Category Archives: Justice

Indigenous Nations, Justice

Incarceration Rates For Canadians Drop While Indigenous Incarceration Rates Rise

Over-representation of Indigenous people in correctional settings remains one of Canada’s most pressing human rights issues, and is evidence of public policy failures over successive decades as no government has been able to stop or reverse this trend,” said the Correctional Investigator.

By Jake Cardinal, Alberta Native News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – On December 17, 2021, the Office of the Correctional Investigator released a report detailing Canada’s incarceration rates for Indigenous and non-indigenous people.

It found that First Nation, Metis, and Inuit women are grossly over-represented in the Canadian prison system and will soon comprise 50% of all federally-sentenced women in the country.

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Justice, Rivers & Oceans

West Coast poacher gets lifetime ban for fisheries violations 


National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A notorious West Coast poacher is banned from stepping aboard a fishing vessel for life after he was convicted of harvesting crabs under the cover of darkness and leading enforcement officers on a dangerous high-speed pursuit.

Scott Stanley Matthew Steer, a repeat offender under Canada’s Fisheries Act, was recently sentenced to a lifetime fishing ban and prohibited from being on board any fishing boat by a B.C. Supreme Court Judge after being convicted of five offences.

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Justice, Tourism

Eco-tour operator nets $75,000 in penalties

By Norman Galimski,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Provincial Court in Prince Rupert has fined the general manager of Sandspit Adventures $75,000 for five offences in 2019 against the federal Fisheries Act and provincial Fish and Seafood Act.

On Dec. 7, Judge David Patterson ordered that Chad James Whiteside must pay a $45,000 fine by Dec. 31, 2024, for ‘buying, selling, trading, bartering or offering to buy, sell, trade or barter fish not caught and retained under the authority of a licence issued for the purpose of commercial fishing.’ As well, for other counts, he was ordered to pay $20,000 by Dec. 7, 2022, and a further $10,000 by Dec. 7, 2023.

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Energy, Indigenous Nations, Justice

CGL pipeline opposition group reoccupies northwest B.C. worksite a month after police action

Terrace Standard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline opponents are back at the site of a blockade near Houston in northwest B.C., a month after it was cleared by the RCMP on Nov. 19 and following the arrest of 29 people.

Continue reading CGL pipeline opposition group reoccupies northwest B.C. worksite a month after police action →
Energy, Indigenous Nations, Justice

After arrests at Coastal GasLink blockade allegations of RCMP mistreatment grow

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

More land defenders are alleging mistreatment while in RCMP custody after being arrested on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory, as the police continue to enforce an injunction granted to Coastal GasLink.

Continue reading After arrests at Coastal GasLink blockade allegations of RCMP mistreatment grow →