By Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2010
Juries don't get enough respect.
Too many lawyers choose them over a judge alone when they want to confuse matters or when they're hoping their client can win some sympathy from a peer that a professional jurist would withhold.
Similarly, too many judges treat them as borderline morons -- lecturing them at the end of trial about what they have heard and instructing them on how to apply the law as if the Criminal Code wasn't clear enough.
Appeal courts across the country toss convictions more often than not because a judge screwed up addressing the jury.
The presumption is most of us are too stupid to follow the law and figure things out for ourselves, as if you needed a degree to know right from wrong.
Now the condescending legal class is wringing its hands about the so-called " CSI effect" -- the propensity for some people to expect real-life justice to play out like an hour-long episode of a fast-paced television program.
What with Law & Order, Judge Judy, Boston Legal, Forensic Files and more and more legal programs on the tube, who can blame some people for expecting life to imitate art?
They've even got a name for it -- " CSI Infection."
We're beginning to see lawyers incorporate the phenomenon into their trial strategy and judges responding by dealing with more and more issues via voir dire -- a trial within a trial with the jury absent.
Last week, one defence lawyer in B.C. Supreme Court went so far as to say the absence of some damning deus ex machina forensic evidence in a murder trial was a reason to look askance at the Crown's case, hoping one juror was dumb enough to think that mattered.
In the U.S., the Ohio state bar recently approved a warning to be read to juries: "there are many reasons why you cannot rely on TV legal programs, including the fact that these shows: (1) are not subject to the rules of evidence and (2) are works of fiction that present unrealistic situations for dramatic effect. You must put aside anything you think you know about the legal system that you saw on TV."
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are quite correct that there are evidentiary, procedural, and constitutional issues raised by the dangers that such tainted jurors pose to the ultimate fairness of the trial process.
The theory is that some jurors are either too obtuse or too emotional to recognize the difference between a crime drama and a real crime. But honestly, is that a real problem?
Do we actually believe that we should excuse people from jury duty because they watch too many court-based TV programs and their expectations are out of whack?
Fingerprints, trace DNA, blood spatter patterns, all the science wizardry on display nightly are seldom at play and rarely as dramatic as in a real trial.
I don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate that and, if they don't, they should be excused from jury duty not because they watch too much TV but because they're too stupid.
I think this worry is the latest manifestation that too many legal professionals don't trust the rest of us to know what's right and wrong.
Juries deserve more respect.
Juries need to be trusted to know right from wrong
Man who lived under stolen identity gets jail; he wanted to stay in Canada
May 31, 2010, By Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - A man by the name of Donald Fiedler lived a quiet life in a Montreal suburb, complete with a cosy home, a live-in partner and a steady job.
The catch: the real Donald Fiedler lived about 3,600 kilometres away, in British Columbia, blissfully unaware for years while his identity was being stolen.
The charade was only exposed when the real Fiedler, 62, went to apply for his first-ever passport to attend his son's wedding in Hawaii.
His identity had been pilfered for more than a decade by Peter Michael Filitz, 59, who pleaded guilty Monday to taking the name and using it obtain passports in 1996, 2001 and 2006.
The Montrealer was sentenced to three months in jail and ordered to pay a $1,500 fine for making false statements on a passport form, for identity theft, and for possessing passports with false credentials.
But even as the man pleaded guilty, the Crown couldn't say with complete certainty that the man standing in the prisoner's box was indeed Filitz or why he took the alias.
Authorities suspect the man may be of German origin, and that he pilfered the identity of a Canadian so that he could elude immigration officials and remain in the country.
But nobody's sure. Prosecutors aren't even convinced Filitz is his actual name.
"When he was arrested he was asked to give his real name and he gave the name Peter Michael Filitz," said Crown prosecutor Alexandre Arel.
"What we can say is that, for now, we have no information yet if this is his real name."
He called the case a judicial rarity with no real precedent in Canada.
In cases of identity theft, generally, the goal is to commit fraud, Arel said.
But there's no indication Filitz tried to commit any financial crimes using Fiedler's name; lawyers on both sides believe he just wanted to avoid immigration authorities.
Filitz's lawyer believes his mysterious client is who he now says he is — probably.
Defence lawyer Vincent Rose says he believes Peter Michael Filitz exists, and says he has documentation to prove it. But given his client's bizarre past, he still won't identify the man of mystery with 100 per cent certainty.
Filitz has not told investigators much.
He did identify himself during a bail hearing following his arrest. He also said he was a German national who had lived in Canada for 27 years, after entering the country under his real name in 1983 via Mexico.
The RCMP tried, however, and couldn't find any information on Filitz. Fingerprint searches turned up nothing with Interpol and the FBI.
This weekend, authorities received documentation tracing the man back to Germany.
It will be up to Canada Border Services Agency to figure out who Filitz really is once and for all, and for the Immigration and Refugee Board to determine whether he belongs in Canada.
A warrant has been issued for Filitz's arrest once his jail sentence has been served in about seven weeks.
Filitz used Fiedler's moniker until his arrest earlier this year. The charade was exposed when the real Donald Fiedler applied for a passport and was told he already had one.
That triggered an RCMP investigation and Filitz was arrested in April at work, where he helped set up exhibitions.
A number of questions remained unanswered Monday — including how Filitz got a birth certificate and a driver's licence, but seemed to manage without a social insurance number or medicare card.
The ruse was so elaborate that his own girlfriend said she was unaware of it. She testified that she would be willing to bail Filitz out and marry him to keep him in Canada. Still, she compared the ordeal to a plot from a "Law and Order" episode.
It all unravelled last fall.
The real Fiedler, who has only ever lived in B.C., said Monday he encountered a susprising number of questions when he applied for a passport before a trip to Hawaii. He said he was asked a number of times if he had a previous passport, and only received his document after nine weeks.
He's still puzzled about how the identity theft occurred. Fiedler hasn't been in Montreal since 1975.
"I don't have a clue who (Filitz) is. I've never met him that I know of," Fiedler said in a phone interview.
He said he counts himself lucky that he hasn't been defrauded, and hopes the ordeal is over.
"I hope so," Fiedler said. "It hasn't hurt me — other than the passport taking nine weeks."
Thomas Svekla jailed indefinitely as dangerous offender
May 28, 2010, By Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press
EDMONTON - For 30 years, since junior high school, Thomas Svekla sexually abused, tormented and terrorized women on a violent path that finally ended in murder. He'd punch them, choke them, sit astride them — knees on their arms — and rain down blows or pin them against walls and try to rip off their pants.
He choked one with an umbrella. He performed oral sex on a five-year-old girl and had a nine-year-old girl perform it on him. He would choke partners in sex acts fuelled by booze and cocaine.
He once forced anal sex on a prostitute in an attack that her left torn and bleeding. He punched his wife so hard it knocked out a tooth and later swung a cat so violently against a door its bowels let loose.
Police suspected him in a number of prostitute murders around the Alberta capital, but in the end could only prove one.
On Thursday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Kristine Eidsvik said public safety demands that Svekla be designated a dangerous offender under the Criminal Code, turning his current 17-year prison sentence for murder into an indefinite one. History suggests he will likely never be out again.
"Mr. Svekla has a pathology for which there is no cure," Eidsvik told court as the offender looked at his shoes in the prisoner's box. Seconds later he glanced over at his family members in the gallery, smiled wanly and shrugged his shoulders in resignation.
Earlier in the hearing, he often shook his head as Eidsvik read aloud her reasons for judgment.
"It's remarkable the number of people he has injured or harmed," she said.
She agreed with assessments that stated Svekla had repeatedly tried and failed in treatment, was deceptive, manipulative and highly dangerous, the definitive "pathological psychopath."
"I don't believe there's any probability for meaningful change for Mr. Svekla," she said.
Dressed in an oversized blue suit jacket that hung like a blanket over his shoulders Svekla, 42, sat impassively on the wooden bench in the prisoner's dock. He resembled the kindly corner grocer with his paunchy frame, sagging shoulders, big round glasses and male pattern baldness.
Svekla has been in prison for two years, since being convicted in the spring of 2008 for second-degree murder in the death of prostitute Theresa Innes. But, as Eidsvik noted, his violent record of allegations and convictions stretches back much farther than that.
He grew up in Vegreville, east of Edmonton, the youngest of seven in a dysfunctional home where he was whacked around by a violent father. Young Thomas turned to drugs and alcohol early.
When he was 14, he pushed a classmate against a wall in an empty classroom and tried to strip off her clothes. A friend showed up to stop it and Svkela was beaten to a pulp by other boys in a episode of playground justice.
Three years later, he got into a fight with a friend's sister. He chased her through her family's empty house, pinned her to the floor, choked her, tried to tear her pants off and rape her, but fled when he thought others would show up. He later bragged to a friend that she was the first to see "the bogeyman."
At 25, he was convicted of assaulting a prostitute by pushing her against a wall and pummelling her with his fist.
When he was 27, he abused a five-year-old girl who was a ward of his girlfriend. Court heard he was brazenly cruel to the girl. He once forced oral sex on her under a blanket in the living room while other foster children sat nearby watching cartoons on TV. He'd attack her on the couch or in her bed, stopping in the middle of one encounter to answer a phone call.
He was also convicted of molesting the girlfriend's biological daughter, who was nine at the time. The girlfriend told court Svekla later phoned her from prison lockup and tauntingly told her the foster child was better in bed than her pre-teen daughter.
Svekla wasn't charged and convicted with the attacks on the children for more than a decade, when he came to the attention of police investigating a string of prostitute slayings in and around the Alberta capital.
In the meantime, his itinerant lifestyle continued into his 30s, a hazy world of drinking binges and cocaine jags.
In 2004, at age 36, he drove out to the bushland on Edmonton's eastern outskirts with a friend to smoke crack. There, he told police, he came across the corpse of 19-year-old prostitute Rachel Quinney. Her bug-eaten body was splayed out nude, face up, her breasts and genitals cut off. Police were suspicious but cleared him for lack of evidence.
He then moved 700 kilometres north to the remote Alberta community of High Level where, a year later, he attacked a woman with whom he was having drinks in a basement suite. The victim said he grabbed her by the throat, pulled her hair, sexually assaulted her and threatened to break her neck and hide her body where it would never be found.
By 2006, Svekla had befriended a prostitute named Theresa Innes. The 36-year-old mother of two would prowl the High Level bars, looking to sell her body to pay for drugs. Friends remembered seeing her smoke crack with Svekla.
In March of that year, her mother reported her missing. Shortly after, Svekla returned to visit family in Edmonton and brought with him a heavy hockey bag. He told everyone it contained compost worms, yet he guarded it jealously. His sister became suspicious. One day, when he was out, she opened the bag to find the remains of Innes. She called police. The body was trussed up so tightly with metal wire and coils, it took the coroner an hour to free it for inspection.
Svekla's murder trial in 2008 revealed a violent man whose world was wrapped in lies. He proclaimed innocence and persecution, yet also bragged about being a serial killer like British Columbia's infamous Robert Pickton, who lured women from Vancouver's East Side and murdered them on his pig farm.
Outside court, Kathy King, whose 22-year-old daughter disappeared from the streets of Edmonton, said the decision brought some closure.
"A lot of it wasn't new information but just to hear it all — hear the litany of all the terrible things that he has done — was quite overwhelming," she said.
"I would still like to know if he was responsible for my daughter's death," she said. "That is something I hope to have an answer to someday."
Svekla was also charged and tried in Quinney's death, but the evidence was no better in 2008 than it was in 2006 and he was acquitted.
The trials revealed a man drawn like a moth to the flame of his notoriety. When he was arrested for Innes's murder, handcuffed and paraded to the squad car, he smiled and waved for the media cameras. As he waited for trial, he granted multiple media interviews against the advice of his lawyers. He openly fantasized about the book and movie deals that would flow from his exoneration.
On Thursday, he sat quietly after the verdict as lawyers and Eidsvik cleared up the odds and ends of the case. Eidsvik thanked the lawyers, then turned to Svekla.
"And thank you Mr. Svekla," she said, then paused, seemingly lost for words.
"Well, off you go I guess."
The guard opened the side door beside the prisoner's dock. Svekla turned and walked away. Family members stood and looked at him from the gallery.
This time, no wave.
Child predators descend on quake-stricken Haiti seeking sex slaves
May 27, 2010, By The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - A Mountie just back from Haiti says smugglers have been spiriting quake orphans out of the country to become sex slaves in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
Sgt. Lana Prosper says authorities have found houses where sex predators hide children before whisking them over the border.
Investigators suspect that some of those preying on desperate children in Haiti also peddled child-sex videos that surfaced online from Sri Lanka, Thailand and other countries after the 2004 tsunami.
Prosper says it's only a matter of time before videos of young Haitian quake victims appear in the murky world of kiddy porn.
She and a team from Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children are just back from a stint in Haiti.
They helped local police develop a system to protect children left vulnerable in the aftermath of the January quake.
Border guard used private info to woo women on Facebook
By Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun, May 26, 2010
A Vancouver Sun investigation found that a B.C. border guard was using the private information of attractive women to try to woo them online.
VANCOUVER — A B.C. border guard e-mailed himself the passport details of attractive women who came through his inspection line so he could hit on them later on Facebook, according to an internal government investigation obtained by the Vancouver Sun.
According to the investigation report, the guard's behaviour first came to the attention of the Canada Border Services Agency last October when officials received a complaint from a married female traveller.
The woman told CBSA investigators she came into Canada on Oct. 18, 2009 at around 5 p.m.
Four hours later, around 9 p.m., she received a friend request on Facebook.
Not knowing who the person was, she ignored it.
But the very next day, the same person asked to be her friend again, this time asking why she had ignored his first request.
Beginning to suspect the request might be from the border guard, the woman wrote him back, asking who he was and how he knew her.
"I don't mean to creep you out," he replied, according to the investigation report.
"I met you and thought you were stunning and if you are the person I think you are we kinda shared a chemistry. I thought it might be worth a shot to see if I could find you, but I can't just come out and tell you where or when because if you object to me befriending you I could get into trouble. If it helps the (woman) I met had short blond hair and a gorgeous tall figure with high heels and pants on."
According to the report, the woman was very upset by the incident.
"She felt there had been a gross intrusion into her personal life and that this event had caused a great amount of strain upon her marriage," the report states.
"She further stated that she felt that her security and safety had been compromised from a CBSA officer who had utilized his position to obtain her personal information for his own personal purposes."
After receiving the woman's complaint, CBSA investigators determined that the woman had indeed come through the guard's inspection line on Oct. 18.
Investigators also looked at the guard's computer and found that he had contacted the woman through Facebook.
"On numerous occasions (he had) captured images and names of female travellers he had conducted primary processing on" and then sent the information to his personal e-mail account.
The report does not show exactly how many other times the guard attempted to contact female travellers through Facebook.
His name and his location was deleted from the copy of the report released to the Vancouver Sun.
CBSA officials did not say whether he was still working as a guard.
Cellphone users invited to sign up for free Amber Alert text messages
May 26, 2010, By The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada's Amber Alert system is going wireless in an effort to reach millions of cellphone users.
The country's cellphone industry is getting together with the RCMP and other police forces to offer free Amber Alerts to most wireless phone users.
The alerts — which are issued to the public after a reported child abduction — will be sent as text messages to those who sign up for the service.
Getting the word out quickly after an abduction is a big part of police efforts to help get a child returned safely.
Those who want to join the program — which is available in all 10 provinces and three territories — can subscribe online at www.WirelessAMBER.ca or sign up directly from their phones.
So far, the companies taking part are Bell, Fido, Koodo, MTS, NorthernTel, Rogers, SaskTel, Solo Mobile, Tilibec, TELUS, Videotron and Virgin Mobile.
"Through co-operation between the RCMP and wireless service providers, this initiative will demonstrate how technology can help fight serious criminal activity and make the most vulnerable citizens in our society safer," said Vic Toews, Canada's minister of public safety.
Bernard Lord, who heads the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, added, "If one of our most precious citizens is abducted, wireless Amber Alerts can put the immediate power to help in the hands of Canada's 23 million cellphone customers."
Ronald Anthony Sawa
71 men launch lawsuit over sex abuse at Saskatchewan Boys' School, By HEATHER POLISCHUK, Leader-Post, May 26, 2010
REGINA — The provincial government and a former youth facility employee are being sued by 71 men who claim they were abused as boys.
A statement of claim was issued at Regina Court of Queen's Bench on Tuesday, alleging Ronald Anthony Sawa and others sexually, physically, emotionally and mentally abused the boys during their stays at the facility. It also names the Government of Saskatchewan as a defendant, alleging it was negligent and is therefore "vicariously liable."
"The Plaintiffs claim the Government conducted itself with brutal and callous disregard and complete lack of care for the Plaintiffs and the rights of the Plaintiffs," the claim reads.
Statements of claim contain allegations that haven't been proven in court.
In a separate, criminal court proceeding, 60-year-old Sawa was sentenced in April to 4 1/2 years in prison after admitting to sexually abusing nine boys while they were staying at the Saskatchewan Boys Centre — which later became the Paul Dojack Youth Centre.
Tuesday's statement of claim refers to that facility as the Saskatchewan Boys' School.
The claim says Sawa was employed from 1975 to 1989 at the school, which served both as a detention centre and a group-living institution for boys with social and emotional problems that led to delinquent behaviour or an emergency transfer to foster care.
While the mandate of the school was to help these boys, the now-men claim Sawa and others did the opposite.
The men claim they were "subject to significant abuse" during their stays, not just by Sawa, but by other staff members and students. They allege that abuse ranged from punches and slaps to forced anal intercourse, as well as numerous other forms of physical and sexual abuse.
The men claim the alleged acts resulted from negligence and a breach of trust by the government. The alleged negligence includes not taking adequate care in hiring, not providing proper care and attention to the boys, failing to protect them from harm, and "failure to adequately observe the gross misconduct of agents, servants or employees of the Boy's (sic) School."
"The cause of the sexual assaults and surrounding circumstances were or ought to have been within the knowledge of the Government and the sexual and physical assaults would not have occurred but for the negligence of the Government," the claim reads.
As a result, the men claim they've suffered "irreparable harm and injury," including long-term psychological problems, self-injury and suicidal thoughts, lack of trust, guilt, sexual dysfunction, drug and alcohol addiction and loss of enjoyment of life.
"The Plaintiffs have sustained and will continue to sustain pain and suffering, lose of enjoyment of life, and loss of amenities," the claim states.
The men are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and costs.
Rape accused to be given anonymity
Men accused of rape are to be granted the same anonymity rights as their alleged victims under a major change in the law. By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
21 May 2010
The coalition Government yesterday pledged to extend the current ban on identifying victims in rape cases to defendants as well.
It would mean only those convicted of rape would ever be named but the controversial move last night split opinion.
Rape support groups said it was an "insult" that would discourage victims from reporting attacks but those have been falsely accused welcomed the decision as long overdue.
The pledge was included in the Government's detailed coalition agreement which also revealed plans for a complete review of sentencing policy, raising the prospect of an end to short term prison sentences.
It also pledged to give anonymity to teachers facing accusations of assault or other offences by their own pupils.
It comes amid concerns careers are ruined by staff who are victims of malicious and false allegation from their students.
Officials last night refused to give further details on how the rape defendant ban would work but victims are currently afforded protection for life from the moment they report a rape.
There has been growing pressure to change the law for defendants amid claims false allegations ruin the lives of innocent people.
The Liberal Democrats changed their policy in 2006 to advocate giving defendants in rape cases anonymity.
The change was approved at the party's annual conference that year, which came just a week after the case of Warren Blackwell, 36, who was falsely accused of a sex attack by a 'serial liar' who had a history of crying rape.
Mr Blackwell spent more than three years in jail and was put on the Sex Offender Register, but his conviction was quashed by the Appeal Court.
Christine Hamilton and her husband Neil, the former Tory minister, were arrested in 2001 because of false sexual assault claims by Nadine Milroy-Sloan. No charges were ever brought and Milroy-Sloan was later jailed for three years for perverting the course of justice.
Mrs Hamilton said: "Both Neil and I would clearly welcome this move and is something we have said all along should happen.
"The stigma sticks with you in a rape case and creates complete and utter havoc. It can destroy lives."
Solicitor Neil Freeman last year represented Lewis Linford, a former star of the soap opera Emmerdale who was cleared at Hull Crown Court of groping a woman at a nightclub.
Mr Freeman, who is also known as "Mr Loophole" for helping television personalities beat motoring charges, said false claims can have a "potentially life destroying" effect on the accused and their families.
He added: "This is about protecting the innocent not the guilty."
But Ruth Hall, of Women Against Rape, said: "If men accused of rape got special rights to anonymity, it would reinforce the misconception that lots of women who report rape are lying.
"False rape allegations are extremely rare, but receive disproportionate publicity.
"Of course, being wrongly accused is a terrible ordeal but the same can be said of being wrongly accused of murder, theft, fraud or any other serious offence."
Both defendants and victims in rape cases were granted anonymity in 1976 but the right was removed for the former in 1988.
In her review of rape and the criminal justice system published in March, Lady Stern refused to recommend any change on current anonymity rights until more research was carried out in to the scale of false allegations.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "This is a sensitive area and careful analysis of the options and implications will be undertaken.”
Yesterday's document also unveiled plans for a "fell review of sentencing policy" within the criminal justice system.
That could include examining proposals by the Liberal Democrats to scrap jail sentences of six months or less.
Minister Vic Toews to mark International Missing Children's Day
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 21, 2010)
The Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, along with the Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Senator Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu will speak. A brief media availability will follow.
Date Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Time 12:00 pm EDT
Location RCMP Musical RideMusical Ride Centre
1 Sandridge Road
Ottawa, Ontario
James Joseph Martin, ordered to undergo a dangerous-offender assessment.
Crown might seek dangerous offender status for attacker, By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter
A man who made a name for himself in the New Brunswick court system is about to get a lot of attention in Nova Scotia.
James Joseph Martin, who was declared a long-term offender by a Moncton judge in 2000, pleaded guilty Friday in Dartmouth provincial court to five charges stemming from a violent attack on a woman last May.
The Crown asked that Martin, 43, be ordered to undergo a dangerous-offender assessment.
The result of that assessment will determine whether the prosecution applies to have the man designated a dangerous offender and imprisoned indefinitely.
Judge Frank Hoskins granted the Crown’s request and ordered Martin, who’s locked up at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth, to return to court on July 16.
Martin has more than 50 convictions and has served four federal prison sentences for offences committed in New Brunswick.
In April 2000, he was sentenced to 6½ years in prison for a brutal sex attack on a woman in Memramcook, N.B. After serving every day of that sentence, Martin moved to Halifax under strict supervision.
On May 15, 2009, he tried to sexually assault a woman at her apartment in Dartmouth.
Martin had known the woman for about six months. During the attack, he threatened to break her jaw, tried to choke her and told her he would kill her.
After she ran for help, he caught her, grabbed her by the hair and smashed her head against the wall.
Martin was supposed to stand trial Friday on seven charges but instead pleaded guilty to five: assault, sexual assault, attempting to choke the woman, stealing her car and breaching his long-term supervision order by failing to report that he was in an intimate relationship with the woman.
Harper Government introduces legislation to eliminate pardons for serious crimes
Voice of Toronto
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Public Safety Minster Vic Toews, and the
Honourable Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu, Senator, today announced legislation to eliminate pardons for serious crimes!
http://voiceoftoronto.com/wp/2010/05/harper-government-introduces-legislation-to-eliminate-pardons-for-serious-crimes/
Under the current system “pardons” are granted almost automatically. The new system would allow a “record suspension” in more limited circumstances – much more limited, in cases of serious crime – and it would make a record suspension impossible for anyone convicted of a sex offence against a child.
The proposed legislation would:
* eliminate “pardons” and replace with a more restrictive and narrowly worded “record suspension”;
* make those convicted of sexual offences against minors ineligible for a record suspension;
* make those who have been convicted of more than three indictable offences ineligible for a record suspension;
* and increase the period of ineligibility for a record suspension – to five years for summary conviction offences, and to ten years for indictable offences.
In addition, the proposed legislation sets out conditions that must be met to ensure a record suspension would not bring the administration of justice into disrepute. The onus would be on the applicant to show that a record suspension would help sustain his or her rehabilitation as a law-abiding member of society. The proposed legislation would also require the National Parole Board to submit a report each year with detailed statistics pertaining to the number of applications and the number of record suspensions granted.
“A criminal’s jail term may end, but in many cases the suffering caused to his or her victims lasts a lifetime,” said Senator Boisvenu. “Canadians are outraged when they hear of serious crimes being whitewashed through pardons. Our government agrees that a serious crime is still a serious crime, no matter how much time has passed. This legislation will help protect our children and our communities, and it will better reflect Canadians’ natural sense of justice.”
Marc Ouellet — a Catholic cardinal once touted as a possible candidate for the papacy — as "unacceptable."
Statement from Catholic cardinal about abortion and rape causes uproar on May 17, 2010, By The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - The Harper government distanced itself Monday from anti-abortion remarks by one of Canada's most prominent religious leaders that have caused an uproar.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Josee Verner described the comments by Marc Ouellet — a Catholic cardinal once touted as a possible candidate for the papacy — as "unacceptable."
The controversy was triggered when the Quebec City cardinal called abortion a moral crime in every case, even in the case of rape victims.
The comments from Ouellet come with the abortion issue, long dormant in national politics, suddenly heating up again.
Over the weekend, Ouellet applauded the Harper government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world. But Verner moved Monday to distance her government from the remarks.
"The government did not put forward the agenda for maternal and child health (at the G8) to go get congratulations from the cardinal," Verner said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"I don't want to be disrespectful towards him, but this wasn't our objective."
Verner described herself as pro-choice, and she offered a very curt assessment of Ouellet's weekend remarks: "It's unacceptable."
Quebec's airwaves and cyberspace were aflame with far more extensive commentary Monday.
The Ouellet remarks quickly became one of the country's top trending topics on the social networking site, Twitter.
In one particularly virulent reaction, a Montreal La Presse columnist expressed his wish that Ouellet would die a slow and painful death.
Columnist Patrick Lagace compared Ouellet to the Iranian imam, Kazem Sedighi, who recently suggested scantily-clad women were to blame for natural disasters. The column was titled, "The Scorn of Kazem Ouellet."
"We're all going to die," Lagace wrote. "Cardinal Ouellet will die someday. I hope he dies from a long and painful illness. . .
"Yes, the paragraph I've just written is vicious. But Marc Ouellet is an extremist. And in the debate against religious extremists, every hit is fair game."
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Quebec City says Ouellet was simply stating Church doctrine when a reporter asked him about rape and abortion.
The National Catholic Reporter cited Ouellet, in 2005, on a list of about 20 candidates considered possible replacements for the late John Paul II.
On the weekend, Ouellet was speaking to an audience of about 200 people when he applauded the Harper government's G8 move and added, with respect to rape: "Why should we push a woman who has been the victim of a crime to commit one of her own?"
In an exchange with reporters later he said:
"I understand very well that a woman who's been raped is dealing with trauma and that she needs to be helped. But she needs to do so with respect for the being that is in her womb. It is not responsible for what happened. It's the rapist who is responsible. But there's already a victim. Do we we need to have another one?"
He said taking a human life "is always a moral crime" and, he added, a fetus is a human life.
Alberta woman held hostage in Somalia starts scholarship fund for women there
CALGARY - An Alberta woman who was held hostage for more than 15 months in Somalia has started a foundation to send women in the war-torn country to university.
Amanda Lindhout hopes the charitable foundation will be able send 10 women to school next year and 100 women over the next four years in the country where only four per cent of women pursue higher education.
"The scholarship program is based on the concept that each woman has the potential to make substantial contributions to the future development of Somalia," she said in a telephone interview with The Canadian Press on Friday.
Lindhout was snatched off the side of the road outside Mogadishu along with Australian photographer Nigel Brennan in August 2008. The pair, who had been working in Somalia as freelance journalists, were freed last November after their families teamed up to hire a hostage negotiation group.
"Being a woman who suffered in Somalia based on this narrow interpretation of Islamic law, I feel a great sense of empathy and compassion for what women are going through in Somalia," Lindhout said.
"It seems quite natural for me to develop a program that can empower them."
The cost of sending each woman to university is about $1,000, which includes tuition and a monthly living stipend. Lindhout said she's raised half the amount necessary for next year and is looking to raise $5,000 more before school starts in September.
She's still waiting for her Global Enrichment Foundation to get charitable status, but has joined with another organization to provide tax receipts for donations in the meantime. The foundation's website,www.globalenrichmentfoundation.com, is supposed to be up by the end of the weekend.
Lindhout has been reluctant to speak publicly about her long months in captivity.
She gave a speech in February at a dinner in her honour held by Alberta's Somali community in which she expressed pity for her captors despite the horrors she endured.
She said at the time that while she doesn't condone what was done to her, she understands that decades of conflict have led to generations of war-traumatized people who know no other life.
She declined to elaborate further Friday, saying she still isn't ready to talk about what happened to her.
"I do want to say that it was both a horrific ordeal, but one that I'm working really hard to see as something that's made (me) a stronger and inspired person," she said.
"Establishing this foundation is the first step towards making sense of what happened to me and using it to do something good in the world."
Eventually, Lindhout hopes, the foundation will fund programs to empower women and promote peace throughout the world. She's taking a diploma in leadership studies at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia this fall and hopes the scholarship program will be a first step in giving back.
"We want each applicant to tell us their grandest vision of Somalia," she said. "We want to know how they are going to use the education that we are going to fund for them to create sustainable change in their own communities."
Ombudsman questions value of Tory crime-fighting agenda versus its huge cost
May 12, 2010, By Heather Scoffield, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada's prison ombudsman says MPs need to ask harder questions about whether the country will get its money's worth from hugely expensive changes to the criminal justice system.
Federal politicians are agreeing to major changes that will cost billions of dollars on prisons over the next few years, says Howard Sapers, the Correctional Investigator of Canada.
"The question becomes, are you getting the best return on that investment?" Sapers said in an interview.
"What is it that we want out of our criminal justice system? We want safety in our communities. So, is building prisons the best return on investment? These are legitimate questions that have to be asked."
The impacts of the Conservatives' tough-on-crime agenda on federal and provincial budgets, prison populations and crime prevention are largely undocumented.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews allowed this month that just one piece of the crime agenda — C-25, the Truth in Sentencing Act — will cost the federal government about $2 billion over five years.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer plans to release a report in coming weeks that will price that legislation at between $7 billion and $10 billion for provincial and federal governments over the next five years. The provinces are expected to shoulder most of the cost.
But that's just one act of more than a dozen that are changing the way the prison system works.
It's up to Parliament to get to the bottom of the issue, Sapers said.
"The real question in my mind right now is not just what is the cost of C-25, but what is the cumulative impact on federal corrections of all of the federal initiatives, and being thoughtful about costing those initiatives out," he explained.
"And I think that should frame the debate about whether or not (it) is a good return on investment."
Kim Pate, who heads the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, goes even further. She says Parliament is responsible for "egregious breaches of fiduciary responsibility" for passing laws without researching what the true costs are.
Toews has said repeatedly that even as the federal prison population rises, costs will be kept down by double-bunking inmates and expanding existing facilities.
Extra prisons will be built as necessary, he says. And the price tag is worth it because the crime legislation will keep dangerous people off the streets.
But double-bunking is not an acceptable answer for Sapers, Pate and others concerned about the state of the country's prisons.
About 1,300 federal inmates are already double-bunking in cells built for single occupancy, Sapers said. That's about 10 per cent of the total population and the doubling-up is concentrated mainly in medium-security facilities, primarily in Ontario.
Canada has signed a United Nations agreement that specifically prohibits two inmates to a cell and Canadian policy generally conforms with that agreement.
Experts have argued that cramming two or more prisoners into a cell creates dangerous conditions, not just for the inmates, but also staff, and for the general public that will have to accept more volatile prisoners after their release.
"From our experience, when double bunking goes up, the climate in the institution becomes more troubling," Sapers said. "So there are more complaints, there are more grievances, there is more violence, there are more security incidents."
Toews has said he does not have a problem with double-bunking. He has also said he has a rough idea of what the total cost of the tough-on-crime agenda will be, but will not say what the cost is.
When senators have asked for estimates in the past, they have been told that the information was confidential because it was before cabinet.
The federal budget set aside about $90 million over two years to expand prison capacity.
CBC, Globe find pardoned sex predator Graham James living in Guadalajara, Mexico
May 13, 2010, By James McCarten, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - Pardoned sex predator Graham James has been tracked down in Mexico — a return to the public eye that has one of his alleged victims once again anxiously pacing the floor.
Images of the disgraced junior hockey coach, slimmer than in past years, in the teeming Mexican city of Guadalajara are already weighing heavily on the man whose fresh allegations brought to light revelations about the pardon James was granted three years ago.
"For a guy who has been in hiding for ten years, and then for the first time is approached by reporters, he is photographed with a smile on his face," the man said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
"We can't begin to understand this calm reaction, because he is not like the rest of us - he's a psychopath."
James's latest accuser has spoken to The Canadian Press on condition he not be identified.
CBC News and the Globe and Mail say they teamed up to find James in Guadalajara, where he's reportedly working for a Montreal-based company and living in a modest gated community.
"I'm impressed that you found me," James, now 58, tells a CBC reporter who confronted him on a city street. He refused a request for an interview, and referred questions to his Winnipeg lawyer.
"Graham is, in his world, always the smartest person in the room," his latest accuser said.
"He is finally found and captured on camera, and yet he reacts not at all, calmly remarking that he is impressed they could find him, not that he has been hiding — the inference being he could disappear if he really wanted to. There is no fear, no emotion, just a cold, detached, condescending tone as if the day were one no different from any other."
The CBC footage, which aired Wednesday on The National, showed James looking thinner and older than he did in 1997, when he pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges stemming from allegations levelled by two of his former teenaged players, including ex-NHLer Sheldon Kennedy.
Another high-profile player, former Calgary Flames star forward Theoren Fleury, came forward earlier this year to allege that he, too, had been abused by James. Those allegations have not resulted in any charges, but are under investigation by police in Winnipeg. There are also no charges connected to the allegations of the unidentified accuser and nothing has been tried in a court.
"Hearing that voice again, so hauntingly soft, so seemingly polite, yet knowing in an instant it can switch to rage _ the memories just rushed back," the anonymous accuser said Wednesday night.
"I'm actually shaking as I say this. He's 3,000 kilometres away and I'm actually afraid tonight, not that I think anything will happen to me, but afraid nonetheless."
But he had a warning for James.
"If he thinks a hat pulled down over his face to try to hide his identity will protect him from what is about to come his way, he's yet again deluding himself," the victim said.
In a statement posted on his website, Fleury could barely contain his contempt.
"I feel a certain sense of relief that the rat has come out of his hole."
In an interview with The Canadian Press, he admitted that he was anxious prior to seeing James on CBC.
''I haven't seen him in 14 years and things change. I've learned that he's not a powerful guy anymore. He made sure his hat was covering his eyes, he was a mess and I don't remember him being like that.''
James, who was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, was quietly pardoned three years ago, but the pardon wasn't made public until it was disclosed last month in a report by The Canadian Press.
The news touched off a firestorm of controversy, culminating in the federal government's promise Tuesday to revamp the system and make it more difficult for repeat, violent offenders to get pardons.
Mexico doesn't have a registry for sex offenders, and because of the Canadian pardon, there is no official means for Mexican authorities to learn of his criminal history, the CBC reported on its website.
Asked if he would return to Canada in the event of additional charges, James said: "I have a lawyer already in Winnipeg, so it's not like I'm running away."
That sentiment was echoed Wednesday by Evan Roitenberg, the lawyer in question.
"The Winnipeg police are conducting an investigation and when they reach a point in time that they wish to speak to my client, I'm sure they will be in contact with me," Roitenberg said.
"He's not on the run from anything. He's just working."
On Tuesday, the federal Conservative government responded to the revelations about the pardon with a pledge to replace them with harder-to-get "record suspensions," and to make it impossible for anyone convicted of sex crimes against children to even apply for one.
Under the new legislation, people convicted of minor crimes would have to wait five years before applying for a record suspension; those guilty of more serious offences will have to wait 10 years.
It would be up to the criminal to demonstrate that a record suspension would contribute to his or her rehabilitation.
''The pardon of convicted sex offender Graham James was deeply offensive to Canadians, to victims and to our government,'' Justice Minister Vic Toews told a news conference.
James's latest accuser said he was gratified with the government's reaction.
"I was pleasantly surprised by both the content of the changes and the speed with which they have been brought forward," he said.
"The PMO loudly and clearly got the message, and I am thankful for that. They lived up to everything they said when this first came to light."
Fleury, too, expressed the hope that the case's return to the limelight would ultimately prove beneficial.
"I've spent a year on the road talking to people, hearing their stories, and if that has helped anyone then that's the good news coming out of all this," he said on his website.
Canadian Forces member charged in sexual assaults at CFB Petawawa
May 09, 2010, By The Canadian Press
PETAWAWA, Ont. - A member of the Canadian Forces has been charged with four counts of sexual assault in connection with attacks on women at CFB Petawawa in eastern Ontario.
Canadian Forces officials say the charges stem from two incidents in the CFB Petawawa area in the fall of 2009, and two recent attacks this past week.
Authorities say on May 6, an unknown man broke into a home and sexually assaulted a woman who was alone.
The following day, a man sexually assaulted a woman walking outside. In both cases, the man fled the scene.
Cpl. Christopher Raymond Chaulk is charged with four counts of sexual assault and four counts of assault.
Chaulk has been a signal operator for seven years. His home unit is in St. John's, but he was in Petawawa for pre-deployment training ahead of going to Afghanistan.
Maj. Paule Poulin, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces, said she did not have the exact date Chaulk was supposed to leave the country, but it was "very soon."
Poulin said no warning was issued about the alleged attacks.
"With cases like this it's always treated on an individual basis. If there's need to go out and warn the population, it does go, but there was no warning issued from our office," said Poulin.
Chaulk currently is in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre, and will appear in Pembroke Provincial Court on Monday for a bail hearing on the allegations against him.
Feds set to deny pardons for 'serious crimes' after Graham James controversy
May 09, 2010, By Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - The federal government will introduce legislation Tuesday aimed at preventing someone like convicted sex predator Graham James from ever again receiving a pardon.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews plans to table a bill that would overhaul the system, making it much tougher, if not impossible, for repeat violent offenders to obtain a pardon.
The new measures are intended to put an end to what the government considers a "rubber stamp" for applications from the vast majority of convicts.
"The legislation will take action to ensure the National Parole Board has the tools it needs in order to maintain the accountability of offenders convicted of serious crimes," says an internal government memo obtained Sunday by The Canadian Press.
"It is our belief that the comprehensive legislation Minister Toews plans to introduce will give Canadians greater confidence in the integrity of the system and help to make our streets and communities safer."
The bill is expected to usher in new guidelines that would effectively direct parole board members to deny a pardon to those who have shown a pattern of multiple, serious offences.
James, a former junior hockey coach, was granted a pardon from the parole board in 2007 for sexual assaults against two teens, including Sheldon Kennedy, who went on to play in the National Hockey League.
The Canadian Press learned of the James pardon after a previously unknown accuser contacted Winnipeg police.
Upon hearing of the pardon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper immediately ordered Toews to revamp the system. He subsequently noted sex killer Karla Homolka would be eligible to apply for a pardon this year.
The internal government memo, dated last Friday, says that since almost all pardon applications succeed, "there is also understandable fear that other notorious criminals will be given a rubber stamp."
An independent source confirmed the memo's authenticity.
A pardon does not erase a person's criminal record, but can make it easier for someone to get a job and travel abroad. In the case of sex offenders, a flag remains on the pardoned person's file, serving as an alert to community groups and employers should they seek work with children or other vulnerable people.
However, it has become clear in recent weeks that detecting such a flag can be a time-consuming and often unwieldy exercise.
All but a small segment of criminals, such as dangerous offenders and those serving life sentences, are eligible to apply for a pardon.
Convicts must wait either three or five years after a sentence has been served, depending on the severity of the crime. In weighing applications from people convicted of serious offences, the parole board is obliged to ensure the person has not reoffended and has displayed "good conduct."
Just 800 of the more than 40,000 pardon applications were rejected last year.
When asked about the planned changes, Chris McCluskey, a spokesman for Toews, said, "Stay tuned."
Introduction of the bill — the latest in a series of Conservative tough-on-crime initiatives — is bound to reignite public controversy over the procedure for setting aside someone's criminal record.
While many expressed outrage that a notorious sex criminal like James could obtain a pardon, those who work with offenders said changing the law because of one exceptional case would do more harm than good.
Critics accused the government Sunday of making hasty changes for political gain before properly studying the issue.
"Is there any body of evidence to argue that these kinds of legislative changes are really warranted?" asked Craig Jones of the John Howard Society, a group that helps offenders readjust to society.
"What evidence is there that the persons pardoned really turn out to be a risk to public safety?"
Don Davies, the NDP public safety critic, said the pardon system is an integral component of public safety, designed to keep convicts from reoffending.
"I want to have a complete analysis of the system before I would go jumping to make changes," he said Sunday. "This is what the Conservatives do, they jump first, they look later."
The coming changes follow amendments prompted by a 2006 review, which ensured a sex offender would need the approval of no longer just one but two Parole Board members to obtain a pardon.
Girls blackmailed into making porn...Ryan McCann plead guilty to 26 charges!
May 5, 2010
By MEGAN GILLIS, QMI Agency
Ryan McCann plead guilty to 26 charges of child pornography, invitation to sexual touching and making death threats.
OTTAWA - Kanata teen Ryan McCann first hooked girls as young as 14 with promises of thousands of dollars to perform via web cam.
Then he tricked, threatened and blackmailed them into performing more degrading "shows" for clients of his company, Talen's Playground.
The acts included penetrating themselves with hair brushes, simulating oral sex on flashlights until they gagged and writing "dirty slut" on their breasts or "fat ass" on their buttocks.
But there was no cash, no company and no clients.
The only person watching was McCann, whom one girl saw masturbating on his own web cam.
"McCann said that going on the web cam was not the thrill, it was the thrill of being a predator," prosecutor David Elhadad said, reading from an agreed statement of facts Tuesday.
McCann, now 20, pleaded guilty Monday to 26 charges involving 19 victims, all but one under 18, between June of 2008 and March 2009. They include extorting the girls into making child pornography, invitation to sexual touching and making death threats.
He also admitted that two of the girls, both under 16 and too young to consent, performed oral sex on him, although he denies it was by threats or force.
Police seized video files of some of the victims but said outside court they'll never know for sure whether McCann made good on his threats to post the images online, where they will be available forever.
"This was one of those cases where the girls were taken advantage of so blatantly and so callously," Det. Dan Melchiorre said outside of court, remembering a 14-year-old who wanted to earn money to buy jeans and help her single mom. "They were vulnerable and they were basically forced into this."
McCann told police he knew he'd gone too far when one talked about killing herself as he forced her to perform.
McCann posed as 11 different people, hacking into Facebook and MSN accounts and masqueraded as one victim to snare another.
"I've never seen anything of this magnitude as far as the elaborate methods this person used," Melchiorre said.
McCann seemed to believe his own lies, talking to police about his aliases like real people and saying that when "Talen" took over he was no longer Ryan.
"It was very disturbing," Det. Alison Cookson said outside of court. "He'd portrayed them for so long, they became real in his mind."
A sentencing hearing is set for May 12.
No link between gun registry creation and Ecole Polytechnique massacre: Tory MP
May 5, 2010, By THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - The survivors of the Ecole Polytechnique massacre head to Ottawa on Thursday in hopes of saving the long-gun registry and to make sure they haven't been forgotten.
Their visit comes after Conservative MP Bernard Genereux insisted the gun registry has nothing to do with the December 1989 shooting rampage. The Quebec Tory says the registry was instead created by former prime minister Jean Chretien's government in 1995 following intense pressure from a gun-control coalition.
But that very coalition was formed as a result of the Polytechnique shooting that left 14 women dead at the Montreal school.
A private member's bill introduced by Tory MP Candice Hoeppner seeks to scrap the long-gun registry.
The bill has already passed two readings in the House of Commons with support from eight Liberal MPs and a third of the NDP caucus. A third passage will send it to the Senate.
Suzanne Laplante Edward, the mother of one of the Polytechnique victims, Anne-Marie Edward, is calling on NDP leader Jack Layton to force his MPs to protect the registry.
"The future of gun control in Canada depends on you, Jack," she wrote in an open letter to Layton.
"Only you can avoid passage of bill C-391 by imposing party line."
