For breach of his Charter rights, a federal judge has ordered the Correctional Service to pay $7,500 to a convicted murderer..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Jeffrey Ewert, a Metis inmate, made a complaint prison staff had touched his “medicine bundle” containing feathers and arrowheads..“The sanctity of Mr. Ewert’s medicine bundle was infringed in a manner he viewed as a desecration,” wrote Federal Court Justice Nicholas McHaffie. .“While none of the objects in the medicine bundle were physically harmed, it would be wrong to unduly focus on the physical over the spiritual or intangible, particularly in matters involving freedom of religion.”.Ewert, formerly of Langley, BC, is serving two life sentences for a 1984 crime spree. .Ewert was convicted of raping and beating a 15-year-old Surrey schoolgirl he left in a local landfill and the strangulation murder of a 19-year-old hitchhiker he dumped in the Fraser River..The Court was told Ewert “had little support when facing racism in school,” “grew ashamed of his indigenous heritage” and lacked “direction and self-respect.” .Once in prison, Ewert began following indigenous spiritual teachings and collecting a medicine bundle of feathers, “arrowheads wrapped in velvet,” “sacred stones,” headbands and other items..“Mr. Ewert’s medicine bundle is sacred to him,” wrote McHaffie. .He considered it “a pure object that acts like a second conscience” that strangers must never touch..“One of the teachings Mr. Ewert received with respect to his medicine bundle is that he is the only one who should touch it,” wrote the Court. .“The evidence suggests this is a widely held belief in indigenous communities.”.The evidence showed that in 2019 when Ewert was transferred to a minimum security wing at the Archambault Institution in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, QC, the prison managers inspected the medicine bundle..“The search of his medicine bundle constituted a non-trivial interference with his ability to act in accordance with his religious beliefs,” wrote McHaffie..“The real issue is not whether the search should have been conducted, but how.” .McHaffie wrote the prison guards should have asked the inmate to open the bundle for inspection..The Court decided touching the items without Ewert's permission violated his Charter right to freedom of religion..“I am satisfied the evidence, including Mr. Ewert’s testimony, establishes he sincerely believes his medicine bundle is a pure and sacred object, that it has assisted him in his healing, recovery and sobriety, that it is to be kept in his possession, that he should be the only person who touches his medicine bundle and that it is desecrated if anyone other than him touches it,” wrote McHaffie..McHaffie was a patent lawyer in Ottawa before becoming a Federal Court judge in 2019. Before that, he clerked for Beverley McLachlin, the Supreme Court's Chief Justice at that time.
