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Tisdale rape
of 12 year old girl
Dean Edmondson
Court of Appeal
upholds sentence in sex assault case
Janet French, The StarPhoenix, April 21, 2005
Saskatchewan's Court of Appeal
on Wednesday upheld the conviction and sentence of a man found
guilty of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in the Tisdale
area in 2001.
Dean Trevor Edmondson was one
of three men in their 20s charged in the sexual assault of the
aboriginal girl.
The three were charged after
a Sept. 30, 2001, evening in which they allegedly picked the
girl up on the steps of a bar, gave her beer in their truck and
tried to have sex with her on a road near Tisdale. Edmondson,
who was 24 at the time, has been the only one convicted in the
case, which sparked calls of racism from across the province.
The Appeal Court rejected the
Crown's request to add time to the two years less a day of house
arrest Edmondson was given for the attack. Edmondson should have
been sentenced to at least three years in prison, prosecutor
Dean Sinclair said.
The three Appeal Court judges
agreed Edmondson should have gone to jail. But they said sending
Edmondson to jail now, after he has served 20 months of his conditional
sentence, would likely result in an early release under conditions
more flexible than those under which he currently lives.
"Even if we were to set
aside the conditional sentencing order, only about four months
of his sentence would remain," the judges wrote in their
decision. "Not all of that would have to be served in prison.
Indeed, he would soon qualify for release it seems, so what would
that accomplish? Little if anything."
Judge Fred Kovach erred when
he sent Edmondson back to his community because the offence was
so serious and the punishment not harsh enough to serve as a
deterance to himself or others, the judges said.
"Mr. Edmondson took advantage
of the desperate and vulnerable circumstances in which this young
girl found herself," the judges said. "Her person,
her dignity, her intrinsic worth and her child's sense of trust
were badly violated and, as might be expected, she was profoundly
shaken by the experience."
Sinclair said he's disappointed
the court gave Edmondson so much credit for the time already
served under house arrest.
"Yes, he was entitled
to some credit, but he was not entitled to the amount of credit
that would justify leaving the sentence as it was," he said.
"A conditional sentence of imprisonment is not as onerous
as custody."
The Appeal Court dismissed
the defence claim that Kovach erred when he allowed the prosecution
to admit an incriminating statement Edmondson made to the police
as evidence. The court also rejected the defence's contention
that Kovach gave incorrect instructions to the jury.
Despite dismissing Edmondson's
appeal of his conviction, the Court of Appeal found Kovach made
a mistake when answering some of the jury's questions. Edmondson
was charged with being party to a sexual assault, an offence
punishable by a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail. Parliament
has designated being party to a sexual assault, where two or
more people act together in the attack, as a more serious crime
than a sexual assault, where a person acts alone.
The judge didn't make clear
the jury could find Edmondson guilty of the lesser offence --
sexual assault -- a crime punishable by a maximum of 10 years
in prison, the judges said.
"In sum, (Kovach's) directions
were more apt in the circumstances to confuse than enlighten,
and they ran the risk of throwing the jury off track," the
judges' decision reads.
The Court of Appeal ruled Edmondson
was guilty of sexual assault, not party to a sexual assault,
and substituted the verdict.
Edmondson's lawyer Hugh Harradence
said his client is relieved he will be able to finish his sentence
in his community by Sept. 4. Still, he's disappointed the court
didn't order a new trial.
"I would have thought
if they'd found an error in the trial judge's instructions that
one of the options is to order a new trial," he said. "They
chose not to do that."
Edmondson's family hopes they,
as well as the victim and her family, can move on with their
lives now, Harradence said.
Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat
were also charged in connection with the case. A Melfort jury
found the pair not guilty of sexually assaulting the girl in
a 2003 ruling that outraged her family and their supporters.
In January, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal set aside the men's
acquittals and ordered them to stand trial again.
Kindrat's lawyer, Morris Bodnar,
said a date for that trial hasn't been set, but he expects it
will be autumn at the earliest.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
Man who sexually assaulted
girl deserved jail, court says
CBC, Apr 20, 2005
REGINA - Saskatchewan's highest
court says a man who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in
2001 should have received jail time instead of house arrest
but it won't change the original sentence.
On Wednesday, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal released a decision
on the Crown and defence appeals of the Dean Trevor Edmondson
case, upholding the two-year conditional sentence imposed by
Queen's Bench Justice Fred Kovach on Sept. 3, 2003.
Edmondson was one of three
men, all in their 20s, charged with sexually assaulting the girl
on a country road near Tisdale on Sept. 30, 2001.
The case has had racial overtones
from the beginning because the victim was aboriginal and the
three men were white. The Crown said they offered the girl a
ride, there was drinking, and then she was sexually assaulted.
<B>Dean Trevor Edmondson</b><br><i>CBC
file photo</i>
Dean Trevor Edmondson
CBC file photo
Edmondson's conditional sentence was a non-jail disposition to
be served in his home community of Tisdale.
In the 54-page decision written
by Justice Stuart Cameron on behalf of panel of judges that also
included Marjorie Gerwing and Nicholas Sherstobitoff, the court
said Kovach made a mistake.
"He should have sent him
to jail for that period," the decision said.
"Anyone who in like circumstances
takes sexual advantage of a 12-year-old girl, as desperate and
vulnerable as this girl was, can expect to be sent to prison
for a signficant period of time."
However, the court went on
to say it would be outside "the proper exercise of our powers"
to order a two-year jail sentence, noting that Edmondson has
already served more than a year and a half.
Edmondson's co-accused, Jeffrey
Kindrat and Jeffrey Brown were tried and found not guilty by
a jury.
However, the appeal court ruled
Kovach made serious mistakes and ordered a new trial for both
men.
New trial ordered in
Tisdale sex assault case
SASK.CBC.CA News
Jan 19, 2005
REGINA - Saskatchewan's highest
court has ordered a new trial for two men who were found not
guilty in a high-profile sexual assault case involving a 12-year-old
girl.
On Wednesday, the Saskatchewan
Court of Appeal was looking at the case of three men who were
charged in 2001 with sexual assault after an encounter with the
girl on a back road near Tisdale.
Dean Edmondson was convicted
and sentenced to house arrest, but his co-accused, Jeffrey Kindrat
and Jeffrey Brown, were found not guilty.
Now the appeal court has ruled
the judge did not instruct the jury properly in the case of Kindrat
and Brown. It has ordered a new trial.
The appeal involving Edmondson
was continuing.
There was a racial aspect to
the case the girl was aboriginal and the men were white.
The girl's family was left
feeling angry and disillusioned.
"I'm hoping these guys
are brought to justice," said a family member who cannot
be named because it would tend to identify the girl.
The conviction, the sentence,
and the acquittals are all under appeal.
The hearing was continuing
Wednesday in Regina.
The Tisdale case has attracted
the attention of groups like the Saskatchewan Coalition Against
Racism, which is organizing a lunch hour rally across from the
Court of Appeal.
Jeffrey
Kindrat
Justice Denied: The Saskatchewan
Court of Appeal revisits R vs Edmondson, Kindrat and Brown
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Tuesday, January
18, 2005
On Wednesday, January 19th,
Dean Edmondson, Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat are back in
court.
That's the day Crown prosecutors
are appealing the rulings of the high-profile sexual assault
case against a 12-year old Yellow Quill First Nations girl.
"Saskatchewan received
unprecedented attention across North America when Dean Edmondson
received a conditional sentence of one year house arrest and
Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat were acquitted for sexual assault
of a child," says Norma Buydens, Research Associate for
the Saskatchewan Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
"Sexual assault is a serious
crime and when committed on a 12 year old, a jail term is the
usual sentence. That, however, did not happen with Dean Edmondson,
Jeffrey Brown and Jeffrey Kindrat," says Buydens, who is
a law historian and feminist legal theorist.
Buydens says that Judge Kovatch's
decision to reduce the expected term, which he and the Crown
agreed was three to four years in prison, brings up a burning
issue of legal injustice.
"Canadian judges do not
zealously uphold the age of sexual consent to protect youth at
or just after puberty," she argues.
Jeffrey
Brown
"Furthermore, Edmondson's
sentencing hearing focused on the character of the victim, just
as rape trials in the 'bad old days' before the far-reaching
legal reforms in the 1980s and 90s," says Buydens. "There
was very little evidence of her actually saying or doing anything
to convey consent but since she was under the age of consent
of 14, whether she consented should have been irrelevant."
It is time for the courts to
be clear that adults are the ones who have to prove they are
responsible for their actions towards children, and not children
who have to prove they are "good enough" to deserve
protection from adult sexuality, argues Buydens.
Rosalind Prober, President
of Beyond Borders, a Winnipeg-based Children's Rights organization
agrees, adding:
"In Canada so often when
a very vulnerable child is preyed upon by privileged adults,
the fact that the child is poor, marginalized and living in difficult
circumstances is used against the child as it becomes a mitigating
factor instead of an aggravating factor in sentencing."
Buydens and Prober both argue
that the age of consent should be raised from 14 to 16.
"In countries that have
an age of protection of 16, the international norm, Kindrat and
Brown would not have been able to gang up on the 12 year old
victim in the courtroom and accuse her of being the sexual aggressor
after getting her drunk far away from her family on a lonely
dark road," says Prober. "The adversarial system and
the Criminal Code of Canada are very abuser friendly."
Beyond Borders has also brought
forward a complaint against Judge Kovatch before the Canadian
Judicial Council which could lose him his job.
"During his charge to
the jury, Justice Kovatch purposely and continually referred
to Kindrat and Brown as 'the boys' and the victim as 'Ms', a
feminist term usually describing women who are aware of their
rights and ready to assert them."
Both Norma Buydens and Rosalind
Prober will be in Regina on Wednesday, January 19th attending
the Court hearing. Attached above is a Saskatchewan Notes piece
with more information on the implications for children's rights
with this case.
For more information, contact:
Lynn Gidluck Director - CCPA
Saskatchewan (306) 924-3372
Man faces charges in
sexual assaults
The StarPhoenix, January 18, 2005
The father of an aboriginal
girl sexually assaulted by a Tisdale man in 2001 has been charged
with five counts of sexual assault.
The 37-year-old man, whose
name cannot be revealed because of a publication ban, has been
charged with sexual assaults dating from 1985-1990. His daughter
was not one of the complainants.
Three men admitted to picking
up the girl in September 2001 on the steps of a small town bar
near Tisdale.
They gave her approximately
five beers, and all three engaged in sexual activity with the
girl before dropping her off at a friend's house.
Two men were acquitted and
the third was sentenced to two years of house arrest.
The girl's father will appear
in court Feb. 8.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005
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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
