More on McKillop | Jan. 28, 2002: What happened when Richard Klassen drove to Regina to get the box of documents McKillop had phoned that he'd just found . . .

Memo of understanding on Klassen appeal

Sermonette: January, 2004

Justice Minister Frank Quennell puts all his eggs in one basket and publicly aligns himself with doers of malice

Political suicide? We anticipate we will be posting his political obit: But No!

November 18, 2004:We were wrong! Once Quennell got his bearings he has been working his way out of the incredible mess left for him by previous administrations. On the Stonechild report, the Martensville settlements and his disclosure of the non-confidential aspects of the Klassen/Kvello settlements her has taken necessary steps to assure us that he is no longer interested in perpetuating cover-ups.

Oh Oh. Conflict

This page serves as the career obit to Don McKillop who we have for many years identified as a less than stand-up officer of the court.

Now that Quennell has disentangled himself from McKillop, we are ready to give him some room to breathe. But he didn't.

Sermonette:Telling the truth about the undefamable: McKillop and Quennell, the static duo

I went to the dictionary to find just the right word, the opposite of dynamic, to describe this pair. And there it was. Static.

My hyper dictionary tells me that the word "static" has four different senses:

Adjective:
Not active or moving.
Not in physical motion.
Showing little if any change.
Noun:
event : A crackling or hissing noise cause by electrical interference.

Perfect.

 

They are not budging and they are not saying anything intelligent. Irritating noise.

 

Last Thursday, two days after Saskatoon Police Chief Russell Sabo apologized to the Klassens and Kvellos on behalf of the Saskatoon Police Service, for any damage which was done to them by the actions of his police force, the pressure was on the Saskatchewan government to do likewise.

 

A press conference was announced. Representatives from the Regina press corps hauled their equipment and notebooks down to one of the legislative building where they were promised a "scrum" with the new minister of Justice, Frank Quennell. It didn't matter that Quennell is from Saskatoon, that the lawsuit was heard in Saskatoon, and that Richard Klassen is in Saskatoon. This was to be a big deal government thing.

 

What actually happened was something quite different from what had been promised. Quennell did not read his prepared statement until Don McKillop, the government lawyer who represented the two remaining defendants, Carol Bunko-Ruys and Prosecutor Matthew Miazga, blathered on for a full twenty minutes in condescending tone, sounding like that boring high school teacher that we used to tune out as we stared out the window, knowing we could always borrow somebody else's notes to see if anything important was being said.

 

The important thing that was being said, it seems, was that McKillop had filed an appeal on behalf of his clients. One brave reporter, who was up to speed on the case, asked if he was not obliged to go through the damages portion of the trial before any appeal could be filed.

 

Well, no, Mr. McKillop said. He would speak to the learned judges at the Appeal Court on January 28 and explain to them that it was more sensible to proceed the way he was proceeding.

 

Order (by Judge Mona Dovall, pretrial judge) . . .

2. In the event that a judgment is rendered that makes a finding of liability in the action against any of the Defendants, the appeal period with respect to such judgment shall be stayed pending agreement on damages and costs.

Issued at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, this 28th day of March, 2003

He made it quite clear, sitting in front of the Saskatchewan colours, hands clasped on the oak table, that the learned appeal court judges would appreciate that any agreement he had made with a Queen's Bench judge in Saskatoon during the pretrial process was not really sensible, that there were errors in the judgment of the trial judge, another Queen's Bench judge in Saskatoon, and blah, blah, blah.

 

Contempt of the court.

 

Then he allowed the Justice Minister to read his statement.

 

No apology. Quennell went further. He had represented clients when Miazga was a prosecutor and he simply could not believe that Miazga would ever act maliciously. His understanding of malice seemed to be that it had to be a personal grudge. That Miazga had somehow deliberately targetted the Klassens and Kvellos and set out to do them harm. Nah. Not the fine, upstanding guy he'd done legal jousting with in his days before the bar. Not our Matt.

 

But think again.

 

Miazga knew right well that Dueck had targetted all the members of the Klassen and Kvello extended family once he got wind of Peter Klassen's conviction for sexual interference with two adolescent girls in 1989. Miazga may not have known them personally but he certainly set out to do them personal harm. The impersonality of the prosecution makes it all the more horrifying. The public has now had an opportunity to read Judge George Baynton's judgment; it is clear that anyone who was vulnerable by virtue of having a convicted family member or relatives who took in damaged foster children was fair game for this conspiring trio.

 

In all the excitement about the findings for malicious prosecution, let us not lose sight of Judge Baynton's findings that the three defendants conspired to carry out their malicious acts. That they decieved their superiors. That they advanced their careers. And, that they set the stage and prepared the groundwork for the Martensville malicious prosecutions which resulted in the longest and most expensive criminal proceedings this province has yet seen.

 

Here is a sampling of the editorial opinion flowing from McKillop's and Quennell's press conference last Thursday:

Justice was not served in Saskatchewan.

Explain that.

Explain how it is that when it is obvious to everybody what happened here, the provincial government does not get it.

The ruthlessness of the persecution of the Klassen people seemed even to stun the judge.

The truth was put into a dark closet.

The government is running the lives of almost one million people in Saskatchewan. They got to run our lives for another four years by using fear against the voters in the election of Nov. 5. They made the voter afraid of what would happen to the province if they ever allowed the Saskatchewan Party to get into office.

"Trust us," the government said.

The people did, just the way Richard Klassen trusted the justice system and figured he would get a fair hearing. It took more than a decade before he was fully able to feel vindicated. And for this, he gets no apology from the government.

The NDP, the party that wants everybody to believe it is the only party of social conscience, is looking like a government that now into its fourth straight term of office is dead. It looks like a government that has risen above everybody and has lost touch.

Great! - - Bob Hughes, Leader-Post, January 12.

It is crystal clear from Baynton's decision that the justice system failed these people.

The truth is that the 12 were victims of police and prosecutors who saw patterns of behaviour that simply weren't there. The 12 were victims of a collective tunnel vision and a severe breakdown of the justice process. Senior officials at the Regina head office, detached from the investigation, failed properly to review the case before the charges were laid.

So, the government's call here should have been simple. The right thing to do was not hard to see.

The first words out of Quennell's mouth on Thursday should have been: "I'm sorry." Richard Klassen and the others are clearly owed an apology for his department's failings.

Instead, we heard Quennell stress that "no apology" would be forthcoming.

"It's not the position -- or practical -- for my office to be extending apologies where prosecutions don't proceed," Quennell explained to reporters in Regina. "That's how the system works."

Well, frankly, sir, the system didn't work. Your office failed these 12 people. And instead of being honest and forthright Quennell and his department continue to stonewall on any admission that they could possibly have made a mistake.

Arrogance. -- Murray Mandryk, Leader Post, January 10

Given its poor track record for respecting the individual rights of its citizens and keeping the powers of its police and prosecutors in check, the Klassens' exoneration would have been a perfect opportunity for the provincial government and its new Justice Minister, Frank Quennell, to display a fresh commitment to doing the right thing. A simple apology for a decade of wrongfully persecuting the Klassens as pedophiles would have gone a long way.

By instead calling for an appeal that will again haul the wronged Klassen family back into court, Saskatchewan has reaffirmed its reputation as a government more concerned with saving face and its own authority than with the people it is charged to protect. - - National Post , January 10

What the government really needs to do is to conduct a thorough review of its Justice Department to see what has led to such embarrassing and credibility-eroding prosecutions as Martensville, Latimer, Milgaard and Nerland and take steps to fix them.

Instead, what a government that's spending millions to improve the province's image across Canada delivers is the spectacle of a "justice" minister telling a dozen people whose lives his officials have ruined that he has no plans even to apologize to them, let alone atone for the misery they've been put through.

How much the government is in touch with public sentiment on this issue was demonstrated by its initial decision to have Quennell, a Saskatoon MLA dealing with an issue with a huge impact on this city, announce the province's response in a press conference at the lobby of the CIC building in Regina, where Saskatoon media wouldn't have access to the minister.

Skeptics would even question the timing of the announcement, which coincided with the release of the Boughen report on education funding and which would preoccupy Regina media less familiar with the Klassen judgment.

However, by dragging out this case, the government only focuses more public attention on a troubled justice system that needs to be fixed -- and fast. --StarPhoenix, January 9

Justice Minister Quennell is taking the heat for McKillop's strategy and well he should. Richard Klassen has filed a complaint with the Law Society of Saskatchewan regarding McKillop's conduct.

It was clear to us, and we have stated it several times on this website, that McKillop used every trick in the book to defeat Richard Klassen once Klassen took over his own defence. McKillop came to court expecting Klassen to fold under the burden of carrying his case through trial. Klassen did not fold. He did not even falter.

As McKillop stated at the press conference, he is a government employee. In other words, he is legal counsel to the government. He has been giving very bad counsel.

Quennell should never have allowed himself to be led by the nose by this smooth-talking devil. Public opinion has already impeached him metaphorically. Full impeachment is surely on its way. For Quennell and the whole crew of them who have been looking to Donald McKillop for direction. --Sheila Steele, January 14, 2003

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd.
William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

Truth crushed to earth will rise again. --William Cullen Bryant

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Who we are:

Publisher Sheila Steele

Co-founder: Richard Klassen

New: injusticebustersblog. Participate!

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

More Sermonettes

 

 

early commentaries mixed in with news reports

2001

January: Legal Treachery to keep Dueck's lies safe

September: Hatchen and Munson trial

2002

March, 2002 -- Gay Bashing still a legal sport in Saskatoon -- Even when it turns to murder

First conscious sermonettes

2003

 

Feb. 1: Where we stand

Feb. 15, 2003: Has Saskatchewan learned anything?

March 1: Connecting the dots

March 23, 2003: From Micro to Macro

March 25, 2003: About libel and malice

March 27 : Gangs of Saskatoon: the police and prison guards

April 28, 2003: The Naked Truth

May 5: How low will they go?

May 15, 2003: Come clean Calvert, Cline!

May 30: Still smearing Milgaard - defamation is alive and well on the lawn of the Regina legislature and Precendent has been set as we reclaim our institutions

June 11, 2003: --Eric Cline carries on a corrupt tradition

Nov 7: Courage -- the only reward is justice

November 20: Just following orders

November 24: Mayor Atchison, community policing and graffiti

November 25: Michael Jackson

November 30: Corrupt officials must be severely punished: otherwise they just keep on putting the administration of justice in disrepute!

December 1: Christmas comes early for injustice warriors

December 4: Wide open Saskatchewan?

December 16: Crawling through the tunnel of justice since 1991

December 24: The Crown keeps right on breaking the law

December 30: Who will find justice under their tree?

 

2004

 

January 1. 2004: Unprecedented publicity and Happy New Year

January 8, 2004: Malice still afoot

January 10, 2004: Shame and mugshots

January 14, 2004: Telling more truth about the undefamable: McKillop and Quennell, the static duo

January 17, 2004: Fifth Estate returns and A working class hero is something to be

January 22,23, 2004: Justice is still prevailing -- it is just taking longer and Bits and pieces are now coming together to tell the story of the century

January 27, 2004: Telling the truth about the undefamable, restoring reputations to the defamed.

February 5, 2004: Negotiations and strategies: getting an intransigent government to remedy its damage

February 10, 2004: How many lawyers does it take to ruin a province? and Lawyer continues to treat people's lives as a cruel game: monopoly?

Febrary 16, 2004: Calvert is not King Arthur

March 29, 2004: Counting down to the damages trial

April 16, 2004: The internet, the courts and now the movies -- We will so what it takes to get justice

May 1, 2004: If Frank Quennell is any example of what former Justice Minister Chris Axworthy called "evolving," Saskatchewan is ready to kiss justice good-bye!

May 27, 2004: Some observations on Saskatchewan and justice

June 7, 2004:Media coverage of Monique Turenne's story illustrates journalistic laziness

June 8:, 2004 -- The police not only failed to serve and protect Don and Lorna Smith and their children but set them up for false charges and community shunning

September 2, 2004: A tale of three cops: Dueck, Gobeil and Schinkel -- with an update on how they get away with criminal obstruction of justice

November, 2004: Wilfred Hathway, Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns -- RCMP stings offensive to community standards

November 11, 2004: Rogue Platoon? Identifying the rotten apples in Saskatoon Police Service and why we need a full public inquiry into our whole justice system

November 28, 2004: Can Justice Minister Quennell take a few more steps? The Prosecutors' office is still harbouring crowns who put the administrative of justice in disrepute

November 12, 2004: Saskatchewan Justice in chaos: The Stonechild report suggests it is.

November 28, 2004: The price for being a good judge or a good prosecutor

December 30: When the government interferes with the judiciary, we know a Police State is a dangerous possibility (The government appeal of the Klassen/Kvello decision)

 

2005

 

Jan 1, 2005: Chewed up digested and spit out

Jan. 5, 2005: More on chief Sabo

February 18, 2005: Tunnel vision: Darren Koehn, Wilf Hathway and Leon Walchuk

March 2: Fixing the system: Time to quit talking and implement previous commission recommendations

March 19, 2005 : Injustice as ShowBiz