offenders have to stand before a judge and their elders.
“Going before a judge really means nothing to them. They have to stand before the judge and the elders who interview them and talk to them and likely know them.”
Dickson said he has been to Kamloops for Crown and witnessed that it works.
“It’s an exciting thing.”
Two years ago, Dickson challenged his restorative justice committee because he didn’t think what they were doing was working.
Offenders are captured, go to court, they are sentenced, go to jail or go on probation, but then go right back into the system again, he explained.
“I talked with Chief Ervin Charleyboy who said court is not the answer and I challenged my team that night and said we had to do something different.”
Taking up the challenge, retired school counsellor Jim World and retired Crown counsel Rod Hawkins told Dickson they’d work with him on the project.
Six or seven months ago, Sarah Jackman, executive director with the Tsilhqot’in National Government’s Punky Lake Wilderness Society, was invited to the table.
“We are to the stage now where we’ve talked with the Minister of Justice, to Chief Judge Thomas Crabtree, and we’ve got support of the judges. We have support of defense counsel; we have the support of the RCMP and a number of the Chiefs.”
Presently, the committee is looking for funding to train First Nations elders in May, he noted.
“When we presented to the judges a few weeks ago, they said that was too long, but we’ve told them we will start Sept. 1,” Dickson said, adding former Williams Lake RCMP Insp. Warren Brown, now stationed in Prince George, is trying to establish a First Nations court there, too.
Meanwhile, the restorative justice committee, made up of 40-something facilitators, will also be doing some training April 1-3, Dickson explained.
“We are always looking for new facilitators. We did 54 cases last year and have 16 actively going as I speak.”
Monica Lamb-Yorski is a writer for the Williams Lake Tribune.
