A First Nation healer convicted of assaulting one of his longtime clients during a traditional healing session more than two years ago in Penticton won’t find out his punishment for several more months.
After a highly emotional trial that lasted more than four weeks earlier this fall, Donald Wayne Ashley was found not guilty of three counts of sexual assault, but guilty of one count of assault.
Ashley was originally charged with six counts of sexual assault on allegations that he inappropriately touched several women during different native healing sessions over a four-day period in the middle of October 2022 in Penticton.
On Monday, Ashley’s lawyer Mark Norha, appearing via video from Vancouver, told a Justice of the Peace his client will be asking that a Gladue report, a right that Indigenous people in Canada have under the criminal code, be prepared before a sentencing hearing takes place.
Provisions in Gladue reports assert that Indigenous people face racism and systemic discrimination in and out of the criminal law system and attempt to deal with the crisis of over-representation of Indigenous peoples in custody across Canada.
The reports give judges discretion to use sanctions outside of mainstream prisons for Indigenous men and women when appropriate.
Norha said it will take several weeks to prepare the report and asked that the matter be brought back to the court to set a date for sentencing in early January.
The matter will be spoken to once again on Jan. 13, 2025.
It’s likely a final date for sentencing on this matter will now not likely take place until early or late spring.
Ashley, who spent much of his life in the Williams Lake area, now resides in Kamloops, court heard.
One of the six sexual assault charges was stayed early in the trial and two more charges were withdrawn after a directive verdict by Justice Michael Brundrett after Norha and Crown Attorney Andrew Vandersluys agreed there was not sufficient evidence for a jury to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on those counts.
The trial proceeded with Ashley facing three counts of sexual assault.
At the beginning of the trial, Brundrett ordered a publication ban on any evidence that could help identify any of the complainants in this case.
The seven-man, five-woman jury began deliberations after hearing four weeks of testimony and spent one full day continuing deliberations and continued throughout the day and evening on a second day before reaching a verdict just before midnight on Oct. 17.
All five women on the jury were crying, as was one of the male jurors, after the verdict was read into the record.
Brundrett thanked them for their service during this difficult and lengthy trial that lasted two days short of one month.
Amongst a crowd of 15 female supporters in court to hear the verdict, several who had attended the trial on a daily basis, most of them broke into tears and hugged each other after the verdict was read.
Ashley’s wife sat alone away from the supporters. Ashley didn’t show any emotion when the verdicts were read.
The trial heard Ashley was a popular First Nations healer who had been invited to Penticton to perform healing sessions starting back in 2010.
There had been no complaints about his work until October of 2022 when several women complained about inappropriate touching without their consent during sessions over a four-day period.
All of the complainants had received previous healing sessions with him and hadn’t experience anything unusual and testified the sessions had been beneficial.
But that all changed in October of 2022 when the complainants said Ashley touched them inappropriately during these healing sessions.
During his testimony, Ashley said he never touched any of the complainants in a sexual manner over the entire four-day period.
Ashley used the phrase “absolutely not” at least 40 times during his direct evidence and during cross-examination when asked if he engaged in any inappropriate behaviour during those four days.
Before releasing the jury, Brundrett thanked them for their dedication over what was a very lengthy and difficult trial.
“It’s been a very long day,” he said. “I assure you that you have contributed greatly to the administration of justice with care and attention.”
He told the jurors that they are not to discuss what happened during jury deliberations with anyone, even now that the trial is over.
About 15 minutes after the jury was dismissed, the group of female supporters were gathered outside the Penticton Courthouse, many of them crying and hugging each other, when Ashley and his wife walked out of the front doors of the courthouse.
Several of the women jeered him and yelled insults, but Ashley just walked forward and didn’t respond.
One First Nations elder who attended every single day of the month-long trial, walked closed to Ashley and his wife and calmly told them “you know what to do. You both know what to do.”
After the verdict was read, several more women broke down in tears outside the Penticton Courthouse and were joined in their grief by Greg Gabriel, the chief of the Penticton Indian Band.
Gabriel couldn’t hold his emotions following the verdict.
“I’m just f---ing infuriated,” he said in an interview with Okanagan Newspaper Group. “This criminal justice system failed our women once again. They made this sexual predator out to be a victim throughout this trial. The testimony of our women meant nothing. What he did to them meant nothing.
“We have to fix this damn justice system so these poor women that have been abused don’t have to carry that with them forever. He gets to walk away free, but they have to live with what he did. He’s a predator and he’s brought such disgrace to a very sacred part of our traditions and healing.”
The complainants in this case are not only from the Penticton area, but throughout the Okanagan Nation and the impact this case has had on First Nations people across this region can’t be measured, said Gabriel.
First Nations healers are held in high regard and esteem by so many First Nations people and despite what the jury’s verdict states, this accused took advantage of vulnerable women he was supposed to be helping and caused immense damage, said Gabriel.
“It’s just a complete, disgusting failure of the justice system,” he said. “He’s the victim now and he gets to walk out of that courtroom totally free. I can’t believe this jury came down with this verdict. It’s just appalling. We need to fix this.”
The woman who testified at trial she had become close personal friends with Ashley and his wife, who she attended university with, and invited him to Penticton to perform native healing sessions back in 2010 was also livid with the jury’s verdict.
The woman was a key witness during the trial testifying it was she who confronted Ashley back in October of 2022 after several women had complained about inappropriate sexual touching by Ashley during healing sessions.
“It is an utter failure of this criminal justice system,” she said. “They have failed all the women in this case and they’ve failed our women for a very long time, so there is no justice in what happened here.
“He sexually assaulted a number of our people, so finding him guilty on one count of assault brings no solace whatsoever.
“What is the message that it sends. You can pretend you’re a native healer and can touch women. You can take control of that and take advantage of their trust and confidence. I just can’t believe a jury of 12 people from this city will not find you guilty when he did what he did.”
All of the complainants testified Ashley groped them without their permission during healing sessions and she finds it difficult to believe their evidence appeared to be ignored in favour of the accused who simply denied the accusations, she said.
During her testimony at trial, she described how difficult it was when Ashley was accused of touching several different women inappropriately.
“I was in shock,” she said. “This is one of the toughest things I’ve been through in my life. I felt responsible. I had brought him into my community. I love all of my people... and my role is to support and protect my people.
“This was happening to people I would die for by someone I loved and trusted. I looked up to him like a brother. My kids called him uncle.”
She was shocked when the verdict was rendered.
“Apparently, he can say can I touch you and you say ‘yeah’ because you trust him and then he can grope you. It’s OK apparently. It’s not OK. None of this is OK.”
All of the complainants had to deal with the guilt and shame they felt after coming forward to police for two full years and they showed tremendous courage enduring what they have, she said.
“They were traumatized and had to carry this for two years,” she said.
A First Nation elder who attended court every single day throughout the trial, said the fact Ashley swore on the Bible to tell the truth and then denied he did anything wrong upsets her the most.
“The most telling thing for me is when he swore on the Bible, he wasn’t holding an eagle feather,” the elder said. “If he’s a healer, that says a lot to me.”
The amount of people who have rallied around the complainants over the past two years is amazing and something to be very proud of, she said.
“The work we’ve done over the last two years with these women has just been phenomenal,” she said. “There’s no loss, no weak women, no beaten women here. We won’t let that happen.”
During her time testifying during the trial on CCTV cameras, the former friend of Ashley’s was deeply upset that he continued to act inappropriately, she said.
“He’s sitting there smirking at me, rolling his eyes,” she said. “He was laughing at me. He stared right into the screen at every single one of us.”
Another supporter who attended most of the trial, said cases like this are why many victims of sexual assault are often unwilling to come forward.
“There are reports after reports that only six per cent of sexual assaults are reported and this is the reason why,” she said. “The re-traumatization of all these witnesses and all the people who helped them since this happened is just wrong.”
The complainant reiterated that what happened in this trial happens too often in this country.
“What I want to say again is this country thinks it’s OK to sexually assault Indigenous women,” she said. “He’s found guilty of assault, but not guilty of sexual assault against one woman. What the hell is that.”
The only solace from this case is that Ashley is now a convicted criminal and First Nations people from across this region rallied to help the complainants, she said.
“We are still here and we walk proud,” she said. “We’ve all come together and nothing can change that.”
Ashley left the courtroom immediately following the verdict and did not take questions.
