Rapes account for more than half of juvenile convictions
BY RUSS ZIMMER
Advocate Reporter
NEWARK -- Rape convictions made up more than half of all 2008 felony dispositions in the Juvenile Division of Licking County Common Pleas Court, according to the division's annual report released last week.
In 2007, rape adjudications -- the juvenile court's equivalent of convictions -- dropped dramatically to 23 from 38 in 2006 but increased in 2008 to make up almost the entire difference.
"Sexually oriented offenses continue to account for a significant percentage of felony adjudications as well as commitments to the Ohio Department of Youth Services," the report states.
Delinquency filings, or criminal complaints, increased to about 1,100 -- their highest total in five years -- but felony adjudications remained fairly static with a total of 63, the report shows.
A more encouraging trend points to safer teen drivers on the road.
Traffic violations continued their decline to 800 from their 2006 total of more than 1,100.
Juvenile drivers appear to be easing up on the gas pedal as police issued 331 speeding tickets to drivers younger than 18, or 61 fewer than in 2007. Last year's total represents a 37 percent drop from 2006.
Probation violations, which are consistently the top offense filed, spiked to 246, an increase of 27 percent from 2007.
Possession of drugs, gross sexual imposition and tobacco violations all showed significant jumps in adjudications while vandalism, thefts and disorderly conduct fell sharply, the report shows.
Rape convictions made up more than half of all 2008 felony dispositions in the Juvenile Division of Licking County Common Pleas Court...
Liability for sex crimes committed by deputies at issue for cities and county
By Alfred Lee, Staff Writer Posted: 06/27/2009.....Cities and the county are locked in a who-blinks-first battle over who should pay legal costs when deputies commit sex crimes.
The continuing stalemate could result in the county not renewing contracts for police services for 40 cities patrolled by Sheriff's Department deputies, Supervisor Gloria Molina warned this week.
Unless the cities agree by Aug. 31 to assume all legal liability in criminal misconduct cases against deputies - including sexual misconduct - those contracts won't be renewed, Molina said.
"I don't want to call it a Mexican standoff, but it's getting close to it," the supervisor said.
The disagreement was sparked by a 2006 case against a Compton deputy convicted of raping three women while on duty. The three victims sued and the county settled all the cases out of court, paying out a total of $5 million.
Cities under Sheriff's Department contracts objected when the county dipped into their special fund, the liability trust fund, to pay the settlements.
The fund, which cities pay into and which now has about $52 million, was created to cover legal costs in settlements involving deputies. But contract cities argue the fund was never intended to be used for cases involving sexual misconduct by deputies.
The cities are now collectively threatening to sue the county over the sexual misconduct issue.
Sam Olivito, executive director of the California Contract Cities Association, said the trust fund has been used in the past to settle police brutality and other deputy misconduct cases.
"That's a different situation than sexual assault. There is a question as to whether excessive force is excessive force - that's a policy kind of an issue. There isn't any question when a deputy rapes a victim - that's definitely criminal. It isn't in the course and scope of the deputy's work under contract."
Molina said the current contracts make no distinctions between misconduct and sexual misconduct. She is calling on the cities to sign new contracts that make them liable for all "criminal misconduct" by deputies. The cities so far have balked at that wording.
"Why should the contract cities have to be responsible?" said Temple City Councilman Fernando Vizcarra. "If one of Athens' employees stole a car or beat somebody up or did something bad, that's Athens' problem, not ours, even if they contract with us."
Anna Pembedjian, justice deputy for Supervisor Mike Antonovich, backed the county's stance on the issue.
"What the supervisor believes is that when the county contracts and provides services to an entity, the county can't also absorb the liability that extends from those services," Pembedjian said. "It would create an unfair burden to the county taxpayers and, in this case, on the county unincorporated community."
The current contracts were due to expire Tuesday, but county supervisors extended them another two months to Aug. 31 as both sides attempt to come up with language they can agree on.
Antonovich believes the two sides are "very close" to a resolution, Pembedjian added.
Supervisor Don Knabe declined to comment on the dispute, citing the ongoing negotiations.
"Supervisor Knabe came out of a contract city and has long been a supporter of issues that contract cities have - first and foremost because they're the No. 1 customer of the county," said David Sommers, Knabe's spokesman.
The cities offered to extend current contracts for another year, but the county refused, said San Dimas Mayor Curtis Morris, who is part of the contract cities' negotiating team.
Molina said the cities are arguing against paying for sexual misconduct on "moral" grounds. She said she is very worried that no agreement will be reached by the Aug. 31 deadline.
"I'm petrified that you're going to end up with cities with no law enforcement," she said.
Morris said he's not sure what happens next once time runs out on the negotiations.
"I don't know whether there's an actual threat (of loss of services). Certainly the county's position has been that if the cities do not sign a new contract which makes the cities responsible for these sex crimes, then ... we'll be in a state of limbo."
San Gabriel Valley cities that hold contracts for services include Bradbury, Diamond Bar, Duarte, Industry, La Ca ada Flintridge, La Puente, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, Temple City, San Dimas, South El Monte and Walnut.
For the majority of cities, contracting out for law enforcement is significantly cheaper than paying for their own police departments.
So far, all 40 contract cities have gone on record that they intend to sue if the matter isn't settled.
"Temple City feels strongly that the county wrongly took money out of the fund for damages that were incurred in a lawsuit, and if the county's not willing to work out a settlement, from the contract cities' point of view I would anticipate that litigation would follow," said Eric Vail, Temple City's interim city attorney.
Diamond Bar spokeswoman Cecilia Arellano said her city also passed a resolution supporting the cities' position.
"We're prepared to start litigation if it should get to that point," she said.
A lawsuit would be counter- productive, Molina said.
"I'm not contracting with any city that sues me," she said.
At least one city, La Mirada, is considering contracting with any agency if the matter can't be resolved, Councilman Hal Malkin said.
"If they totally reject the contract provisions, possibly then we have to start looking elsewhere," he said. "We have to have Plan B in place. Plan B would be looking for other departments to contract with."
The contract cities also have requested the right to screen out deputies with histories of behavioral problems, an idea that the county has so far rejected.
"What we're trying to do is make sure that all those deputies that do have some kind of problem, if we do know about it, that we don't want them to be put into the contract cities," Olivito said.
Staff writer Mike Sprague contributed to this story.
Norman Lister has a history of sex crimes....
A history of sex crimes involving children Posted By BOB VAILLANCOURT, THE SUDBURY STAR
A 47-year-old city man charged this week with voyeurism, criminal harassment, breaching probation and weapons offences has a history of sexual crimes involving children.
Norman Lister was convicted in 2007 of invitation to sexual touching after inviting an eight-year- old boy to spend the night at his home. He received a 15- month jail term.
In 1998, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 12-year-old female in 1996 and in 1997. Five other similar charges were withdrawn.
In his latest brush with the law, Lister was arrested by Greater Sudbury Police on Wednesday after complaints he had been following young women and talking to young girls about their bathing suits.
Police said they received a complaint about 4:15 p. m. Wednesday about an older man following young females in the Riverside Drive area.
They located the man and determined he had been drinking. Officers noticed he was armed with a knife and was arrested.
Further investigation revealed the suspect earlier approached two girls, ages eight and 11, and talked to them about their bathing suits.
The man was seen walking into the driveway of a home where the two girls were playing with a third young female.
The man reportedly left when the girls began to scream in fear; however he returned a short time later and discovered they were now accompanied by adults.
He left the area and went to Douglas Street, where he was located and arrested.
He was charged with three counts each of voyeurism, criminal harassment and breaching a probation order, as well as possession of a weapon for a purpose dangerous to the public peace, and carrying a concealed weapon.
At the time of the arrest, he was on probation stemming from his 2007 conviction and sentence.
In 1999, the Crown asked that Lister be jailed for 12 to 15 months for offences in 1997 and 1998.
However, a Superior Court Justice sentenced Lister to an 18-month custodial sentence. The first six months of that sentence was to be served at Waseskun House, a treatment facility for First Nation sexual offenders and substance abusers, near Montreal.
The $10,000 cost was to be paid by the Wikwemikong First Nation.
For the remaining 12 months of the sentence, he was to be under house arrest, leaving his home only leave for medical or counselling reasons.
Superior court Justice John Poupore said the court must consider the principle of restorative justice when dealing with First Nation individuals. "This is a situation where our society, as a whole, must have some responsibility," he said.
And the judge warned the conditional sentence must not be seen as a "cakewalk," as Lister, while at Waseskun House, wouldn't be able to leave until his six months are completed.
"The offender will be removed from the community, removed from his family and placed in an institution," he said.
As part of the sentence, Lister was put on two years' probation, prohibited from possessing weapons for 10 years and was ordered to abstain from alcohol and non-prescription drugs for the term of his probation.
At the time, he had been receiving psychological counselling in Sudbury, and had taken First Nation traditional counselling in a pair of twoweek sessions in 1998 at Cedar House, a facility on Manitoulin Island.
The Crown had argued that Lister was a "moderate" pedophile despite the considerable counselling.
When he committed the 1997 sexual assault, Lister was on probation for another sexual assault conviction.
His lawyer told the 1999 sentencing hearing that it was important to allow Lister to continue counselling so that he could correct his sexual tendencies. Lister's past jail sentences, said the lawyer, had accomplished nothing.
On Friday, Lister made a brief appearance in Sudbury bail court the most recent charges.
He asked, through duty counsel, that those charges be adjourned to Tuesday when he will appear once again in bail court by way of a video link between the Sudbury District Jail where he is being held and the courthouse.
Article ID# 1633226
Want the public's trust and help? Stop lying to us
By JEREMY LOOME....Politicians are routinely asinine and stupid. And the fact that they're aware they're behaving as such -- because they're pandering quite deliberately to a base few-- always makes it tough to swallow.
It takes a mighty fine stew of stupidity to top the norm.
Introducing Justice Minister Alison Redford, an adult smart enough to know better.
Unfortunately, Alberta's top law enforcement official evidently holds the public in contempt, since she feels the best way to dissuade people from using drugs is to lie to them and to scare them.
Given that she has a larger mandate that requires budget appropriations, and that the futile drug war feeds that, perhaps her diatribe earlier this week in Calgary shouldn't surprise anyone. But I thought better of Redford.
Personal judgments aside, let's go over her positions and compare them what non-partisan experts say:
Redford: "Gangs are in the business of making money and the way they do that is by selling illegal drugs. Customers feed the machine of crime, violence and gangs."
Reality: Gangs feed a demand from the public that will never end, because most people who use drugs don't get hooked. If drugs were legalized, controlled for purity and taxed, they would hold no inherent black market value.
Redford: "It doesn't matter if the customer is someone who is vulnerable or someone sitting in a middle-class neighbourhood or someone with a lot of money, a customer is a customer. They're giving money to gangs."
Reality: No, government fuels gangs by maintaining a black market for drugs. One ounce of opium poppies cost 70 cents to produce, but can generate $10,000 worth of opium. The disparity is caused by the illegality, not the user.
Redford: "It's not as if some drugs are less dangerous than others."
Reality: Does this even require rebuttal? Only an uninformed idiot would think that marijuana, a plant generally containing 8-13% THC -- a relatively benign compound when not ingested via combustion -- is as dangerous as crack or as meth, or as heroin. The only truth here is that they should all be decriminalized, so that the minority of users who are addicted can be treated, instead of jailed.
Redford: "We know from the way gangs do business, a kilo of marijuana from Canada is equivalent in the drug trade to a kilo of cocaine from Colombia. It's important not to think some drugs are innocent and aren't dangerous and don't contribute to the gang problem in the same way. They all do. Equally."
Reality: Preposterous. The RCMP claimed this initially about a decade ago and has never produced a single conviction or shred of evidence that supports it. I challenge Redford to back the claim up.
Redford: "The assumption is perhaps some of these people, if they are doing drugs, they can 'handle it.' They can 'afford it.' But, at the end of the day, it all leads to the same decline."
Reality: A bald-faced lie. In fact, as the bi-partisan Senate report into marijuana in 2002 made clear through statistics from around the globe, less than four percent of users ever become addicted to hard drugs. Marijuana is mildly addicting at best, although up to 10% of regular smokers become "chronic users."
Redford: "This isn't about an individual making a personal choice that doesn't impact anybody except them," she says. "When they buy drugs, they are giving money to organizations trying to get more turf and customer share and these people have guns and armoured vehicles and they are prepared to kill."
Reality: They're prepared to kill because of money and profit. That profit only exists because the product is illegal and has black market value. If it weren't illegal it WOULD just be a matter of personal choice for the vast majority.
Redford: "When I was young we used to talk an awful lot more about how drugs were bad, how they got you addicted and, when you got addicted, you committed crimes and, when you committed crimes, you didn't have a lot of good choices to make in your life. We need to talk about that again."
Reality: Actually, lying or grossly overgeneralizing to earlier generation is WHY conservatives are losing the battle against drug use. If Redford spent five minutes talking about the ties between pot smoking and health consequences, she might get somewhere with young people.
Redford: "The public discussion is if we just legalized marijuana we wouldn't have the problem. As I've said, in the drug trade, marijuana is equal to cocaine."
Reality: What would the illegal profit potential of a product have to do with its potential harm to users? Owning a blood diamond is wrong. But it doesn't entail a trip to rehab.
Redford: "The problem is gangs will make the money selling the illegal items, whatever they might be, unless nothing is illegal."
Reality: The only things gangs sell are either vice-related or stolen. Yes, if you take away the vice issues, regulate them and control them, gangs will still be out there stealing. But thank goodness we'd now have enough cops freed up to actually deal with that, because they're not running around arresting peaceful potheads and the people who supply them.
Pickton appeals to Supreme Court
Less than 24 hours after B.C. Appeal Court upheld his conviction, 60-year-old pig farmer and his lawyers decide to ask top court to consider whether he received a fair trial
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/pickton-appeals-to-supreme-court/article1198474/
Convicted child killer found dead in cell of apparent suicide, prison officials
June 26, 2009, By Kevin Bissett, THE CANADIAN PRESS
DORCHESTER, N.B. - A man convicted of killing a five-year-old girl in Calgary 17 years ago has been found dead in his prison cell in what the Correctional Service of Canada says is an "apparent suicide."
The Correctional Service says Gleason Bennett Williams died Thursday at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick where he was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.
The department said in a news release Friday that an investigation has been ordered into the circumstances of his death.
Williams, a native of Prince Edward Island, was 36 when he strangled and slit the throat of Shannon Dawn Morrissette, who was hearing-impaired and couldn't speak, in his basement suite in southeast Calgary in 1992.
Two weeks ago, the National Parole Board denied a request from the 54-year-old for escorted day passes.
Members of Shannon's family attended the hearing and told board members how their lives have been devastated by the murder.
Parole board officials told Williams he showed little insight into his behaviour and posed a risk to reoffend.
Shannon, who communicated by sign language, was playing at the back of her house and in the alley behind her home on Aug. 15, 1992.
Williams strangled her and slashed her throat twice with a knife. Her body was found by police in a duffle bag the next morning in a nearby dumpster.
Lab tests were unable to conclude whether the girl had been sexually assaulted. Williams denied any sexual contact with Shannon.
The former construction worker received a life term with no chance of parole for at least 20 years after pleading guilty in a Calgary court in 1993 to second-degree murder.
At the parole hearing, Janet Morrissette expressed the grief she still suffers over her daughter's death.
"Gleason Bennett Williams killed my daughter in his bed and put her in a dumpster like nothing happened, she said. "I am trapped in a prison. There is no parole board, no early release.
Parole board officials detailed Williams's file and his past, including criminal offences dating from 1981. In each case, alcohol was involved.
"I don't trust myself when I've been drinking, Williams told them. "If I never drank, I wouldn't be sitting here.
The two board members took just 45 minutes to reach their decision to deny the day passes.
Nina Courtepatte...Is this justice for Nina Courtepatte? I am not to sure it is...
Max sentence for last of Nina’s killers
By THE CANADIAN PRESS
The last person to be sentenced in the sex slaying of a 13-year-old Edmonton girl is going to jail for four years.
The 20-year-old woman will then be under supervision for another three years.
It’s the maximum youth sentence for the woman, who was 16 years old when Nina Courtepatte was raped and viciously beaten to death on a golf course.
The sentence does not take into account time already served.
Courtepatte was lured from West Edmonton Mall in April 2005 by several “mall rats” who promised to take her to a party in the country.
One man and three youths were convicted in her death and another man was found not guilty, although there are several appeals before the courts.
Vancouver Artist...missing women
Vancouver artist paints missing women
CP Video Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2009
A Vancouver artist has unveiled the first in a series of portraits chronicling the city's missing women. The large portrait depicts Mona Wilson who disappeared in 2001. Serial killer Robert Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in her death, along with five others, in 2007.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/vancouver-artist-paints-missing-women/article1195360/
‘Rape hound’ sex offender too dangerous to be released: Crown
By Canwest News Service
WINDSOR, Ont. -- A man who the Crown is seeking to have declared a dangerous offender is a self-described "rape hound," who has been on probation, in jail or in a psychiatric hospital for all but 24 hours of his adult life.
Jeffrey Bastien fantasizes about raping women. He has told police he set a goal for himself of sexually assaulting 5,000 women.
The dangerous offender application comes after Bastien was convicted in 2007 of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
The entire article is at the following link.... http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1724973
The National Parole Board once called Brenda Blondell's husband her "anchor of support." Now he's accused of her murder.
Accused in B.C. killing was on parole for murder, as was his slain wife...June 24, 2009, By THE CANADIAN PRESS
SURREY, B.C. - The National Parole Board once called Brenda Blondell's husband her "anchor of support." Now he's accused of her murder.
Both Blondell and her husband, Thomas Elton, were convicted of separate murders in the 1970s and 1980s, but the British Columbia couple supported one another and other convicts through a volunteer prisoners' group.
On Monday, police found Blondell, also known as Brenda Turcan, stabbed to death in her apartment in Surrey. Police said the death was not random, and was not linked to drugs, gangs or organized crime.
Elton, 54, was arrested shortly after his wife's body was found and charged with second-degree murder. He remains in custody.
Parole Board documents show Blondell, 59, led a difficult, drug-addicted life.
She was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for a murder the court heard involved a lesbian love triangle.
The documents say Blondell's criminal record was both "extensive and versatile," but by October 2005 she had begun to turn her life around.
She became involved with a volunteer organization that advocates for the rights of women in federal prisons.
"What is most noteworthy is that you and your husband now speak at local educational facilities about substance abuse, incarceration and parole," says the board decision granting her full parole four years ago
Her husband also spent most of his adult life in prison.
While in prison for a break-and-enter conviction, Elton stabbed a fellow inmate and was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 1977.
Parole documents show Elton was released from prison on parole several times, but he had difficulty controlling his drug use and returned to prison at least three times.
In 1998, he was found by police covered in blood and fighting with a man whose throat had been cut.
He was charged with aggravated assault, but he was acquitted after telling the court he was trying to break up a fight.
The board's latest report on Elton, dated September 2000, concluded that he had stopped placing himself in high-risk situations.
"You have demonstrated a higher degree of self-knowledge and insight and appear to be dealing with stressors appropriately," says the decision release sheet.
Blondell had fallen ill, which was one of the factors in the parole board granting her full parole in 2005.
She had suffered three heart attacks and had several health complications because of diabetes.
"Indeed, as the board went through your other risk factors, you readily acknowledged that you too have some concern about the future," says the final report. "But you've found an anchor of support in you husband, your work and your associates."
Under-trials often spend years in jails without trial or conviction because they are too poor to get themselves out…
BAREFOOT Forgotten behind prison walls by HARSH MANDER
They cannot muster the resources to afford bail and lawyers...
Tens of thousands of deprived men and women are trapped in jails throughout the country, often for many years, without trial or conviction, separated from their families, exiled from hope. The predicament of these “under-trial” prisoners, who constitute as many as two-thirds of our overcrowded jail populations, have for many decades — but all too briefly and ineffectually — stirred the conscience of courts, official commissions and human rights activists, but little has changed for them. Most of these unfortunate, incarcerated men and women — and sadly children — are very poor, and from socially disadvantaged groups. It is by no means a fact that most crimes in our country are committed by very poor people. It is just that these dispensable and forgotten people are too powerless to free themselves from the vice-like grip of the law: they lack the money, education and political clout to walk free. They cannot muster the resources to afford bail and lawyers, and over-burdened courts do not find the time to try them.
Individuals who are charged with grave offences are arrested, and magistrates have the discretion to either release them on bail, or order their detention in the custody of the police or prisons. An “under-trial” prisoner is one against whom there is a charge of violation of law, but this charge has still not been proved in a court of law, and who has, for whatever reason, not been released on bail. Individuals who cannot access bail remain in prison until they are discharged or acquitted, or convicted and sent to jail, or released after completing their sentence, paying a fine, admonition, or on probation.
An estimated 66 per cent of all prison inmates are under-trials, but in some States the proportion goes up to as high as 80 per cent. The total prison population as on December, 2006 for all categories of inmates was 3,73,271. Of these 2,43,244 were under-trials. An overwhelming 96 per cent of these are men. Uttar Pradesh reports the highest number of under-trails, followed by Bihar.
As far back as in 1978, K.F. Rustamji, Member of the National Police Commission, observed compassionately in his report on under-trials that prisons are “a system which is slowly grinding thousands of people into dust”. He found hundreds of under-trials to be “dumb, simple persons, caught in the web of the law, unable to comprehend as to what has happened, what the charge against them is, or why they have been sent to jail. These are the people without a calendar or a clock, only a date in a court diary, extended from hearing to hearing...There are many charged with ticketless travel, possession of weapons, or illicit liquor or some minor infraction of the law...” He found to his dismay that “several of them have been undertrials for more than five years”.
Lost years
It is important to remember that under-trials are incarcerated for these long periods even though no offence has actually been proved against them. It is possible that at the end of the trial they are discharged, but nothing can bring back their irretrievably lost years spent behind jail walls, and the stigma, separation and abuse they suffered, as did their loved ones. Even more tragic is that many of these under-trial prisoners are not even charged with any offence. They are picked up under preventive detention sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure, like Section 109, which enable State authorities to detain people when they consider this to be necessary to prevent crimes. But I observed in many years in rural districts that these sections are widely used against impoverished and destitute people, including those who are homeless, uprooted, mentally disturbed or destitute. As observed by Rustamji: “Some of them looked as if they have been youngsters wandering over the country, drop-outs from school, and the law had picked them up because the number of cases had to be brought up to the specified figure”.
Inc arcerated
It is only rarely that their condition comes to light through public-spirited legislation. In response to one such petition, the Supreme Court observed that an “alarmingly large number of men and women, including children are behind prison bars for years awaiting trial in courts of law. The offences with which some of them are charged are trivial, which, even if proved, would not warrant punishment for more than a few months, perhaps for a year or two, and yet these unfortunate forgotten specimens of humanity are in jail, deprived of their freedom, for periods ranging from three to ten years without even as much as their trial having commenced”. It also notices that “a large number of remand and undertrial prisoners are languishing in prisons because of their poverty. They are there because they are not able to furnish the bail, whereas the affluent can afford to do so”. In another case, it observed: “Some of the undertrial prisoners have been in jail for as many as 5, 7 or 9 years and a few of them even more than 10 years, without their trial having begun. What faith can these lost souls have in the judicial system which denies them a bare trial for so many years and keeps them behind bars, not because they are guilty, but because they are too poor to afford bail and the courts have no time to try them”. Instances of some mentally ill under-trials, apprehended for petty offences like ticketless travel and theft, and languishing in prisons for more than 20 years, were brought to the notice of the Supreme Court.
All incarcerated persons also face extreme psychological stress. This has been poignantly described by Jawaharlal Nehru, who spent many years behind jail walls: “High walls and iron gates cut off the little world of prison from the wide world outside. Here in this prison world everything is different; there are no colours, no changes, no movement, no hope, no joy. Life runs its dull round with a terrible monotony; it is all flat desert land with no high points and no oases to quench one’s thirst or shelter one from the burning heat. Days run into weeks and weeks into months and years till the sands of life run out. All the might of the State is against him and none of the ordinary checks are available. Even the voice of pain is hushed, the cry of agony cannot be heard beyond the high walls”.
Indiscriminate grouping
Contrary to express provisions in the jail manual, all categories of inmates tend to be huddled together in most prisons. Thus under-trials, many of them innocent or young impressionable petty offenders, are thrown together with hardened criminals, who are able to initiate them into the world of crime. Many prisons also illegally house juvenile offenders, “vagrants”, destitute children and mentally ill persons.
Since under-trial prisoners are not yet confirmed law violators, even correctional and rehabilitation services, such as may exist for convicts, are denied to them. Under-trials therefore are usually left idle with no productive work. They sit idle in the company of others in the same situation as them. In this sense they are even worse off than confirmed convicts. The Supreme Court has directed repeatedly that under no circumstances can any persons be held in prison as under-trials, if they spend more than half the time they would if they were ultimately convicted of the crime that are charged with. Yet this direction is ignored and flouted with impunity almost universally in jails across the country.
And the muffled suffering and casual injustice against these most dispossessed men and women, forgotten behind the tall prison walls, persists without end.
Digital Safety Conference, Friday June 19th 2009
Non-profit making event set to make big change London, May 29th 2009.
The final programme for the Digital Safety Conference has been published, for more information check out the website!
http://www.digitalsafety.com/home
Digital Britain : Digital Safety?
UK is #2 after USA as home to cybercriminals
260,000 cases of online financial fraud
40% of identity theft facilitated online
Over 800,000 businesses affected by online security breach
MPs call for urgent cash to clear DNA backlogs
June 18, 2009, By THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - A new report says an alarming lack of cash to analyze DNA samples has delayed investigations and hampered the justice system.
MPs on the all-party House of Commons public safety committee cite an urgent need for more funding.
Liberal MP Mark Holland says about $2.8 million spent to analyze samples should be at least doubled.
DNA has helped in more than 11,000 investigations since 2000 - including more than 700 murders and 1,500 sexual assaults.
Samples can be collected from offenders or at crime scenes involving homicide, sexual assault and a host of other designated crimes.
The committee says the law should be changed to systematically require DNA samples upon conviction for those offences - but not before funding is increased.
It can take up to two weeks for DNA results in even the most serious cases where the suspect is still on the loose.
In most other cases, police wait at least a year for results.
A detailed DNA sample produces a profile so unique that the chances of it matching another person's are about one in 600 billion.
Trafficking in Persons Report 2009
The ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report sheds light on the faces of modern-day slavery and on new facets of this global problem. The human trafficking phenomenon affects virtually every country, including the United States. In acknowledging America’s own struggle with modern-day slavery and slavery-related practices, we offer partnership. We call on every government to join us in working to build consensus and leverage resources to eliminate all forms of human trafficking."
--Secretary Clinton, June 16, 2009
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/index.htm
Experts douse Tory inmate crackdown plan
June 16, 2009, EDT.By Sue Bailey, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The Harper government says it wants to increase victims' rights while getting tougher with inmates who break prison rules or violate parole conditions.
But critics say the latest move in the Tory law-and-order agenda would actually increase public risk in the long run.
Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said legislation proposed Tuesday would offer victims more information about inmate parole and rehabilitation.
If passed, the changes would also create new penalties for inmates who throw urine at guards or act out in other ways.
Police could also immediately arrest without a warrant any offender suspected of breaching release conditions.
Adam Boni of the Criminal Lawyers' Association warned the move would increase pressure on overstretched prisons that are already struggling to rehabilitate inmates.
"This government says society is safer as long as we can keep them locked up for as long as possible. In fact, what this approach does is create a powder keg in the federal penitentiary system.
"What it means is more over-crowding, more expense, less programs, less meaningful treatment. When these people are ultimately released ... they're going to be less equipped and less rehabilitated than they need to be. And we all suffer as a society."
Van Loan stressed that Ottawa has committed $479 million over five years to "set the foundation to strengthen the federal correctional system."
The federal government now spends more than $2 billion a year to oversee 13,500 inmates in 58 institutions. Another 8,000 prisoners are under varying degrees of supervision on the outside.
The majority, including sex offenders, never fully complete rehabilitation programs because of long waiting lists and frequent transfers, correctional investigator Howard Sapers told the Commons public safety committee this month.
However, inmates are routinely assessed upon arrival for mental health issues, Van Loan said. And programs to battle drug and alcohol abuse are being offered in the first 90 days of incarceration where none used to exist.
The minister conceded "there are real challenges" - including a chronic lack of psychologists and other specialists in prisons. Hiring and retention are ongoing issues in corrections as in the mainstream health system.
Sapers says many offenders are released without ever receiving recommended treatment due to lack of staff and resources.
Criminologists said Tory plans to curtail house arrest just as they increase minimum mandatory sentences for various crimes will only lock up more people with little or no effect on crime rates.
Van Loan has championed that approach and said there's more to come.
"We have a long-term commitment to work toward earned parole to replace statutory release," he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly promised to scrap the automatic release of prisoners after serving two-thirds of their sentence in favour of "earned parole for behaviour and rehabilitation in prison."
Such a move is expected to vastly increase the amount of costly prison space needed.
Other changes proposed Tuesday to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act include:
-Informing victims about the reasons for offender transfers and giving advance notice where possible .
-Informing victims about inmate program participation and any serious discipline issues.
-Sharing the reasons for a temporary leave from a prison.
-Requiring inmates to respect other people and property; obey all penitentiary rules and conditions governing release; and actively participate in fulfilling their rehabilitation plan.
-Enshrining in law a victim's already existing right to participate in parole board hearings.
-Emphasizing the importance of considering the seriousness of a crime in National Parole Board decision-making.
Canada is source, destination for sex tourism: U.S. report
By Daphne Bramham, Vancouver Sun, June 16, 2009
VANCOUVER — Canada is a destination for sex tourists, particularly from the United States, according to the U.S. State Department in its ninth annual State of Trafficking in Persons Report.
Covering 175 countries, the report released Tuesday is available here.
The report says Canada is a source and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Many trafficking victims are from Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine. Asian victims tend to be trafficked more frequently to Vancouver and Western Canada, while Eastern European and Latin American victims are trafficked to Toronto, Montreal, and Eastern Canada, the report states.
It also says Canadian women and girls, many of whom are aboriginal, are trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation.
Despite its failings, Canada is among the best in combating what the report refers to as "a modern-day form of slavery." Only once — in 2003 — did Canada fall to tier two, when it was deemed not to fully comply with even the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking.
The fact that Canada is among the best should give people pause. Even though Canadian politicians promised long ago to eliminate exotic dancing from its list of skilled worker categories for immigration because of fears that traffickers were using it as a loophole to legally import women into forced prostitution, 14 permits were issued last year. Fifteen were handed out in 2007 and 22 in 2006.
RCMP estimate between 800 and 2,200 people are trafficked into or through the country each year.
But only five traffickers have ever been convicted and that was last year. Maximum penalties are $1 million and life in prison, but the sentences ranged from two to eight years in jail. Only 31 trafficking victims were identified in the two years ending 2008. Of those, only 15 were given temporary residence permits last year.
The American report notes favourably that Canada has incorporated an anti-trafficking component into its 2010 Olympic security plans. RCMP don't expect any increase in trafficking prior to or during the Games. That's supported by research done for the Sex Industry Workers Safety Action Group and paid for by the B.C. government's Office to Combat to Trafficking in Persons and the Vancouver Police Department.
"The commonly held notion of a link between mega sports events, trafficking in persons and sex work is an unsubstantiated assumption," it says.
Still, almost everyone expects that one million Olympic visitors will attract more prostitutes. Will they come on their own or be brought/sent/coerced by pimps? That's the source of heated debate. What we know is that in 2004 when the Summer Olympics were held in Athens, Greek police found double the number of trafficking victims. The following year, the number dropped 24 per cent.
Was it less demand or less enforcement? No one knows. Like Greece, Vancouver is already a hot spot for trafficking plus it's a known child-sex tourism destination. Add a million Olympic visitors, increased security, and more awareness, better detection, intervention and prevention of trafficking. If there's not a huge increase in the detected numbers of trafficking victims and traffickers, Canada really will be failing in its obligations to protect the world's most vulnerable.
Beware rape myths, judges to tell jurors
From The Times June 15, 2009
Jurors will be told not to judge a victim by the way she was dressed, her behaviour or her demeanour
Frances Gibb, Legal Editor
Juries are to be instructed to ignore myths surrounding rape in an attempt to raise Britain’s low conviction rate for the crime.
Under new directions to be given by judges in rape cases, jurors will be told not to assume the victim was “asking for it” because of the way she dressed, her behaviour or her demeanour.
The directions will address popular misconceptions, for instance that in a “real” rape a victim will struggle and be injured, or that a victim’s consent can be inferred from provocative clothing or flirtatious behaviour.
Such myths are said to be exploited by defence lawyers who play to the public’s views that the stereotypical rape involves a stranger at night, violence and injury, and that the victim will report it immediately.
The initiative has been promoted by Vera Baird, QC, the Solicitor-General, because of continuing concern that rape convictions in the UK remain the lowest in Europe.
The idea of judicial directions has been developed over recent months, Ms Baird told The Times. A small group, including psychiatrists, researchers and a “shadow jury”, had looked at what influenced people’s views.
A second group, including judges, lawyers, Treasury counsel and Ms Baird, then drew up draft judicial directions to cover some half dozen of the main myths about rape.
These have been seen by the Lord Chief Justice and are with the Judicial Studies Board, in charge of training judges and consultation between judges.
“It is very hard to draw a line to stop judges from giving evidence, which they are not allowed to do, and letting them give directions based on judicial wisdom,” Ms Baird said. “In their training judges are taught about these myths, and it doesn’t seem right that they should know about these but not be able to do anything about them. I am hopeful we will have a body of work ready by the autumn.”
At present 6.5 per cent of reported rapes end in a conviction, she said, but that compares with 5.2 per cent two years ago. Ms Baird said: “When people say that the rape conviction rate has plummeted from 19 per cent two decades ago to 6.59 per cent now, you have to remember that there were far, far fewer cases of rape reported two decades ago.
“Rape within marriage was not even a crime — and almost all the cases were stranger rapes in dark alleys that were relatively easy to convict.” She added that, although 6.5 per cent of rapes reported to the police resulted in a conviction, 34 per cent of all rapes prosecuted resulted in a conviction — the highest rate for ten years.
The idea of draft directions has been prompted by a recent landmark case in which the judge ruled that jurors could be told that a genuine sex attack victim is sometimes slow to come forward because of the trauma she has experienced. Usually any delay in reporting an assault is seized on by the defence to undermine the credibility of the complainant.
Judges and the Attorney-General have agreed a policy position: “The courts are alert to the need to ensure fairness to complainants in rape cases as well as to defendants. The Court of Appeal has recently confirmed that in a case where a defendant raises the issue of delayed reporting to undermine the credibility of a complainant, a judge is entitled to direct juries that delay can also be due to the traumatic feelings that follow a rape.”
But Peter Lodder, QC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, spoke of dangers of a move which might upset the balance of a fair trial. “Of course, moves to increase the effectiveness of prosecutions in rape cases are to be welcomed. But any initiative to make sure that all rape allegations are tried and tried effectively must be counter-balanced by the importance of ensuring that a fair trial for a defendant is not undermined.”
He said the problem with judges giving template directions to juries was that every trial was “case-specific” and a general direction might not help. “Such directions would have to be treated with care and we should not undermine the common sense of juries who can form a view as to what is normal, or abnormal — what is acceptable, or unacceptable,” he said.
Myths to be challenged
— A genuine victim will report rape at once The Court of Appeal has recently confirmed that juries can be told that delay can be down to trauma after the rape
— False allegations of rape are common There is no reliable evidence that more false complaints are made in rape cases than in other serious crimes
— Most rapes are committed by strangers
— Most rapists are known to the victim: a partner or former partner, friend, colleague, acquaintance or professional
— Rape victims should put up a fight and show signs of struggle, and a victim will sustain genital injuries Not all victims resist, many fearing the consequences. Many women freeze
— Consent to sex can be assumed from dress, flirting, drink
— Juries would be told that if a man flashed his bulging wallet around in a pub and then had it stolen, no one would say that the person who stole it was not really a thief
— Stranger rape is more traumatic than rape by a known person
— Sexual assault is a traumatic experience whoever the perpetrator and sometimes more traumatic if a breach of trust is involved
New website touts the criminal life
Melvin hired a publicist and set up a site to celebrate his lifestyle
By Rachel Mendleson - Friday, June 12, 2009
Since he got out of jail last November, convicted drug dealer Jimmy Melvin Jr., 27, a member of a notorious Halifax crime family, has been the centre of attention. His release reawakened a long-standing feud with a rival clan—an apparent turf war that has spanned decades. In the past five months, he has survived two attempts on his life, shootings that landed him in hospital and on the front page. Now, amid the publicity, he has launched his own website, aptly named RealLiveStreetShit.com.
Macleans.ca
http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/12/new-website-touts-the-criminal-life
Judge rejects racial bias rule
TheStar.com - Ontario - Judge rejects racial bias rule By Tracey Tyler LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER
An Ontario Superior Court judge says it is time to scrap the practice of routinely asking jurors in Toronto and the surrounding area if their ability to render an impartial verdict could be affected by the fact the accused is black.
"We live in the world of Spike Lee – not that portrayed by Harper Lee," said Justice John Murray in refusing to permit such language, which singles out black people, while challenging jurors for bias at an assault trial of a man in Milton.
Murray argued the words seem a condescending throwback to the 1960s attitudes laid bare in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
He suggested jurors be asked in more generic terms whether they would be able to judge the case "without regard to the race of the accused."
Today, in jury trials in the Greater Toronto Area, an accused black person charged in a case involving a victim of another race has the right to ask would-be jurors whether their ability to judge the case impartially could be affected by the race of the accused and the interracial nature of the alleged crime.
If the victim isn't of a different race, potential jurors can be asked as part of a "challenge for cause" whether a verdict could be affected by "the fact the accused is black."
In 2009, however, those words feel "wrong in the pit of the stomach" and many in the justice system are uncomfortable with such questions, Murray said.
The questions suggest there is a recognition "embedded" in the justice system that society consists of "Us" (whites) and "Them" (black persons) and that one particular form of prejudice, anti-black racism, is more pervasive and pernicious than any other, he said in a written decision Wednesday.
The Ontario Court of Appeal opened the door to race-based challenges of prospective jurors nearly 16 years ago in a groundbreaking ruling known as the Parks decision, saying anti-black racism is a notorious fact that must be confronted.
In that case, the accused, Carlton Parks, a former drug dealer charged in connection with a 1988 stabbing death in Regent Park, was black. The victim was white.
But "in 2009 we live in a different time and in a different place than we did in 1993, when the Parks questions were approved by the Court of Appeal. Our communities have changed and continue to change," Murray wrote in his decision.
The judge noted that in the 1960s, for example, To Kill a Mockingbird, served as a "consciousness-raiser" about racism, particularly in the American south, but last year one critic said its portrayal of blacks seemed condescending and off-balance.
"In the world of Spike Lee and Barack Obama, the Parks questions, too, feel condescending and off-balance," Murray noted.
It is often "embarrassing and undignified" to put Parks-type questions to black prospective jurors, he noted. One might wonder why jurors are not also asked if they would be prepared to accept directions from a black judge, he added.
Instead of focusing on a particular form of prejudice, Murray said questions designed to weed out prejudice should be asked in a "generic" form.
He approved a more broadly worded question to be put to jurors at the trial of Ishmael Jahmar Sinclair in Milton.
After being advised a juror must judge the evidence without bias, prejudice or partiality, potential jury members will be asked whether they will "be able to judge the evidence in this manner without regard to the race of the accused."
Murray also said any accused person should have the right to challenge jurors for cause based on concerns about any other form of discrimination prohibited under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms– for example, on the basis of sex or disability.
And in what appears to be a departure from previous rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as the Ontario Court of Appeal, Murray also suggested accused people who wish to put such questions to jurors should not be required to first prove there is a "realistic potential" these forms of discrimination exist in society.
They have been recognized as unlawful under the Charter, he said.
"Should a Muslim or a Jew be denied a right to challenge for cause because he/she is concerned about heightened potential for prejudice in the community because of possible reaction by some in this diverse community to recent events in Mumbai or in the Middle East?" Murray asked in his judgment.
"Should any accused have placed on him/her an onus to establish grounds for legitimate concern? In my view, the answer is no."
Frank Addario, president of the Criminal Lawyers Association, called Murray's ruling and remarks gutsy.
"The courts have an important role to play in making a litigant feel that they are going to get fair treatment, and here is a very courageous decision to confront the known prejudices in our community and to address them directly," Addario said.
"What he has done," he added, "is to start a conversation about how judges and juries understand racialism as a phenomenon that affects decision-making."
The Full Decision
http://www.thestar.com/article/649987
The Article
http://www.thestar.com/Article/649697
Slanderous Site Catering To Teens Is Shut Down
By Donna St. George and Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
A Web site that catered to anonymous slander and insults by and about teenagers -- and was especially popular in Montgomery County high schools -- was closed down yesterday by its Web hosting company.
The shutdown came several weeks after the Maryland attorney general's office began investigating the site, peoplesdirt.com, which has alarmed parents and school officials for months. It created a wave of concern in mid-May when a former student at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda posted a rambling threat to kill students and staff members. The teen was later arrested.
To read the article here is the link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/09/AR2009060903199.html
Supreme Court restores guilty verdict in Reena Virk killing
June 12, 2009, By THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada has restored a guilty verdict against Kelly Ellard in the Reena Virk murder.
In an 8-1 decision, the court overturned a 2008 British Columbia Court of Appeal decision in a case that has dragged on for more than a decade.
Ellard, now 26, was twice convicted in the murder, with both verdicts overturned on appeal.
One case ended in a hung jury and a mistrial.
In the last case, the appeal judges threw out the jury's 2005 guilty verdict because they felt the trial judge didn't properly instruct the jurors on some inconsistent statements by a Crown witness.
Writing for the majority of the Supreme Court, Justice Rosalie Abella said the statements in question should not have been admitted in evidence, but were essentially harmless.
"These statements were of no consequence and their admission could not, in any way, be said to have had an impact on the jury's deliberations," she wrote.
Justice Morris Fish dissented, saying he would have ordered a new trial.
Ellard has been behind bars for seven years.
Warren Glowatski was convicted in 1999 of second-degree murder in the Virk killing and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years. He has since been released.
Virk was 14 when she was swarmed by eight teens, beaten and later drowned in a Victoria park on Nov. 14, 1997.
She had been invited to "party" under the Craigflower Bridge that night when a dispute over another girl's boyfriend landed her in the middle of a flurry of kicks and punches.
Evidence showed she escaped the initial frenzy, but then suffered another beating that left her with internal injuries that were compared to being run over by a car. She likely would have died from head trauma.
But she was then dragged into the Gorge - a tidal waterway running through Victoria -and held under water until she stopped breathing. Police divers found her body eight days later.
SLAP ON THE WRIST FOR SEX CRIMES!
R. v. Pomerleau, 2009 ONCJ 189 (CanLII)
Date: 2009-05-12
Docket: C-157-08 • C272-08
URL: http://www.canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc/2009/2009oncj189/2009oncj189.html
Noteup: Search for decisions citing this decision
W A R N I N G – PUBLICATON BAN The trial judge directs that the following
should be attached to the file: An order restricting publication in this proceeding under ss. 486.5(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8) or (9) or 486.6(1) or (2) of the Criminal Code has been made. These sections of the Criminal Code provide:
486.5 (1) Unless an order is made under section 486.4, on application of the prosecutor, a victim or a witness, a judge or justice may make an order directing that any information that could identify the victim or witness shall not be published in any document or broadcast or transmitted in any way if the judge or justice is satisfied that the order is necessary for the proper administration of justice.
Summary:
The defendant pleaded guilty to five accusations of quite grave sexual violence involving minor children and teenagers who are all siblings though not related to the defendant. Some of the victims were entrusted often to his care as a babysitter, though not all of the offending conduct occurred in the course of such employment and certain victims did not report having been babysat at all, given their proximate age to the defendant. The offences spanned a period of time from 1982 to 1986 when the defendant was between 18 and 22 years of age and was considered a friend and neighbour of the parents of the victims and, indeed, a friend of some of the victims given their close age and proximate residences. The defendant has no prior record and has never offended since and waived his right to trial shortly after his arrest thus sparing the victims from any further anguish. His pre-sentence report his positive though he has never sought any treatment or counselling in respect of his offending conduct. These are the Court’s reasons for judgment.
The sentences selected:
I conclude that a conditional sentence is not available by reason of the nature and extent of the sexual violence visited upon the five victims, together with the duration of the wrongdoing and the signal harm which continues to be experienced, and that a minimal term within a penitentiary coupled with a probation order for three years would fail to mark the extreme nature of the offending conduct with the result that denunciation and exemplarity would receive inadequate weight. Nothing less than a 6.5 year term is fit in the circumstances and this sentence would be far greater but for the guilty pleas and other mitigating elements including the fact that the offender has never been sentenced in the past.
The total sentence is apportioned as follows:
1) The case of S.B.: Repeated offences of forced anal intercourse must be punished by a severe term, and this situation involved the extreme violation of the bodily integrity of a quite young person over a number of years by a person in breach of a trust tempered by a guilty plea and the totality principle but made worse by the commission of other concurrent sexual violence;
2) The case of J.B.: By reason of the fact of one event of sexual violence, albeit a severe one involving attempted oral intercourse, a sentence of up to 2 years is fit given the youth of the victim and the breach of trust but attenuated by the guilty plea and subject to the above noted comment as to the other offending behaviour;
3) The case of C.B.: Repeated offences of forced oral intercourse must be punished by a severe term, and this situation involved the extreme violation of the bodily integrity of a quite young person over a number of years by a person in breach of a trust but tempered by a guilty plea and the totality principle but made worse by the commission of other concurrent sexual violence;
4) The case of K.B.: A single act of forced vaginal intercourse in such circumstances is punishable by 3 to 5 years as well, made worse by the comment not to tell and attenuated and aggravated by the other factors noted herein;
5) The case of B.B.: A single act of forced oral intercourse in such circumstances is punishable by 3 to 5 years as well, made worse by the comment not to tell and attenuated and aggravated by the other factors noted herein.
Applying the totality principle, however, I cannot make each sentence consecutive and have elected to impose concurrent 6.5 year terms in respect of the offences involving S.B., C.B., K.B. and of 3 years for the offending conduct involving B.B. and a concurrent two year in respect of J.B. for a total term of 6.5 years less the agreed upon three months for pre-trial detention aggravated by the violence the defendant suffered.
In addition, I make a weapons prohibition order for 10 years, a SOIRA order for 20 years, a D.N.A. order in each instance, and orders pursuant to s. 161 for 20 years in respect of all three clauses leaving it to the defendant to seek a reduction upon his release by offering proof that therapy and counselling have reduced the risk.
I thank counsel for their able assistance.
Ellie May Meyer
Same suspects in 2 Alta. sex-workers' deaths
By Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal on June 10, 2009
Ellie May Meyer.
Photograph by: Strathcona Country RCMP, Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON — Police long believed the same people implicated in the murder of Nina Courtepatte in 2005 were also responsible for killing Edmonton sex-trade worker Ellie May Meyer, documents obtained by the Edmonton Journal show.
In six affidavits sworn to support warrants, police say they believe Joseph (Snowman) Laboucan, Michael (Pyro) Williams, Stephanie Bird, Michael Briscoe and a young offender nicknamed "Buffy" raped and killed Meyer less than 48 hours before they raped and killed Courtepatte.
"I believe Laboucan to be a serial homicidal sex offender," RCMP Cpl. Stacey Lynn Talbot wrote in the affidavits, the last of which was filed in October. "I believe Laboucan did not act alone."
Laboucan was charged in November with first-degree murder in connection with Meyer's death. Williams, Bird, Briscoe and "Buffy" have not been charged in the second death, and the allegations in the police affidavits are based on the officers' beliefs and have not been tested in court.
Police did not connect the two murders until 2007, after Laboucan was convicted of killing Courtepatte. His DNA was added to the national data bank and returned a match to DNA found on Meyer.
The victims seemed so different: Meyer a 33-year-old crack addict and prostitute who worked an east-end stroll, Courtepatte a 13-year-old kid who hung around a west-end mall. Police now believe they were both killed in the first days of April 2005. Courtepatte's body was found on a golf course on April 4 that year, while Meyer's decomposed body was found in a rural field on May 6.
After the DNA match, investigators went back and pieced together the connection from bizarre statements Laboucan made after the Courtepatte killing.
"Laboucan was interviewed in relation to the Courtepatte murder and provided information which so significantly differed from what investigators knew regarding the Nina Courtepatte crime scene, that Laboucan was interviewed twice," Talbot wrote in one affidavit.
Laboucan told police he was with a group of people who picked up two prostitutes on 118th Avenue: a tall native girl and a woman later identified as Meyer. He said they drove to a field, where he had sex with Meyer before he watched the other men kill her. Laboucan said the tall native girl was taken back to Edmonton and told that if she talked, she would be killed. She has never been identified.
Police knew Courtepatte had been lured from West Edmonton Mall, that she was with another teenage girl at the time, and that she had been killed on a fairway, not a field. Laboucan said the victim was not a little girl, that she was not native, that the killing didn't happen on a fairway. It didn't make sense, but Laboucan insisted he was telling the truth and claimed police would be embarrassed when the other body was found.
According to the affidavits he told one detective: "You're going to look like a real f—ing idiot aren't you, for saying that I'm lying about it. Ya!"
Later, he admitted to knowing Courtepatte and talked about driving to a place with a bunch of golf carts nearby, and going to a fictional party in the bush. He was charged with killing Courtepatte.
As police reviewed statements by the other four people connected to the Courtepatte murder, they believed others also seemed to have confused details from the two crime scenes.
Laboucan was convicted in 2008 of first-degree murder, kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault in Courtepatte's death, but the conviction was quashed on appeal and a new trial was ordered.
Briscoe was acquitted of all charges, but the appeal court overturned that verdict as well and ordered a new trial.
Both cases have been appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and are to be held in December.
Williams pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 10 years. The sentence was upheld on appeal.
Bird was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years.
"Buffy" was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault. She is expected to be sentenced this month.
Canada Border Services confirms deportation of former Iranian Guard
June 8, 2009, EDT.By THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER, B.C. - The Canada Border Services Agency says it has deported a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Seyed Amin Hoseyni Bob Anari was deemed inadmissable to Canada for committing crimes against humanity, and was ordered deported from Vancouver by immigration officials.
Anari had asked the Federal Court for a stay of his deportation order, arguing that he faced torture and possible execution for fleeing Iran.
The court denied his request, ending a five-year fight to remain in Canada.
The agency says Anari was put on a plane on May 31.
The border agency says it places a high priority on cases involving national security to ensure that Canada does not become a haven for individuals involved in war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity.
THE LINE is a personal documentary exploring sexual boundaries and consent.
THE LINE trailer from Nancy Schwartzman on Vimeo.
A cautionary story that is both provocative and engaging, the film is tool to start conversation.By Nancy Schwartzman
Total running time 24 minutes.
http://www.thelinemovie.org
Sphere: Related Content
BY THE NUMBERS: Sex assaults: Few report, fewer charged
•In 2007, 702 sexual assaults were reported to police in Nova Scotia.
•Charges were laid in 212 of the 702 cases
According to 2004 statistics:
•44 per cent of sexual assault victims are aged 15-24
•24 per cent are aged 25-34
•19 per cent are aged 35-44
•54 per cent of the accused are aged 18-34
•91 per cent of the accused are male
SOURCE: Sexual Assault in Nova Scotia: A Statistical Profile, May 2009 (using data from Statistics Canada, Juristat’s General Social Survey and other sources.)
Sex assaults: Few report, fewer charged By LOIS LEGGE Features Writer
If you commit a sexual assault in Nova Scotia your chances of getting away with it is high, say local victim advocates.
To start, nationally, only eight per cent of rape and other sexual assault victims report the crime to authorities, according to a recent report by the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women.
The report features a compilation of local and national statistics advocates call disturbing.
And even when Nova Scotia sexual assault victims tell police, a decreasing number of the allegations result in charges.
In fact, the report — Sexual Assault in Nova Scotia: A Statistical Profile, May 2009 — finds Nova Scotia has the lowest charge rate for sexual assaults in the country. And even when charges turn into convictions, offenders are less likely to go to jail.
Conditional sentences — which often mean house arrest and other restrictions — have become far more common in sexual assault cases here, more common in fact than anywhere else in the country.
It isn’t clear though, says the council’s executive director Brigitte Neumann, whether that means more offenders are receiving conditional sentences instead of jail or that more offenders are receiving conditional sentences instead of probation.
"What is clear," says the report, "is that the high incidence of sexual assault in Nova Scotia, combined with a declining police and court response to sexual offences, leaves women in this province in a position of vulnerability."
"If you were interested in committing a certain kind of crime and not being caught because nobody’s ever going to complain, sexual assault is your thing." Neumann said in a recent interview. "And that’s just awful.
"And why don’t women speak up? Because there’s so much shame still carried with that whole concept — there’s so much shame, there’s so much self blame, so much blaming by other people."
The conclusion Avalon Sexual Assault Centre’s Irene Smith draws from the numbers is what her work on the front lines tells her daily: the lack of government support for services is "deplorable" and "sexual assault crimes are not taken seriously by the justice system."
The advisory council’s report finds charge rates and sentences for sexual assault have changed significantly in the justice system over the past decade. But victim advocates say old myths and stereotypes about the crime remain.
The report, based on research gleaned from Statistics Canada and other sources, found:
•Between 1994-95 and 2006-07 the proportion of prison sentences for sexual assaults dropped from 60 to 36 per cent, while jail for other violent crimes dipped from 29 to 20 per cent. But prison sentences "are still more likely to be given in cases of sexual assault than they are for other violent offences."
•Conditional sentences are "much more" common in sexual assault cases than for other violent offences that go to Nova Scotia adult courts. In 2006-07, 41 per cent of those convicted of sexual assault received this type of sentence compared to 10 per cent convicted of other violent crimes.
•Probation has been more common for those convicted of other violent offences than for sexual assault offenders. In 2006-07, 21 per cent of those convicted of sexual assault received probation compared to 65 per cent for other violent offences. (Neumann says it appears sexual offenders are increasingly getting the more restrictive conditional sentences, over probation.)
•Based on a 2004 General Social Survey, Nova Scotia has a sexual assault rate of 40 per 1,000 population aged 15 and over, higher per capita than any other province and almost double the national rate of 21 per 1,000.
•When victims tell Nova Scotia authorities, police lay charges just 30 per cent of the time, according to the latest 2007 figures — a substantial decline from the 56 per cent charge rate in 1993. •The report says Halifax Regional Municipality had the lowest proportion of sexual assault charges in 2007 at 22 per cent, a statistic both Smith and Neumann find puzzling and want to discuss with the local police force. The southwestern region of the province had the highest proportion — 54 per cent.
For Neumann all the numbers add up to a vicious circle of hurt, disappointment and fear for the women involved.
She points to everything from long-held myths about rape — that women are lying or somehow encouraged their attackers to the lack of forensic resources such as trained sexual assault nurse examiners province-wide — as issues that need to be addressed.
"When it comes to violence against women, this province wants to hide its head in the sand," says Smith, who runs the province’s only full-time sexual assault centre.
The centre provides everything from nurse-conducted forensic examinations immediately after the crime (evidence that can be used at trial) to emotional support in court to ongoing counselling. The only other centre, in Truro, is part time.
Because of government funding freezes and cuts, Smith says even Avalon is struggling to get by, eliminating its vital 24-hour crisis line for victims in 2004 and losing staff because of low pay and inadequate benefits. "It’s really desperate. . . . The amount of money and resources that this government allocates to sexual assault is deplorable."
Meanwhile the courts continue to minimize the crime by handing out more conditional sentences, she says.
"Women often say that conditional sentencing . . . doesn’t feel that justice has been served . . . . They feel that they’ve been let down by the very system that’s supposed to be there to protect them."
But Neumann thinks conditional sentencing can be useful, if enforced.
"The apparent protection that’s offered by a prison sentence can be an illusion," since offenders are often only sentenced to short terms in custody, she says.
"I think Canadians as a whole, not just women, do have a feeling that a conditional sentence is a free ride. I tend to think of it as . . . less of a free ride than probation. In comparison to prison, it depends on length. If you get (an) 18-month conditional sentence compared to three months in jail, well I’d sooner see you on the 18-month conditional sentence — well enforced."
The federal government amended the Criminal Code last year to outlaw conditional sentences for what it termed serious personal injury offences, which includes some sexual assaults. But that doesn’t mean everyone convicted of sexual assault now goes to prison.
According to information provided by Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Saindon "Level 1" sexual assaults could still qualify for conditional sentences under the Criminal Code, if prosecuted by summary conviction.
The advisory council’s report notes that Level 1 sexual assaults comprised the vast majority — 90.5 per cent — of sexual offences reported to Nova Scotia police departments in 2007.
Despite repeated telephone and email requests, the federal Department of Justice refused to explain in detail what types of sexual assaults still qualify. Saindon called such questions "hypothetical."
However the advisory council report describes Level 1 sexual assaults as those with "minor physical injuries or no injuries to the victim."
Sentencing though, is a moot point for most victims.
While most women don’t report and the charge rate is getting lower, acquittals are getting higher for both adults and youth accused of the crime. From 1994-95 to 2006-07 acquittal rates have been "consistently higher," with the exception of one year, than for other violent offences, the report says.
In 2006-07 the acquittal rate for reported sexual assaults in Nova Scotia reached 13 per cent, compared to six per cent for other violent offences.
"When you look at the criminal justice system and the process that’s in place and what one has to go through as a sexual assault victim witness, you walk away from that feeling pretty damaged," says Smith.
"I’ve seen so many women where there wasn’t even a conditional sentence. There was no sentence at all. They’ve gotten off and (victims) feel as if . . . there isn’t any justice for them."
Little Warriors STAND UP FOR OUR KIDS!
Learn how to help prevent, recognise, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
Visit http://www.littlewarriors.ca/
Little Warriors- Stand Up For Kids Program
TO DONATE GO TO THIS LINK
http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s92354
Danielle Lowe performs a song inspired by Little Warriors....AMAZING!
Sphere: Related Content
Tories move to eliminate faint-hope clause from Criminal Code
June 5, 2009, EDT.By THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The Conservative government is introducing legislation to repeal the so-called "faint hope" clause from the Criminal Code.
If passed into law, the legislation would mean that anyone convicted of first-or second-degree murder would no longer be able to apply for early parole. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says murderers must serve serious time for the most serious crime.
Under the faint hope clause, criminals convicted of first-and second-degree murder can apply for an earlier parole eligibility date at the 15-year mark of their sentence.
The legislation would directly impact people convicted of murder once it becomes law.
But under the Tory proposal, anyone currently serving life sentences would also face tougher rules when applying for early parole.
Today's move is one of a series of law-and-order announcements the Conservative government is making in the weeks before Parliament rises for the summer.
Victoria cuts off funds to service that protects sex-trade workers
VANCOUVER — An advocate for Vancouver sex-trade workers says they will soon be at greater risk because the B.C. government has cut off funding for a van that cruises the streets at night, watching out for the women.
Losing the van means a greater risk of violence and less access to harm-reduction supplies, first aid, and bad-date reports in the overnight hours when sex workers are most active, said Kate Gibson, executive director of the WISH Drop-in Centre.
The van, which supplies the only overnight services to sex workers, is stocked with condoms, first-aid supplies, a needle exchange, coffee, fruit juice, water, referrals to support services, and posters showing missing women and dangerous johns.
It stops along the most popular strolls or at specific locations requested by sex workers. Each night, 40 to 50 women show up for supplies, support or companionship over a cup of coffee. The van’s last run will be on June 12.
The province, citing financial pressure, has not renewed the $250,000 needed to keep the van running for another year.
The solicitor-general’s ministry said the project’s funding request is under review.
“The provincial government, like other jurisdictions around the world, is facing challenging and unprecedented economic times, requiring some difficult decisions,” the ministry said in a statement Wednesday to The Vancouver Sun.
Laurel Irons, who has staffed the van since 2004, said sex workers “are already very upset, concerned and feel just really left out in the cold, wondering why such an important service to them is being taken away.”
Irons said she has intervened at times when sex workers were stalked, pepper-sprayed and assaulted.
“I don’t know what a lot of women are going to do without having somewhere to turn in those desperate moments,” she said.
Kate Shannon, a research scientist at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, said services that keep sex work above-ground are essential for ensuring women’s health.
“We need to scale up mobile services to sex workers. The closure of the mobile access-point van is a huge step backwards,” Shannon said.
The City of Vancouver is considering how it can help restore funding, Coun. Kerry Jang said.
Overstretched prisons are in crisis: watchdog
June 2, 2009, EDT.By THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - Canada's prison watchdog says an influx of new inmates would be "dangerous" both for offenders and for the public when they're released.
Correctional investigator Howard Sapers says the prison system is already overstretched to the breaking point. He told the Commons public safety committee that a spike of offenders with mental illnesses has increased pressure on staff and inmates.
Long wait lists for rehabilitation programs - including for sex offenders - mean many prisoners are released without full treatment.
The Harper government's plans to increase a range of mandatory minimum sentences could swell the prison population.
Sapers says more prison staff and better access to rehabilitation programs will be crucial before that happens.
SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY IN CANADA!
This from Holly/Admin,
Did the Government of Canada ask survivors of SEXUAL VIOLENCE about this NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER Registry?
NO THE GOVERNMENT DID NOT IT ADDRESS IT WITH THE POLICE!
Why are we still releasing HIGH RISK OFFENDERS INTO OUR COMMUNITIES ACROSS CANADA?CANADIANS HAVE EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT WHERE OFFENDERS ARE IN THE COMMUNITIES ACROSS THIS COUNTRY!!!
PERSONALLY,
I FEEL THE NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY SHOULD BE SEPARATE FROM THE DNA DATABASE!
JUST DOES NOT GO FAR ENOUGH! Sphere: Related Content
Tories propose sex registry changes
Amendments would make registry automatic, expand DNA database and add people convicted abroad to domestic registry on Jun 01, 2009 By Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–The Conservatives are proposing changes to close gaps in the national sex offender registry identified by police.
The changes would make it easier to add offenders to the registry and for police and corrections officers to access and use the information.
"Almost half the sex offenders escape the registry. That is not acceptable," said Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan in announcing the changes today.
Under amendments tabled today, all convicted sex offenders would be included in the registry automatically. Currently, a prosecutor has to apply and a judge has discretion over whether to put someone's name in the registry.
Another change would allow police to search the registry when hoping to prevent a sex crime, say after a child has been reported missing. Currently, the police are only permitted to search records after a crime, such as a sex assault, has been committed.
"If police see an individual behaving suspiciously – near a school ground for example – they'll be able to request information from the database. They will be able to learn if the person involved is a registered sex offender," said Van Loan.
Other amendments to the legislation tabled today would:
- require convicted offenders to provide a DNA sample for the national databank;
- require people convicted and jailed for sex crimes in another country and who are transferred back to Canada to serve out their jail term, to also be registered with the databank in Canada;
- require Canadians who serve out a sentence for a sex crime abroad and return home to report their conviction to police within one week of arriving in Canada, or be charged for failing to register;
- allow police to notify other foreign of Canadian police when high-risk offenders are travelling to the other's area;
- apply the same measures to those convicted in the military justice system;
- require offenders to report their employment and employer's names, and any volunteer work, as well as notify police of any absences longer than a week from their home.
Many of the loopholes were reported this year to a Commons committee studying the registry and the national DNA databank.
The Conservative government, looking to strengthen its record for the parliamentary session before the summer recess, rolled out seven ministers to make the announcement in regions across the country. With just three weeks left before the House rises, however, it's unlikely legislation will pass before late next fall, provided no election intervenes.
With files from The Canadian Press
