This Ojibway man served his sentence, then says the Crown tried to put strict conditions on his release

A man from an Ojibway First Nation in northwestern Ontario says Crown lawyers wrongfully tried to impose unnecessarily strict conditions on his release from jail.

Shaldon Wabason, who's from Whitesand First Nation, and his lawyers say prosecutors in Thunder Bay attempted to use a little-known legal tool — a peace bond application under Sec. 810.2 of the Criminal Code — to impose those restrictions, despite the fact he had already served his full sentence in 2021.

In March 2023, Wabason arrived at the Thunder Bay Courthouse for what he hoped would be the final time dealing with the justice system, after a decade of fighting for fair judicial proceedings. The attempt to place a peace bond on him was dropped.

But now, the case has lawyers and corrections researchers questioning whether provincial attorney generals are using the legal tool disproportionately on Indigenous people. They're also calling for answers and transparency from Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey.

Wabason, 31, and his lawyers say they're coming forward now to raise awareness about Sec. 810.2 and its possible repercussions.

In 2015, Wabason was wrongfully convicted of break and enter and manslaughter in the 2011 death of Thunder Bay resident Robert Topping and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He successfully appealed the decision and the sentence, and later pleaded guilty in 2019 to criminal negligence causing death.

Wabason also fought in 2014 to have a representative jury, arguing the jury roll in Thunder Bay doesn't adequately represent First Nations people living on reserve.

"Shaldon's position always was that he never entered the house … that the most he did was kick down a door and not know anything about what happened inside. There was very powerful evidence to show that he was 100 per cent correct," said lawyer Devin Bains, who represented Wabason for most of the past 10 years.

In 2020, Wabason was denied parole and had to serve the remainder of his sentence, Bains said. 

Notably, a second Indigenous man charged in the same 2011 death also had to serve his entire sentence. However, a white man convicted of the most serious offence related to the murder of Topping was released on parole and bail multiple times over the last few years, despite having committed a number of additional serious offences.

"Shaldon's journey is not only a story about Shaldon, but it's a story of the way Indigenous people are treated by the criminal justice system compared to the way white people are treated," Bains said.

Just two days before Wabason's sentence was about to end in February 2021 and he was to be released, he was served with a Criminal Code Sec. 810.2 application filed by a Thunder Bay police officer who identified him as "a potential risk to the public," Bains said.

The legal tool allows a person to request a peace bond in court, if they reasonably fear a dangerous person will seriously injure another person, said Mary Campbell, a retired director general of a federal unit that focused on law reform. Campbell also led a team that created the 810.2 peace bond application in the 1990s.

A peace bond is a court order that lays conditions — such as a curfew, restrictions from owning firearms or requirements to stay a certain distance from some people — on someone to keep the peace.