What to make of the Wapekeka courtroom shooting, part one

Law360 Canada (August 12, 2025, 11:07 AM EDT) --

Naomi Sayers

On July 31, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers in Wapekeka First Nation fatally shot 23-year-old Tyresse Kenny Padro Cree Roundsky during a court proceeding at the community’s Youth Centre. This is not an isolated tragedy. Over the past 18 months, at least three members of this small community have died in encounters with law enforcement.

Context is important.

In major city centres across Canada, the general public may interact with the justice system in the way that the majority understands and experiences that system: in a courthouse. In Toronto, and in about 2023, people with matters at the provincial level could attend a central location for their court matters in a newly built 17-storey building.

I sat on the Gladue committee for the New Toronto Courthouse and we met to discuss issues around impacts on Indigenous justice system participants, from bail hearings and procedures to transporting our criminal defence clients to discussing the new Indigenous courtroom or Gladue courtroom. The new Indigenous courtroom bears resemblance to the Gladue courtroom in Calgary, Alberta: A courtroom near the top of the building, all participants from the judge to the Crown, defence and our clients sitting at boardroom tables set up in a circle with the space and opportunity to use medicines in the courtroom like smudging. Water and light snacks available. Notably, the judge doesn’t sit on the dais – or the platform that sits at the front of the courtroom where the judge would sit looking down, in the centre of the courtroom.

Going a bit further north, in Sault Ste. Marie, the courthouse, though beautiful, is aging. The film titled Looking for Angelina features this courthouse. I was about 16 or 17 years old when I volunteered on the set of the film. One of my roles was to help identify modern structures to remove from the film set, like the shiny gold stair handles that would not have existed in 1911, the year that Angelina Napolitano murdered her husband as he slept. She murdered him after he abused her, demanded she prostitute herself or find money for their home in Sault Ste. Marie, where there was a large immigrant Italian community. Though found guilty and sentenced to death, she is one of the first documented women in Canada to use the battered women defence. Later, the federal government substituted death for life and she was paroled in about 11 years.

Another role I had was to stand inside the main doors of the courthouse and shout “shooting” when the director began his countdown. I recall I was too shy and missed the first countdown, causing another crew member to walk out the door in the middle of a shoot. “Cut!” the director shouted, asking who didn’t play their role. Someone helped me shortly after. I remember others talking about a fire that happened in the courthouse. I sometimes hear judges mention the fire when I now appear in the courtrooms as a defence counsel. The courthouse looked the same as it did about 22 years ago when I volunteered on set as it does now.

When one goes further north, like in communities such as Wapekeka, you will not find such buildings. The courthouses do not exist. They are simply rearranged rooms for certain periods on specific dates, or a circuit, if you will. Sometimes the rooms are in a school gym, community centre or other gathering space used in the community. To put this in context, imagine walking into a school gymnasium for a court proceeding with only a certain number of resources present. Then, in the background, there is even less support and infrastructure available for policing.

Both Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie have large Indigenous populations with many displaced from northern communities due to lack of opportunities, education, health care or, at minimum, housing. In the Algoma region, some of the First Nations have First Nations policing in the communities with Anishinabek Police Services or APS. Others have some support and agreements with the OPP. In Wapekeka, there is an agreement with the OPP. In 2015, Wapekeka ended its agreement with Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services (NAPS) by signing the Ontario First Nations Policing Agreement. This led to a consideration of whether to seek policing through an agreement with the OPP or through a community-operated police force. This was, for the community leadership at that time, an opportunity to work directly with the police services of choice, to ensure that police have a proper working relationship in conjunction with the community itself.

Prior to 2015 and even after, inquiries and inquests have taken place across Canada, documenting through evidence the harms and injustices experienced by Indigenous peoples since the establishment of colonial Canada.

This is the first part of a two-part series.

Naomi Sayers is an Indigenous lawyer from the Garden River First Nation with her own public law practice. She sometimes teaches primarily on Indigenous rights and governance issues. She tweets under the moniker @kwetoday.

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