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Arbour urges courts to protect rights of poor
'Fundamental Canadian values'

 Cristin Schmitz, CanWest News Service, March 4, 2005

OTTAWA - Canadian courts should be as vigorous and open-minded in vindicating the constitutional claims of low-income and disadvantaged people to shelter, food and the basic necessities of life as they have been in protecting civil liberties and the Charter rights of accused criminals, says United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour.

In a provocative keynote address to be delivered tonight in Quebec City at a symposium organized by the Dominion Institute, the former Supreme Court of Canada judge challenges Canadian litigants and Canadian courts, including her ex-colleagues at the Supreme Court, to be less "timid" in tackling head on "claims emerging from the right to be free from want."

Pointing to India where the Supreme Court in 2001 recognized the right to food as an integral element of the right to life as an example, Arbour said the Canadian Charter's guarantee of the right to life, liberty and security of the person offers ample scope for recognizing and protecting the social and economic rights of Canadians who are poor and disadvantaged.

"As is the case for civil and political rights, economic and social rights may --and in many circumstances must -- be backed by legal remedies. Courts the world over have been playing an increasingly vital role in enforcing socio-economic rights, within the bounds of their justiciability, bringing them from the realms of charity to the reach of justice," Ms. Arbour states in her speech. A copy was obtained by CanWest News Service.

"Ultimately the potential to give economic, social and cultural rights the status of constitutional entitlement represents an immense opportunity to affirm our fundamental Canadian values, giving them the force of law."

Ms. Arbour notes Canadian courts have "championed civil and political rights" and have taken an active role in enforcing the rights of accused when the state repressively uses its criminal law powers. "But considerably more reticence has been expressed in relation to social, economic and cultural rights and the protection of vulnerable segments of the population on grounds other than discrimination," she says.

Reached last night, Ms. Arbour said "my key message is that Canada should not be complacent about our commitment to human rights, I think it would be unfortunate if we had an unduly romantic vision of ourselves in the world, on the basis of the immense progress and leadership we have shown in civil and political rights, and in particular in non-discrimination and equality issues. But I think in economic and social rights, historically we have been dragging our feet quite embarrassingly actually."

She said she is not concerned that courts would be open to charges of judicial activism if they start telling governments how to spend money.

"I'd like to see the same kind of intellectual imagination that Canadian courts have shown in the last 20 years on civil and political rights. . . apply to economic and social rights," she said. "Everybody understands also that there are constraints on the appropriate remedies, but frankly I don't think the courts should be guided in their intellectual pursuits by criticisms that are not well founded. This is no different, in my view, than in the early days of the Charter with the courts asking themselves: "What does a fair trial mean?" and "What does a speedy trial mean?" And "How much is it going to cost?" is not the final answer to whether the courts should engage in exploring these kinds of ideas," she argued. "I think the Charter (of Rights and Freedoms) is full of promise for all that to be explored. The thing is that we have to launch the debate. I hope to contribute to launching it."
© National Post 2005

Lawyers allege misconduct in genocide trials UN hid Rwanda investigation until Post reported on it, defence alleges

Steven Edwards National Post,Tuesday, March 28, 2000

UNITED NATIONS - Lawyers representing Rwandans charged in the country's 1994 genocide aim to have proceedings against their clients stayed based on information contained in a recent National Post report.

At a press conference at the United Nations yesterday, the lawyers, several of them Canadian, charged that UN war crimes prosecutors appear to have suppressed evidence by not revealing the existence of a probe into the presidential assassination that sparked the genocide.

In a March 1 story, the Post uncovered a UN document dated Aug. 1, 1997, that raised the possibility that Tutsi rebels and not, as often presumed, Hutu extremists killed Juvenal Habyarimana, the Rwandan president, himself a Hutu, in a missile attack on his plane three years earlier.

The document further claimed that Canada's Louise Arbour, then chief war crimes prosecutor for the world body, called off the probe.

In a letter to the lawyers, the United Nations has confirmed the existence of the document, saying it has now been handed over to the tribunal, based in Arusha, Tanzania, where they can apply to see it.

The lawyers feel that the new information would have been useful for the defence of their Hutu clients and say that Ms. Arbour, now a justice with the Supreme Court of Canada, should have handed it over to them.

"There seems to have been prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of process," said Andre Tremblay of Montreal, co-counsel for Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former Rwandan mayor who is appealing a life sentence for his role in the genocide.

"At a minimum, [the remedy] consists of asking for disclosure of evidence and, as lawyers, we might ask for a stay of proceedings."

According to the newly discovered but still uncorroborated information, Tutsi rebels killed Rwanda's president on April 6, 1994.

Within hours of the assassination, Hutu extremists were calling for the murder of all Tutsis and Hutu moderates in a bloodletting that claimed at least 500,000 lives.

The report was produced by Michael Hourigan, a former investigator for the UN tribunal for Rwanda, who then briefly worked for the New York-based UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the world body's internal investigations unit.

His three-page account involved conversations with three informants who said they had shot down the president's plane. The three were reported to have said they committed the act on orders from Paul Kagame, a Tutsi who has been Rwanda's de facto leader since the genocide. He is currently the country's interim president following last week's resignation of Pasteur Bizimungu, a Hutu.

Rwandan officials have strongly denounced accounts in the National Post as propaganda by extremist Hutu exiles seeking to revise history.

United Nations and other accounts of the shooting have most often put the blame on Hutu extremists in the former army, government and militia, who carried out the genocide. They were thought to oppose Mr. Habyarimana because he appeared ready to give into international pressure to share power with Mr. Kagame's rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front.

Mr. Hourigan, a former Australian prosecutor now based in Atlanta, is currently involved in a legal action against the United Nations on behalf of two Rwandan women whose families were murdered by Hutus in 1994 despite being protected by UN peacekeepers.

He had worked as an investigator for the UN genocide tribunal in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, and is believed to have told Ms. Arbour in early 1997 about the three informants' allegations against Mr. Kagame.

Ms. Arbour has not commented on the conversation.

Mr. Hourigan, UN sources said, later gave the OIOS a three-page report summarizing the tribunal's investigation, including the one into the assassination.

In the letter to the lawyers representing the genocide suspects, the United Nations says that "such internal OIOS memoranda are for OIOS use only and thus the document was not transmitted to [the tribunal]."

Reuters reported yesterday that the United Nations has uncovered the report. However, the world body searched for the report only after the National Post's March 1 article brought the document to light.

About 40 Rwandan Hutus have been detained on charges of participating in the genocide. A group of 22 lawyers is demanding disclosure of documents related to the case. "My client's indictment refers to the shooting down of the plane and that the killings started immediately," said Tiphaine Dickson, a Montreal lawyer representing suspect Georges Rutaganda, a former businessman and vice-president of Interahamwe, a Hutu militia.

"A prosecution witness stated in our case that the person or persons who shot down that plane knew what would happen. This is why the evidence is material."

Ms. Dickson said she asked in the tribunal's court on Feb. 7, 1997, for a report on "the investigation" into the assassination. Court transcripts from that day reveal that the prosecution denied there was an investigation.

"First, we don't have any such investigation. We have not made any such investigation and we don't have any reports," said Yacob Haile-Mariam, for the prosecution. "And, secondly, it is not our function, it is not our mandate, to investigate plane crashes or presidents, vice-presidents, or whoever it is."

Ms. Dickson said yesterday she again tried to petition the court in October, 1997, about the shooting down of the plane. "My request was denied by the court," she said.

The date is significant because the UN admits in its letter to the lawyers that Ms. Arbour knew one month earlier about the reference to the investigation in the Aug. 1, 1997, document.

"If there was an investigation going on, she, as chief prosecutor, should have known about it," said Mr. Tremblay yesterday.

The UN letter was sent in reply to a request from the lawyers for the document. Of Ms. Arbour, the letter says: "The matters covered in the report were discussed in September, 1997, with Ms. Arbour, who was seized of this issue."

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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Publisher : Sheila Steele

Co-founder: Richard Klassen

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This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

Our Saskatoon struggle against a malcious cop, social worker and prosecutor

Activism

April 1999 picket

1994 picket which resulted in our charges for defaming Dueck

Attempts to get others to poster fell flat

 

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Pre civil trial

 

February 2002 hearings

Dovall fiat 1 | 2 | 3 |

Court report

Crown Lawyer had doubts (Sp article)

 

 

 

The Klassen/Kvello civil Trial

 

StarPhoenix coverage

 

September 8, 2003: Trial Begins

September 09, 2003: Pamela Klassen Shetterly's Testimony

September 10, 2003: Anita Klassen

September 11, 2003: Michelle Ross

September 12, 2003: Sheila Verway

September 16, 2003: Michael Ross

September 18, 2003: Ellen Gunn

September 19, 2003: Terry Hinz

September 19, 2003:StarPhoenix editorial, Terry Hinz

September 20, 2003: Louis Dupuis

September 27, 2003: Ron Schindell, Jay Watson

October 01, 2003: Case

against the Klassens weak: documents

October 02, 2003: Judge asked to dismiss suit: No evidence of malicious intent: lawyers

October 2, 2003: Letter to the editor from former "Believe the children" advocate

October 03, 2003: Lawyer details evidence of malice

October 04, 2003: Judge ponders request to drop Klassen lawsuit

October 27, 2003: Judge Baynton's interim decision: Quinney dropped, the rest proceed

October 27, 2003: Claim goes forward

October 29, 2003: Brian Dueck

October 30, 2003: Dueck

October 31, 2003: Brian Dueck

November 01, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 04, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 05, 2003: Matthew Miazga

November 06, 2003: Sonja Hansen

injusticebusters' daily reports page 1

Final judgment: Dec. 30, 2003

Post judgment publicity

articles and editorials from Jan 6-9

Sabo's apology

Editorials: StarPhoenix, Leader Post and National Post

National Post front page story, Jan. 10

Sarah Gibb's profile of Richard and Kari Klassen |

Lives ruined by Jason Warick, Feb. 19

April 15/04: Judge Baynton warns defendants' lawyers not to delay damages trial

Dueck drops his appeal

Full transcript of Dueck's examinations for discovery which were part of the read-ins at the civil trial

 

 

Pre-sermonette Brash Comment

 

1998

 

Fall, 1998: Sask Sympatiko strikes again

2001

 

Muzzling the media

 

 

Sermonettes

2001

January: Legal Treachery to keep Dueck's lies safe

2002

March, 2002 -- Gay Bashing still a legal sport in Saskatoon -- Even when it turns to murder

 

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