Aboriginal people not deliberately excluded from juries, Crown says

The Crown emphatically denied Tuesday that indigenous people are being deliberately excluded from Alberta juries in court in Edmonton.

The government was responding to a constitutional challenge brought by lawyers for Jeremy Newborn.

Newborn, an aboriginal man, is on trial forthe murder of JohnHollar, 29, on an LRT train three years ago. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Newborn's legal team isarguing that a lack of aboriginal people on juries indicatesa systemic problem.

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They're asking the judge to strike down subsection 4(h)of the Alberta Jury Act, which they say limitsthe opportunityof indigenouspeopleto be tried bya representative jury.

The section excludes from jury dutyanyonecurrently facing a criminal charge or hasbeen convicted of a criminal offence for which a pardon has not been granted.

Newborn's lawyers say that part of the law disproportionately affects indigenous people who make up 3.8 per cent of Canada's population, but comprise 23.3 per centof the country's incarcerationpopulation.

In arguments before Edmonton Court of Queen's Bench Tuesday, Newborn's lawyer said juries have to act as the conscience of a community and to do that must be representative of the community.

But Crownlawyer David Kamal said the defence failed to produce the necessaryevidence to prove the AlbertaJury Act excludesaboriginal people.

Kamal,a constitutional expert, argued permitting people with criminal records to sit on juries could potentially undermine public confidence in the justice system.

The Crown told the court other groups too are excluded from jury duty, such as judges and lawyers and otherswho work in the justice system.

The exclusions are meant to preventthe perception of biasand arenot aviolation of the charter, it said.

Alberta is one of nine Canadian jurisdictions with such a policy, meaning it's well in line with the rest of the country, Kamal said.

The vast majority of people who show up for jury selection ask to be excused anyway, he explained.

During the initial jury selection roundfor the Newborn trial, out of 800 summons sent out, 510 people responded and 314 of those were excused, with another18 being excluded.

There aren't any more specific details about why those 18 wereexcluded.

While Kamal acknowledges there are socio-economic issues at play resulting in lower responses to court summons from the aboriginal community, itstresses eliminating the subsection will notfix thebroken relationship.

Newborn's trial is scheduled to start next April and Queen's Bench Justice Brian Burrowsis promising to hand down a decision on the constitutional arguments by February.