VICTORIA — The British Columbia government is working to resolve legal disputes with First Nations outside of the courtroom to avoid “deepening divisions,” Attorney General David Eby said.
The province announced the development of “a new approach to litigation” on Thursday as part of its process to implement its 2019 legislation adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Attorney General’s Ministry said the goals of a series of 20 directives for the Crown are prioritizing resolution and negotiated settlement and reducing the potential for legal action over Indigenous rights and title.
Eby said it’s important to respect that First Nations may choose to go through the courts, while at the same time recognizing litigation is an adversarial process that can drive the two sides further apart rather than advance reconciliation.
“These guidelines are really entirely about the civil litigation process; to make it more efficient, to make it less conflict-centric and to really narrow down the issues,” he said after a news conference about the opening of a complex care facility in Surrey for those with health, addictions and housing needs.
Eby said the goal is to respect the choices First Nations make to either go to court or avoid it with binding agreements.
“And when we do go to court to have a matter resolved between us, but we do it in a way that’s respectful that is, that doesn’t deepen divisions.”
The first directive for Crown counsel in civil litigation is that they must understand and apply the principles of B.C.’s 2019 law that requires the province to align its laws with the United Nations declaration on Indigenous rights, the ministry said in a statement.
For ongoing litigation that began before the passage of the Declaration Act, the directive says counsel must review their pleadings, legal positions and litigation strategy to ensure that they are consistent with the act.
The ministry says counsel must work with the Indigenous Relations Ministry and “take steps to resolve any inconsistencies, including amending pleadings.”
In circumstances where it appears impossible to resolve an inconsistency, the directive says counsel must consult with the attorney general.
Another directive says counsel should “vigorously pursue” alternative forms of resolution throughout litigation, and their main goal is to use the courts as a last resort, “in the narrowest and most constructive way possible.”
During an unrelated news conference, Premier John Horgan said the guidelines won’t eliminate the need for court altogether.
“At times in a free society, disagreements come up, and the court system has been a place where people go to solve disputes, differences of opinion,” he said. “We want to reduce that.”
Lydia Hwitsum, the chief of Cowichan Tribes, said all such implements need to be used.
“I think this is one more tool where we can start to move away from the denial of the existence of Indigenous People’s humanity, and rights and title.”
Terry Teegee, regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, said the province is “doing the right thing to push to change the legal culture of fighting and denying (Indigenous) rights.”
The directives “may not change the system overnight,” but they’re a welcome and overdue step, he said in a statement released by the province.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a retired judge and law professor at the University of B.C., said that in the past, relationships were “poisoned” by “endless procedural and technical motions and a blanket denial of rights.”
The litigation directives will bring “necessary shifts in the mindset and approach of lawyers” acting on the province’s behalf, she said in the statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2022.
PARIS (AP) — French judicial authorities are investigating the disappearance of two Paralympic athletes from Congo who recently competed in the Paris Games, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Bobigny confirmed on Thursday.
Prosecutors opened the investigation on Sept. 7, after members of the athletes’ delegation warned authorities of their disappearance two days before.
Le Parisien newspaper reported that shot putter Mireille Nganga and Emmanuel Grace Mouambako, a visually impaired sprinter who was accompanied by a guide, went missing on Sept. 5, along with a third person.
The athletes’ suitcases were also gone but their passports remained with the Congolese delegation, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous as they were not allowed to speak publicly about the case.
The Paralympic Committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo did not respond to requests for information from The Associated Press.
Nganga — who recorded no mark in the seated javelin and shot put competitions — and Mouambako were Congo’s flag bearers at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, organizers said.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
