New trial for Kindrat and Brown

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Two of the men charged in connection with the sexual assault of a 12-year-old Cree girl will be getting their day in court-again.

Jeffrey Kindrat and Jeffery Brown were charged in 2001, accused of picking up the girl near Tisdale, providing her with alcohol and then sexually assaulting her. The two went to trial on the charges in June 2003 and were acquitted, but those acquittals were overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal in January 2005. A new trial for the two will take place in the Court of Queen's Bench beginning on Jan. 9, 2006.

A third man charged in connection with the assault, Dean Edmondson, was found guilty and received a conditional sentence of two-years-less-a-day, to be served in the community.

Edmondson appealed his conviction and the Crown appealed his sentence, but both appeals were dismissed, although the Court of Appeals judgement did indicate that Edmondson should have served jail time for the crime.

"The justice system has been given a second chance to prove that it protects society's most vulnerable and that there is no tolerance for those who view children as disposable and there for their own pleasure or gain," Okanese First Nation Chief Marie-Anne DayWalker-Pelletier said of the decision to retry Kindrat and Brown. DayWalker-Pelletier is the chair of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Women's Commission.