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Sermonette: December 9, 2003

Crawling through the tunnel of justice since 1991

Richard Klassen and his family; the Martensville daycare arrests; Neil Stonechild; James Driskell.

1991 was quite a year. Clusters of cases from that year are now coming to public light. The common thread is officers of the court operating for purposes outside the administration of justice.

Each of the cases mentioned above has come to light only because of stubborn diligence by individuals who would not let sleeping dogs lie. As the Klassen civil trial, the Neil Stonechild inquiry and the investigation of what went wrong with James Driskell unfold, we find evidence that some cops and prosecutors went over the line to gain convictions based on false evidence and to thumb their noses at anyone who raised a complaint about how they did their jobs. The list of manufactured evidence and lost files from that year, and those before and after, speaks to corruption.

The rise to high positions of cops Brian Dueck and Jack Ewatski in Saskatoon and Winnipeg shouts corruption. Likewise what we have learned of the activities of Saskatchewan prosecutors Matt Miazga, Sonja Hansen, Leslie Sullivan and Bruce Bauer and Manitoba prosecutors Greg Lawlor and George Dangerfield say this corruption involved conspiracies. As each part of the injustice puzzle has been exposed, those responsible have said "this was an isolated case." We know that these cases are not isolated and that there are enough of them to now say they are fairly common. It is not too likely that the cops and prosecutors who have had their deeds exposed are isolated cases, either. They are the ones who got caught.

How many prosecutions and convictions were these particular individuals involved with? Their disregard for and clever side-stepping of due process suggests that other cases have been more successfully hidden. An outside agency with no connection to either police or the Crown should go through all the files from that period to determine just how many injustices are buried. And they should do it quickly, before more files disappear. One morning, early on in the Klassen/Kvello civil trial, I arrived at the parking lot (which is beside the prosecutor's office and behind the courthouse) and saw a truck, very much like those that come to your house to vacuum out your furnace ducts. This was a mobile paper shredder and it was hooked up to the adjacent building. Paper was being shredded. I hope that this was paper made obsolete because the files had been transferred to electronic form.

1991 was the year the Stinchcombe decision was brought down. This was the Supreme Court decision which threw out the conviction against William Stinchcombe. The Crown had failed to disclose the content of repeated interviews with a witness. The decision read, in part:

. . . Counsel for the accused must bring to the trial judge's attention at the earliest opportunity any failure of the Crown to comply with its duty to disclose of which counsel becomes aware. This will enable the trial judge to remedy any prejudice to the accused if possible and thus avoid a new trial.

     Initial disclosure should occur before the accused is called upon to elect the mode of trial or plead. Subject to the Crown's discretion, all relevant information must be disclosed, both that which the Crown intends to introduce into evidence and that which it does not, and whether the evidence is inculpatory or exculpatory. All statements obtained from persons who have provided relevant information to the authorities should be produced, even if they are not proposed as Crown witnesses. Where statements are not in existence, other information such as notes should be produced. If there are no notes, all information in the prosecution's possession relating to any relevant evidence the person could give should be supplied. . . .

Violations of the Stinchcombe disclosure directions have surfaced in 2003 in the Klassen/Kvello civil trial in Saskatoon and the James Driskell application for a judicial review in Winnipeg. In both these cases, it would appear that police and the Crown colluded to to end runs on Stinchcombe in 1991 and 1992, as the significance of the decision penetrated Crown and polie offices across the country. We have every reason to believe that there are many more cases where authorities responded to Stinchcombe not by willingly disclosing evidence but by hiding it deeper.

The Stinchcombe decision, while changing the legal practice regarding disclosure, did not address the Crown's repeated interviewing of a witness, the effect of which was to finally get her to say what the Crown wanted her to say. Badgering, I believe it is called. There is a statement which police are now required to speak to an accused which involves not only the right to legal counsel without delay, but also that he or she should expect no favour or construe any promise from the officer if he or she should speak. Most cops have this memorized, as American cops have with the Miranda warning, and speak it so quickly it is incomprehensible gibberish. Dueck was meticulous about including this monologue at the beginning of each of his taped interviews. Then he went right ahead and violated it. An isolated case? Not likely.

This summer, while we were out on the streets with our posters and signs, a police videographer made a point of coming out to "document" us. This was clearly intended to intimidate. The problem is that if they make a document, such as a photograph or videotape in the course of charging and prosecuting a person, they are required to disclose the tape. In 1994, when I was charged with defaming Dueck, I was also charged with assaulting officer Dave Chartier. His written statement suggested a savage attack. The videotape of the arrest told a different story. The charge was dropped the night before trial. In that case, three years after Stinchcombe, we had to be extremely diligent to force the Crown to produce for us a copy of the videotape. We knew it was there because we saw them take it, in broad daylight on a busy street. Police are not always forthcoming with tapes which are made behind closed doors in police stations. Police and prosecutors are now resisting providing taped evidence to accused, insisting they go to the Crown office to view the tapes if they are unrepresented. Since electronic media is now as commonplace as paper was ten years ago, the only reason for such a retentive policy is the desire for secrecy, an unwillingness to be scrutinized.

After November, 1991, police in many jurisdictions responded to the requirement to disclose written and taped evidence by not writing things down. Superintendent Dueck stated at the Klassen/Kvello hearing that he didn't use a notebook. He just made a note of relevant information on the file itself. (The file could not be found.) At the Neil Stonechild inquiry into a freezing death which occured in 1991, we are learning there is not much of a paper trail. At the inquests for Rodney Naistus and Lawrence Wegner, whose freezing deaths occurred almost ten years later, we found the same thing. If Darrell Night had not survived, and then left his health card in a taxi, we would not ever have been able to determine the truth of his allegations.

Police and prosecutors, when suspicions have been raised regarding improper conduct, have used various forms of internal investigations to clear themselves in the public eye. The Saskatchewan Police Complaints department, as we have iterated on these pages many times, has shown itself to be transparently callous, dishonest and self-serving. (Their treatment of John Melenchuk's complaint that no thorough investigation was made into his 1998 stabbing illustrates how thoroughly corrupt this department is). The Department of Public prosecutions has an equally effective way of not dealing with prosecutors who are embarrassing it -- it just moves them around. The Law Society is also sensitive to prosecutors who come under fire. We notice Matthew Miazga is no longer a bencher, for instance.

Publicity in Manitoba about prosecutorial misconduct in the Driskell case has focussed on George Dangerfield who is no longer working for the Crown. Greg Lawlor still is working for them, as far as we know. He has managed to keep his name out of the public eye since his name first came up.

Judges have recently become quite sensitive to disclosure violations. There are even a few who are throwing out cases based on improper interrogations, the use of jailhouse informants and other questionable methods used by police and crown to build their cases.

Tunnel vision has become the buzz phrase for the kind of police and prosecutorial work which has led to people being wrongly charged and prosecuted. What is generally meant by "tunnel vision" is pursuing and twisting inculpatory evidence while ignoring and suppressing exculptatory evidence against the targetted accused. The Kaufman inquiry into Guy Paul Morin, the Cory inquiry into Tom Sophonow, the Alberta case of Jason Dix and the preliminary findings in the Klassen/Kvello lawsuit have all cited "tunnel vision" as causes for injustice.

Investigating commissions, inquiries, have to be careful about tunnel vision themselves. The tunnel has become larger, to the credit of the judges who have examined these cases. It includes improper disclosure and the use of jailhouse or should-be-in-the-jailhouse informants. Generally DNA is now viewed as the ultimate test of innocence or guilt.

The tunnel of justice must be expanded to include coerced and forged confessions which have cluttered the evidence tables in many, many cases. The most egregious case we are aware of is that obtained by Winnipeg cops Schinkel and Thiessen in the Monique Turenne case. But we are also aware of many other cases where the police have used psychological techniques to trick innocent people into admitting to acts they did not do. Any confession which is entered into evidence at trial must be thoroughly scrutinized for its veracity. The problem here is that many people have entered into plea bargains and convicted on the basis of corruptly obtained confessions.

In Windsor last week, a lawyer was found guilty of perjury, after having forged her client's signature on documents in a divorce case. Wendy Maroon will be sentenced on January 9. The judge was not pleased and we hope Maroon will be properly punished. Lawyers working for the Crown should be watching their steps. There cannot be one set of standards for family lawyers, civil lawyers and defence lawyers and a different set for the Crown. If anything, the bar should be higher.

The war on drugs was the occasion for throwing aside the rights of individuals all over the country. Disclosure violations, often challenged in court, were found to be routine. It didn't matter, though. People charged with violations of the drug laws were not offered any remedy even when such violations were found. Police and prosecutors then used the precedents set in drug cases to violate citizens' rights in other kinds of cases. This was the ultimate end-run around the Stinchcombe decision.

There seems still to be only a handful of lawyers and journalists who are prepared to do the hard work of investigating these cases and telling the public about them. Lawyers like James Lockyer put in hours, days, months and years to get wrongful convictions back into court and painfully push them forward to the next stage. Journalists who dare to investigate and work on stories often have their pieces turned down by editors and producers because they do not fit the flavour of the day. They claim the public taste is for a sweeter version of reality, even if that picture is false. Those pushing forward stories illustrating the injustices are thought to be bitter.

In Saskatchewan and Ontario, the Crowns have been aggressive about shutting up the people who try to put forward the stories such as those we feature on this website. Criminal defamation charges are quite common now as speech which was acceptable fifteen years ago is now criminalized. The much-hyped pornography on the internet problem has resulted in many charges where the accused didn't have anything to do with porn -- much less child porn. There is great secrecy about these cases and they are under-reported on in the media in deference to the wishes of advertisers. Often, material is sealed. The Don Smith case in Fort Frances concerned only adults. Yet the information is sealed and the details of the dirty tricks played by OPP cop Scott Gobeils and prosecuter Christine Bartlett-Hughes (oh, she of Little Sisters Bookstore prosecution fame) are not available for scrutiny. Defamation cases almost always involve publication bans; they are difficult to track. In Saskatchewan this summer, both Richard Klassen and John Melenchuk were arrested while picketing and using bullhorns to publicize cases of police and governmental abuse of process. Police and prosecutors conspired in both these arrests; Klassens was dropped in embarrassment in October but the crown is still proceeding against Melenchuk who has a January court date.

I have chosen photos from last summer's protest actions to illustrate this sermonette. The tunnel of justice can be properly navigated only if it is filled with light. If those who know of these matters are not allowed to tell them, we don't have a hope.

One development which promises to widen and illuminate the tunnel of justice is a growing trend of the Supreme court to respect individual charter rights. Life, liberty, security of the person, a fair trial with full answer and defence, freedom of speech and expression. The violations of these rights of Canadian citizens over the past eleven years are many. Gradually, some wronged persons are receiving compensation. The next step is meaningful punishments for the violators. --December 9, 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

 

 

 

Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

 

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz

Saskatchewan Centenary

Quint Blog discussion

Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police

Blogging for choice

Michael Cardamone witch hunt

Implement recommendations of public inquiries

Stealing from the poor

Vancouver's killer cops

Tisdale rapists appeal

Winnipeg police misdeeds

Milgaard Inquiry

Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?

The Old Boys' Club Must Go!

Vancouver activists

John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie

City of intolerance

Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!

Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years