|
Ramsay
rape trial | CBC
charged for releasing name of Ramsay complainant | RCMP
gaffe adds twist to CSIS scandal | Sex
predator terrorized Kingston Pen, inmates say Prisoner with access
to every cell accused of knifepoint rapes, death threats
Jack Ramsay ran
as in independent in the Alberta constituency of Crowfoot
Amazingly, many voters support
him and said he represented them well, when he was a sitting
member for the Reform Party and their justice critic.
As though it is not enough
enough that they are tolerant of his rape of the Native girl
while he was an RCMP officer in Northern Saskatchewan, there
is an uncomfortable degree of tolerance with the notion that
there is nothing wrong with what he did -- that it was common
practice and so it is somehow unfair to single Ramsay out for
public scrutiny and criticism.
Perhaps Ramsay is not the only
RCMP officer who helped himself to young flesh when he was stationed
in Northern Saskatchewan. Rumour at th time had it that he was
not. There were worse rumours against cops in the North -- rumours
of girls murdered and dumped in the bush.
The attitude that what happened
long ago should be forgotten is dangerous. We have witnessed
some success by Jews who survived the holocaust in finally getting
the world to pay attention. we could learn much from this persistance.
Rape was not okay thirty, forty, fifty years ago and it is not
okay now.
People W5 interviewed in the
southern Saskatchewan community where Dr.
John Schneeberger raped a patient as well as his own step-daughter
said he was a good doctor and they would like to see him return
to practice. In the cases of both Ramsay and Schneeberger we
are dealing with rape of under-age persons and men who used their
positions to force sexual acts from minors. Both are unrepentant.
Neither are fit for any job which puts them in a position of
trust. Ramsay should be in jail, not on the hustings. And Schneeberger
should be kept locked up. (Ramsay's supporters turned out to
be a significant minority in the Crowfoot community. Perhaps
he will learn something from all of this.)
  Jack Ramsay has been found guilty of attempted
rape.
- Ramsay
case | Beginning of Ramsay trial
| Trial begins for Alberta MP | Nov. 23,, 1999 Ramsay denies rape |
Woman accusing Ramsay of rape pointed
finger before
-
Appeal court handcuffs
defence bar: Police witnesses can no longer be confronted with
previous judicial findings that they lied
KIRK MAKIN Justice Reporter,
Globe and Mail, November
17, 1999
An Ontario Court of Appeal
decision has left defence lawyers unable to confront police witnesses
with judicial findings that they lied in previous trials.
The court ruled earlier this
year that lawyers cannot bring up the fact that previous judges
found an officer to be lying or unworthy of belief. The decision
reversed a 1997 ruling that opened the door to such evidence.
"The defence bar is certainly
disappointed we can't take this case any further," said
Alan Gold, a lawyer for Mohammed Ghorvei, who was convicted of
heroin trafficking in 1994. "I can't think of any better
way to get at the truth than through a previous judge's finding
that an officer was not credible."
The ruling became final when
the period in which Mr. Ghorvei could launch an appeal ended
recently. The Ontario Legal Aid Plan refused to provide him with
funds to pursue his case to the Supreme Court of Canada, on the
basis that he had already served his prison sentence.
The Ghorvei decision came as
a blow to a database at the Criminal Lawyers Association. The
CLA has filed and cross-referenced various cases involving police
testimony to provide members with the names of individual officers
whose evidence judges have rejected.
Edward Sapiano, the lawyer
who created the database, said yesterday that his years of work
on it convinced him that "every day, somewhere in Toronto,
some police officer gives perjured testimony."
Frank Addario, another Toronto
defence lawyer, said he is concerned that the Ghorvei ruling
will have implications for more than just the police. He said
it will probably also prevent the use of previous judicial findings
that reflect negatively on any expert witness.
Mr. Addario gave the example
of a forensic scientist whose testimony is soundly rejected in
one case. He said the Ghorvei ruling means that finding could
not be brought before the judge or jury in other cases.
"We cannot afford to ignore
evidence like this," Mr. Addario said. "As the law
now stands, this means nine judges in nine different cases can
disbelieve a police officer, but the tenth judge will be blissfully
unaware of his track record."
The 1997 Court of Appeal decision
opening the door to evidence of multiple police lies was Regina
v. Malabre. The court said findings of credibility against a
police officer could be used to attack him in later trials, provided
that the officer was central to the case and that the finding
of incredibility was "a clear and express finding."
The Ghorvei decision involved
an officer whose truthfulness had been been questioned by three
lower-court judges -- including one who called the officer "a
compulsive liar."
However, the appeal court said
an officer cannot be confronted with a judicial finding adverse
to his credibility unless he or she has been charged and convicted
of perjury, or police authorities have made a finding of misconduct.
Mr. Gold argued that by looking
at evidence of consistently false police testimony, courts in
England and the U.S. have, over time, been able to root out serious
injustices.
"If you were a judge trying
a case, wouldn't you want to know the person before you is a
liar?" he asked. "It is a very disappointing ruling."
Mr. Sapiano said he undertook
the CLA database project a few years ago after an incident where
a police officer whom the judge did not believe showed up a few
weeks later as a witness in another of Mr. Sapiano's trials.
"If police can collect
all this information on us -- which they do -- I thought: Why
can't we do it to them?" Mr. Sapiano said.
A QUESTION
OF TRUST
Some excerpts compiled by defence
lawyer Edward Sapiano of judicial findings about the credibility
of Toronto police witnesses:
"Crown counsel has also
been exposed to the nightmare of every counsel -- of having his
witness shown in court to be telling a lie, or of giving contradictory
evidence of which counsel is completely unaware." -- Madam
Justice Donna Haley of the Ontario Court (General Division),
in Regina v. Montgomery and Stewart.
"Shocking though it may
be, I find the accused to be a more credible witness than the
police officers in this case. When I say shocking, it may not
shock other people -- and I may be more naive than a lot of other
people -- but the evidence of the police officers in this case
is quite alarming." -- Judge David Fairgrieve of the Ontario
Court (Provincial Division), in Regina v. Stokes.
"The whole Crown case,
in my view, depends upon whether or not [the officer] can be
believed or if his evidence on a balance of probabilities can
be believed . . . In my view, it cannot." -- Mr. Justice
Arthur Whealy of the Ontario Court (General Division), in Regina
v. Ewart and Fraser.
"I have seen the witnesses
in the witness box, and observed their demeanour and the manner
in which they gave their evidence, and I am not convinced at
all by the evidence given by the police officers. The accused
gave his evidence in a straightforward manner. I believe and
accept his story, and reject the evidence of the police officers."
-- Judge Maurice Charles of the Ontario Court (Provincial Division),
in Regina v. Anderson.
RCMP gaffe adds twist
to CSIS scandal
ANDREW MITROVICA and JEFF
SALLOT Globe and Mail
Wednesday, November 17, 1999
Opposition MPs slammed the
government yesterday for its handling of the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service mess as new information came to light showing
that the RCMP also lost a briefcase brimming with sensitive information
to thieves.
A briefcase containing notebooks
full of information that would enable criminals to identify a
string of confidential informants was stolen in March, 1995,
from an unmarked RCMP car, The Globe and Mail has learned.
The police informants were
notified of the theft and "all appropriate measures"
were taken by the federal police force to protect them, Corporal
Grant Learned, an RCMP media-relations officer, said yesterday
from Vancouver.
One of those RCMP informants
said he is offended that history has repeated itself with the
missing CSIS documents. "I am dumbfounded that this has
happened again, that they didn't take serious steps to prevent
this," the informant said.
The informant's comments came
as political controversy continued to swirl around Solicitor-General
Laurence MacAulay and his handling of the theft of CSIS operational
planning documents from the back seat of a CSIS analyst's car
while she was at a hockey game in Toronto last month.
"This is sounding more
and more like an Austin Powers episode, 'The Spy Who Shagged
Us,' " Conservative MP Peter MacKay said.
Mr. MacAulay told the House
that corrective action has been taken to ensure "strict
adherence with security procedures" at CSIS.
Ron Atkey, former head of the
Security Intelligence Review Committee, joins in the criticism
in a commentary in The Globe and Mail today.
"It is simply unforgivable
that the CSIS director or his senior officials did not immediately
call the chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee
as soon as they learned of the theft of a top-secret document
from a CSIS analyst's car," Mr. Atkey writes.
The theft of the sensitive
RCMP documents in 1995 occurred in Surrey, B.C., while the Mountie
was involved in an undercover operation probing the activities
of a local biker club, a source said.
"In 1995 there was a police
vehicle that was stolen that contained an officer's briefcase
and the contents of that briefcase also included personal notebooks
dealing with a specific investigation," Cpl. Learned said.
The car was parked "for
the evening" when it was stolen by unknown thieves, Cpl.
Learned said. He could not say, however, if the theft was a random
"smash and grab" or an act perpetrated by the targets
of the undercover probe.
He could also not explain how
such sensitive material was allowed to sit unattended in a police
officer's car for several hours.
The vehicle was eventually
recovered by local police but the briefcase and the notebooks
are still missing.
Cpl. Learned was quick to point
out that none of the stolen material imperiled Canada's national
security or the undercover police probe, although he acknowledged
that it may have endangered the lives of several police informants.
"The people who may have,
in any way, been impacted by this were notified. Steps were put
in place to ensure their safety," he said.
Cpl. Learned said as far as
he knows no police informants were harmed as a result of the
theft. He said the Mounties have taken steps to protect the informants,
although he would not be specific.
However, one informant who
recently contacted The Globe said his life has been a "living
hell" since the notebooks were stolen.
Cpl. Learned acknowledged that
the incident represented a serious breach of internal security.
"This is one of the most delicate issues that I have ever
had the pleasure to deal with. . . . These are an undercover
operators notes . . . any undercover operation would be of some
[importance]," he said.
An internal investigation into
the incident was launched in 1995 and the officer received "informal
discipline," Cpl. Learned said. That may have included the
officer receiving counselling, an oral reprimand or a note in
his file, Cpl. Learned said. The officer is still with the Mounties
and involved in undercover operations.
The solictor-general at the
time was not informed of security breach, but Philip Murray,
then commissioner of the RCMP, may have been notified, Cpl. Learned
said.
Meanwhile in Ottawa, Mr. MacAulay,
the minister responsible for both the RCMP and CSIS, was unable
to answer several key questions about the CSIS security breach
at the Toronto hockey game, including whether the analyst who
kept the operational planning document in her car is still on
the job handling classified material.
He told reporters they should
go to CSIS for answers. But CSIS also refused to say anything
about whether the analyst is still on the job.
CSIS spokesman Phil Gibson
said privacy laws and the fact that the Security Intelligence
Review Committee is conducting an investigation precludes the
service from saying anything at this time.
CSIS is also conducting its
own internal security investigation.
Opposition parties pressed
Mr. MacAulay to explain why he did not immediately inform SIRC,
Parliament's watchdog panel, when he first learned of the security
breach three weeks ago.
Sex predator terrorized
Kingston Pen, inmates say Prisoner with access to every cell
accused of knifepoint rapes, death threats
TIMOTHY APPLEBY Crime Reporter
Wednesday, November 17, 1999 Globe
and Mail
Kingston, Ont. -- A violent sexual predator
was in their midst, prisoners say, and authorities at Canada's
oldest, most notorious penitentiary gave him the keys to every
cell.
Big prisons invariably have
a few well-connected inmates around whom the others tread warily.
By every account, convicted killer Michel Huneault was just such
a man, a stocky, muscled figure who stirred respect and considerable
fear when he walked along Kingston Penitentiary's ancient cellblocks
in his trademark bandanna.
It was not merely that Mr.
Huneault spoke of his affiliation to the Rock Machine biker gang
and the fellow gangster he said he had killed. He was also the
elected chairman of the inmate committee, a powerful position
that gave him access to every cell at the penitentiary, home
to more than 400 prisoners, most of them sex offenders.
In that capacity, five prisoners
say, Mr. Huneault for months conducted a one-man reign of terror
-- raping inmates at knifepoint, supplying them with drugs, threatening
them with death if they spoke up.
One says Mr. Huneault also
managed to get his hands on the inmate's personal prison file,
describing, among other things, sexual abuse the man had suffered
as a child.
"I just wondered how the
hell he got it," said that prisoner, one of three of Mr.
Huneault's alleged victims who have since attempted suicide.
Rarely do prisoners at federal
institutions snitch on others, for the good reason that it can
amount to a death sentence. This time, however, citing a climate
of extreme duress, they did step forward. A sixth man has complained
of being violated by Mr. Huneault at another federal prison.
Now, after investigating for
several months, provincial police have recommended that sexual-assault
charges be laid against Mr. Huneault, 44, who is serving a life
sentence for second-degree murder. He was convicted in 1986 in
Montreal.
"Hopefully the Crown will
agree with what I've suggested," and lay charges, said Ontario
Provincial Police Constable Kip Wohlert of the "Pen Squad,"
which investigates crimes inside the Kingston area's eight prisons.
He described his completed report as "quite a thick package."
The prisoners' accusations are only accusations. Evidence from
the kind of people caged at Kingston Penitentiary is intrinsically
suspect.
But what is also clear is that
Mr. Huneault's reputation as a sexual predator preceded him when
he was transferred to the maximum-security penitentiary from
medium-security Joyceville Institution in May of last year.
No one suggests officials at
Kingston knew of Mr. Huneault's alleged crimes while they were
taking place.
"He was careful, and very
careful about who he picked out," the same inmate said,
adding that he was raped by Mr. Huneault "at least 25 times,"
often while in a heroin-induced haze.
But at least two of the complainants
say they warned officials of the Correctional Service of Canada
that although Mr. Huneault has no convictions for sex offences
-- other than his murder conviction, his criminal record chiefly
comprises a long string of violent robberies stretching back
to 1974 -- he had been sexually assaulting inmates at other prisons.
Penitentiary warden Monty Bourke
does not deny that Mr. Huneault had been red-flagged because
of those suspicions, but says there was still no reason to prevent
him serving as inmate committee chairman, a full-time position
over which prison authorities have a veto.
"Although he was alleged
to have been involved in predatory behaviour elsewhere and was
referred to a psychologist here, there was nothing substantive
to that," Mr. Bourke said.
"A prior alleged victim
refused to step forward on it."
Mr. Huneault was even questioned
about the allegations, Mr. Bourke said. "And the story was
that this was all concocted to get him to higher security."
But apparently there were indicators
inside Kingston Penitentiary, too.
Inmates on his cellblock say
that in December, shortly before Mr. Huneault was elected committee
chairman (in a vote one complainant described as weighted with
promises and muscle), they were asked specifically if he was
preying on them.
Perhaps because it was common
knowledge they were being interviewed, all said no.
The penitentiary's inmate committee
chairman acts as a conduit between administration and prisoners,
enjoying considerable clout with both.
Besides helping in social events
and such duties as the purchase of supplies, the chairman also
has a critical role as peacemaker, and as such is the only inmate
who can visit any cellblock.
"So how does a man of
Huneault's background get to be committee chairman at KP?"
asked Kingston lawyer Josh Zambrowsky, who is acting for several
of the complainants. "He was literally the only inmate with
free run of the institution. That's why CSC has a veto.
"The most dangerous thing
for an inmate to do is to make formal complaints about another
inmate to the police: That's life-threatening," said Mr.
Zambrowsky, who scents a lawsuit.
"So for those inmates
to take that step lends credence to their allegations."
After the prisoners' complaints
first surfaced in May, Mr. Huneault was transferred, first to
nearby Millhaven Institution and then to a supermaximum prison
unit in Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, north of Montreal.
He declined a request to be
interviewed.
Since its heavy wooden gates
first creaked open more than a century and a half ago, Kingston
Penitentiary has been a house of horrors, the end of the line
for the incorrigible, highest-risk offenders.
Nor is there anything new in
controversy about the prison's keepers. A 1989 report on the
institution identified a "rogue culture" among the
guards.
In June, the same month tear
gas was used to quell a riot, a coroner's jury examining a prisoner's
brutal death at the prison in 1993 urged that Canada's penal
system be overseen by an outside civilian agency.
A $43-million renovation to
the old fortress was completed this year. With a Maple Leaf flag
fluttering above walls of muted beige concrete and 19th-century-style
stonework, the prison almost blends into Kingston's attractive
waterfront.
Living conditions, too, have
improved. Cellblocks are cleaner and better lit, and the much-feared
segregation "hole" has finally been welded shut, on
orders last year from CSC Commissioner Ole Ingstrup.
But some things, notably the
nature of its inmates, have not changed. Given that collective
profile, the fact that Mr. Huneault was suspected of targeting
other inmates was no reason to bar him from being committee chairman,
Mr. Bourke said.
"Say you have an offender
who kills another inmate and is transferred to us, and we have
a number of offenders like that. Is that a preindicator they
may kill another inmate? Yes, because they've done it before.
But what's the likelihood of that? Do we put this fellow in segregation,
treat him differently?
"Anyone who comes to us
from a lower [security] institution, there's some sort of a flag
on them; this is our normal population here. This is what we
have to deal with."
Mr. Bourke notes that all of
Mr. Huneault's alleged victims were on his own cellblock, and
said no complaints have arisen as a result of his access to the
rest of the prison.
But in at least one instance,
one of the prisoners says he was visited alone by Mr. Huneault
in one of the institution's segregation cellblocks -- he had
fled there, he says, to escape his tormentor -- and told, "If
you say anything [about allegations of sexual assault], you won't
get off the range alive."
As to the allegation that Mr.
Huneault had access to confidential files, Mr. Bourke said: "I
would categorically deny that. They [prisoners] wouldn't have
access to our information banks. I don't know how that would
occur. Our files are protected."
Mr. Bourke acknowledges, however,
that this summer authorities learned that confidential information
about prisoners was in circulation.
"What happened was: A
computer that was provided to a segregated inmate for an educational
cell-study program wasn't completely wiped, and there was some
information on that regarding a number of offenders.
"The staff in charge of
our computers, frankly, should have ensured that the information
was completely wiped, and we were remiss about that. I issued
a memo to every offender regarding a breach of the Privacy Act."
As to any link between that
security breach and Mr. Huneault's alleged access to the prisoner's
file, Mr. Bourke said, "I'm not aware of any connection."
Judge dismisses MP's
attempt to have charges tossed from court
By Kim McNairn, StarPhoenix,
Nov. 99
A judge shot down an attempt
to have rape charges against Reform MP Jack Ramsay thrown out
in a Saskatoon courtroom Monday.
Ramsay's lawyer, Morris Bodnar,
argued that not enough evidence was presented at the preliminary
inquiry earlier in the year to make his client stand trial.
Bodnar asked Queen's Bench
Justice Frank Gerein to overrule an earlier ruling by provincial
court Judge Claude Fafard committing Ramsay to trial last February.
The Crowfoot MP who lives in
Canmore, Alta., faces charges of sexual assault and unlawful
confinement involving two girls, aged 14 and 15.
The alleged incidents occurred
between 1969 and 1971 when Ramsay was an RCMP officer stationed
in Pelican Narrows, a town 370 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.
Bodnar said evidence at the
preliminary inquiry did not show Ramsay acted without consent
- a key criteria to proving a rape charge under the Criminal
Code of the time.
But Gerein ruled there was
enough evidence to bring to a jury.
Gerein also imposed a publication
ban on Monday's proceedings which prohibits media from printing
further details.
Though Gerein dismissed Monday's
application, Bodnar will try again today to have the charges
dropped against the former Reform justice and immigration critic.
In an interview, Bodnar said
he will argue that Ramsay cannot get a fair trial because evidence
has gone missing in the 30 years since the alleged incidents.
In a Saskatoon courtroom this
afternoon, he will challenge the charges by evoking Section 7
of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This area of the charter guarantees
a person's right to a fair trial and has been used in other cases
where age of a case interferes with the collection of evidence.
"So much time has passed
that we can't have a fair trial because of the destruction of
evidence or unavailability of evidence," said Bodnar, who
discovered that reports are missing and witnesses have died while
preparing Ramsay's defence.
A University of Saskatchewan
law professor said, even if Bodnar proves pieces of evidence
are missing, he must show their disappearance limits his client's
right to a fair trial.
"A stay of proceedings
will only happen where there is real potential for prejudice
of your fair trial rights," said constitutional and criminal
law professor Sanjeev Anand.
"You can't say this evidence
could have been really, really important. You have to have some
basis for saying that."
He said the accused doesn't
have to show prejudice in order to say his rights are being infringed
upon.
"But it is necessary to
show prejudice to get a stay of proceeding."
He said two cases at the Supreme
Court of Canada in 1997 laid the ground rules for today's application.
In the first case, the court
ruled a person's rights were infringed because someone intentionally
destroyed evidence.
In the second case, the court
considered what happens when the evidence disappears unintentionally.
"The Crown has to prove
that it hasn't been lost or destroyed because of unacceptable
negligence. If they can prove that, then there is no breach of
Section 7," said Anand.
Ramsay, who did not attend
Monday's hearing, is scheduled to face a judge and jury starting
on Nov. 22 in Melfort.
Peeling back an MP's
past lives
Christie Blatchford, National Post, Nov. 22,
1999
He is 62 now, with four grown
children and several careers behind him, but today, Jack Ramsay
will find himself transported back 30 years, to a time when he
was a single, relatively young man at the tail end of the first
of his working lives.
Mr. Ramsay, a Reform Member
of Parliament who became one of his party's most nationally recognized
voices in his role as an outspoken justice critic, goes on trial
this morning in the Court of Queen's Bench on two criminal charges
involving alleged incidents with young native girls.
Because the allegations are
so dated, he has been charged under the 1953-54 version of the
Criminal Code of Canada -- with one count of having sexual intercourse
with a female person not his wife (this is the old rape charge)
and one of unlawful confinement.
A third charge, of attempted
rape, was dismissed at an earlier preliminary hearing.
Both alleged victims are now
in their 40s, but were 14 and 15 when, they say, Mr. Ramsay --
then a corporal with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police -- was
stationed at Pelican Narrows, a remote village on the now-renamed
Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, a four-hour drive northeast of
the small town of Melfort, where the trial will take place.
Born in Saskatchewan, Mr. Ramsay
was then one of a two-man RCMP detachment. He had been with the
force 12 years, and resigned in 1971, causing a brouhaha a year
later when he wrote an article for Maclean's magazine in which
he was harshly critical of the RCMP.
He went on to work briefly
for the Indian Affairs department in Alberta, then as a private
investigator (in this capacity, he played a role in winning the
release of a native man named Wilson Neppoose who had been wrongfully
convicted of murder), and in the 1980s led the now-defunct Western
Canada Concept party before being elected as a Reformer in 1993.
Though the case is expected
to be completed within a week, it bears, in some regards, a striking
resemblance to a much longer trial going on at the other end
of the country at this time last year.
That was the sex assault trial
in Halifax of former Nova Scotia premier Gerald Regan, who ended
up being acquitted by a jury of charges he had raped or tried
to rape three young women.
Like Mr. Regan was, Mr. Ramsay
is in the unenviable position of answering to aged charges, and
in both cases, because of the passage of time, evidence disappeared
and potential witnesses died -- including, in Mr. Ramsay's case,
the mother of one of his alleged victims who allegedly had been
told of the assault.
In both cases, the road to
charges was a long and winding one.
Mr. Regan was charged, essentially,
when the local RCMP interviewed a journalist who had probed some
of the persistent rumours swirling about the former premier and
then launched a protracted and complicated investigation of their
own.
Mr. Ramsay was charged after
one of the victims -- the one who accuses him of raping her at
the Mountie barracks -- saw him at a wake for a relative on the
reserve in 1996. She eventually filed a complaint with the RCMP,
who later got a court order for a wiretap and urged the woman
to set up a meeting with him.
That taped conversation from
their 1998 meeting is expected to form part of the evidence at
trial.
The second woman alleges Mr.
Ramsay unlawfully confined her at the barracks.
Both complainants, one of whom
still lives in Pelican Narrows, the other established as a carpenter
in Edmonton, are also expected to testify, just as the three
middle-aged women accusing Mr. Regan did at his trial.
The names of both women, like
those of Mr. Regan's accusers, are protected by a publication
ban.
Mr. Ramsay, who had been shuffled
to the immigration portfolio in Preston Manning's shadow cabinet
in June of last year, resigned the immigration post one day after
the charges against him became public last September. He remains
as the MP for the Alberta riding of Crowfoot.
He has made virtually no public
comment on the charges, but his lawyer, Morris Bodnar, a former
Saskatchewan Liberal MP, says the ordeal has "been very
tough on him."
Mr. Bodnar, like Mr. Regan's
famous lawyer, Eddie Greenspan of Toronto, believes there should
be a statute of limitations on such elderly sex-assault charges.
Indeed, about six months after
Mr. Regan's acquittal, Mr. Greenspan made that argument in an
impassioned column in the National Post. It's not just the inherent
difficulty in defending oneself in such cases, he wrote, it is
also "unjust to prosecute and punish people based on present
social and moral values that may not have been applied at the
time of the alleged offence."
Just last week, Mr. Greenspan
told the Post in an interview that a fair limitation on pressing
forward with such charges would be five years after the alleged
victim leaves "the control" of the alleged offender.
This, he said, would provide
a sufficient period for victims who were young or under the influence
of such alleged offenders as relatives, teachers or police officers
at the time of the offence to mature and consider what happened
to them.
Without a statute of limitations,
Mr. Greenspan said, even the mere fact of these charges being
brought forward can be ruinous, regardless of the outcome at
trial.
The best-case scenario for
someone like Mr. Ramsay, he said, is "the damnation of acquittal."
"You go through a trial
like this," Mr. Greenspan said, "and even if you're
found not guilty, there's no Perry Mason who will get the witness
[the complainant] to say, 'Okay, I lied'." Here, he quoted
what an American politician, who was acquitted on bribery charges,
said on the steps of the courthouse when a reporter stuck a microphone
up his nose and asked, "You've won. What do you have to
say?"
The politician, Mr. Greenspan
said, replied, "Yes, I've won, but how do I get my reputation
back?"
Trial begins for Alberta
MP
Nov 22,1999
MELFORT, SASK - The trial of
Alberta MP Jack Ramsay is now underway. The former Reform Party
justice critic is charged with sexual assault and unlawful confinement.
The alleged events date back
30 years, to when Ramsay was an RCMP officer in Pelican Narrows,
a small Cree community, 500 km north of Saskatoon.
He is accused of raping one
girl and unlawfully confining another when they were 14 and 15
respectively.
Ramsay's lawyer, Morris Bodnar,
says fighting the charges will be difficult because the alleged
events are so far in the past.
"It's very difficult after
all these years to be able to reconstruct what may or may not
have occurred. It's difficult to talk to some witnesses. It's
impossible to talk to some witnesses because they've died,"
he told CBC Radio News.
It's expected that Bodnar,
a former Liberal MP, will ask that the charges be dismissed for
lack of evidence.
Bodnar says Ottawa should introduce
a statute of limitations on all offences except murder. He says
this type of case has become too common and it's time to set
a reasonable time limit for people to come forward with complaints.
The trial is expected to last
about three days.
Ramsay could face up to 14
years in prison if convicted of sexual assault, and up to 10
years for unlawful confinement.
Ramsay denies rape
By MARTIN O'HANLON -- Canadian
Press, Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1999
MELFORT, Sask. -- Alberta Reform
MP Jack Ramsay was about to have sex with his alleged rape victim
when he became disgusted with himself and stopped, a court heard
Tuesday.
Jurors listened to an audio
tape of Ramsay's statement to police in July 1998 in which he
gives his version of what happened between him and his accuser.
Ramsay is alleged to have raped
the woman, who was 14 at the time, in the northern Saskatchewan
community of Pelican Narrows in 1969. He was then a 32-year-old
RCMP corporal.
On the tape, Ramsay says he
was with the girl at the RCMP detachment when he asked if she
would like to have sex with him.
He told her that he would leave
the office and if she had her pants undone when he returned,
then he would take that as a yes.
When he returned, he said,
her pants and blouse were undone.
"I was sexually aroused
and I approached her and touched her waist," Ramsay says.
"At that moment, the disgusting nature of what was happening
struck me."
He says he stopped immediately
and insists that no penetration occurred.
As the tape played, Ramsay's
wife, children and brothers listened intently from the gallery.
Ramsay, 61, sat in the prisoner's dock looking downward.
On Monday, the woman testified
that Ramsay had difficulty penetrating her.
The issue of penetration is
pivotal to the case because there can be no rape without it.
The charge of rape doesn't
exist in the Criminal Code anymore -- it's now covered in the
charge of sexual assault -- but it did in 1969 and that's why
Ramsay is facing it.
The alleged victim has said
she came forward with the accusation nearly 30 years after the
incident as part of a healing process in her life. Earlier Tuesday,
she was cross-examined by defence lawyer Morris Bodnar.
He asked her details about
the day of the incident, such as if she had worn underwear.
She replied that she had not.
Bodnar then pointed to a transcript
of her statement to the Crown nine months ago in which she said
she had worn underwear.
She also said she couldn't
remember details about what happened shortly after the incident.
"The reality of the situation
is, I got raped," she said. "And all the little details
... are minute."
Bodnar then had the woman acknowledge
that she was once convicted of a firearms offence and that she
abused alcohol and drugs for many years.
The woman glanced at Ramsay
occasionally during her testimony but he didn't appear to make
eye contact.
On Monday, court heard a taped
phone conversation between Ramsay and the woman in which Ramsay
said he was sorry for what happened but insisted no sexual intercourse
took place. The conversation was taped by RCMP in April 1998.
Ramsay also faces charges of
unlawful confinement against another woman around the same time.
Justice Ted Noble agreed to a defence motion to hear that charge
separately. No date has been set.
A charge of attempted sexual
assault against the other woman was discharged at Ramsay's preliminary
hearing last February.
Ramsay served in the RCMP for
14 years. He resigned in 1971 and went on to lead the now-defunct
Western Canada Concept party in the 1980s.
He was elected 1993 to represent
Alberta's Crowfoot riding in the House of Commons. He was re-elected
in 1997 and is the Reform party's former justice and immigration
critic.
Ramsay stepped down from his
critic duties last September after the sex charges became public.
He lives in Camrose, Alta., south of Edmonton.
Woman accusing Ramsay
of rape pointed finger before : National Hockey League executive
named in similar sexual misconduct complaint
By Dan Zakreski, StarPhoenix
The woman who Jack Ramsay tried
to rape 30 years ago, when she was 14, raised similar allegations
of sexual misconduct with the RCMP against a senior National
Hockey League executive when she came forward with her tale of
abuse from 1969, she said in an interview Thursday.
The woman, now 44, wanted the
RCMP to press rape charges against the man two years ago when
they were investigating her allegations against the Alberta Reform
MP, she said. She is angry the matter never proceeded.
"All I know is I got a
call saying there was not enough witnesses and they have to close
it for now," she said.
The National Post reported
Thursday that RCMP "fully investigated" the allegation
against the man, identified as a "senior executive of a
National Hockey League club," and dismissed the accusation
on the grounds there was not enough evidence to lay a charge.
The Post also interviewed the
executive, who confirmed "the RCMP investigated," but
said "there was nothing to it.
"I was 15 years old when
this supposedly happened, and I have no idea who this woman is,"
he told The National Post.
A jury convicted Ramsay of
attempted rape Wednesday after a three-day trial.
He had originally been charged
with rape, the allegation dating to 1969 when he was a 32-year-old
RCMP corporal in Pelican Narrows, a detachment in northern Saskatchewan.
The jury did not know of the
woman's accusation against the NHL executive, nor of an alleged
rape by a Prince Albert police officer three years earlier when
she was 11 or 12 and had escaped from a residential school.
Justice Ted Noble dismissed
a defence application at trial to cross-examine the woman on
the alleged rape by the 21-year-old Prince Albert police officer.
Noble also ordered an apparent reference to the NHL executive
blacked out of the transcript of Ramsay's interview with RCMP,
the Post reported.
Two lawyers, Steven Shurka
of Toronto and Richard Wolson of Winnipeg, attended the Ramsay
trial but refused requests from media to explain their presence.
They sat in the front row during the Crown's case andheld hushed
meetings with Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter and defence lawyer
Morris Bodnar at various points.
The National Post reported
they attended to ensure the NHL executive's name did not surface
during the trial.
The woman alleged that she
was raped by the man in 1969.
The woman would not discuss
the details of the alleged assault because she does not know
the legal status of the matter, and because of her experiences
with the media during the Ramsay trial.
Her cousin, however, said she
recalled from the summer of 1969 when three teens, aged 14, 16
and 18, ran away from home. They hitchhiked to another northern
community, ending up at a house party where the alleged assault
occurred.
"When you get there, half
the people you don't even know. Over half the people you don't
even know, and then everybody just ends up partying and then
shit happens."
The cousin said she did not
witness the alleged rape.
The 14-year-old victim told
her about the incident with Ramsay, but did not raise the allegations
against the NHL executive with her until 1992.
"I don't know when she
figured out it was him. She didn't tell me about him until about
1992, when my husband died. We were out of touch for about 17
years, and then all of a sudden there she was."
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
