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of newspaper clippings. If we had not managed to generate alot of media,
we would not have gained public support because the public wouldn't
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< < | more |
> > > publicity from
January, 2004 including Margaret Wente's Globe and Mail column
> > > | Sask Party | Sabo apology | Dueck
walks away without having to account for himself | Government
wants to intervene in the courts on its own behalf! |
- The Klassen
story
- Breaking
through to the public
Saskatoon family calls
for apology in malicious prosecution lawsuit
By TIM COOK, January 5,
2004
REGINA (CP) - The dozen people
who successfully sued investigators for malicious prosecution
in a bizarre but unfounded sexual abuse scandal want the Saskatchewan
government and police to apologize.
Lawyer Robert Borden said the
12 members of Richard Klassen's family and extended family deserve
official recognition that they have done nothing wrong in light
of last week's civil court ruling that found they were victims
of malicious prosecution. "These people were wronged. These
people were innocent. That is clear," Borden said Monday.
"Surely these parties
should have the courage to come forward and say that the judge
was right.
"That is not an admission
of liability. That is simply doing the right thing."
Officials with both the Justice
Department and Saskatoon police said they are reviewing the decision
and will comment as early as the end of the week.
"There needs to be a decision
on whether or not there needs to be an appeal," said Justice
spokeswoman Deb McEwen. "It's not a final judgment."
The Klassens were wrongfully
charged based on accusations by three young foster children in
1991. The three claimed they were forced to eat eyeballs, drink
blood and participate in orgies while in the care of the Saskatoon
family.
Police called it the "scandal
of the century" at the time, but in 1993 charges against
most of the accused were stayed to avoid further "trauma"
to the children.
In the years that followed,
each of the children came forward to admit the stories had been
made up, but officials never acknowledged publicly that the Klassens
were innocent.
The Klassens filed a lawsuit
and last week Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton ruled that
three of the four lead investigators - a Saskatoon police officer,
a therapist and a Crown prosecutor - were malicious in their
pursuit of the case.
Baynton called the situation
a travesty of justice and said the real scandal was how the plaintiffs
were treated.
The lawsuit claimed $10 million
in damages, but Baynton did not rule on compensation. Borden
said he hopes a figure can be negotiated out of court.
"What we are looking for
first and foremost is an apology," Borden said. "Until
that is done, this leaves a black cloud over all of our clients."
Richard Klassen, who represented
himself in the lawsuit, echoed that sentiment.
"Compensation talks can
come later," Klassen said. "What we want is an immediate
apology.
"It is the road to the
beginning of a healing process."
Justice system takes
grave hit
The StarPhoenix Editorial,
Wednesday, December 31, 2003
The latest body blow to Saskatchewan's
teetering justice system and Saskatoon's beleaguered police service
comes from Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton's scathing attack
on prosecutorial and police misconduct detailed in a civil suit
won by 12 plaintiffs.
Baynton found Crown lawyer
Matt Miazga, Saskatoon police officer Brian Dueck and child therapist
Carol Bunko-Ruys acted maliciously to prosecute Richard Klassen
and 11 others over bizarre and incredible allegations of ritual
sexual abuse involving four foster kids in 1991.
Although Klassen, who represented
himself in the lawsuit, professed that he has a "whole new
faith in the Saskatchewan justice system" as a result of
Tuesday's blunt ruling, the rest of the province's citizens have
ample reason to worry.
Baynton didn't announce what
damages he's awarding in the $10-million malicious prosecution
lawsuit, although his language suggests taxpayers can expect
to part with a fair amount. After all, when the court notes a
"travesty of justice visited upon plaintiffs," details
how "lying children wreaked such havoc ... on the lives
of innocent people" and refers to "individuals who
foolishly and maliciously acted together to charge and prosecute
the plaintiffs," you can guess the award will be more than
a token amount.
Far more important than any
dollar sum for which taxpayers will be liable, however, is the
need to address the serious problems with the province's justice
system and the Saskatoon police force that are once again highlighted
in this case.
From Dueck's taking his shaky
case to Miazga when Crown prosecutor Terry Hinz already had rejected
it for lacking credible evidence, to Miazga authorizing the then
corporal to lay charges without so much as looking at the videotaped
interviews with the children whose testimony alone would form
his case, Baynton pulls no punches about the wrongness of the
process.
He wonders how the case got
to court even though Dueck and Miazga said they disbelieved all
the ritualistic and satanic abuse allegations of the children,
especially when "none of the defendants has ever clarified
just what it is that he or she did believe of the various allegations
made by the children."
In fact, the judge's feelings
about Dueck and Miazga's testimony in his court clearly is revealed
in his observation that he wasn't satisfied that their "professed
inability to recall" even memorable and significant events
"was always genuine."
As for Bunko-Ruys, Baynton
suggests that the therapist, "by withholding and in fact
attempting to stifle evidence" about a child witness who
had recanted her allegations about ritual abuse by the foster
parents, "may have run the risk of being charged with the
criminal offence of obstructing justice."
Baynton hit the mark when he
noted the problems in this case should warn social workers, as
well as police and prosecutors, about "the real threat to
society of overzealous child protection responses, fuelled by
politically correct or trendy ideologies of the day, that are
relied upon as a justification to overrule objectivity, reason,
common sense and tested and tried legal traditions."
Baynton goes on to suggest
that his ruling "does not imply that the defendants lack
repute or are incompetent. Reputable and competent people at
times make mistakes and do things that they should not have done.
Although such people must be held accountable for their mistakes,
they can learn from those mistakes and, in doing so, will be
better equipped to carry on their respective professional practices."
However, despite Baynton's
magnanimity, the fact remains that the Saskatoon police department
and Justice face huge credibility problems because of Dueck and
Miazga's deplorable conduct in this case. Strong disciplinary
action must be forthcoming.
Dueck has been promoted to
a superintendent with the Saskatoon service while Miazga is a
senior prosecutor at Justice. Without a thorough vetting of the
decision-making and accountability structures of these agencies,
there can be no public confidence that horrendous miscarriages
of justice such as those involving the Klassen and Kvello families
in this case aren't repeated, because of malice or incompetence.
It's time for Justice Minister
Frank Quennell to explain clearly how he plans to deal with the
fallout from Baynton's ruling and order a public inquiry into
a department in which fewer Saskatchewan residents have confidence
each day.
© Copyright 2003 The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)
A harsh lesson
Edmonton Sun, EDITORIAL,
January 05, 2004
The sexual exploitation and
assault of children is among the most heinous of crimes in a
civilized society and it's little wonder that politicians and
police officers alike have made it a top priority.
Bringing those who would prey
on kids to justice is a noble task and not without its rewards,
and it's also apparent that the prosecutors of these crimes should
approach them with as much caution as zeal.
The final chapter of what has
been more than a decade of horror came to a conclusion in a Saskatoon
court last week, when Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton ruled
the case against Richard Klassen and 11 others had been a "travesty
of justice" and they had been subject to a malicious prosecution.
The case, which was branded
the "scandal of the century" when it first broke, alleged
that Klassen abused the children through bizarre and demonic
rituals. The events that supposedly took place against three
Saskatoon-area foster children touched off a national media feeding
frenzy but we at the Sun urged caution and skepticism until the
evidence was presented in court.
When the case did come to trial,
it appeared almost immediately that the evidence was obtained
under some dubious and unprofessional means. Other than a minor
sexual assault charge against one individual, the scandal collapsed
like a pup tent in a hurricane, leaving the reputations of Klassen
and 11 others in shreds.
The judge ruled that zeal overtook
reason and said proceeding with the case constituted a "strong
presumption of malice."
This is not the first time
that claims of bizarre satanic rituals involving children have
hit the headlines.
In most cases the enthusiasm
of prosecutors and social service agency workers has so clouded
the children's evidence as to make it all but worthless. But
in the meantime, reputations of innocent people have been ruined
and their lives will never be the same.
While Saskatchewan's government
must attempt to restore its credibility and fairly compensate
the real victims, Alberta's own Justice Minister Dave Hancock
should not stand smugly by.
There's a very important lesson
to be learned from the Klassen persecution.
Clear-cut protocols must be
developed - and made public - instructing crown prosecutors how
to proceed with cases involving children's evidence.
And specifically, controls
should be placed on intermediaries like social workers and psychologists
to make certain that what the children experienced is actually
true and not drawn out of the alleged victims by inducement or
threatening circumstances.
Because, as the Klassen case
clearly shows, there are two kinds of victims in child abuse
cases.
And that's a crying shame.
Suffer the adults
Calgary Herald, Opinion,
January 3, 2004
The finding of malicious prosecution
in a Saskatoon child abuse case should sound a cautionary note
to all those in the child-welfare industry who still buy into
the myth that children never lie.
It is incredible that police,
the Crown and social workers could actually believe, based solely
on the word of some emotionally disturbed foster children, that
Richard Klassen, his wife, Kari, and several other adults skinned
newborn babies and forced kids to eat eyeballs, drink blood and
do other equally bizarre things. Were the authorities so naive
they never questioned the impossible premise that the Klassens
would have had to have access to a steady supply of newborn babies?
The charges were finally dropped
when the children admitted they'd lied, and now the plaintiffs
are seeking more than $10 million in damages. Let's hope they
get it. The zealots who see child molestation around every corner
have successfully sold society a peculiar perception of children
as saintly truth-tellers. Meanwhile, the number of cases of adults
whose lives have been ruined by phoney accusations continues
to grow.
The only sacrifices committed
in the Saskatoon case were made by the officials who sacrificed
the most elementary principles of justice on the twin altars
of pop psychology and political correctness.
Welcome end to the 'Age
of Abuse'
The Montreal Gazette, Editorial,
Saturday, January 3, 2004
The burden of proof in cases
of malicious prosecution is so great a decision rendered last
week in Saskatoon, involving sensational allegations of child
abuse, is thought to be the first-successful lawsuit against
a Saskatchewan crown attorney. It's an important judgement that
will surely take its place as a pillar of Canadian jurisprudence
with respect to the testimony of children and the authority of
psychotherapists and other practitioners of the mind-probing
arts.
Billed at the time as the Scandal
of the Century, the original 1991 case saw the arrest of 16 people,
mostly members of the same extended family, in connection with
the supposed abuse of three foster children. Stories included
an all-too-familiar litany of satanic practices involving cannibalism,
human waste and dead babies. These charges, it turned out, originated
from the eldest of the three children, a boy who had been removed
from the household for having abused his sisters and who sought
revenge. All three siblings have since recanted their testimony.
However we deplore the performance
at the time of the prosecutor, police investigator and child
therapist who put so many innocent people in custody and caused
them so much pain and humiliation, it is worth recalling the
crazed environment in which these charges arose.
The early 1990s might well
be remembered as the Abuse Era, when anti-family ideologues held
the stage and psychotherapists eagerly sought "repressed"
memories from their vulnerable (and paying) clients.
The media did their bit by
trumpeting baseless allegations as if they were guilty verdicts
in waiting, and finding experts to tell us shocking abuse was
everywhere. All those quiet suburbs where families apparently
led productive lives were seen, however briefly and absurdly,
as ghettos of domestic violence and maltreatment. Movies riffed
on the theme while self-help gurus published books aimed at would-be
survivors. A comparison with the Salem witch trials of 1692 is
not overdrawn.
The madness has now largely
subsided, and lessons have been learned. A few cases await resolution.
Only last year - a long decade after his arrest - a police officer
falsely implicated in the even more sensational case of a day-care
centre in Martensville, Sask., was offered an out-of-court settlement
and apology.
It's important to recognize
children are maltreated in Canada and elsewhere and that these
cases need to be prosecuted vigorously. But to do so in defiance
of the evidence and common sense is as bad as doing nothing at
all.
To make malicious prosecution
a criminal offence, as the Saskatoon victims recommend, is probably
unnecessary given the clarity of this civil judgement. Prosecutors
and therapists everywhere have been suitably warned. Late as
it might be, this is a welcome development. © Copyright
2004 Montreal Gazette
Which witch will we hunt
next?
Colby Cosh, National Post
(Canada), January 2, 2004
Everybody knows about
the witchcraft trials in 17th-century Salem, Mass. -- a calamity
that saw 19 people hanged unjustly, and a 20th pressed to death
with stones for refusing to testify before a civil authority
gone mad. The "witch hunt" has become our favourite
metaphor (or cliche?) for justice perverted by mass delusion.
Yet it is rarely noticed how quickly the judges and the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts realized their collective error. The first accusation
was made in February 1692, and the trials ran from spring to
fall; but by October, the public had realized that the
process was out of control, and the court that sentenced
the innocents to death was dissolved. The remaining prisoners
and suspects were all freed and absolved by May of the next year.
In 1697 the colony held a formal day of atonement for the
crimes committed in its name.
We don't judicially crush or
hang people to death in Canada now, but we are relatively
slow to admit our mistakes. On Tuesday, 12 people accused in
1991 of molesting and terrorizing a trio of foster children
in Saskatoon were found by a Queen's Bench judge to have
been victims of malicious prosecution. The verdict is no
surprise: The children confessed long ago that they invented
the over-the-top stories of abuse they told adult investigators
in exchange for praise and rewards. (They said, for example,
that they had been forced to eat human eyeballs and watch
babies being skinned.) The case has earned the cognomen of
the "Scandal of the Century," yet a very similar miscarriage
of justice happened, at around the same time, just up the
road in tiny Martensville. And these are just two instances
in a series of international disasters symbolizing the
Satanic-abuse dementia that gripped the continent in the 1980s
and early 1990s.
It is already becoming hard
to comprehend the origins of these trials. Thanks ultimately
to a few little books written by a handful of liars and nut cases
-- and thanks to the abysmal absence of rigour in the psychological
profession -- otherwise rational cops and prosecutors became
convinced that large numbers of ordinary, respected citizens
were cult members, capable of ravaging children in seclusion
and concealing it from their fellow townsfolk. In both Martensville
and Saskatoon, the authorities went to trial in an utter
vacuum of corroborating physical evidence, building conspiratorial
narratives about Satanism on the testimony of intimidated
children.
It would be nice if those of
us in towns not tainted by international disgrace could
reflect with satisfaction on our own superiority. Yet what happened
in Saskatoon and Martensville happened elsewhere just the
same way: Malden, Mass., Wenatchee, Wash., and Manhattan
Beach, Calif., have earned their own notoriety. The contributing
factors to abuse panics vary from place to place; sometimes it's
a child-welfare bureaucracy out of control, sometimes it's a
cop shop in disarray that gives the wrong file to a rookie.
The common element has been the presence of therapists
who insisted on the prevalent orthodoxy that conspiratorial
multi-offender sex abuse of children is common, and that children
never, ever tell falsehoods about such matters.
Mercifully, these axioms are
pretty much out the window now. Genuine experts have conducted
controlled experiments with children, showing beyond doubt that
you can implant fictional memories quite easily through
cajoling and aggressive questioning. Child-abuse investigators
are trained to interview children as neutrally as possible,
using techniques appropriate to each child's level of cognitive
development and sophistication. Everything is videotaped at every
stage of an inquiry, and the police know that they will
end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit if they rig the game,
deliberately or inadvertently.
In other words, we've learned
what we ought to have known all along. People like Richard
Klassen, the best-known plaintiff in the Saskatoon civil proceeding,
had to pull a heavy weight up that learning curve. A former
housepainter with a Grade 7 education, Mr. Klassen became
a familiar sight on Saskatoon streets, protesting continually,
after he and his family were charged. He was sued for defamation
by his tormentors, and won. He represented himself in the malicious-prosecution
suit, mastering the rules of the Queen's Bench. Now he has revealed
that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the fall of 2002
and delayed surgery to work on the suit. Only now will
he be examined to learn how far the disease has progressed.
One is almost taken aback by
such wolverinish toughness -- but what would you do if
you had a "child molester" sign hung on your neck by
the Crown, and you were innocent? There is no escaping
a stigma of that sort: Fighting to the bitter end is the
only practical option. You can't help thinking that being pressed
to death might, on the whole, be kinder.
Accused were the real
victims
The Standard (St. Catharines,
Ontario) January 2, 2004, ViewPoint; Pg. A8
The 12-year fight by the family
of Richard Klassen to clear their names is a damning indictment
of Saskatchewan's justice system. Klassen and 11 other family
members had been accused of horrendous child abuse in 1991
by three young foster children in the family's care.
Police in the province called
the case the "scandal of the century," since it involved
accusations of the children being forced to eat eyeballs, participate
in orgies and watch as babies were skinned and burned.
There was nothing to back up the children's claims and
the prosecutors stayed the charges against most of the
family members, saying they wanted to avoid further trauma to
the youngsters.
But Klassen and his family
struggled to clear their names and protested their innocence
for more than a decade. In that time, two of them died, many
others suffered stress and several lost their jobs.
In the meantime, the three young accusers recanted their testimony.
That should have ended the case, but because there was
no official declaration of the Klassens' innocence, the
family launched a lawsuit. This week, a judge ruled the
Klassens were innocent victims of malicious prosecution
by the lead investigator, a therapist and a crown prosecutor
involved in the case. So now the family members' names
have been cleared. But it should never have taken this
long to clear things up.
Let's hope the Canadian justice
system learns to be more careful when its prosecutors lay
such serious charges. Let us also hope some better system is
put into place to prevent people in a position of authority
from making such malicious and groundless accusations in
the first place.
'Clear our names,' family
matriarch pleaded
The Canadian Press, Tim
Cook, January 2, 2004
It was 1995 and 56-year-old
Marie Klassen was on her death bed, losing a battle with
breast cancer.
Wrongfully labelled a demonic
pedophile, the matriarch of a family ripped apart by horrific
accusations of abuse used her last breath to put her children
on a mission.
"Clear our names,"
she urged daughter Pamela Shetterly with her dying breath, her
last sentence to her children.
Eight years later Marie got
her wish. Earlier this week, a judge confirmed what the
family has known all along. Saskatchewan's so-called "scandal
of the century" was a fabrication and three of the
four investigators that tried to put 12 of the Klassens and others
behind bars for child molestation were malicious in their
pursuit of the case.
"I feel vindicated in
some ways," said Richard Klassen, Marie's son. "My
mother was the best friend I ever had."
It was a long road for him
and his family. The spectre of the allegations they faced
tore them apart and the fight for vindication wore them down.
"Some of the people have
had mental breakdowns. They have not been repaired. Two of
the plaintiffs have died, undoubtedly from the stress,"
he said.
"How do you describe how
you feel when you are charged with child molestation? The
first thing on your mind is tell everybody you didn't do it.
But nobody wants to believe you."
The ordeal began in 1991 when
foster child Michael Ross and his twin sisters, Kathy and
Michell, began telling stories about the abuse they had suffered
while in the care of Klassen's brother and sister-in-law.
The children said they were
forced to participate in orgies, eat eyeballs and watch
babies being skinned and burned, but there was nothing to corroborate
the claims.
Police initially thought they
had unearthed the "scandal of the century," as they
were quoted as saying at the time. However, in 1993, prosecutors
stayed the charges against most of the family, saying they
wanted to avoid further trauma to the children.
In the years that followed,
the children publicly admitted they made up the stories.
But when there was no official
declaration of the family's innocence, Klassen filed the
lawsuit.
Shetterly said the situation
created divisions among family members. Some thought they
should have just let the case go away.
"We have this great tragedy
in common, but we have rarely gotten together in the last
years because to look in each other's eyes is to mirror each
other's pain and we can't do that," she said.
"We will carry
this for the rest of our lives."
One woman, who can't
be named because two of her children were charged in the case
as young offenders, said she lost the ability to trust others.
She also lost her job
as a special-care aid and her husband, who was also accused,
died before the judge ruled on the lawsuit.
"My heart is broken
so bad I don't think it can ever be repaired completely,"
she said. "The pain will never go away; it is so deeply
imbedded."
Some of the Klassens
have made their peace with their young accusers. Each of the
children took the stand during the lawsuit to revoke their claims.
They still keep in touch with some members of the family.
"They are children
who were traumatized, in one shape or another, by their pasts,"
Shetterly said. "What is tragic is they didn't get the kind
of help they needed."
Klassen accuser praises
judgment
Shannon Boklaschuk, The
Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), January 2, 2004
One of the twin sisters
who falsely accused Richard Klassen and his family members
of abuse more than a decade ago says she's pleased with a judge's
recent ruling.
"I'm really, really
happy. I kind of knew the judge would go for the right decision,"
21-year-old Kathy Ross said in an interview from her B.C. residence.
"There was just
way too much evidence there to go the other way."
On Tuesday, Justice
George Baynton of the Court of Queen's Bench released his decision
into the Klassens' malicious prosecution lawsuit. Baynton found
that child therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys, Crown prosecutor
Matthew Miazga and Saskatoon police officer Brian Dueck
maliciously prosecuted Richard Klassen and 11 other plaintiffs.
In the early 1990s,
Richard Klassen, his wife and other family members were wrongly
accused of sexually abusing Kathy Ross, her twin sister Michell
and the twins' older brother Michael. The Ross kids were
the foster children of Richard Klassen's brother, Peter
Dale Klassen and Peter Dale's wife Anita.
The bizarre allegations
included detailed accounts of satanic ritual abuse, which
included animal and human sacrifice, as well as claims the children
had been forced to eat feces and drink urine.
Police arrested 16 people
in 1991, but charges against 12 individuals were stayed
in 1993, while Richard Klassen's father, Peter, pleaded guilty
to sexual assault as part of a plea bargain to spare his
family members. The birth parents and a family member were
found guilty, but the decision was later overturned by the
Supreme Court.
The children later recanted
their stories, and Michael Ross was found to be abusing
his sisters.
Klassen and the others
then sued for in excess of $10-million, alleging malicious
prosecution. Lawyers for police, prosecutors and the therapist,
meanwhile, argued the officials were simply doing their
jobs.
"The lengthy civil
trial that was conducted before me demonstrates how lying children
wreaked such havoc, not only in the lives of the innocent people
who were charged with numerous serious criminal offences
founded on the children's allegations, but also in the
lives of the individuals who foolishly and maliciously
acted together to charge and prosecute the plaintiffs for those
criminal offences," Baynton said in his 189-page judgment.
In the interview, Kathy
Ross said she was happy to help out the Klassens by testifying
at the civil trial. She said she didn't get as emotional as her
sister, but rather "kind of held it in.
"I think I was
scared and nervous, you know, but I also knew that I had to do
the right thing," she said.
"I think it really
opened my eyes, because that was the first time I actually talked
about it a lot like that. So I think it was a healing process
for me."
Despite the hardships
the Klassens have endured over the years, the family has maintained
contact with the Ross sisters, and, to a lesser extent, Michael
Ross, Richard Klassen said.
"But with the two
girls, certainly they call us mom and dad and whatever. They
have ever since they apologized," he said. "They've
always considered us their parents. They don't have any
parents."
Klassen said he believes
Michael Ross still lives in Saskatoon, but he "travels around."
He said he has forgiven
the children, who were once wards of the government, and believes
they should have gotten "immediate attention for their sexual
abuse problems that they were having with each other."
Klassen said the Ross
twins still blame themselves for what happened to his family.
"They always apologize
and they're always saying they're sorry, and they don 't have
to do that."
At age 21, Michell Ross
is currently in Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert,
"since she keeps breaching little things and going back,"
he said. Her two children have been "taken away by
social services," according to Klassen.
Kathy Ross said her
sister is "still fairly hurt" by past events and recently
got 40 days at the correctional centre for breaching probation.
Michell Ross will be released on Jan. 10, said Kathy Ross,
who also has a 17-month-old son in foster care.
According to Klassen, Michell
Ross is an extremely intelligent person and is the most
emotional of the three siblings.
"After she testified
and everything, she gave me a plaque," he recalled. "You
know, she was thinking about me and my nerves. And it just
said 'spend the day thinking about yourself and calm down.
You're doing good.' So she's a really caring child."
While the Ross twins
may now be celebrating Klassen's legal victory, their thoughts
have also turned to their own legal future.
In 2001, around the
time of their 19th birthdays, they launched a lawsuit of their
own. The sisters are suing Dueck, Bunko-Ruys, the City of Saskatoon
board of police commissioners, the province of Saskatchewan
and a number of other parties, according to a statement
of claim filed with the Court of Queen's Bench.
The statement of claim alleges
the defendants "owed a duty of care" to the Ross sisters
to prevent each of them from being placed in a position where
they suffered or were likely to suffer physical harm, suffered
or were likely to suffer a serious impairment of mental
or emotional functioning and were or were likely to be
exposed to harmful interaction for a sexual purpose.
It also alleges the
defendants knew Michael Ross was sexually assaulting each of
the plaintiffs.
- In an interview Wednesday,
Robert Borden, lawyer for the Ross twins, said Baynton's
judgment is "very, very helpful" for the Ross lawsuit.
No date has been set for a civil trial, he said.
-
-
- Klassen demands probe
of officer:
- Dueck's actions may
merit investigation of obstruction
James Parker, The Star Phoenix
(Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), January 2, 2004
The Saskatoon Police
Service has been asked to investigate the actions of Supt. Brian
Dueck in the Klassen malicious prosecution case.
Richard Klassen said
Wednesday he believes the department has already begun a formal
probe into whether Dueck obstructed justice in the early 1990s
in the course of investigating bizarre sexual and ritualistic
abuse allegations.
Klassen was among 16
people charged with more than 70 counts of sexual abuse involving
foster children. In 1993, all the charges were stayed after one
person pleaded guilty to four sexual assault charges.
On Tuesday, Dueck, prosecutor
Matthew Miazga and therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys were found
liable for malicious prosecution. The 12 plaintiffs were seeking
more than $10 million in the civil case.
After the decision was
released, Klassen said he believed criminal charges against
the three defendants were warranted.
Dueck, who is now in
charge of records management at the department and earns about
$100,000 a year, is still on the job. He has declined comment
on the judgment. His lawyer issued a statement said his
client may appeal.
Klassen said he filed
a formal complaint with city police in October. He said the
case has been turned over to two investigators.
"They called me
and we had a meeting. We came to the conclusion that we would
wait for the judgment and see what would come about. I
suspect in the new year will be meet again. That's my expectation."
In the civil judgment,
Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton said Dueck conducted a
shoddy investigation of the sexual abuse allegations and ignored
evidence that would have cleared the accused.
Baynton said the police
officer was blinded by his zeal "to turn the wild allegations
into a high profile case that would portray him as a diligent
and unrelenting protector of abused children."
"He (Dueck) should
be suspended until a complete and full investigation is completed,"
said Klassen.
Police spokesperson
Acting Insp. Al Stickney had no comment when contacted Wednesday.
Police Chief Russell Sabo is expected to make a statement on
the judgment next week.
Mayor Don Atchison, who is
also chair of the city's police commission, said he will
wait until after the commission's Jan. 15th meeting before commenting.
Atchison said he needs time to study Baynton's decision
and consult with the city's legal department.
Klassen wants doctor
investigated
The Star Phoenix, James
Parker, January 2, 2004
The College of Physicians
and Surgeons of Saskatchewan will be asked to investigate
the professional conduct of the Saskatoon doctor who examined
the foster children at the centre of the Klassen malicious
prosecution case.
Richard Klassen, one
of the 12 people wrongly accused of sexual and ritualistic abuse
by the children, said Wednesday he intends to send the decision
of Court of Queen's Bench Justice George Baynton to the
college.
He wants an investigation
into the conduct of Dr. Joel Yelland,
who was harshly criticized by Baynton in his 189-page judgment.
And Klassen said he
may launch a separate lawsuit against Yelland, the president
of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA), for playing
a part in the malicious prosecution.
"The judge pretty
well invites us to sue Dr. Yelland in the judgment. He's inviting,
almost instructing us, to do that."
Baynton ruled that prosecutor
Matthew Miazga, Saskatoon Police Service Supt. Brian Dueck
and therapist Carol Bunko-Ruys were liable for malicious prosecution.
In 1991, Klassen and
15 others were charged with more than 70 counts of sexual assault.
In 1993, charges against 12 individuals were stayed just before
criminal trials were set to begin.
Peter Klassen, the father
of Richard Klassen and several of the accused, pleaded guilty
to four sexual assault charges.
The birth parents of
the foster children and a family friend were found guilty, but
the decision was later overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Baynton noted Dueck and Miazga
relied upon the medical reports of Yelland as corroboration
of the sexual abuse allegations.
He said Yelland's expert
opinion evidence was adduced and relied upon by Miazga at
each preliminary inquiry.
Baynton said Yelland
made statements of fact based solely on unsubstantiated allegations
of the children rather than on physical examinations.
He continued, "in
my respectful view, his involvement in establishing the Saskatoon
Sexual Abuse of Children Protocol and the volume of his practice
that resulted from social services referrals, clouded his
professional judgment and blinded him to any other conclusions
than one that was consistent with the wild stories the
children were telling him."
Yelland was unavailable
for comment Wednesday.
Bryan Salte, the college
lawyer and associate registrar, said it's premature to discuss
anything related to Dr. Yelland because no complaint has been
laid.
Salte said when the college
receives a complaint related to quality of care or judgment
issues, it must determine whether they are reasonable grounds
to believe the physician was guilty of unprofessional conduct
or incompetence before proceeding with a disciplinary hearing.
"The threshold
for that is fairly high. The fact that someone made a bad judgment
does not mean it's unprofessional conduct. The legislation and
bylaws say failing to maintain the standards of the profession
is unprofessional. But it has to be so far removed from
what is appropriate medical judgment that no reasonable
physician would have made the decision."
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more Jan/04 publicity including Margaret Wente's Globe and Mail
column
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
