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CANADA DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS CIRCULAR OTTAWA, 15th December, 1921. It is observed with alarm that the holding of dances by the Indians on their reserves is on the increase, and that these practices tend to disorganize the efforts which the Department is putting forth to make then self-supporting. I have, therefore, to direct you to use your utmost endeavours to dissuade the Indians from excessive indulgence in the practice of dancing. You should suppress any dances which cause waste of time, interfere with the occupations of the Indians, unsettle then for serious work, injure their health or encourage them in sloth and idleness. You should also dissuade, and, if possible, prevent them from leaving their reserves for the 'purpose of attending fairs, exhibitions, etc., when the absence would result in their own farming and other interests being neglected. It is realized that reasonable amusement and recreation should be enjoyed by Indians, but they should not be allowed to dissipate their energies and abandon themselves to demoralizing amusements. By the use of tact and firmness you can obtain control and keep it, and this obstacle to continued progress vill then disappear. The rooms, halls or other places in which Indians congregate should be under constant inspection. They should be scrubbed, fumigated, cleansed or disinfected to prevent the dissemination of disease. The Indians should be instructed in regard to the matter of proper ventilation and the avoidance of over-crowding rooms where public assemblies are being held, and proper arrangement should be made for the shelter of their horses and ponies. The Agent shall avail themselves of the services of the medical attendant of his agency in this connection.

Hubner appears to be on solid ground when he argues that the desire to prevent the practice of cross-border horse raids weighed heavily in the decision to move the closely aligned Cree bands of Piapot and Little Pine, and the Assiniboines led by Lean Man and Grizzly Bear’s Head, to reserves far away from the Cypress Hills, but it is not clear that Hugh Richardson’s court records support his more general claim that the Indians received increasingly harsh sentences for horse stealing as the 1880s went on. The aggravated offence of smuggling or bringing stolen property across the border could draw a more serious sentence, but even here Richardson’s records suggest a more tempered approach than Hubner conveys. Hubner’s view is supported in the case of eleven Cree men who were sentenced by Stipendiary Magistrates McLeod and A.G. Irvine (who was also NWMP Commissioner) to two-year terms in the penitentiary in 1883. Given the composition of that bench, and the fact Irvine, when sitting either at Fort Walsh or Fort Mcleod, did not hesitate to impose penitentiary sentences for these offences and for cattle killing, it is understandable that Hubner would be inclined to conflate the NWMP with “the law.” Although Richardson did not routinely sit at either Fort Walsh or Fort Mcleod, he did preside over horse stealing and smuggling cases that were committed to Qu’Appelle for trial. From these cases, it is not clear that his approach to sentencing was as harsh as described by Hubner."

Some historians express ambivalence regarding the probative value of depositions. Mindful of Carolyn Strange’s injunction against seeing court files as “textual productions of truth,” these depositions may be described as textual productions of allegations. As Edward Muir and Guido Ruggiero have opined, however, “not just any lie will do in testifying about a crime. Usually lies must have the ring of credibility.” The depositions do represent a form of first-person account by informants and witnesses of events that gave rise to the matters in the criminal courts. Indeed, John Beattie has characterized the depositions of victims and witnesses and the examinations of accused persons as “among the most useful” supplements to the indictments he was studying in his landmark study of crime and courts in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. And, for all their frailty, the depositions and the Statements of the Accused tend to be the only words in the file that tell us anything about what gave rise to the criminal prosecution before the court.

The information in these records is sketchy, but there can be no doubt that these texts are anything but disembodied legal discourse. Many voices in the court files are lay voices, the voices of ordinary people coming or being brought to law, as well as those of the NWMP , men of standing, such as Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) men, other merchants, govern-ment men, and, of course, other lay witnesses, some of them less reluctant than others. The only professional experts to be found are the medical officers in the NWMP who, on occasion, offered opinion evidence as experts on Indian medicines and potions. Peter Hourie (who was allowed by Richardson to be qualified as an expert on the interpretation of certain Cree and Saulteaux words in Tom Lemac’s 1902 murder trial) and latterly veterinary surgeons, midwives, and medical doctors began to appear in the court records as well.

When they appeared in court, Aboriginal deponents and witnesses, as recently as 1902 in Tom Lemac’s murder trial, were also called upon to give forms of expert evidence (for example, on the entry and exit of bullets in the wounds on a dead body, or on the effect of alcohol on Indians), or to act as cultural interpreters of the ways and meanings of Indian gestures and forms of courtesy. The nature of the evidence in the court files suggests the mediated nature of law and law’s construction of experience. The mediation is multi-layered: complaints appear to have been made to a chief or husband, who then complained to the police or to a justice of the peace or stipendiary magistrate, after which an Information was taken and sworn. As to what is revealed about Aboriginal voices in the criminal law, it may be best to eschew the metaphors of a window or a camera in favour of a prism, which by definition contemplates a partial and refracted image of the experiences caught by the records. The images are partial, the stories fragmentary and incomplete; nevertheless, we can begin to draw some conclusions."

All persons who test positive for COVID-19 or have suspected COVID-19, regardless of vaccination status, should complete isolation as follows:

1. Stay home for at least 5 full days from the date of symptom onset if symptomatic or from the date of the positive test if no symptoms.

* Day 0 is considered the day symptoms started in symptomatic persons or the day of the positive test (based on the date of testing) if asymptomatic.

2. After day 5, if the person has no symptoms or if symptoms are improved and they have had no fever for at least 24 hours without medication, they may return to school or childcare if they wear a well-fitting mask* for 5 additional days (day 6 through day 10).

* If they are unable to wear a mask, they may return to school or childcare if they have a negative test at day 5 or later; otherwise, they should remain at home for day 6 through day 10.

* A negative test at day 10 or after is not needed to return.

* Masks do not need to be worn in schools or childcare programs while eating, drinking, sleeping or outside.

3. Universal contact tracing is no longer recommended in schools and childcare programs. Staff and students/children who may be close contacts, regardless of their vaccination status, can continue to attend school and childcare as long as they remain asymptomatic.

* Those who can wear a mask should do so for 10 days (day 0 is the last date of exposure).

WSH/RW                                                                             Nov. 18, 1929 Sir: I thank you for your telegram of the of the 16th instant, as follows:- 

"SITUATION QUIET PRISON LOCKED UP PENDING INVESTIGATION FOR RINGLEADER.”

WSH/RW                                                                        November  16th, 1929. O  R  D  E  R  No.  666 Owing to the illness of Warden MacLeod, Industrial Inspector E. R. Jackson who has arrived in the city, will assume charge of the Saskatchewan Penitentiary and administer its affairs, pending the return to duty of the Warden.

William St. Pierre Hughes