Revitalizing the archives

From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of an 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.

I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site took on another facet to its character: 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.

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.

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.

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

Pre-sermonette Brash Comment

 

 

Muzzling the Media

 

There is a long and dishonourable history of court ordered gag orders on this case which was the subject of a 1999 feature by Dan Zakreski (he changed the names to get around MacPherson's order) has now been covered by CBC's Fifth Estate (2000), winning all the major broadcast awards in Canada for a full length feature which disclosed the names and brought the story to the entire country.

November 2, 2002: The StarPhoenix has run a feature which continues to keep the story in the public eye but is unreasonably restricted in what it is allowed to tell. Jason Warick, the writer of this feature had prepared another series of articles which was scheduled for publication last spring but was not run for what injusticebusters understand to be legal reasons.

Reporting on a civil case (in this case, the $10M lawsuit) is different from reporting on a criminal case (Brian Dueck's arrest of and Saskatoon Crown Prosecutors' charges against sixteen innocent people in 1991).

The restrictions on the civil case would be laughable if they did not have such serious implications. The Rules of Court which limit discussion of material discovered during a civil claim exist to protect corporations and businesses from having their "trade secrets" unfairly divulged to competitors.

Every aspect of Foster Parent case, involving charges of violent sexual abuse of children, is in the public interest and should be in the public domain. In today's StarPhoenix article, Don McKillop continues to imply he believes the Klassens and Kvellos are child molesters in order to justify his continued defence of the prosecutors, cop and social workers in the $10M lawsuit. Dueck says he would really like to tell the "real" story but he is bound by lawyer's orders, again, implying that he is something other than a manufacturer of evidence to charge innocent people.

MacPherson's Gag order

 

The Honourable Donald K. MacPherson

Chief Justice, Court of Queen's Bench

Court House, 2425 Victoria Avenue,

Regina, Saskatchewan

March 29, 1993

MacDermid Lamarsh

Barristers & Solicitors

905 - 201 - 21st St. East

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan

S7K 0B8

Attention: Anne M. Wallace

Dear Ms. Wallace:

Re: Queen v. Klassen etal. - Preliminary Inquiry Transcripts

Your letter of February 15, 1993, has been referred to me for attention and reply, and I apologize for the delay in responding.

As I understand the situation, following the preliminary hearing of 11 accused persons in this matter, Mr. Peter Klassen, after the appropriate election, entered a plea of guilty to certain charges whereupon the Crown entered a stay of proceedings in respect of the other accused persons, and that is the way the matter stands at the present time.

I see several problems in releasing to the public, or a member thereof, a copy of the transcript of the preliminary hearing at this time:

(1) At the outset of the preliminary hearing, the court, on application by defence counsel, made an order under s. 539(1) of the Criminal Code prohibiting the publication by broadcast or newspaper until the accused parties have been discharged, or until the trial has ended if the accused are committed. Neither of these events has occurred. The transcript does not indicate there was any limitations as to the application of this order as suggested in your letter.

(2) Further, the court at the outset also made an order pursuant to 486(3) in respect of all the complainants and witnesses involved in all the informations. That order remains in effect.

(3) While it rarely happens, still, under the Criminal Code s579(2) it is open to the Crown to recommence the proceeding within the time limited by that section. If that should occur with a jury trial or trials being the result, the publication of the testimony given at the preliminary hearing could have an unfavourable affect on the minds of potential jurors. While this factor was not considered in either the MacIntyre case o[r] the Vickery case, I feel it is a sound reason for refusing the release of those transcripts at the present time.

(4) You are aware that in Vickery, the Supreme Court of Canada held that public documents in the possession of the Court should be made available to the public except, inter alia, in situations where it is necessary to "protect the innocent". In my view, those "child complainants" and other young persons who testified at the preliminary, fall within the classification of "innocent persons" and I am satisfied that publication of their testimony, either now or in the future, could cause them great and undeserved embarrassment and anguish, and for this reason as well the transcript should not be released.

Based on the foregoing, I have ordered the local registrar of the Judicial Centre of Saskatoon to refuse to release the transcript.

I should add that I, and I believe the other members of this court, support the views as expressed by the then Chief Justice Dickson in Vickery, but I am of the view that the foregoing reasons are sufficiently compelling to refuse release of the transcripts.

I would add as well that later in the course of the preliminary hearing, the court did make an order under s. 486(1), presumably in the interest of "the proper administration of justice", excluding members of the public from the courtroom, and a further order under s. 486(2.1) that the child witnesses be screened from the accused persons. However, I do not view these orders as affecting my instruction that the transcript not be released.

Yours truly,

(signed) D. K. MacPherson

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

---

Publisher : Sheila Steele

Co-founder: Richard Klassen

Got something to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!

injusticebusters court advice :

How to walk yourself through the justice system

 

Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial. (More Links provided below)

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.

 

The Klassen/Kvello civil Trial

 

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