Where is the justice? The Barry family wants to know

SooToday.com has received the following letter from the Barry family of Garden River First Nation.

On August 3, 2001, five Barry children died in a traffic accident on Highway 17 in Garden River.

************************* How does the justice system work?

First of all our condolences from the heart go out to the Don Doucet family in the loss of their loved one.

We, the Barry family, know what you are going through.

We are on a very long healing journey.

On August 3, 2001, we lost five of our beautiful precious children in a horrific car accident.

Every day that goes by we are suffering.

We pray daily to the Lord to help us through our pain and suffering.

No one knows the pain and suffering we are going through and we pray to the Lord that no one will ever go through what we went through and are still going through.

[In] the Jeanette Niganobe case, this woman was charged right then and there and the justice system here did a superb job; a thorough investigation was done by all of those professional investigators involved.

This woman was taken right away into custody!

Now what happened in our case?

The person was not charged until three months after the accident with “careless driving" (period) for taking the lives of our five children.

We have been in the courts for seven years.

We just went to court in October 2007, the final of the courts and even an insurance company fought us (seven years).

In the Jeanette Niganobe case, they had witnesses galore at 3 a.m. in the morning.

My children were taken 4 p.m. on a beautiful sunny day, now where were all the witnesses?

Thirty-two years ago we lost my precious mother, Rose Nolan, in a car accident to an impaired driver.

This man got a $750 fine and a six-month driving suspension for killing my mother.

Also, 32 years ago on the same highway, our precious father Isadore Barry, was hit by a car on a foggy night; no charges were laid for killing our father.

Now where is the justice in this???

Jeanette Niganobe asked to be taken out of Sault Ste. Marie to be tried elsewhere.

Sudbury was the place and yet she was still up against Sault Ste. Marie's head crown/crowns.

“Conflict of interest.”

June 11, 2008, the verdict came in - guilty on all charges (eight hours of deliberation for the jury).

The Crown stated after the verdict came in that Jeanette Niganobe be taken into custody, until she is sentenced.

Also stated - the family is feeling relieved, it's been a long ordeal.

He described the verdict as obviously just and appropriate.

What about my family - seven years in the courts for a man who took our five children and he received a careless driving (period) charge and a $1,000 fine and a driving suspension, also an apology letter to our family.

How do you think we are feeling on all of this???

The justice system, we just do not know what to say or do.

Growing up on our First Nation, I remember and still sing this song that I was taught: “Jesus died for all his children, all the children of the world - red and yellow, black and white ,they are all precious in His sight.”

This is a beautiful song!

We are very interested to see and hear the verdict on Jeanette Niganobe.

We feel we know already!!

We the family are suffering on how the justice system handled the Niganobe case and our case.

Why???

Arlene & Charlie Barry and family Garden River First Nation

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