TRIAL RUN YIELDS NATIVE-JUSTICE BREAKTHROUGH

Alberta Looks At Expanding System That Emphasizes Healing

ALEXIS FIRST NATION RESERVE - A unique criminal justice program that
deals with offenders on the Alexis First Nations reserve has been so
successful that top Alberta justice officials are pushing to get the
program in place on other reserves.

It's unlikely that any other aboriginal justice program in the
country has been more successful than the Alexis model at turning
aboriginal people away from the abuse of drugs and alcohol and the
crimes that go with those addictions, says Ernie Walter, outgoing
chief justice of Alberta's provincial court.

"If you look at the system across the country, there aren't a huge
number of real successes. I believe that (Judge) Peter Ayotte has
done something very special here."

Ayotte, along with fellow judge Ray Bradley, Crown prosecutor Wes
Dunfield and Alexis elders, established the program about 10 years
ago on the Alexis reserve, 80 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Walter is now working with the Alberta justice department on
expanding the Alexis model.

"I just wish I was able to patent this and move it out to other
communities...," he says. "It's too positive not to be saying that
we've got to try to expand this."

"I love this program," says Bronwyn Shoush, director of aboriginal
justice for the Alberta government. "It's a fantastic example of a
First Nations community building a strong relationship with judges
and other people involved in the court system."

Most crimes committed by aboriginals -- theft, drunk driving, spousal
abuse, vandalism -- are related to drugs and alcohol.

When an offender comes before the court in Alexis, Ayotte and the
other three provincial court judges will usually refer the offender
to a justice committee, made up of 12 to 16 Alexis community leaders.

If the offender is willing to admit his crime and wants to change his
life, the justice committee will set up a rehab program.

The offender will then face the judge again, who will put the
offender on probation, rather than send him to jail. Only in the most
serious and violent cases do the judges send an offender to jail
without input from the justice committee.

The offender must abide by the terms of his probation order for
rehabilitation and report back to the judge, not just a parole
officer, every few months to make sure this is happening. If the
offender is back drinking, taking drugs and causing trouble, he will
be charged with breach of probation, Dunfield says.

"We give people this opportunity, and we are prepared to be as
flexible as possible, but (offenders) know, and I say it on the
record all the time, 'If you don't comply with the direction of the
court that has given you a break, I will ask for jail, and it won't
be 14 days, it will be a real jail sentence.' And we do that."

The process has transformed many lives and led to fewer criminal
cases at Alexis, Dunfield says. Court days are not nearly as long as
they used to be.

"The population has increased, but we have less business."

Thirty-year-old business student Trevor Paul is one who turned away
from alcohol and violence after going through the court-ordered rehab.

"I never thought I could change," Paul says. "But I did....
Everything kind of came together at the right time, and it worked."

Negotiations are ongoing for courts to be set up on the Enoch and
Hobbema reserves, the first step if the Alexis model is to be put in
place. Shoush says her department has been talking to Enoch chief Ron
Morin and leaders of the four nations of Hobbema, who are considering
whether a court and the program make sense for their reserves.

For the program to succeed on other reserves, a number of things will
have to be in place:

* Moral, administrative and financial support from the Alberta
justice department -- though, to this point, the Alexis program has
run on a shoestring budget.

"The other really good thing about this is its bargain-basement
price," Walter says. "It's probably as economic a situation as I've
ever seen in the justice system."

* A group of aboriginal leaders on the reserve willing to put in time
and effort to run the justice committee.

* Crown prosecutors and police close to the community and open to a
healing model of justice, rather than a more punitive one. At Alexis,
prosecutor Dunfield and Judge Ayotte now have close ties to the
community. Leo Johnston, one of the four RCMP officers slain at
Mayerthorpe, was so beloved at Alexis for his work there, the
community has named a sports field after him.

* Dedicated probation workers, such as Sandra Potts at Alexis,
willing to keep track of the numerous cases and the reviews required
by the court.

* Judges open to educating aborginals about the law, then allowing
them to take part in the process, by recommending sentences for
offenders. Judges and prosecutors must also be prepared to take
risks, Dunfield says, handing out probation rather than jail time.

The nightmare scenario -- one that Dunfield believes will comes to
pass one day -- is that a recidivist drunk driver with numerous
convictions will come before the court, promise he'll rehab himself,
get probation, then right away kill someone in a drunken car crash.

"I dread that," Dunfield says of such an eventuality. "But I am
prepared to take that chance, as are the judges I deal with, because
we know that it (the Alexis model) works in such a high percentage of cases."

Dunfield, who has been a prosecutor for 32 years, says he has seen
many cases where he has sent drunk drivers to jail and they've come
out and killed or maimed someone in a crash, so simply jailing people
isn't a perfect solution either.

"Behaviour doesn't get changed in jail. Jail is warehousing."