Sunday, October 30, 2005

Milgaard Inquiry: Send Commissioner MacCallum back to Alberta.

The Milgaard Inquiry was headline news in Saskatoon on October 26 when I boarded a plane for Vancouver. When I arrived in Vancouver a few hours later it was reduced to a two inch article in the back pages in the Vancouver Sun. I asked people if they had heard the news about the Milgaard Inquiry and I was told “we have our own atrocities”. This is true across the country.

Saskatoon has been the source of headline news across Canada for years and years. One judicial atrocity after the other, it is just not news anymore. One inquiry after the other in Canada and no one is held accountable. It is a process that has failed to hold anyone accountable that places the administration of justice into disrepute in the eyes of the public.

David Milgaard held a press conference in Saskatoon to bring to the publics attention that two men wrongly convicted are having to go through the same nightmare as he did. This is the reason for Commissioners MacCallum saying: “Mr Milgaard arranged to use this very hearing room, paid for at public expense, to publicly undermine the work of the inquiry, an inquiry he himself demanded, and to threaten the commission with the stigma of popular disapproval should it have the temerity to subpoena him as a witness.”

Canada is known around the world as a Country where children are molested and sexually assaulted. After David Milgaard was jailed Canada was also known for gang raping children in our jails. It started with David Milgaard. Canadians continue to make humours comments about this. When a Saskatoon Police Officer wrote an article for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix detailing how officers would abandon Aboriginals on the outskirts of Saskatoon this was also a great source of knee slapping laughter. Who is laughing now?

The angry attitude of commissioner McCallum clearly shows that this man just does not get it. He is not concerned with getting at the truth, his only concern is the public image of the court and the administration of justice. There are not very many Canadians who have any faith left in the administration of justice. Time after time we have been witness to judges desperately trying to protect a failing administration of justice by threatening lawyers and others who have the courage to speak out about the atrocities happening daily in Canadian court rooms.

Past inquires have found the withholding of documents and evidence by the Crown as a major cause of wrongful convictions. As the Milgaard Inquiry continues in Saskatoon a hearing for Wilfred Hathway has been delayed as a result of the Crown withholding evidence. The John Lucas case in Saskatoon the Crown has been withholding documents for two years. It is past time that judges started protecting Canadians from a corrupt system by issuing judicial stays.

As much as I would have liked to see a big smile on the face of Joyce Milgaard at the end of the inquiry this is not going to happen. Compare the photo of David Milgaard and his mother on the front page of the Saskatoon StarPhoenix to the photo of David Milgaard when he was released from prison. He was a walking zombie. It is just not worth it to risk continuing on with this inquiry. There is enough evidence to write a report on what went wrong, it is very similar to the past inquires and nothing was done to correct any of the causes as we are seeing with the Lucas and Hathway cases in Saskatoon. Saskatoon has the most corrupt judicial system in Canada. When are we going to have an inquiry into the administration of justice in Saskatchewan? Blaming it on 8 year old girls and Saskatoon Police Officers is just not good enough.

Any hope I had of an unbiased report by commissioner McCallum ended with his angry response to the David Milgaard press release. A Newfoundland defence lawyer, Jerome Kennedy, said it best, he was disappointed the Lamer Inquiry into the justice system would not be examining the role of judges, and "It's the trial judges, some of whom don't know what they are doing," and "Part of it is as a result of political appointments. Part of this is as a result of intentional or unintentional biases."

Political appointments to the bench in Canada has resulted in a corrupt administration of justice. This could not be any clearer then in Saskatoon. The Court of Queen’s Bench in Saskatoon is corrupt, it is well documented and the open corruption continues as no one is accountable, and Canadians could care less.

If David Milgaard is required to testify his mother needs to stand up, with her head held high slowly walk out. I have never heard of anything as stupid and uncaring as requiring Mr Milgaard to testify.

Join the discussion on the David Milgaard Blog

Yes, we should be ashamed of ourselves. By CathiefromCanada

THE VIEW FROM OUTSIDE(Home) - THERE DOING IT TO DAVID AGAIN

2 comments:

Sigrid Macdonald said...

James,

Thx for adding the link to my site. Very sweet of you.

Sigrid

Anonymous said...

Hi Sigrid

It was good to see people posting on your Milgaard Blog about the Inquiry. I hope it continues and I would like to be able to take part in the discussions. I do not believe that it would be wise for Mr Milgaard to attend the Inquiry as long as the Commissioner continues with his angry I am God attitude. I think he may have forgotten that he is a commissioner of inquiry, not a judge at a murder trial.