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Sermonette: October, 2003

Just following orders: Adolf Eichmann would seem to be the mentor for Saskatchewan politicians, crown attorneys and police.

I thought they were supposed to be taking their orders from us! This is a democracy after all . . . or is it?

I had occasion to watch a biography of Adolf Eichmann this week-end. He was the prominent Nazi who escaped the Nuremberg trials in 1947-48 and, tracked down in Argentina, was taken to Israel where he was tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity and hanged. Throughout his trial, he claimed to have been "just following orders" as had his predecessors. The diligence with which he followed his orders -- the supervision of the deportation of over 300,000 Jews -- and the confiscation of all their property -- and then his part in devising "The Final Solution" which was the efficient scheme for killing huge numbers of people quickly and making money from every single part of their bodies and their lives which could be salvaged -- and his coldbloodedness have been the subject of much literary and psychological speculation over the years. He acknowledged his role in the genocide and saw nothing wrong with it. He withstood four weeks of intensive cross-examination from survivors of those he had helped kill -- without bending.

The Klassen/Kvello civil trial, which now awaits a judgment, showed in 2003 how stubborn is a certain mindset. Superintendent Dueck, Matthew Miazga and Sonja Hansen all gave variations of the "just following orders" defence. They were neither apologetic nor did they show any shame. They withstood several days of cross-examination. Hansen had one emotional outburst where she claimed to have been affected by the psychic pain she witnessed young Michelle Ross go through. Hansen's flash of pity for Michelle crying on the stand did not extend to removing her from the clutches of her brother, who was routinely raping her and her sister. But it was not my job to place the children, she said.

Doing our jobs, following procedures, not my job. This is the civil service of the 21st century.

In their final arguments, both defence lawyers urged the court to blame the children. "It was not our clients who manufactured these stories," they said. "It was the Ross children."

I don't know how those attending the Nuremberg trials, or Eichmann's trial, responded to the defence lawyers who distanced their clients from the holocaust. I do know that the defences chosen by these respondents in 2003 caused me concern and alarm. The leap from "Believe the children" to "Blame the children" seemed crass, even from this lot. But then, one should not be surprised when only short months ago, a Queen's Bench judge in Tisdale allowed that grown men had been tricked and seduced by a twelve year old girl.

We all know children who are engaging, who tell tall tales, who have imaginary friends, who imagine the heroes of their bedtime stories or Saturday morning cartoons really exist. Some of us were those children. Now the Ross children were not especially imaginative. Or convincing, for that matter. Michael had early on been busted by social workers who wrote on his file that he told lies and this was communicated to Anita Klassen when she and her husband agreed to foster the children when Michael was 8. (Dale and Anita had specifically told Social Services they did NOT want children who had been sexually abused. We know for sure that they Margaret Graham Woloshyn had suspected they were sexually abused before they placed them. ) Dale and Anita thought they could handle lying and all evidence shows they gave it a good shot. It is unlikely that Michael cleaned up his act and became such a cunning conniver within three years that he was able to convince a several educated and experienced adults that he was telling the truth about orgies he had witnessed and participated in at the Klassen households. The adults who claim to have believed him chose to use his stories, and use the "believe the children" line in a protocol and spin themselves several days/weeks/years of lucrative work.

The human race is in disrepute.

Not that we have ever been that reputable. Our living memories are littered with examples of just how little separates us from the Barbarians.

Terry Hinz testified at the Klassen/Kvello trial that he felt he had been transported back to 17th century Salem, Massechussets. According to Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, based largely on the actual transcripts, this ws a case where some girls explained their lascivious behavior by blaming it on witches in the community. The trials were not fair or logical by any standards -- hold her head under water and if she drowns, she's innocent. If she does not drown, she is clearly a witch. Miller wrote this during the Joseph McCarthy communist witch hunts of the 1950s. It is a play which sheds light on many kinds of witch-hunts. At least it shows us how to recognize them when they are happening. Stopping them would seem to be a much more daunting task. --Sheila Steele, November 17, 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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Co-founder: Richard Klassen

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

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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