Law Times - Newsmakers

Dec 2008 Newsmakers

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news LaForme quits residential schools commission Judge alleges lack of respect and political interference BY ROBERT TODD court, was named chairman of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Who better than the highly respected Ontario Court of Appeal judge and member of the Mississaugas of New Credit First Nation to help put to bed one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history? It all came crashing to the ground on Oct. T 19 when LaForme resigned from the post with a scathing resignation letter pointing to a lack of respect from fellow commissioners and political interference. His decision put the commission's work on hold, delaying thou- sands of survivors from putting their stories of abuse on the public record. Parties to the $1.9-billion, class action set- tlement that led to the creation of the truth commission scrambled to put the process back on track with the appointment of a new chairman, and former Supreme Court jus- tice Frank Iacobucci stepped in to facilitate the talks. Iacobucci was the federal negotia- tor of the settlement package, and seemed to have respect from all parties to help pull things together. While efforts to put the commission back to work continued, a full picture of the situ- ation surrounding LaForme's resignation remained elusive. The judge returned to his duties on the bench and refused media inter- views. But further insight was gleaned Oct. 13 when the judge presented a speech on ethics at Ryerson University. There, reported The Canadian Press, LaForme said he felt obligated to resign after efforts were made to change the chairman's duties from the role he had left the bench to take on. CP reported LaForme said he and the commissioners received a framework setting out what their duties would be upon first assuming their roles with the commission. "Assurances were given to me that it would be me and my vision that would chart, lead, and direct the course of this very important and much-needed commission," LaForme was quoted as saying. But, the judge said that changed when the commission began its work and the commissioners felt they had an equivalent role to LaForme's. here was much optimism when Justice Harry LaForme, the first aboriginal appointed to a Canadian appeals The judge said his "moral code" forced him to resist such changes, it was reported. "I do not take issue with the Justice Harry LaForme cited 'an incurable problem' within the com- mission in his resignation letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. parties' right to change the roles and respon- sibilities of the chair and commissioners," LaForme was quoted as saying. "[But] when the changes amount to a situation that is not the same as that for which I agreed to suspend, for as much as five years, a judicial career that I enjoyed and loved . . . I am equally entitled to say, 'No thanks.'" CP also reported the judge felt the pres- sure of being the first aboriginal appointed to a Canadian appeals court. "I know all too well that I carry the hopes, dreams, and accomplishments of all my people," he was quoted as saying. LaForme cited "an incurable problem" within the commission in his resignation letter to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl. "The two commissioners are unprepared to accept that the structure of the commis- sion requires that the TRC's course is to be charted and its objectives are to be shaped ultimately through the authority and leader- ship of its chair," wrote LaForme, who was appointed to the position in April. LaForme told Strahl that, while he expected them to assist the chairman, the commissioners "have chosen to compete for control of the commission by insisting that it is to be run on the basis of simple majority rule." He suggested the commissioners had retained legal counsel to "formally demand that I change the structure of the commis- sion by agreeing to their majority rule." The judge acknowledged that struggles often occur within organizations and can be overcome, but said a further complica- tion arose. "The reason is that they and their supporters see the TRC as primarily a truth commission," wrote LaForme. "Unlike mine, theirs is a view that leaves much of the work of reconciliation for another day." The judge said he was forced to step down because the dispute with the commissioners was about more than "a case of competing visions open to debate and beneficial resolu- tion." He later wrote, "I cannot stay through a five-year term with a commission in which incurable structural defects are coupled with . . . conduct that can only ensure that my vision for the TRC's mandate will be unrealizable. Such a commission is not one to which I can make a useful contribution." But LaForme's decision seemed to catch TRC commissioners Claudette Dumont- Smith, a health-care worker, and Jane Morley, a B.C. lawyer, off guard. Dumont-Smith told Law Times she was shocked to learn of the resignation. She said she met LaForme six or seven times and thought "we were in sync" on the TRC's work. "I was sad too that he chose to resign, because he could have done the job and he had my respect and he chose to resign and that really saddened me." Dumont-Smith said she was "flabbergasted" by LaForme's comments regarding the commissioners' view of his role. "I think what he means is that he was focusing on the decision-making, and for me decision-making, I'm aboriginal and I believe in consensus for decisions. And I think he had a different idea," she said. Her view of how the commission is to be governed, said Dumont-Smith, is that "the commission is composed of three commis- sioners, and three commissioners make up the commission. There's a chair and two commissioners." Dumont-Smith said she last saw LaForme at an introductory mediation session with Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP lawyer Will McDowell. The meeting aimed to bridge differences between the judge and two commissioners. LaForme also singled out the Assembly of First Nations in a CBC Radio appearance before his resignation, saying the group led by National Chief Phil Fontaine had inter- fered with the TRC's work. Pierre Baribeau, who represents Catholic groups that ran the schools and was part of the group that selected LaForme, told Law Times it was unfortunate that the TRC had to deal with the fallout from the resignation. "He was a good choice initially, and now we have to turn the page and try to evolve to another candidate who could be, we hope, appointed by the end of the year." 2008 top news & newsmakers 13

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