injusticebusters 2002 > > Lawrence Wegner: The futility and hypocrisy of no-consequence inquests

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Lawrence Wegner

Saskatoon's shameful record

We have for several years been scornful of the local media's attitude to the Saskatoon Police, claiming the cops have received a very soft ride. We're glad to see the StarPhoenix shifting to a more critical stance. The internet makes possible cooperation among truth-seeking journalists possible in a way it never was before. Joyce Milgaard's renewed call for an inquiry, the increasing numbers of wrongful convictions and the publicity they receive, and quick access to other journalistic sources make it possible to compare our police and prosecutors with those from other parts of the country. We come up shamefully short in a country where a lot of bad policing, convicting, smearing of innocents and imprisonment goes on.

Wegner case fuels cynicism about process

Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Editorial, February 19, 2002, Links added by injusticebusters

Whatever else can be said of the inquiry into how, when and where Lawrence Wegner died, it's hard not to conclude it has been an unabashed failure.

It missed on all three accounts.

The inquiry also failed to live up to the unstated but clear goal of raising the cloud of suspicion that has hung over Saskatoon's police force and its relations with the Native community since The StarPhoenix reported two years ago on the inordinate number of Natives found frozen on the outskirts the city.

In fact, other than to make the Saskatoon police force look like the Keystone Kops, the RCMP look complicit in protecting their city colleagues, and the inquest process appear to be a whitewash of the entire episode, it is tough to put one's finger on anything being accomplished by the proceedings.

We shouldn't be surprised, however. This is precisely what happened at a similar inquest held into the death of Rodney Naistus, another Native man found frozen in the same part of town within days of Wegner and on the same weekend that Darrell Night barely missed the same fate after being driven out there and abandoned by two city police officers.

What seems patently clear in Wegner's case is that from the very beginning -- starting with the time his frozen body was found and the actions of local police looking into the case to how the RCMP investigated Saskatoon police and how the coroner's inquest was conducted -- conclusions had been reached before any proceedings got under way and everything in between was meant to substantiate those views.

The desired conclusion seemed to be that the death was the victim's fault.

How else to explain the heavy contamination of the scene where Wegner's body was found? How else to read the differing treatment accorded witnesses in the inquiry, with those who cast doubt on the preordained conclusion put through a much more rigorous interrogation than those who supported the hypothesis that there is no one to blame but the dead man?

Even at the very beginning, footprints at the site were trod on or driven over by police coming out to look at the body -- in a case that should have been treated as a suspicious death. Wegner's clothing wasn't kept as evidence and, even though he had somehow made it to the middle of nowhere without his shoes in sub-zero weather, no clear photos were ever taken of his feet.

The fog didn't lift even after the RCMP task force came into the picture. Mountie investigtors required witnesses to take polygraphs. All witnesses that is, except for those who should have been the prime suspects.

The testimony of Dwaine Sutherland, who said he saw a man in a shirt and socks being tossed unceremoniously into a police car near St. Paul's Hospital the night Wegner died, was discounted because he refused to take a lie-detector test. Yet, three other witnesses recounted the same story. The RCMP had no difficulty, however, in accepting testimony of city police officers without requiring the polygraph, even in cases where the testimony was contradictory.

The inquest was told by one city cop that a 911 tape must have been tampered with or was defective because it didn't contain any reference to his notifying cruisers in the area of St. Paul's about a complaint from a woman that a man was wandering around without shoes. Another cop, however, testified that wasn't possible, ebcause the only way to change the tape would be to physically cut it and splice it together. Apparently no one was interested enough to ask to see the tape or require a polygraph of these witnesses to get at the truth.

A composite drawing made from a witness's description of a police officer she claimed had pushed Wegner into a patrol car never was (and apparently never will be) released so the community can try to identify him.

An equal lack of interest has been shown as to the state of Wegner's socks. Central to the man's death was how he might have walked six kilometres to his death on such a hellish night, when he didn't even have boots on.

Yet the question of the condition of his socks -- particularly in comparison with those of an investigating officer who tried to replicate the feat and found it destroyed his socks -- seems to have been only of peripheral interest to investigators and the inquiry.

The lead RCMP investigator first told the inquiry Wegner's socks were in a box he had with him, then decided this critical evidence must still be in Regina. Yet no one thought to insist that they be sent to the inquiry so the jurors could see them.

Given the inability of the entire process to determine the fundamental facts that led to this man's death, it's hard to disagree with FSIN senator David Ahenakew when he says: "It was a destructive process every step of the way because . . . the truth didn't come out."

It is also hard to reconcile what happened in this investigation with Justice Minister Chris Axworthy's call to "ensure not only that justice is done but that the public is satisfied that justice has been done."

Police Chief Russell Sabo has pledged his force will regain the trust of the community. This process makes that job -- and the task of regaining credibility for the RCMP and Justice Department -- a steep, uphill battle.

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Steven Gibb, Gerry Klein, Les MacPherson, Sarath Peiris and Lawrence Thoner collaborate in writing SP editorials

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"Democracy cannot be maintained without its foundation; free public opinion and free discussion throughout the nation of all matters affecting the state within the limits set by the criminal code and the common law."

-The Supreme Court of Canada, 1938

FSIN demands new agency to investigate police

cbc Feb 18, 2002

SASKATOON - Aboriginal leaders in Saskatchewan are calling for an independent body to investigate complaints against police.

Currently criminal matters against police officers in the province are investigated by other police.

The Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations would like to see a system similar to the one in Ontario. That province has set up a special independent body called the Special Investigations Unit.

"All of our investigators are peace officers," says the unit's Rose Hong. "We are entirely separate from the police services. We are at an arm's-length relationship from the Ministry of the Attorney General. We are an independent investigative agency that conducts criminal investigations."

There is a police complaints investigator in Saskatchewan. But he has no power to make arrests or lay criminal charges.

Zakreski's piece on Scandal of the Century | monumental ruling in favour of free speech |

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

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Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

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Index to the stories on this website

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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
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Gary wells: Faulty eye-witness testimony

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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!

A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada

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

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May 10, 2005

This page created Feb. 19, 2002