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of Williams' work
Stephen Williams
(2005)
In the end, the government
gets what it wants
By Christie Blatchford,
Globe and Mail, January 15, 2005
TORONTO -- There is surely
no better measure of the sorry state of our sorry state than
this.
Yesterday, in a North York,
Ont., courtroom, a senior Crown attorney portentously read aloud
from a statement in which a woman who was sexually assaulted
14 years ago by Paul Bernardo seriously and favourably compares
him to author Stephen Williams.
Lest you forget, Bernardo is
a convicted killer, multiple rapist and dangerous offender. Mr.
Williams is a rumpled fellow of 55 who merely wrote about the
creep and the case and who until yesterday had not a single criminal
conviction to his name.
"At least Bernardo was
honest in his rape," prosecutor Sarah Welch said, quoting
what the woman wrote in her most recent victim-impact statement.
(If Bernardo was a violent serial offender, those he hurt have
been turned into serial givers of victim-impact statements.)
"He made no pretence that it was anything but. Williams
lacks that class. He is nothing less than an exploiting bastard."
How did we get here, to the
point where vicious killers and gentle writers are indistinguishable
one from the other by rape victims, the agents of government
and, I suspect, also by a goodly segment of the population? To
the point where the best and most effective weapon in the prosecutorial
arsenal has come to be the pain or psychic suffering of a victim
of crime or the relatives of a victim of crime?
The answer is doubled-edged,
one part forged in what even by an objective standard is the
unseemly interest of the Ontario Attorney-General's office in
crucifying Mr. Williams, the other born in the ever-rising status
increasingly accorded victims.
Here, the two forces have come
together in chilly harmony.
Mr. Williams is but one of
a group of folks who wrote books about the case of Bernardo and
his then wife Karla Homolka. There were at least two others,
true-crime style, published upon Bernardo's conviction in the
fall of 1995, and a third that was a fictionalized version.
Where Mr. Williams's books
-- the first, Invisible Darkness, the second Karla: Pact with
the Devil -- differed from all the others is that he did what
in my business is called original research. He got his hands
on the Crown brief, that collection of witness and victim statements,
police interviews and the like that is not considered to belong
to the Crown, but rather to the people the Crown represents --
that is, all of us; he was handed the notes of Homolka's psychiatrist
by the psychiatrist; he successfully began a lengthy correspondence
with Homolka herself.
It was this work that informed
Mr. Williams's view that the deal with Homolka was egregious,
and led to his harsh criticism of the senior Ontario officials
who were its authors.
Again, lest you forget: Homolka's
trial was a secret one, and the picture of her participation
in the assaults upon Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French, Homolka's
own sister Tammy (all dead) and whatever other young girls the
pair could lure to their home to abuse was and remains an edited
one.
The videotapes that documented
the pair's conduct were never shown publicly at Bernardo's trial
by virtue of a judge's order, and rather viewed only by jurors
and lawyers.
Furthermore, by order of another
judge, the tapes themselves were later destroyed in a secret
torching ceremony revealed only after the fact to Ontarians.
The best evidence in the case -- particularly if one is interested
in judging the deal in which Homolka received 12 years for her
role in the deaths of three girls -- was thus never fully revealed
and is now forever lost.
Mr. Willams's books go some
distance, certainly further than any others, to fill that information
void.
The just-ended prosecution
was not the government's first go at him.
Based on a lengthy Ontario
Provincial Police probe of Invisible Darkness, Mr. Williams was
charged with, and then acquitted of, having viewed the restricted
videotapes.
In the current case, the effort
was more vigorous and certainly more punitive.
Mr. Williams was arrested at
his farm when his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, had already indicated
he would be happy to surrender himself; he spent a night in jail;
originally, he was overcharged, and accused of 97 counts of publication-ban
breaches and disobeying a court order. He and his long-time spouse,
the writer Marsha Boulton, were even charged with a firearms
offence -- careless storage, when the law specifically allows
those who live on farms to keep their rifles handy for predator
control. In addition, the Attorney-General also brought a civil
action against Mr. Williams, meaning he was required to have
two sets of lawyers working on his behalf.
As Mr. Greenspan, who has worked
pro bono for Mr. Williams, snapped yesterday in court, "This
is a case of administrative vengeance!"
Technically, at the heart of
things here was that Mr. Williams used the real names of some
of the Bernardo-Homolka victims on a website that was only ever
marginally available and only up and running for a short time.
Once he was notified he had breached the bans, he swiftly shut
down the site.
Nonetheless, as was implicitly
acknowledged yesterday in his guilty plea, Mr. Williams was careless
or provocative in the use of that banned information. He was
not alone, for other writers and other publications have also
used some of the protected names here and there, without being
prosecuted. But then, none of these writers is also a staunch
critic of the government.
Regardless, the practical impact
upon victims of what Mr. Williams did was minimal, if not zero.
Many of the few who visited the site were police officers and
reporters. Certainly, at the time the OPP informed Bernardo's
victims about the potential breach of their privacy, none of
them reported having been identified as a result of the site.
Alas, the government had the
opening it was so thirsting for, the chance to cloak its shameful
treatment of one of its staunchest critics in the robes of the
unassailable victim. To quote Ms. Welch, "Taken down to
its essence, this case is about respect for the rule of law and
the protection of victims of crime."
It was nothing of the sort,
ever.
But in the end, government
gets what government wants, and so there was the woman Bernardo
raped so long ago suggesting her rapist was more honest -- a
better person -- than a man who wrote about him, and there was
the agent of the government cheerfully using it.
As Mr. Greenspan said, "We
have left the world of sanity for the world of hysteria."
Before the proceeding began
yesterday, I wandered the very modern courthouse looking for
a coffee joint, and at one point walked through a door to a police
area. "Hi Christie," said a disembodied voice; the
halls are clearly monitored by cameras. The voice probably belonged
to a nice police officer who recognized me. It all feels less
benign now than it would have the day before.
Leaky Bernardo
bans fan new disputes
CanWest News Service, January
18, 2005
TORONTO - The Ontario Ministry
of the Attorney General may have violated two of the same publication
bans imposed in the Paul Bernardo trial that it invoked to successfully
prosecute writer Stephen Williams.
The website of the Ontario
Court of Appeal, which is administered by the province, discloses
information that could identify one of Bernardo's sexual assault
victims.
The information, which has
been accessible in online format to the public for nearly five
years, is contained in the court's March 2000 written reasons
for dismissing Bernardo's appeal. The decision of Justices John
Laskin, Michael Moldaver and James MacPherson refers to the sexual
assault victim by her actual first and last initial.
There are other identifying
characteristics, including the woman's age and her link to Bernardo.
The assault is described by the court in extremely graphic detail.
The Criminal Code states that
any information which "could" identify someone protected
by a publication ban is a breach of the court order. In addition
to the Court of Appeal website, some of the names protected by
the various court orders can still be accessed from online databases
that contain newspaper articles from the Bernardo trial in1995.
Two other books about the trial,
which are in print today, include the names of women stalked
by Bernardo. Their identities are also protected by a publication
ban ordered by Justice Patrick LeSage when he declared Bernardo
a dangerous offender in 1995.
One of the books is scheduled
to come out with an updated version in June, just before Karla
Homolka is released from prison. The book's online promotional
material promises that the updated edition will be the "uncensored"
story of the crimes of Bernardo and Homolka.
The names of the stalking victims
are also included in an article about the Bernardo trial on the
website of The Canadian Encyclopedia, which is funded in part
by Heritage Canada.
As well, the online legal database
service Quicklaw, which is owned by LexisNexis Canada and is
regularly used by thousands of lawyers, may also be in breach
of the publication bans. A pre-trial ruling by LeSage, in May
1995, identifies the victim Jane Doe by name, potentially breaching
the judge's own order three weeks earlier that banned any publication
of her identity. The ruling is still accessible on Quicklaw today.
Williams, who wrote two books
about the Bernardo and Homolka trials, pleaded guilty last week
to one count of disobeying court orders. Names of several of
the women either stalked or sexually assaulted by Bernardo, were
'inadvertently' posted on a website set up by the author. The
names were available for less than 24 hours and the website was
pulled down immediately by Williams after he was notified it
may contain banned information.
A police affidavit filed in
court said the banned information was posted in an area of "dead
links" on the website.
The Crown has refused to answer
whether any actual members of the public may have accessed these
links before the website was closed by Williams.
Last week, after Williams pleaded
guilty to the single criminal count, provincial attorney general
Michael Bryant described the award-winning writer as a "serial
trafficker in the human misery of victims."
The public comments were made
at the same time as ministry lawyers were working behind the
scenes to resolve a civil suit filed by the attorney general
against Williams, on behalf of the "people of Ontario."
The proposed settlement would
not have involved any admission of wrongdoing by Williams and
it may now be on hold because of Bryant's comments.
"I don't know this man
from Adam," Williams said Monday, describing the attorney
general's verbal attack on Friday as "intemperate and inaccurate."
He is talking to his civil lawyer.
A spokesman for the ministry
said Monday that if anyone has information of a breach of a publication
ban they should report it to police.
The spokesman added that Bryant
"stands by his comments" about Williams.
.
Pursuing Williams
Globe and Mail Editorial,
January 15, 2005
The sledgehammer has landed
on the ant. After authorities spent years and millions of dollars
in pursuit of Stephen Williams, author of two controversial books
on serial killer Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, Mr. Williams
pleaded guilty yesterday to breaching a court order by publishing
on-line the names of people the couple had sexually assaulted.
He pleaded guilty to one criminal count. The police had originally
laid almost 100 charges.
Mr. Williams's books severely
criticized the Crown and police handling of the Bernardo case,
and the energy with which the authorities went after him was
so disproportionate it suggested this criticism had spurred them
on. In 2003, the Ontario Provincial Police raided his home and
threw him in jail for a night. Two months later, police raided
his home and seized not only his computers but his wife's, including
backup files of an unfinished novel.
Yesterday, as Mr. Williams
paid the legal price for his action, it was clear the vehemence
had not ebbed. Ontario Attorney-General Michael Bryant attacked
Mr. Williams as a "criminal" and "serial trafficker
in the human misery of victims." Even now, the state's sledgehammer
won't rest.
- Police accused
of being on vendetta:
- Author of
books about Bernardo, Homolka's crimes pleads guilty
SHANNON KARI, CanWest News
Service, January 25, 2005
TORONTO - Police and the Ontario
government were accused yesterday of seeking "vengeance"
against Stephen Williams because of the extraordinary resources
used to prosecute the controversial writer.
The allegations were made by
the writer and his lawyer
Edward Greenspan after a highly
unusual sentencing hearing where Williams agreed to plead guilty
to one count of disobeying a court order and received a suspended
sentence and three years probation.
Williams also was required
to testify under oath yesterday and give an undertaking that
he will never possess "Crown brief" material related
to the prosecution of Paul Bernardo or Karla Homolka without
a court order.
Williams is believed to be
the first writer or reporter in Canada to receive a criminal
record for breaching a publication ban.
In her submissions to Justice
Derek Hogg, lead crown lawyer Sarah Welch used equally strong
language to condemn Williams. She said he had no respect for
"the rule of law" and highlighted a victim impact statement
by one of Bernardo's sexual assault victims that said the writer
was of worse character than the serial rapist and murderer.
"It was Paul Bernardo
that ruined their lives, it was not Stephen Williams. To try
to suggest that in a court of law was an obscenity," Greenspan
said.
In 2003, Williams was charged
with 97 counts of violating court orders or publication bans
after the names of 15 women, who were either sexual-assault or
stalking victims of Bernardo, were published on a Web site set
up by the author.
Williams pulled down the site
24 hours later, once he learned it contained banned material.
The links on the Web site, which contained the names, were in
an "under construction" section. It isn't clear if
they were seen by anyone other than the Crown and police.
As part of the plea bargain,
the Crown also agreed to withdraw a civil suit filed by Ontario's
attorney-general. The lawsuit was seeking damages from Williams
and a declaration he was in wrongful possession of the Bernardo
Crown brief.
It isn't illegal to possess
this material and in law, it is considered "the property
of the people," Greenspan said.
Williams had been previously
charged for an alleged breach of a court order in his book Invisible
Darkness. He was acquitted of that charge in November 2000.
Invisible Darkness and the
book Karla: A Pact with the Devil, are both critical of police
and the Crown for the plea bargain deal that will result in Homolka's
release from prison in July.
Williams also outlined evidence
that suggested Vince Bevan, who headed the task force investigating
the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, rushed into
a plea bargain deal with Homolka because Toronto police were
about to arrest Bernardo for a series of sexual assaults. Bevan
is now the chief of police in Ottawa.
"If Stephen had written
a book that was favourable to the police or favourable to the
Crown, and not as critical as it was, we would not be here today.
He would never have been charged," Greenspan said.
Greenspan noted that a 1995
Macleans article that names three women stalked by Bernardo is
easily accessible on the Internet, yet the Crown is not investigating
the owner of that Web site (the article is on the Canadian Encyclopedia
Web site, a free service financially supported by Heritage Canada).
Welch read out a 53-minute-long
Agreed Statement of Facts during the sentencing hearing, naming
many of the sexual assault victims and reciting at length how
they had been attacked by Bernardo. She suggested repeatedly
that they were re-victimized by Williams as she read out portions
of their victim impact statement.
"The moment I was arrested,
police started phoning these women. None of them was aware of
the Web site until police told them," Williams said. He
added there was no evidence the victims were publicly identified
because their names were briefly posted on the Web site.
"These officers lied to
the women. They didn't tell them the Web site was only up briefly,"
Williams said.
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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
