Courts

By Tanya Talaga / Toronto Star When members of Wahgoshig First Nation spotted a drilling crew on what they say is a sacred burial site, they demanded to know who the strangers were and what they were doing. The Wahgoshig, whose Algonquin reserve of 19,239 acres is 113 km east of Timmins, running south from Lake Abitibi near the Quebec border, say they were met with silence. But what was happening on the land was anything but silent, according to court records. ...

By Survival International Judges in Brazil have allowed a Guarani community to stay on its ancestral land, which it reoccupied having been forced to live in a makeshift camp for over a year and a half. The judges have suspended an eviction order which threatened to force the Indians to leave their land and face appalling living conditions on the side of a road or in an overcrowded reserve. The 170 Guarani of Laranjeira Nanderu community can now remain on a small patch of their land, until further land studies are carried out. Their territory is currently being occupied by a ranch. ...

By Melissa McEwan A judge in Florida has sentenced a man charged with domestic battery to take his wife, and victim, on a date. Or as MSNBC puts it in their disgusting lede: “Just in time for Valentine’s Day, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that a man involved in a scuffle with his wife treat her to an evening at a local bowling alley and a romantic meal at Red Lobster.” ...