injusticebusters 2004 > > Susan MacLean: Former prosecutor in Morin case appointed to bench in Ontario

A living scrapbook of injustices in progress and the tools to set them right
Restoring reputations to the defamed -- Telling the truth about the undefamable

Year of the David Milgaard Inquiry: 35 years in the making!

Judge Cosgrove | Judge Kerry Evans | RCMP Gary Steinke who was found malicious against Jason Dix promoted


No accountability


Hurricane Carter: Where are you? We need your courage!

Crown clown now a judge
So the system works. The crown prosecutor who twice tried to get Guy Paul Morin convicted for a crime he didn't commit is being rewarded. Crown prosecutor Susan MacLean has been appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice a judge despite her refusal to accept Morin's innocence even after DNA testing cleared him.
Maybe prosecutors of Donald Marshall and David Milgaard were already busy. -- Now magazine, Feb. 12-18, 2004

Former prosecutor in Morin case appointed to bench

By KIRK MAKIN, JUSTICE REPORTER, Feb. 7, 2004

Seven years after Ontario Crown prosecutor Susan MacLean told an inquiry into Guy Paul Morin's wrongful murder conviction that she was unable to accept his exoneration, Ms. MacLean has been appointed to the Ontario Court of Justice.

The only prosecutor to pursue Mr. Morin through both his 1986 trial and 1992 retrial for the murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop, Ms. MacLean will serve in the very region where Mr. Morin was arrested and jailed for eight months prior to his first trial.

"You're kidding," Mr. Morin said this week. "I guess that's how this old system of ours works. But you know my saying -- anything that you say can and will be held against you -- so that's all I want to say."

Mr. Morin was acquitted at his original trial. The Crown appealed and he was convicted of first-degree murder at the retrial.

In 1995, he was exonerated by DNA testing. Mr. Justice Fred Kaufman, who headed the 1997 inquiry, said Mr. Morin had been a victim of startlingly flimsy evidence, terrible judgment and "tunnel vision" by police and prosecutors.

James Lockyer, Mr. Morin's lawyer at the inquiry, said the appointment is "troubling. A common thread to wrongful convictions in Canada and other countries is that those who played an important role are never held accountable," he said.

"As a member of the bench, it is essential to always have an open mind and not to be too closely associated with police -- as she was found to have been as one of the Morin prosecutors."

Jack Pinkofsky, Mr. Morin's trial lawyer, said it is worrisome that someone as "one-sided and strident" as Ms. MacLean was appointed. "We can only hope she will be a more balanced judge than she was a prosecutor," he said.

However, Kaufman commission counsel Mark Sandler applauded the appointment.

"It's quite clear that she took the inquiry as a learning experience," he said.

"It obviously made her a better Crown, and it will make her a better judge."

In a stunning moment at the year-long inquiry, Ms. MacLean said there was simply too much evidence for her to share her government's stated belief in Mr. Morin's innocence.

She rhymed off a list of evidence she continued to find compelling, saying it left her with conflicting emotions.

"I'm really appalled," Mr. Morin told reporters afterward.

"I'm disgusted to see this type of person the Attorney-General has representing the public."

Two days after her explosive statements, Ms. MacLean had a dramatic change of heart. She broke down in tears and apologized for having cast doubt on Mr. Morin's exoneration and acquittal. "I'm not proud of having been involved in the prosecution of someone who is innocent," she testified. "I've lost sleep over it. I'm still trying to grasp it."

In his final report, Judge Kaufman found that unsavoury jailhouse witnesses had been offered inducements, Crown witnesses were coached and dubious evidence was advanced by prosecutors who lost their objectivity and became far too close to the police.

In a typical example of this relationship, Ms. MacLean's private notes from the trial had referred to Mr. Morin modelling himself after exonerated killer Donald Marshall. "Should we let Morin ride on Marshall's coattails? Me, too? Me, too?" she wrote.

"Are we going to let Marshall be used to let rapist-murderers of nine-year-old girls get off?"

Mr. Morin reacted sharply to the Kaufman findings.

"If it were regular Joe Blows who screwed up this way, they would be out of their jobs," Mr. Morin said at the time.

"Well, these are just bigger Joe Blows. Will the Attorney-General follow through on the severity of these mistakes? Should charges be laid?"

The fate of Mr. Morin's other prosecutors:

Leo McGuigan retired shortly after the exoneration. He does occasional contract work for the Ministry of the Attorney-General.

Prosecutor Alex Smith is a senior manager at the ministry, working on law and technology projects.

Prosecutor John Scott continues to be chief Crown counsel for the Oshawa region.

Four other lawyers were appointed to the Ontario Court yesterday: Kofi Barnes, S. Ford Clements, Paul Currie and Howard Chisvin.

Revitalizing the archives

From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two

We posted our earliest and later actions.

Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine.

I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going.

It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000.

When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet.

MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all)
The Thompson Papers
Carol Bunko-Ruys reports

This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website.

The court fights:

Les Perreaux report
QB271

These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you.

The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

Publisher : Sheila Steele

Got something to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!

injusticebusters court advice :
How to walk yourself through the justice system

Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

Sermonette: The Naked Truth -- (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.