CBC movie delves into conflicting justice systems

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The idea that life is living with death is one of the most important themes to surface from the made-for-television movie Trial at Fortitude Bay, which aired for the first time nationally on the CBC, Sunday, Dec. 4.

Trial at Fortitude Bay, filmed near Iqaluit on Baffin Island in the Northwest Territories and in Winnipeg, Manitoba, delves into the conflict over Inuit and Canadian justice systems.

The movie's story line sees snooty upper-class defense lawyer Gina Antonelli (Lolita Davidovich, recently starring alongside Richard Gere and Sharon Stone in Intersection) sent to Fortitude Bay to defend 19-year-old Pauloosie Toosuk (Iqaluit's own first-time actor Paul Gordon), accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl legally under the age of consent.

The movie is far from perfect. It drags in places. And, the treatment for the lawyers - Antonelli facing rival prosecutor Daniel Metz (Henry Czerny, the abusive brother in The Boys of St. Vincent) - is stereotypical to a fault. Antonelli is brazenly insensitive to Inuit culture in the beginning but is completely won over by the end, while Metz never waves from his flawed sensibility of stomping over local people for the sake of his beloved Canadian justice system.

But these things don't mater too much. Trial at Fortitude Bay is valuable for making us think about the impact of Canadian courts on a mostly Indigenous community.

Here, the movie incites a rather pointed notion: a justice system that sends people away for incarceration can lead to the spiritual death of an Indigenous community.

In other words, the imposition of Canadian justice over a group of Inuit means that life for this Native culture must carry on with death -or a dying spirit.

This theme arises when court reporter Simon Amituq (Played by Raoul Truillo) apparently commits suicide over his confusion when he returns home after living in Ottawa. It seems he wishes to return to the earth's spirit world.

"It is accurate of how things are here, maybe not in Iqaluit but in the smaller communities," says Iqaluit resident Rose Machmer, who plays Nuna. She agrees that when people leave home a part of the community's spirit goes with them.

"Suicide is kind of a drastic way to get the message across, but sometimes drastic measures are needed to make people understand.

The same point about dying spirit is also woven into the court's sentencing for Pauloosie. Appropriate punishment could save his life. But a jail term down south could potentially cripple Pauloosie - and the community as well.

The court keeps Pauloosie mainly in the community with the big responsibility of providing for people as a hunter.

"When people leave the community it hurts the skills that we have as a culture," says Machmer, an Inuit. "I know hunters who pack certain tools for hunt to (take) a particular animal. And they come back with that very animal. It's almost as if the animal comes to them. But it's skill too. They have so much experience...

"If people leave the community even for a short time, they can lose those skills. They have to be here doing it."

The consequences for Indigenous people living within a legal system alien to their culture and not of their own making is just as pressing.

Trial at Fortitude Bay attempts makes viewers think about a process of justice that will protect Indigenous culture and at the same time mete out reasonable penalties for those who admit guilt for committing crimes.

According to Bill Gray, one of the movie's three executive producers, the goal is to provoke questions, not dictate solutions.

"We're definitely not trying to tell (Native people what to do), says Gray, who is with Toronto-based Atlantis Films Ltd.

The movie could undermine itself if it did tell people what to do, considering the writer, director, and most of the production staff are not Aboriginal. Even the role of Elder Methusala is played by Robert Ito, who is Japanese-Canadian, not Inuit.

While these factors cannot b overlooked, the movie is pushing for an understanding of a bigger picture.

As with many Native issues today, talk invariably turns to self-government. In the same way, Trial at Fortitude Bay prompts the question: Is Aboriginal self-government necessary to have an alternative form of justice?

Bill Gray, for one, sees give and take, a compromise that may be suitable for a mixed town such as Iqaluit but not for every Native community.

"The conclusion is alternative sentencing brings solutions that are workable for the Inuit community and the (Canadian) system of Justice, without setting up a separate system."