Update on wrongful convictions in Canada, October, 2004 | Truscott will have to wait some more

 January 25, 2005: The Federal government released the first national examination of the reasons for so many wrongful convictions in Canada. This should be required reading for every prosecutor, cop and criminal defence lawyer in the country. News reports

Steven Truscott

Truscott supporters urge quick response to judge's report

CP January 7, 2004

GUELPH -- Two Steven Truscott backers want Canada's new justice minister to know extensive public support exists for the man's conviction to be overturned -- and quickly. The call from Mary and Jeff Yanchus for public pressure to be put on Justice Minister Irwin Cotler comes at a key time.

The new minister is expected to get a judge's report on the case by the end of this month, said James Lockyer, a lawyer with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

A response from Cotler could follow in February or March.

Public pressure could affect the minister's reaction to a review of the case by former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Fred Kaufman, said Lockyer.

"It's a highly political process," Lockyer said yesterday.

Steven Truscott, who has lived in Guelph under an assumed name for more than three decades, has consistently maintained his innocence since June 1959, after the body of Lynne Harper, 12, was found in a bush near the Clinton air force base where she and Truscott lived.

Two years ago this month, the justice minister of the day -- Martin Cauchon -- announced Kaufman would review the Truscott case, in response to a request by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

The review can lead to Cotler ordering a new trial, issuing a pardon or even referring the case back to the courts.

Jeff Yanchus said he and his wife are putting the word out to fellow supporters of the Truscott cause to lobby for a quick response from the minister, as well as a quick legal remedy.

"We want people to know it's not finished," Yanchus said. "A new minister has been appointed and we want Cotler to know Steven has a lot of supporters."

A referral to the courts could take months or years to conclude, while a new trial -- with no evidence from the Crown -- would lead to a quick not guilty verdict and finally a cleared name for Truscott.

Yanchus said it would be nice to see Truscott exonerated while he and relatives, like his elderly mother, are alive to witness it.

"Steven isn't getting any younger," he noted.

Truscott turns 59 this month.

All but 14 years of his life have been spent under the dark cloud of a murder conviction.

Truscott was observed giving Harper a ride on his bicycle the day she was last seen alive in June 1959.

He maintains he dropped her at the side of a road between Clinton and Seaforth and saw her get into a car, but authorities didn't believe him.

Truscott was charged with murder, found guilty by a jury based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to hang.

The sentence was commuted to life in prison and he was paroled in 1969 .

Truscott has lived in Guelph since 1970, raising three children with his wife Marlene, who said yesterday the wait for a decision from the justice minister is weighing heavily on her family.

"It's very hard. I don't think people realize how hard it is," she said.

It's only continually incoming letters and e-mail from supporters that keeps the Truscotts' faith in the process alive, she said.

Copyright © The London Free Press 2001,2002,2003

Linden MacIntyreand fifth estate brought this story back into the national conscience. | Review of Julian Sher's book: Until You Are Dead: Steven Truscott's Long Ride Into History. | More on Truscott

Steven Truscott's 690 application

Dear Friends:

It has become obvious to me that many of you are not clear on the 4 options the Justice Minister may take in Steve's case. I will endeavor to make these options as clear as possible by shortening this section of the 690 prepared by AIDWYC lawyers.

1. New trial: Steven would appear before the Supreme Court of Ontario in Goderich where he was convicted. After the Crown indicates it will call no evidence, he would be acquitted.

If it appears that the Ontario Attorney General is unwilling to permit justice for Steven in open court, then the Minister should consider referring to his colleagues in Cabinet the question of a free pardon.

2. Free Pardon: Governor In Council may grant a free pardon only if they are satisfied Steven is innocent. Steven is not seeking an act of mercy or forgiveness.

Because this is an executive decision and not a judicial order, we regard it as less appropriate to the historic nature of this case. It is Steven's preference and AIDWYC's that the Minister take one of these two available steps to reverse the unjust conviction.

If we have failed in our efforts to satisfy the Minister that he should provide a remedy, he has 2 other options:

3. Ontario Court of Appeal Referral and 4. Supreme Court of Canada Referral.

A referral to either of these courts would enable Steven to argue his conviction be quashed and a verdict of acquittal entered. Either of these will result in years of further litigation. This case has been carefully scrutinized over 40 years and can be exhaustively examined in the 690 application. We urge the Minister to act quickly and boldly. We ask that the conviction of Steven Truscott for the murder of Lynne Harper be quashed and a new trial ordered.

In January, 2002, this case was turned over by the Justice Minister to Justice Fred Kaufman for review and recommendations to the Justice Minister. The final decision then lies in the hands of our Justice Minister, the Honorable Martin Cauchon.

Trusting this information brings a better understanding of the 4 remedies.

Sincerely,

Marlene Truscott

 For more about 690 applications, see the case of Clayton Johnson

As we await the outcome of Judge Kaufman's inquiry, many Canadians are thinking of Steven Truscott. For us, he was a dusty case we included among gross injustices we knew about when we launched this site four years ago. He came to life for the whole country when he and his family went public on fifth estate. Yesterday, we received the following e-mail intended for the Truscott family:

Subject: Steven Truscott Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2002 12:56:38 -0500

I have just finished reading"Until you are dead" and I feel just as sure today that you were wrongfully accused as I was when I read The Steven Truscott story over 20 years ago.I know the best is yet to come for you and your family. All the best.....George & Sandra

I made a successful attempt to get the message through and was assured by daughter Lesley that it was fine to post their e-mail address so people could write directly. This morning we rec'd:" Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 11:43:57 -0500 From: Steve and Marlene Truscott

Thank you for forwarding email on to us from George and Sandra.

Steve and Marlene

juSTice

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This is the world many of us want to live in -- where strangers can send messages of encouragement -- not the world where innocent people are imprisoned and silenced. We thank Steve, Marlene and family for helping to show the way.

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

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

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Publisher : Sheila Steele

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)

 

Sermonette: The Naked Truth -- (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

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.

Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Stephen Williams: Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police

Terry Arnold: : Snitch a suicide?

RCMP scenario stings: Brian Hutchinson starts digging

Gary wells: Faulty eye-witness testimony

Vopnis

Abdulai Mohamed

The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns convictions

Trial set for June 15

We know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured affidavit from a Winnipeg cop

The Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing. Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.

 

 

2005: In the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming at us!

Canadians who have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations combined with zealous Crown

A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada

Robert Baltovich

Michael Burns

Sebastian Burns

Rodney Cain

Wilbert Coffin (hanged, 1953)

Jason Dix

Jim Driskell

Jody Druken

Randy Druken

Hugues Duguay

Michel Dumont

Peter Frumusa

Walter Gillespie and Robert Mailman

Clayton Johnson

Yvonne Johnson

Herman Kaglik

Darren Koehn

Kulaveeringsam "Kulam" Karthiresu

Stephen Leadbeater

Donald Marshall

Chris McCullough

Michael McTaggart

Felix Michaud

David Milgaard

Guy Paul Morin

Shannon Murrin

Jamie Nelson

Greg Parsons

Benoit Proulx

Atif Rafay

Louise Reynolds

Thomas Sophonow

Gary Staples

Billy Taillefer

Steven Truscott

Joe Warren

Leon Walchuk

 

AIDWYC

Innocence Project (Canada)

Innocence Project (U.S.)

Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions

 

Kirstin Lobato

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff

Willie Upshaw

Hurricane Carter

Guildford 4

Birmingham 6

Amirault

Houston

U.S. wrongful convictions: Exonerateed

Laurence Adams

Ludrate Burton

Stephen Cowans

Wilton Dedge

Albert Johnson

Kenneth Marsh

Dwayne McKinney

James Bernard Parker

Peter Reilly

Peter Rose

Sylvester Smith

Clifford St. Joseph

John Stoll

Marty Tankleff

Wilton Dedge

Ray Krone

 

Still working on it:

Dennis Deschaine

Dennis Perry

Tim Sandfort

 

 

 

 

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