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Tisdale Rape
Women's group will take
part in sexual assault appeals
CBC, Nov 25, 2004
PRINCE ALBERT - A native women's
group is getting involved in the appeals of a high-profile Saskatchewan
sexual assault case.
A judge has granted intervener
status to the Native Women's Association of Canada. It allows
the group to participate in the case of three Tisdale men accused
of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Cree girl.
Jeffrey Brown, Jeffrey Kindrat
and Dean Edmondson were arrested in 2001. Edmondson was later
convicted, but the others were acquitted by a Melfort jury. All
three cases will be tested at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal
in 2005.
Beverly Jacobs, president of
the Native Women's Association of Canada, says this is an important
case for native women, and the association wants to show their
support for the girl.
Jacobs says she was offended
at how the victim was treated by the court system.
"A lot of our aboriginal
women across the country are having to be victims in these circumstances
and being the ones to blame because of whatever the circumstances
are," says Jacobs.
The group's role as an intervener
in the appeal will be limited. It can file written arguments,
but it will not be able to present them verbally.
The association will be allowed
to have a lawyer in the court to answer questions.
Crown appeals sex assault
acquittals
Canadian Press, July 31, 2004
REGINA (CP) -- The Saskatchewan
Court of Appeal has agreed to hear arguments in a case involving
three white men accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old
aboriginal girl.
Dean Edmondson was found guilty
of sexual assault after a jury trial in May 2003.
His companions, Jeffrey Kindrat
and Jeffrey Brown, were found not guilty by a different jury
at their joint trial a month later.
Edmondson is appealing the
conviction, while the Crown is appealing his conditional sentence
and the acquittal of the other men.
The girl had testified she
ran away from home after a fight with her mother on Sept. 30,
2001. She met the men outside a small town bar, accepted their
offer of a ride in their vehicle and drank beer with them.
The girl, who cannot be identified,
testified she did not want to have sex with the men and tried
to pull her pants back up when Brown pulled them down.
Edmondson testified the sexual
activity started when the girl jumped into his lap and began
kissing him. Edmondson said all of them were drunk when they
pulled over on a road near Tisdale and took turns trying to have
sex with her.
The defence in the case of
Kindrat and Brown argued the girl had told the men she was 14
years old, which is the age of consent.
Lawyers on both sides agreed
the girl's reluctance to testify against the pair was the turning
point in the case. In Edmondson's trial, she gave much more detail.
The case stirred strong feelings
in the community. Some of the girl's supporters from the Yellow
Quill First Nation suggested the white accused were getting preferential
treatment.
Relatives of the girl wept
after Kindrat and Brown were acquitted and accused the justice
system of racism.
"If you've got the dollars
and the lawyers, you can go rape our children, come to court,
and the white jury will say there was consent," said one
relative.
The appeal arguments are expected
to be heard in October but dates have not been set.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004
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