What to know
- Legal Aid Alberta offers duty counsel office hours in several Indigenous communities in Alberta, including Stoney Nakoda communities and Alexander First Nation.
- Meeting clients in their own communities improves access to justice by helping people get free legal advice before court and reducing transportation barriers.
- In-community duty counsel services can help reduce failure to appear charges, which can affect future bail decisions. These charges contribute to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the justice system.
- What started as a pilot project in Mînî Thnî is now part of LAA’s Indigenous Engagement Framework and Indigenous Action Plan.
When Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) partnered with Stoney Nakoda Nations on a pilot project to offer legal services directly to clients at the Nation’s offices in Mînî Thnî, it was a grassroots solution to a local problem: transportation is a major barrier to getting to court.
By making it easier for people to get free, immediate legal advice from duty counsel lawyers, the pilot could also help address the much larger problem of Indigenous overrepresentation in the justice system.
Mînî Thnî (formerly Morley) is about 30 kilometres from the nearest provincial court in Cochrane, however the surrounding reserve is expansive. For anyone without transportation, the distance can mean hitchhiking or making the trip on foot.
“Not everybody has a vehicle or is able to get a ride into court. Sometimes, that would mean people walking for an hour, an hour and a half or even longer just to make sure that they make it to their court appearance,” explained Aaron Sparvier, LAA’s Indigenous relations lawyer who is originally from Cowessess First Nation on Treaty 4 Territory.
Overcoming barriers to access to justice
Jennifer Big Crow, a court worker with Tsuut’ina Stoney Corrections Society, helps dozens of people every day navigate the justice system and access resources such as legal aid. She has seen minor charges such as mischief escalate into much more serious legal situations because of barriers to accessing the justice system, including not having a driver’s licence, a vehicle or a phone. When people miss a court date, they can be charged with failing to appear, which can lead to a warrant and further legal issues.
“All of a sudden, that one charge snowballs into more charges because they don’t have access to transportation, they don’t have access to a phone,” Big Crow said. “They don’t have access to services that would help them move things along more quickly.”
A failure-to-appear charge can also significantly affect whether someone qualifies for bail, said Lori MacKay, LAA’s legal services manager. She said courts consider whether they are confident an accused person will attend court, and the strongest indicator is that person’s previous attendance.
“So for Indigenous communities, failing to appear charges are a huge issue and really underpin the overrepresentation of Indigenous folks in the criminal justice system and in remand.”
Collaboration starts with listening
Providing duty counsel services on the Nation was a simple response to a much more complex problem, but the idea was not planned in advance. It developed organically through conversations among Sparvier, MacKay and community members such as Big Crow. More importantly, it started with listening.
“We’ve been going out to communities, talking to people and listening more. Listening to people, listening to stakeholders, building relationships that are foundational and paramount to how we want to support communities,” Sparvier explained.
Meeting people in their own communities can also reduce the stress of dealing with legal issues in court, MacKay said.
“They can meet with duty counsel in a non-stress situation where they have all the time in the world to talk about their legal issues, to figure out what their next steps are,” she said. “Duty counsel can get their instructions, and duty counsel can appear for them in court. And then they don’t even have to leave the Nation.”
In addition to duty counsel office hours, people can appear in court remotely from the Stoney Tribal Administration building in Mînî Thnî and from Tsuut’ina. A video feed connects them to court proceedings several times a month.
“If people are having difficulty making it into Cochrane and they haven’t been able to make it for duty counsel prep day to talk about their matters, they can attend the day of court, talk to duty counsel and appear from the Nation,” explained MacKay.
Expanding duty counsel office hours to other First Nations
Since the Mînî Thnî duty counsel pilot launched in February 2024, the concept has expanded to other Stoney Nakoda communities and elsewhere in Alberta. Eden Valley, one of the Stoney Nakoda’s three reserves and home to Bearspaw First Nation, soon followed.
Eden Valley is remote, making transportation to court in Diamond Valley a year-round challenge, particularly in winter. Getting up at 5 a.m. to hitchhike for a 9:30 a.m. court appearance is not uncommon, Big Crow said.
“It would take them about three hours to walk if they didn’t get a ride,” she explained.
Once again, meeting with community members helped identify a solution: using the community health bus that delivers medicine and checks on people across the Nation.
The local health department also offered to pick people up on their court dates and take them to the administration offices. On one of the first days the service was offered, the department picked up 16 of the 17 Nation members who had court matters that day, MacKay said.
“So by ensuring that those 16 folks were able to get to court, we were able to ensure that 16 people didn’t end up in remand unable to get bail simply because they don’t have a vehicle,” she said.
Before LAA began offering office hours in the community, Big Crow said she often blocked off a full day to help clients access legal aid, usually by making phone calls for people who did not have a phone. LAA’s presence has improved access to justice and helped build trust, making people more comfortable seeking help.
“It’s been such a positive change working with Legal Aid Alberta and having them coming out to the communities,” she said. “It’s just really encouraging and a real benefit to the community.”
Expanding services to Alexander First Nation
As word of the pilot’s success spread, Sparvier said the Yellowhead Tribal Community Corrections Society approached LAA to learn more. The society supports members of several First Nations in central Alberta, including Alexander First Nation, where the pilot expanded next.
“Once we started to build familiarity with people in the community, you could start to see them approach us, approach us about their family members and talk more openly. You could see the relief in their faces when they realized that not everybody there was against them,” explained Justin Hjelsvold, one of the duty counsel lawyers who advise Alexander First Nation clients appearing in court in Morinville, about 40 kilometres north of Edmonton.
Truth and reconciliation in action
The on-Nation duty counsel pilot has become an important part of LAA’s Indigenous Action Plan and Indigenous Engagement Framework. Together, they guide LAA staff and roster lawyers in their work with Indigenous clients and communities, strengthen cultural understanding and improve how staff respond to clients’ and communities’ experiences and needs.
For Sparvier, expanding duty counsel support on First Nations shows what can happen when organizations listen first and then work together to develop solutions that respond to local needs. The model could be replicated in other communities, and lessons learned could improve services and inform other initiatives that protect access to justice for Indigenous Peoples.
“Our commitment is long-term. It’s not a fast or quick fix for anything that’s going on,” he said. “We want to build something with communities, and that’s important.”