|
Sermonette
November, 2003
As Manitoba
justice breaks wide open, Saskatchewan is still fighting to keep
the lid on
Calvert
says he didn't know Crowns financed ad campaign
Saskatchewan: Government
defends millions it has spent to spread its lies across the country
Our attention
has been turned to Manitoba for the past ten days or so, as the
whole country has watched the uncovering of the misdeeds of public
officials there. The Driskell case is a living illustration of
how effective public pressure can be. Gordon Mackintosh, who
had been digging in his heels to make James Driiskell crawl over
broken glass for every iota of justice he received finally caved
in under public pressure and changed his tune.
Excuse the
mixture of metaphors and consider the picture. And consider Winnipeg
Police Chief Jack Ewataski, like a rat in the corner, hiding
under his unlisted number and secret email address, realizing
that now everybody knows that he had the within his hands the
information which could have freed Jim Driskell ten years ago
and he chose instead to hide it away. Consider it. It is happening.
And if it can happen in Manitoba, it can happen here.
 What
these dishonest officials haven't learned yet is that the internet
never forgets.
It almost goes
without saying that you can tell a Saskatchewan government official
is lying if his/her lips are moving. While we were protesting
on the legislature lawn this summer, Premier Lorne Calvert and
then Justice Minister Eric Cline were busy promoting their "Wide
Open Saskatchewan" campaign. It was all very political,
but the $5.5M budget came from the provincial coffers. The campaign
was/is quite sickening even if it wasn't so false. An upbeat
song, healthy working and playing citizens -- it was flogged
on television right across the country. At prime time. The whole
country got to gag or snicker. I suppose some models, actors
and technicians got paid. The campaign was successful, too, if
we view it for what it was: electioneering. Calvert and Cline
were re-elected with a resounding majority. But as far as luring
investors and tourists and opportunity-seekers to Saskatchewan,
well, I don't see them. Now the government is being asked to
defend its gross over-spending on this advertising boondoggle
and Calvert was visibly irritated when questioned on CTV tonight.
 He didn't look at all
like the jovial guy as seen on the NDP caucus website. This ad
campaign promotes Saskatchewan as something it is not. Most of
us, when we invite people over for a party, say, generally clean
the place up and make sure that it is safe. We don't expect our
guests to do that after they arrive. Those of us who live on
the west side of Saskatoon always warn our visitors about the
neighbourhood -- to come in groups, not to leave valuables in
the car, etc. And we certainly don't want our guests having their
pockets picked or their coats stolen while they are socializing
with us in our home. If such a thing happened, most of us, reasonable,
prudent people, would be mortified. Or, if while visiting in
our house, one guest made an accusation against another -- called
him a child molester, for instance, we would try to arbitrate
this in a civilized manner. And we would expect the false accuser
to apologize. I was raised in an older, more honest Saskatchewan,
where a person's word meant something. Some of us remember those
days. Twenty years ago, Alberta ran TV commercials in Saskatchewan,
promising opportunities there. In fact, they didn't have to advertise.
People who moved to Alberta knew more or less what they were
getting and most of them stayed. Cruise ship holidays are advertised
on TV. Sometimes the cruises are not quite what they are advertised
and when that happens, claims are made against the company. And
sometimes the company wins because they can show that they weren't
really misrepresenting the advertised vacation, that it is not
against the law to add a bit more colour and exaggerate the size.
Lorne Calvert deliberately hired a bunch of hotshot ad makers
to make commercials which misrepresented the reality of Saskatchewan.
These are the kind of videos we used to see on Muchmusic. Fictional
stories set to catchy songs. A lot of tomorrow? Many Saskatchewan
citizens do not know how they are going to get through today.
Lorne Calvert,
the man of the cloth, is just another good old boy at heart,
it would seem. He managed, during the election campaign to completely
sidestep any justice issues. Both the Stonechild Inquiry and
the Klassen/Kvello civil trial were going on, with daily reports
in the Saskatoon papers which were picked up across the province.
Calvert spent the last days of the campaign getting right into
"Roughrider fever," a fairly mindless preoccupation
which doesn't easily lend itself to politicization. Upon re-election,
he chose a whole new cabinet. He moved Cline to focus on industry
and resources: having done such a great job of doing nothing
meaningful in justice except to strike some more toothless inquiries,
he appeared today to be just the right man for the job. Asked
why the crown corporation kitty was dipped into to the tune of
$2.6M, he respnded as though this was a really silly question.
Industry and resources, Crown corporations -- what's the diff?
When ordinary citizens juggle money back and forth among bank
accounts, it is called "kiting" and if they are caught
they go to jail.
The lawsuits
which have arisen out of the Spudco mismanagement should now be within Eric Cline's
new portfolio.We'll watch to see if he is as callous with the
hapless investors who were promised a decent return on their
investment as he has been with the falsely indicted people wo
were promised justice.
Calvert and
Cline are living in a delusional world if they seriously think
they can talk about tomorrow without dealing with yesterday.
Calvert has appointed a rookie MLA, Frank Quennell, to the important
positions of Justice minister and Attorney General. We wonder
if he will be receiving the same kinds of briefings the PR spinners
have been giving out for the past decade? Will he bite the bullet
and begin the awesome task of restoring the reputation of the
administration of justice? We hope that he will take his oath
of office seriously and rather than continue the policy of cover-up
and damage control, he will investigate for himself the harsh
criticisms which have been levelled at his office and answer
them with some forthrightness. Quennell represents a constituency
in Saskatoon's decaying west side so he must surely be aware
of how desperate we are.
We hope that
as he looks to implementing any measures regarding Aboriginal
justice that he consults with people at street level. The Aboriginal
leaders are as out of touch with the reality of the people they
are supposed to represent as elected government representatives
in the community at large are out of touch with theirs.
He must surely
be aware that taking the Klassen/Kvello lawsuit to trial was
a costly mistake. He must know that any judicial finding of malice
and conspiracy is serious. He would be well advised to take a
good look at whole department of Crown prosecutors and make sure
they understand their jobs. It would be a real relief if Calvert's
tomorrow included a justice department which sought impartial
and truthful dispositions. We do not need any more jails.
Calvert and
Cline should cut their losses on the "Wide Open Saskatchewan"
campaign. Clean up the house before you invite people over. Go
to some kind or rehabilitation center where you learn the difference
between manipulating statistics to present a false picture (that
is, lying) and telling the truth. The province is in trouble.
We've been in trouble before and we got out of it. We'll get
out of it again. And we'll get out of it a lot sooner if we acknowledge
the nature and depth of the trouble and then fix the causes.
Part of the trouble in Saskatchewan is that social assistance
rates have not risen in over ten years while the cost of everything
has increased. Rents, some of which have remained at welfare
levels, have been collected by landlords who refuse to maintain
their dwellings properly and then blame damage on tenants. A
lot of people in situations such as I have just described form
the "criminal" element in the poor neighbourhoods because
they turn to crime in order to live. Clean and reasonable housing
is cheaper than prisons and the social fall-out that occurs when
a family member goes to jail. The poor have been squeezed just
about as much as it is possible to squeeze anything. And people
who have been wronged deserve an acounting.
It is time
Saskatchewan's
Auditor General
did a thorough audit of this government and let us, the people
whose money is being so mismanaged, know exactly what is going
on. Transparent. Public. Not secret. Not covered up. Wide Open.
|
 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
- 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
|
