May 6, 2021 – Ottawa – Department of Justice Canada

Collaboration with provincial partners and Indigenous communities is essential to walking the shared path of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Renewing that relationship includes upholding and protecting Indigenous peoples’ inherent right to self-determination, and ensuring community well-being and safety.

Today, Ontario Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald, the members of the First Nations Leadership Council, the Honourable Doug Downey, Attorney General of Ontario, the Honourable Sylvia Jones, Solicitor General of Ontario, the Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Minister of Energy, Mines, Northern Development, the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Indigenous Services, announced the launch of a tripartite collaborative technical table to explore solutions to challenges associated with the enforcement and prosecution of First Nations laws and by-laws in First Nations communities within Ontario.

This collaborative table of officials and experts will provide a forum to work together, in the spirit of reconciliation, to identify the underlying obstacles and barriers to the enforcement and prosecution of First Nations laws and by-laws, and work towards developing recommendations on how to overcome them, as well as identifying pathways to support the implementation of those recommendations. More specifically, the collaborative table will:

discuss and identify COVID-19 related enforcement and prosecution issues
explore and prioritize other enforcement and prosecution matters that have been raised by First Nations communities within Ontario
identify potential solutions to the prosecution and enforcement issues, and develop pathways to support their implementation
discuss and identify pathways to support First Nations communities that wish to develop and assume greater control over the administration of justice within their communities
discuss any other relevant issues identified at the table

The collaborative table will undertake its work according to a set of guiding principles, based on the spirit of collaboration, recognition of rights and reconciliation. In its work, the table will seek to identify solutions that respect the diversity of First Nations and their laws and will seek to ensure equitable access to justice and improve community safety.