{"id":109235,"date":"2026-09-30T13:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=109235"},"modified":"2026-09-30T13:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T17:07:15","slug":"in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"In unusual move, province opens court facility to serve First Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner A First Nation in northwestern New Brunswick is celebrating the creation of a new court facility to serve its Indigenous members, eliminating a barrier to justice, says the community\u2019s chief. In an unusual move, the Holt Liberal government agreed to set up the court facility for members of Neqotkuk, or Tobique First Nation, in the nearby settlement of Carlingford, only about a 14-minute drive away. Neqotkuk\u2019s chief and council, elders and other community members joined with Chief Judge Brian McLean of the provincial court, former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas (who is from Neqotkuk) and Social Development Minister Cindy Miles to officially open the new court facility this past Thursday. \u201cThis has been a long-time coming,\u201d Chief Ross Perley said in a&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F30%2Fin-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner A First Nation in northwestern New Brunswick is celebrating the creation of a new court facility to serve its Indigenous members, eliminating a barrier to justice, says the community\u2019s chief. In an unusual move, the Holt Liberal government agreed to set up the court facility for members of Neqotkuk, or Tobique First Nation, in the nearby settlement of Carlingford, only about a 14-minute drive away. Neqotkuk\u2019s chief and council, elders and other community members joined with Chief Judge Brian McLean of the provincial court, former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas (who is from Neqotkuk) and Social Development Minister Cindy Miles to officially open the new court facility this past Thursday. \u201cThis has been a long-time coming,\u201d Chief Ross Perley said in a... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, Canada Print and Online, and USA Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F09%2F30%2Fin-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>In unusual move, province opens court facility to serve First Nation - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In unusual move, province opens court facility to serve First Nation - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner A First Nation in northwestern New Brunswick is celebrating the creation of a new court facility to serve its Indigenous members, eliminating a barrier to justice, says the community\u2019s chief. In an unusual move, the Holt Liberal government agreed to set up the court facility for members of Neqotkuk, or Tobique First Nation, in the nearby settlement of Carlingford, only about a 14-minute drive away. Neqotkuk\u2019s chief and council, elders and other community members joined with Chief Judge Brian McLean of the provincial court, former lieutenant-governor Graydon Nicholas (who is from Neqotkuk) and Social Development Minister Cindy Miles to officially open the new court facility this past Thursday. \u201cThis has been a long-time coming,\u201d Chief Ross Perley said in a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-30T17:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"In unusual move, province opens court facility to serve First Nation\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-30T17:07:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":841,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/30\\\/in-unusual-move-province-opens-court-facility-to-serve-first-nation\\\/\",\"name\":\"In unusual move, province opens court facility to serve First Nation - 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