injusticebustersblog

Everyone in the whole community of Saskatoon is invited to a Memorial Feast and Rounddance held on:

International Human Rights Day - Friday December 10th at
4pm at First Nations University of Canada (710 Duke St and 7th Avenue)
- Feast at 4pm - Round Dance will follow

Hosted by: The Stonechild Family, Members of the Saskatoon Community, First Nations University of Canada Student Council

November 30th was the 14th anniversary since Neil Stonechild's body was found on the edge of Saskatoon. This Feast and Round Dance is a chance to celebrate his life, honour and give thanks to his family and friends, and to build relations towards justice and healing in the community

There will be a give-away ceremenony during the round dance. As this is a community hosted event it would be great if people who attend could bring a new item that is useful in the household (kitchen utensils, socks, scarves, gloves, tools, bath items, kids stuff, clothing, stationery etc) to contribute to the give away.

It does not have to be a big item.

Please attend, and pass the word on to your friends and family.

Darlene Rose Okemaysim, B.A.
Clerk II, Admin Assistant
Department of Native Studies
University of Saskatchewan
Rm 121 McLean Hall
106 Wiggins Rd
SASKATOON, SK.
S7N 5E6 CANADA
P.(306) 966-6209
F.(306) 966-6242
website

The internet has been great for us. Another great invention is coroplast. Richard, Kari and Ang created a couple dozen of these stand-up signs and they were seen all over the city.

Even after Judge Baynton's judgment we took them around to Calvert's office and other places.

They were created by projecting the text onto the coroplast and tracing the image.

This is just another creative application of new technology to the struggle for our rights.

Someone just made some interesting comments about the River Landing development.

Over the winter we should consider some actions we could take to make sure we innercitty people are not shut out of this. The welfare office is right down there -- some action to get the basic allowance raised might be effective.

We have a whole winter to plan. The blog can really serve to get some ideas going back and forth. (I know that as an activist over the years I have "done my time" in meetings so it would be great if we could find new ways to organize that really work.

Also, don't forget it is the big centennial year . . .

This is the latest picture of my younger sister, Mary and myself. We were at a memorial for a close friend, who was murdered.--Helen

We were burning sage at the Supreme court house in Vancouver, a few years ago. I still had a eye patch on my eye from a very bad car accident. Later on I started to use eye glasses.--Helen

This picture was taken at the Vancouver art gallery, many years ago. This was when I was the only indigenous person, attending rallies along with many white people. I was protesting the illegal treaty process, and educating the public about this illegal treaty. This picture was when I was in top condition, as I was always out riding my bicycle.

Yesterday I received a an e-mail from Helen Michel. It was part of an ongoing story which I had somehow come in on the middle of. I wrote her back and asked her to send some pictures. She did. Here is the e-mail:

This is telquaa's latest update, regarding the violations of our indigenous human rights. November 22, 2004, will be one month since the police beat us up and confiscated our van. This whole month has been pure hell, on our lives and on our bodies.

As without our van, I cannot go anywhere. I feel like I have been imprisoned for being an Indigenous person and a disabled person, who can only get around with an electric wheel chair. 

Without our van, I could not haul around my wheel chair, so I became a prisoner in my own home. Plus, being a human rights defender, I cannot go around and see what is happening to my indigenous friends and families.

So much has happened within this whole month since the police confiscated our van. My son's vehicle was rammed on the side, which made his truck undriveable. My daughter's car was also impounded by the police.

Frank has had to hitchhike between Harrison Hot Springs and Vancouver a few times, during this past month. He has had to meet appointments with doctors, advocates and lawyers and in between, trying to get rides into town to take me to our weekly West Coast family nights at the indian centre. Our only cultural livelyhood.

Life was Hell. The first time Frank was hitchhiking into Vancouver, he caught a ride with an american. The Chilliwack police must have had their eye on him because after he got picked up, the police were immediately onto him. The police pulled over the car, and gave a 75.00 ticket to the driver for picking up a hitchhiker on the free way. Frank was chased out of the car, by the police, and he had to walk most of the day to the older Mission highway, to continue his hike into Vancouver.


Last week when Frank was coming back from Vancouver, on another trip into town, he got another ride from Vancouver. This time it was with a friend, who was an indigenous fisherman, who offered to take Frank back to Harrison. On his way home, they were once again hauled over by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This time the policeman made them get out of the truck, so the police could do their own road test on the truck, to see if the truck was road worthy. Everything on the truck was working right, except for the emergency brake system. Because of this one default, the police once again cofiscated our friend's truck. This left our friend without his only working truck, as this is how he made his living.


The policeman told our friend, that he was travelling with very bad company, referring to Frank. Our friend and Frank were once again left on the highway, in the middle of the night. It took Frank a day and a half to get home as he had to sleep along the roadway. As Frank is my only caretaker, he does my cooking and cleaning, I had to suffer silently at home. No cook, no food to eat and not knowing what is going on with Frank. I was very stressed out, by the time Frank made it home.  


On November 24, 2004, after family night, we decided to camp in Vancouver for the night, as we wanted to attend a First Nations Summit rally, that was taking place the next day. I knew that the sell out treaty chiefs of this only unceded province of Canada, was going to be in attendance at this rally. I wanted to be there, just so I could meet many of the sellout treaty chiefs, face to face.

Many of the faces were men, aboriginal men, who had been in power for over forty years now.

Many of them were falsely dressed up in aboriginal regalia, that were all newly made up as they were passing themselves off as chiefs. Surprisingly there was no women in the lineup, on the stage. Out of all the men, only one woman was allowed to speak, on their stage. That says a lot to me. They came as a "gang", they all left as a "gang".

I confronted my so called "Grand" Chief Edward John about the "gag order" that he imposed onto us, in the Supreme court of British Columbia, in 2002. He outright denied, that he ever put a gag order on us, in front of all of his supporters. He called me a liar. I wonder who is the real liar, Edward John or the Supreme court of British Columbia? As they were making their speeches, I was yelling at my chiefs, from the Wetsuweten nation and the Carrier nation, that I want my lands back, namely Maxan Lake, and No Treatys for B.C. and sell outs. 


While this rally was going on, one of their supporters came over to our little crowd, and told us that we should watch ourselves, and that we were crazy to be yelling around like we were, especially around these so called "treaty chiefs". Their supporter knew that we were strong supporters of John Graham.

He snickered when he told us that John Graham had to once again move from the house he was presently staying at, as his life is being constantly threatened. Apparently, one day after John had to move from that house, one of his close supporters who also lived in that same house, and a close friend of ours, was found hanging. We all knew each other most of our life time, and we know that this close friend, would not hang himself.

I feel he was murdered because he was our friend and John's supporter. How many more people, will be murdered for being our friend  and our supporters?

John Graham's extradition hearing court case is coming close, December 6, 2004 at the Supreme Court house on Smithe Street in Vancouver B.C. I would not be surprised if they decide to kill John Graham, before this gets to trial. 

This is another reason why the police confiscated our van. So we cannot defend our close friends, whose human rights are being violated, as well as our human rights. John Graham's extradition hearing needs international attention and international intervention.

John did not murder Anna May Aquash. The evidence itself should show who really killed Anna May. John Graham is only their "scapegoat" as is Leonard Peltier. Uranium mining on Indigenous sacred lands is the real issue as well as " WATER" issues on Indigenous sacred lands of Turtle Island. On the west coast of B.C. "they" are proposing oil wells on our sacred lands, and as traditionalists and Indigenous sovereign people we do not want oil wells on our traplines and sacred lands. Will our voices ever be heard, I doubt it.

Too many Indigenous people have already died, because of the same kinds of stands we take. Too many Indigenous women have been murdered/missing in this only unceded province alone. I wonder if the missing women issue is the result of the male dominated society? As Indigenous people, our lives are expendable. Indigenous childrens rights is another issue, in itself, especially in this unceded province.  -- Helen Michel

Here are some links: Helen's website

John Graham defence committee  

Ruben wrote the poem, 14 Going on Forever .

He is also the first to comment on the entry below.

Let's take back the 'hood!

Everyday, my memory stays the same
Growing weak, there's no one left to blame
Who can relate to the mother's pain?
14 going on forever
will the answer come?, probably never
A young lifeline tragically severed
Such an ugly storm to try and wether
It's been 14 going on forever
Two men riding through the night
Were they really looking for a fight?
Well they found a boy amongst the twilight
Year by year, accusations come and go
Take your time, make some sense into a flow
Let nothing but courage show
Its 14 going on forever
Watching justice bounce on a tether
We're unbalanced this side of the lever
Let the truth shine in evidence we've gathered
It's been 14 going on forever
Is the family all alone in this?
Are there names, the only on the list??
Where's mama's baby?
the one she loved, the one she used to kiss
Where oh, where can Stella's baby be
Chatting with loved ones by heaven's sea
Someday the Lord will set mama free
To reunite alove that lasts an eternity



-Ruben J. Bignell

Now that his lawsuit has been filed, we can only wish John Hudak well.

His story shold not be forgotten, though. Every time we read any PR about how the RCMP has reformed itself, we should remember Hudak and the recent report that the cop found to have maliciously framed Jason Dix, Gary Steinke, was made chief inspector of Sherwood Park in Janusary, 2005.

The signs were on the lawn, the media was there. It was well organized.

It was colder than most of us had anticipated.

This event was a broad community response to the events following the release of the Stonechild Report.

None of us wants a deepening of the chaos the community is enduring.

It is too bad that the Saskatoon Police Service did not provide someone to speak to us. To their credit they provided protection for the march.

It is great to see the lines blurring between media and event. In the past we were often ignored, dismissed or our actions were under reported because the larger media could control us in this way.

The internet now makes it impossible to ignore our actions.

We really didn't know who to expect at this rally. The organizers had told me there was a positive response from everyone they contacted.

The media was out in force.

And so were independent media. Many cameras and sound recorders.

I told someone that in the old days, anyone with a really good camera was probably working for the R.C.M.P.

It is good things are changing.

It wasn't always easy to spot your mates in the crowd . . .

We've all changed and Saskatchewan must, also.

One of the fun things about photographing these events is looking through the crowd pictures to see if you are in them.

Whether you find yourself or not, or even if you were not there, please go ahead and add comments to any of the posts.

Shucks, we could keep this rally going for a long time!

People, a bicycle, a drum . . .

We were all interested in having the truth told -- about ourselves and the events we were probing.

Just how close will this camera focus?

Ang and I were both taking stills and video for injusticebusters and whoever wants to make a film of this event

Most of the time people were too busy to realize how cold it was.

People who forgot to wear gloves were wishing they had . . .

Words, meaning, action -- conduct becoming of human beings.

That is what we all want.

They had a wide banner . . .

And some brought their own . . .

Getting ready to march off the campus . . .

Chief Sabo has met resistance from inside the police and from parts of the business community.

When he was hired, Jim Maddin was Mayor and Leanne Bellegarde Daniels was head of the Board of Police Commissioners.

Trust was beginning to build in the community but it was fragile.

Mayor Maddin was defeated by Don Atchison. He came third. A person characterized by many people as racist, Jim Pankiw, received more votes than Maddin.

The truck will be our platform 90 minutes from now when we get to the police station.

We start moving toward College Street

Past the grey stone walls . . .

. . . through the campus

A brisk pace is set . . .

Leaving the campus . . .

along the route

. . . at the police station

People were cold from the march but everyone stayed to hear the speakers.

Saskatoon cannot hide its racism. There are many poor non-Natives who blame their situations on Natives or immigrants.

They don't know any better and the education they receive isn't good enough.

These posters were defaced on campus.

Seen silhouetted against the Sturdy Stone building, Joseph expressed his appreciation to the crowd assembled and reiterated the FSIN position that the Wright recommendations must be taken seriously and Chief Sabo must keep moving forward.

Yvonne didn't bother to get up on the truck but her voice was heard loudly and clearly as she continued the theme of the community's need to heal and rallies like this as helpful.

Rachel Fiddler can be seen behind her on the truck.

Injusticebusters were invited to speak.

Richard Klassen spoke first. He said injustices affect the entire community and that coming together in events such as these are necessary for a community which needs to heal.

injusticebusters was one of the first media to keep this story in the public eye. Jason Roy was in touch with us early on.

I also spoke on behalf of Injusticebusters.

I said the police were operating within a social policy which must change before there is any meaningful change. Specifically drugs and alcohol addiction must be seen as public health issues which are addressed by the health system rather than a tiny brief detox center, and Social Services must give people on welfare an amount they can live on so they can reach out of the cycle of poverty and crime.

Jason spoke briefly to the crowd and made a point of thanking each of us individually.

Respect characterized the entire gathering, from assembling at the bowl throughout the march and listening to the speeches.

The images tell the story.

We huddled in front of the police station to her speeches from the back of a truck.

For two hours we had withstood a chilly wind and most of us were eager to get home and regain our body heat.

It was not far from anyone's mind that the chill of a November Friday was nothing compared to what Neil Stonechild endured the night he froze to death.

When Prisceilla Settee held up posters where Neil's image had been defaced and racist remarks written -- that was the most chilling moment of all.

This is one of the pictures I found as I was going through the files today. There are many things I like about it. It is full of colour and vitality which has been draining out of this city despite some movement on city council to develop south downtown.

Behind Richard and his bullhorn is a railroad bridge over 19th Street. This area is all included in the plan for new development. This photo is from the summer of 2003, after we had our camp-out on the legislature lawn in Regina, after we had our two day Living Museum in Bessborough Park.

The informational pickets, postering and messafes on the bullhorn had been received with good humour and sometimes gleeful enthusiasm.

The enthusiasm came frm the Native community. John Melenchuk can be seen on the left, with his colourful headgear and sign.

The Saskatoon Police and the Regina Crown Prosecutor's office could not tolerate this activity. There were arrests and court appearances. For a while Richard was forbidden from going within two blocks of either of the city's police stations.

At this time the cops and the Crown knew they were going to have to go to civil trial. They still had a faint hope that Richard would not be able to survive what turned into a seven week trial. They did everything in their power to keep us from surviving.

The province is not going to be able to keep us from raising embarrassing truths during the 2005 Centennial celebration which Premier Calvert has announced will have as its theme "100 years of heart."

A comment on an earlier post gives a website with links to police scanners. Saskatoon is on it and I have them tuned in right now. I tried to get to the template and add a link to this but I couldn't get in.

And I would like to thank my son, Kevin Steele for the work he has done to clean up the aesthetics of this blog. We're still working on making it as easy to use as we can.

Let us know any features you would like to see and we'll see if they can be incorporated.

I have spent the last couple days uploading Photos to Flickr. During the spring and summer of 2003, we created more photos than I could handle on the website.

I came across this picture (which I think is an official photo) showing the Executive team of the Saskatoon Police. There is Dueck, second from the left. At the head of the table is Chief Sabo, presiding over a group which it is clear to us today was not to hold together.

Please add any comments you feel would be appropriate.

January, 2005: Lockwood still at it.Fired or retired shortly after this photo was taken last summer, Larry Lockwood was loyal to the Old Boys' Club even if he was not allowed into its inner sanctum.

He has taken any the lifting of the blue curtain of silence as a personal attack upon his tribe. In this instance, he arrested Richard Klassen on 8th Street and, having him locked in the back of a police car took the opportunity to harangue about what he considered to be injustices against his former comrades-in-arms: Dueck, Hatchen and Munson.

He raged against Darrell Night and told Richard Klassen he thought he was guilty of the crimes Dueck charged him with.

On November 6, 2004, the Star Phoenix reported that Lockwood, along with a police chaplain had organized the "show of support" for Larry Hartwig and Brad Senger (full story here near bottom of page).

Stan Goertzen, head of the Police Association, claimed the demonstration of support for the officers, who were fired yesterday, November 12, was "spontaneous."

If Lockwood's supervisor had not come by and ordered Lockwood to release and unarrest Klassen, we can only speculate where his spontaneity would have led him.

When tensions are high in the community it is the responsibility of the police to remain calm. The findings from the Stonechild inquiry and the Klassen/Kvello civil trial show that in 1991, the Saskatoon Police were out of control. Files were lost and grim police act crimes were done.

The public wants to know what really happened. Chief Russell Sabo had no choice but to fire Hartwig and Senger just as he had no choice but to suspend Deputy Chief Wiks. We could all calm down if we had any confidence they were going to tell the truth forthrightly and change their ways.

We don't want "group think" and we don't need "group amnesia." It just doesn't work.

The internet has a long and accurate memory.

What we know for sure -- and what Sabo seems to be afraid of

Coming soon: Larry Lockwood, retired last summer from the Police Service after trying to run Richard Klassen in: an eyewitness account of his behavior, attitudes and the reasons he retired. (Lockwood led the demonstration at the police station following the arrests of Brad Senger and Larry Hartwig which many feared was a call to anarchy. Lockwood is a bad apple who got pulled out of the barrell but he continues to spread his infection to the fruit still on the tree.)

Platoons

The Saskatoon Police Department, like most others is organized into platoons (like the military.) An officer who joins is assigned to a platoon and remains with that platoon for the rest of his (now his/her) career.

In 1990 Dueck and Hartgarden, and possibly Chartier, Hoos, Hoover Big John MacDonald were on Platoon A In 1993 they switched to Platoon C and became a team. There are others whose names escape me as I write, but I'll add them later.

I am not certain what other platoon shifting was going on at that time. I do know for sure that Dueck and Hartgarden both made the shift because that came out in evidence at the Klassen/Kvello civil trial.

It is possible that Police Chiefs Owen Magwire and Dave Scott were kept out of the loop. It is possible they entrusted Dueck, Wiks and Hartgarden with a lot of responsibility and saw them as reliable sources of information.

The Saskatoon Police Service was run by these people. It was during this time that Neil Stonechild went missing and that the preliminary hearings for Ross, Ross and White and the Klassens and Kvellos were held.

The preliminary hearings were secret courts run by Matt Miazga who was directed by the Prosecutor's office in Regina. Ellen Gunn, who testified that she remembered nothing, was there for a while, having taken over from Serge Kajawa. She did didn't last long and is now a judge. Is she as blank as a judge as she was as director of public prosecutions? God rest our souls!

The Prosecutor's office, once taken over by Quinney, with protege Miazga in Saskatoon and several wannabe legal crooks in other jurisdictions throughout the province (look at Tisdale-Melfort, and Mellville, for instance) used the court to seal documents and run secret trials.

Social Services

We know that Saskatchewan Social Services was also getting in on the action. Part of their action was the therapy sessions with children to coach them to make false allegations against adults. In the late 80s and early 90s both police and social workers -- civil servants in general -- had contracts where they could log in many hours of overtime and we know that many did.

Money was flowing freely so dishonest "professionals" were able to legally steal. They were all handsomely paid for the hours they spent interviewing children, placing them in temporary folster homes and attending seminars on how to target potential victims (unsuspecting people who were vulnerable to false charges.)

Who would have thought they would have made such a monumental mistake as to place Michael Ross and his twin sisters, who they absolutely KNEW were sexually/emotionally/mentally disturbed kids into the home of Dale and Anita Klassen? It required a mistake of this dimension to begin the unravelling.

There is lots more to say about Social Services and it will eventually be said. They were not forced to testify at the Klassen Kvello civil trial so many of their ugly secrets remain intact. We do know for sure that enough evidence was presented before Judge George Baynton for him to find her malicious. She and Matthew Miazga are appealing this finding and the government is paying their legal costs.

The Justice Department

Does Justice Minister Frank Quennell really think it is in his interests to promote this ongoing cover-up? Did Eric Cline really think so? Did Chris Axworthy? Did Bob Mitchell? Did Roy Romanow? Does Lorne Calvert? Are they all so stupid that they unwittingly participated -- and are participating still -- in this cover-up of malicious acts which has cast a shadow over the entire province?

Again, just who knew what and how much they knew will be revealed in the fullness of time.

So how do I know this stuff?

I became interested in this story in 1993. Richard Klassen wanted a writer and I was happy to oblige. I helped with the writing of affidavits and other things. At this time the Star Phoenix was subserviant to the publication orders which extended to every single aspect of this case, including Richard Klassen's name. Richard had already managed to get the civil claim filed when I came on board. We concentrated on matters that were not directly related to the court proceeding. Where were the Ross children we wondered and eventually we found out. What else was Dueck up to?

On August 25 and 26, 1994, we took our questions to the street. We used the fact that the David Milgaard case had been examined by an Alberta judge who said that there had been no wrongdoing by the Saskatchewan Justice Department or the Saskatoon Police. We were outraged. We organized two demonstrations: the first day we went to the Provincial Court House and the second day we went to Court of Queen's Bench and then over to the police station. Most people carried signs "David Milgaard deserves better." Richard and I and Richard's nephew Rob carried signs which accused Brian Dueck and Carol Bunko-Ruys of responsibility for the continued rapes against Michelle and Kathy Ross by their brother Michael.

Richard, Rob and I were arrested and charged with defamatory libel. (This story has been thoroughly told on the website since we went online in 1998.) Rob was still 16 and so he was charged under the Young Offenders' Act. Eventually his charges just vaporized, I'm not entirely sure how they "went away."

At the time of our arrest, Platoon C was on duty. Sgt. Hartgarden came out of the police station with video equipment to document the arrests. I was charged with assaulting two of the burly cops who grabbed me as I was trying to give my car keys to my then 15 year old son. We were held for 30 hours.

Richard and I went to a Preliminary Inquiry at which we were ordered to trial. We appealed on a writ or certiorary and Judge David Wright (who would, ten years later conduct the inquiry into the freezing death of Neil Stonechild) quashed the charges against me but let Richard's indictment stand. His decision was based on odd reasoning: because I "resisted arrest, " (a finding not really supported by the evidence) I must have had a firm belief that what I was saying was true. Because Richard went quietly to the police station and made remarks that he wanted to get his case before a judge, his intention was to get arrested and therefore he didn't necessarily believe the statements on his sign.

Go figure.

That was during the summer of 1995. For the next three years, Richard Klassen operated under a gag order that was personally crafted by Brian Dueck.

Back to the Saskatoon Police

It was during this time that John and Johanna Lucas were on trial for -- you guessed it -- defaming Dueck. I attended a few of these proceedings and an ever-present duo in the courtroom were Dueck and John MacDonald.

Meanwhile, Richard and Rob Klassen were continually harrassed on the street. We know now that Dueck had been to Prince Albert to get a statement from convicted murderer Beryl Stonechild claiming that Richard had sexually abused him when they were both children. At the time, MacDonald and Dueck went after Richard and detained him at 11.30 at night.

One of our many excellent adventures

Rob and Rick were driving in "the stroll" the 20th Street area which was and still is a fertile area for bad cops to make bad busts -- and were stopped by 3 cops. Rob had long hair and was sitting in the passenger seat and Richard was driving. The cops gave, as their cause for stopping the vehicle, that they were in "a bad neighbourhood" and they thought Rob was a prostitute Richard had picked up. Shortly after being stopped, the vehicle was blocked off by 3 cars, one of them driven Dueck. In the meantime, Rob had phoned me and told me I should get down there with a videocamera. Rob also had a camera. By the time I got there, Rick was in custody. Rob was taping the events and as I pulled up, Rob got into my car. Dueck came to Rob's side of the car and told him to "turn that goddamn thing off or I'll wrap it around your head."

Rob and I went back to my house to discuss what we could or should do. An hour later, there was a knock at my door. Richard was there, having phoned lawyer Reg Parker who advised the police to either charge Richard or let him go. MacDonald let him go but told him to come down to the police station the next day to answer to charges that he had molested Beryl Stonechild and a witness statement from Richard's cousin Greg which backed up this charge.

The next day Rick went into the police station with Parker. MacDonald denied telling Richard that Greg had made a statement against him and said that Greg had, in fact, made a statement which backed up Rick. Rick was not given a copy of the statement.

The rotten platoon

Members of Platoon C were all over us. The Crown prosecutor on Richard's defamation case was Inez Cardinal. At one point Richard was so ground down from police harrassment -- and the fact that he was denied certain civil liberties while the defamation indictment was hanging over his head -- that he offered to plead guilty. This offer was turned down scornfully.

Richard went to trial in October, 1996. He subpoenaed the Ross children as his witnesses. He selected a jury. The Crown presented a case which did not address all the elements of the case. Richard asked for a directed verdict of not guilty and received it. Case over? Not quite.

As an aside, I will mention to anyone who is interested in such things that lawyers will often say that a writ of certiorari is extremely rare and that directed verdicts are even rarer. Both were received in this defamation case.

At the end of November, 1996, the Crown appealed Richard Klassen's acquittal.

There is no doubt that this order came from the office of Richard Quinney in Regina.

The Provincial Justice Department and Richard Quinney's corrupt leadership

While the evidence from the Ross, Ross and White trials and the Klassen/Kvello preliminary inquiry was under seal, Richard Quinney gave an interview to the Star Phoenix where he defended his actions and made his famous statement that the Klassens and Kvellos shold be happy with the stay of proceedings they had received: a stay is as good as an acquittal.

He continued to back up his protegé Matthew Miazga who had proclaimed in 1993, at the time of the stays, that the trials were not going forward because the children were too traumatized to testify. Quinney was himself following in the footsteps of his mentor, Serge "the arrogant" Kajawa who had blown off critics of the David Milgaard proceedings by telling us "the justice system is more important than one person." This authoritarian philosophy is now deeply embedded in the whole of Saskatchewan Justice.

When Richard Klassen and I went online with injusticebusters in 1998, we vowed to be for that system the nightmare they had created for themselves. And we are doing it still.

Richard Klassen is no longer speaking about the civil claim: Judge Baynton's decision says what he wanted said.

I am still speaking about it loudly and vociferously. None of what we had to say was heard by former justice ministers Robert Mitchell, John Nilson, Chris Axworthy or Eric Cline: in fact they all participated in trying to dismiss us as kooks. We wonder if Frank Quennell has what it takes to look seriously at this mess and clean it up. There can be no doubt that there are many many people who have been falsely accused and wrongfully convicted by the justice system he now heads.

If Quennell continues to listen to those who were groomed and trained under Quinney, he will commit the same folly as Saskatoon police chiefs who listened to Dueck, Wiks and the gang from Platoon C. How does the saying go? If you lie with dogs you get fleas? Enough fleabites can wreck your career if not kill you.

Quinney died, but he was alive long enough to submit to Richard Klassen's examinations for discovery in the civil trial. He did not have any change of heart but remained arrogant until the end, compounded by irritability from the illnesses that were killing him. If I believed in such things I would be sure he is rotting in hell. As it is, Judge Baynton dropped his estate from the civil claim against it after noting that Quinney had been negligent. Not a spotless legacy.

Back to Richard Klassen's defamatory libel acquittal

The Crown, on directions from Regina, appealed Judge Peter Dielschneider's directed acquittal at the end of November, 1996. They did not give any reasons for the appeal. The only legitimate grounds are judicial error. As far as we could tell, there were none. They steadfastly kept the appeal on file, using as their excuse that they were awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on John and Johanna Lucas, who had been convicted and whose case had made it to the top court with Clayton Ruby acting as counsel.

Judge Dielshneider made a sound decision in the case of Evelyn Morgan.

Finally, on April 1 1998, the Supreme Court ruled. The decision was against the Lucases: the defamatory libel conviction had stood. Since this decision went the Crown's way, you would think they would have been eager to pursue their appeal against Richard Klassen. They didn't. They dropped it. Why?

Why did the Saskatchewan Crown drop its appeal against Richard Klassen's acquittal

The answer is simple. They did not want the publicity and they did not want scrutiny. There were secrets to hide in this case. They could not simply overturn the acquttal; they would have to order a new trial. And Richard had already arranged to have the Ross children testify at trial. If he was given another trial, this would give him another kick at the can and another opportunity to get into the public record the matters which were still safely under court seal.

The court was their private hidey hole and they didn't want civilians in there poking around.

They decided instead to make a concerted effort to kill the civil claim. Since Ed Holgate was the lawyer on file and since he had done nothing to move the file forward, they expected this to be an easy matter.

It almost worked. The claim had been sitting there for six years and there had been no examinations for discovery. Finally the defendants asked for discovery and Richard Klassen, who had moved to Manitoba after being virtually ridden out of Saskatchewan on a rail, came back to be discovered by Dueck's lawyer, David Gerrand in January, 2001.

However, in the meantime we had managed to interest CBC's The Fifth Estate in our story and they had produced a program, "The Scandal of the Century," which had been aired November 29. Up until the moment it aired, we had been afraid the CBC would give in to the pressures and threats they were receiving from the Saskatchewan government. Their lawyer, Dan Henry and CBC administrators decided to do the right thing and defied the threats. For the first time, Richard Klassen's name had been broadcast/printed in public in connection with this case. The fact that we had two of the Ross children on side did not harm the ratings. It was rivetting television and the following summer it cleaned up on all major broadcast awards, including one co-sponsored by the Canadian Bar Association.

Dueck, through his lawyer, Barry Rossmann who was employed by the City, next went after Richard Klassen for allegedly breaking the rules of court by publishing prohibited material on the internet. Holgate did not believe us when we told him we had done no such thing. We had scrupulously published only material which we already knew without having to discover anything from them. Gerrand hayked a pile of printouts from the website into the court room and gave them to the judge. Richard could have easily shown them page by page that none of this was in violation of the rules of court, but because he had counsel he was not allowed to speak on his own behalf. Holgate did his best to lose the case but the judge ruled that Richard would remain in the lawsuit and made a point of saying he had no intention of doing anything about the internet. Judge Zarzeczny's fiat was as good as could have expected, given Holgate's attempt to assist the city lawyer in having Richard Klassen removed from the lawsuit. Richard was ordered to pay Dueck $1,500.

David Gerrand, who took over for Rossmann, summoned Richard to Saskatoon to be discovered. This may have been when Holgate gave him the frozen chicken papers, which I discuss below.

I saw Richard Klassen shortly after an afternoon of discovery and he was shattered. Gerrand had gone after him with all blades flashing, a proper character assassination. Maybe not Kill Bill but certainly Kick Rick. You weren't worth anything before you filed this claim and you aren't worth anything now. You and your whole family are basically white trash. Because of the amazing response the Fifth Estate program had received, Richard was not quite so ready to accept abuse from a Saskatchewan lawyer. He was personally hurt but he knew he had many people standing by him who wanted him to continue. And so he did.

Lawyers. Yuk.

Holgate had been handling the file on contingency and he hoped to get off cheap, without going to discovery, without doing any work. He had failed to go to Regina to get material which the government defendants and Dueck had listed they could examine. Sorry. He went to Regina once and told Richard that there was really nothing there. At some time he had been given a package of papers containing notes taken by the Ross childrens' foster parents but he had been told that these items were not to be shown to his clients. Or something scary like that. He didn't show them to his clients and he put them in his freezer. And forgot about them. He alleges. Holgate moved out of the office in his home and in with Robert Borden who had taken over Reg Parker's offices on the seventh floor of the Bessborough Hotel.

Borden had been the lawyer chosen by Diane and Dennis Kvello when the original sex charges were laid in 1991. He had spoken out about the case after the charges were stayed and suffered reprisals from the law society for going public. This was covered in the Fifth Estate Program. Borden wanted to get in on the civil claim and he was let in, as co-counsel with Holgate. Borden began communicating with Richard who was in Manitoba. Borden promised to send Richard a computer so they could communicate better. He kept saying that the computer was on the bus. I'm not sure if it ever did arrive but if it did, it was too late.

Oh my. Richard finally received the frozen chicken papers and he was pissed!

Richard Klassen and his family moved back to Saskatchewan, bringing with them another ally they had recruited in Manitoba. Angela Geworsky showed herself to be energetic, smart and hard-nosed. We all set out to get the lawsuit on the road. The first order of business was getting the defendants into a room with a stenographer to be discovered.

That character assassin, Dueck's lawyer, David Gerrand, was partly right. Richard did not have money. At least he did not have the kind of money you need to order documents and set up examinations for discovery. Richard threw himself on the mercy of his father-in-law, a Saskatchewan farmer who ponied up the cash.

After he accused us of lying, and for a few other reasons, Richard fired Holgate and took over the case. He conducted the discoveries and got on the record the evidence he needed to win the civil suit.

There began a flurry of court appearances where the defendants attempted to have Richard Klassen removed from the civil claim. Robert Borden was not helpful. Richard Klassen went to Regina to look through the boxes of documents Holgate had claimed to have looked at, stating there was nothing important to be found in them. Richard went to court to ask that the Crown be ordered to give him the same price they had offered to Holgate -- ten cents a page. He lost and had to pay thousands of dollars for boxes of duplicated and disarrayed papers. The defendants werte ordered to clean up the files. The cost of documents, the fine and trial preparation was huge. Richard's father-in-law continued to support the enterprise. He became familiar with the case and he and his wife became part of the cheering section at the trial.

After the discovery exams were concluded, Richard had some time on his hands. He was so obsessed with the case that he could not really take a regular job. He had a lot of energy and needed to do something. He and Ang set up an office on Third Avenue where they gave people advice. Ang began distributing material which was already in the public domain in front of the court house. Richard started schmoozing with downtown lawyers.

One hot week in June

A police agent came seeking advice and Richard either did or did not show him information about the case. John Popowich settled his civil claim for being falsely charged in the Martensville case for $1.2M. His lawyer, Geoff Dufour courted Richard Klassen promising to get him as good a deal as he got for Popowich. As far as the other plaintiffs? A car and a pizza is all Dufour could promise them. Each or split among them? He didn't say.

Suddenly Richard was summoned to court in the seemingly endless pre-trial proceedings. This was Dueck and the government's last effort to kick Richard Klassen out of the lawsuit he had devoted eight years of his life to. The police agent told how Richard had disclosed confidential information to him. Then Saskatoon police who had been stalking Angela Geworksy produced a videotape of Richard dropping her off in front of the court house to distribute her material -- and lighting her cigarette before she left the car.

The tape was clearly doctored. Richard pointed out that they were presenting evidence which had nothing to do with the rules of court and a spliced tape to boot. The judge agreed. Jason Warick's reporting of this proceeding can be found here halfway down the page.

That was the turning point. Dueck and the prosecutors' office had spent tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars attempting to discredit Richard Klassen and have him either jailed for criminal defamation or removed from the civil claim and they had failed. Richard wrote a pre-trial brief. A court date was set. Jason Warick continued to work up on this story and wrote "Klassen's await their day in court" once the pre-trial hearings concluded.

We had made the breakthrough we needed. The StarPhoenix, which had long ago abandoned the story (partly because it was just too difficult to sort out) was now back on board. They were wise to the tricks of the Saskatoon police and government lawyers. Another layer of the scandal first broadcast on The Fifth Estate was making it through to the public.

And the public was on our side! You could almost feel the change in the air.

The only card the government and police lawyers had left in their deck was to beat Richard Klassen down in the court room at the civil trial. That card would have had more punch if they had at least prepared for a trial. Instead they counted on spying intelligence which had informed them that Richard was sick. That information probably came from the Borden Holgate office.

They didn't.

We spent the summer educating the public. The first legal camp-out on the lawn of the legislature in Regina. Many informational displays were set up around the city. We made certain that those who were interested in the Neil Stonechild inquiry (scheduled to begin the same day) understood that we were on their side. Everywhere we went, we made allies.

. . .and the rest is history, as they say

Not only did the defendants' lawyers, Don McKillop and his sidekick for the government, David Gerrand and a sidekick for Dueck, not really prepare, neither did Holgate and Borden.

Richard was prepared. The pretrial brief became a map for the trial. One day went by. Two days. Three days. Borden followed Richard's notes but he really didn't know the case all that well. Holgate was allowed to examine one witness and he was so pitiful that he almost cleared the courtroom.

The judge relaxed and followed the case as Richard Klassen laid it out before the court. Richard did all the important examinations in chief and all the important cross-examinations. Near the end of the plaintiffs' proceedings, Dueck's lawyer, Gerrand brought to the attention of the court a tape which Dueck had "misplaced in a drawer" when he moved offices. (Was that when he was promoted from corporal to Sgt or when he moved up to Superintendant?) This was the tape of an interview with Beryl Stonechild from 1991. It was hard to hear and the transcription was full of "inaudibles" but it was clear evidence of Dueck's malice. We will never know if Dueck actually intended to present this pitiful offering as evidence that he had reasonable and probable cause to go after 20 people and destroy their lives.

So who are the rotten apples?

Dueck came to court every day. He was sometimes accompanied by Murray Zoorkan. Sometimes by Neil Wylie. Deputy Chief Wiks was busy over at the Stonechild Inquiry which was going on at the same time.

At the Stonechild proceedings, we learned much more which confirmed that the culture of losing files, lying to the media and generally conducting themselves as a law unto themselves was endemic in the Saskatoon police. If Ernie Loutit had not been suspicious and taken home some files, there would have been even less information for Judge David Wright to evaluate.

Ernie has been the subject of particularly vicious character assassination. The spring before the civil trial and Stonechild Inquiry, CBC reporter Dan Zakreski did a piece for the National, Cold Case, which showed a drawing of the last person seen with Rodney Naistus, one of the men whose frozen body had been found in January, 2000. May in the Native community were saying the drawing looked like "Indian Ernie," as Loutit was called in the neighbourhood. (Ernie Loutit has been moved from the west side -- where he had become part of the neighbourhood -- to the east side of the river.)

I think the drawing looks an awful lot like Hoos from Platoon C.

So far, we know of two honest policemen who are brave enough to stand by their convictions: Ernie Loutit at the Stonechild inquiry and Bruce Ehalt, the officer who took the first statement from Darrell Night. We hope that there are more who will let their conscience guide them.

Disbanding the whole force and the bringing in the mounties would not be anyone's first choice. Having a truly cleaned up police force which acknowledges its mistakes and learns from them would help turn around the whole spirit of this town, which now is jumpy and afraid. The Police Union is a powerful force right now. They would do well to remember Craig Brommell in Toronto who rose too high and got too greedy.

Think of this as the first chapter in an ongoing story.

Which you all can contribute to. In the tradition of injusticebusters we want only signed personal experiences or verifiable facts. It is lies which have built up a rotten and the truth which shall take them down. If any fruit remains untouched by the rot, we'll have ourselves an honest Saskatoon Police Service!

Will Quennell be able to clean up the festering sores begun by Quinney? That also remains to be seen.

The media - can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em

When we finally got the wonderful verdict, we were exhausted from waiting. Judge Baynton had promised to try and bring it down before Christmas. It didn't come until December 29. There was then a flurry of media such as we have never seen before. Richard Klassen became a bona fide star.

People scrambled for the rights to make the movie. Richard stipulated that the movie must be faithful to the facts and that it must be filmed in Saskatchewan.

I now hear that, as the people working on the script and the treatment get closer to production (i.e. funding) that some folding in is being recommended. Or whatever they call it. Borden is being presented as a heroic figure getting credit for most the work done by Richard, Angela and me.

It is not that we want credit or glory.

It is that we want the story truthfully told. Not one single lawyer contributed anything of value to this case. Most of the time lawyers were fighting us, talking us down, playing a treacherous, fearful game. Dan Henry as counsel for the CBC did a good job representing the interests of free speech and a free media.

This is not a story about a heroic lawyer helping his hapless client fight for justice. Not Borden, not Holgate, not a composite character. They may not be anough components among all the lawyers in this province to create one decent lawyer.

This is a story about honest white trash taking the skills we had, sharing them, developing them, finding a way to get the truth to the public. We don't want to be made into heroes but we would like to be shown as the examples that we are: we demonstrated that with an incredible amount of effort and tenacity it is possible to shake the system. If others see that it can be done, and are prepared to do the work they need to do -- individually and collectively -- we can not only shake the system but change the world.

This Remembrance day, think of the victims of the injustice wars, too.

Eric Cline, who was Justice Minister, was also present to turn the sod for the brief detox center. He probably didn't realize that the NDP would be re-elected and he probably wouldn't have called the inquiry into David Milgaard if he'd known they were going to win another term.

The Commissioner has been chosen, Larry Fisher has exhausted his appeals and people are in the mood for justice.

So what's the hold-up?

A fair big deal was made about the sod turning for an addition to Larson House which would accomodate 12 persons the police found to be intoxicated and didn't want to take to either the police station or the Queen Elizabeth Power Station.

In late 1999 Dueck went on television to promote this idea. That was when we first saw him in his new superintendant whites and became aware he had been promoted.

Hartgarden was also promoted around the same time. There were 11 superintendants in the Saskatoon Police Service at that time.

At salaries of 100K a piece, over four years -- I wonder how many places could have been provided for people in need of protection.

Does somebody want to do the math?