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Marsha Boulton
Victim of government
theft
The case of the seized
computer
By Rebecca Caldwell, Globe
and Mail, , Feb. 19, 2004
Marsha Boulton is best known
as a Stephen Leacock Award-winning humour writer, but her latest
book is taking her real life deep into crime-thriller territory,
with many volleys and ripostes between her and the Ontario Ministry
of the Attorney-General.
Last July, Boulton had her
computer, which contained the only copy of her novel in progress,
seized during a police raid of the Harriston, Ont., home she
shares with her husband, writer and journalist Stephen Williams,
who was being investigated for allegedly violating a publication
ban in connection with the Paul Bernardo-Karla Homolka sex slayings.
It wasn't the first police
visit to their home -- last May, Ontario Provincial Police arrested
Williams and held him overnight, releasing him the next day on
$25,000 bail. Williams currently faces 97 criminal charges in
connection with his controversial books Invisible Darkness and
Karla: A Pact with the Devil and his website, which examined
the legal investigation behind Canada's most infamous serial-killer
couple.
Since May, Boulton and Williams
have become a cause célPbre for organizations championing
freedom of expression. PEN Canada, Canadian Journalists for Free
Expression and Writers' Trust of Canada have been lobbying on
behalf of the couple.
But recently, the plot has
thickened. In response to a Feb. 13 Globe and Mail editorial
that criticized the attorney-general's office for its handling
of Boulton's case, director of Crown operations John McMahon
sent The Globe a letter stating: "In fact, three separate
offers (Dec. 1, 2003; Dec. 23, 2003; Jan. 16, 2004) have been
made through counsel to return to Ms. Boulton, copies of all
computer files not relevant to the investigation. These offers
were made to facilitate the return of her draft novel and any
non-relevant e-mail messages. The Crown has never received a
response to any of these offers."
McMahon's letter also advised
it would be inappropriate for the Crown to make any additional
comments on the matter since Williams's case is before the courts.
Boulton however, maintains
that she is only aware of one offer made some time in December,
but that it was as an aside made to her husband's lawyers, not
to her.
"They've never sent me
anything, they've never sent me a letter, they never called me.
I'm not represented by Stephen Williams's lawyers," Boulton
says. "They are really trying to play nicey-nicey -- I've
never seen anything like this kind of spin coming out of the
Ministry of the Attorney-General."
Her book, a historical novel
about a Scottish Presbyterian cult in Nova Scotia, was supposed
to be delivered to her publisher last fall but has now been delayed
indefinitely. Her computer contained about half of the novel,
and material for the remaining half.
Boulton has no idea when she
might be able to finish her book, she says, even if the computer
files are returned to her.
She has no further plans on
contacting the attorney-general's office to ask for her items
back. "I think it's up to them to contact me, if they can
contact the media, they can contact me."
The Ontario government
is refusing to return the only copies of an unfinished novel
and personal information it seized from award-winning writer
Marsha Boulton nearly seven months ago, even though she is not
the subject of any criminal investigation
Shannon Kari , Canwest News
Service , February 9, 2004
TORONTO - The Ontario government
is refusing to return the only copies of an unfinished novel
and personal information it seized from award-winning writer
Marsha Boulton nearly seven months ago, even though she is not
the subject of any criminal investigation.
The material was stored on
a computer hard drive and back-up discs, seized last July when
police executed a search warrant at the Harriston, Ont., home
of Boulton and writer Stephen Williams.
Ontario's attorney general
has filed 97 criminal charges against Williams, for allegedly
violating publication bans connected to the prosecutions of Paul
Bernardo and Karla Homolka.
In his books Invisible Darkness
and Karla: A Pact with the Devil, Williams is especially critical
of senior ministry officials, including Murray Segal, for the
plea bargain with Homolka which will result in her release from
prison next year. Segal is currently the senior official in the
ministry's criminal law section, which is responsible for the
prosecution of Williams.
Segal's wife was the lead Crown
attorney on the case until Williams's lawyer made a public complaint
last May.
Boulton, who won a Stephen
Leacock award for humour in 1996, has never written about Bernardo
or Homolka. The unfinished work seized by police is a historical
novel set in the 19th century. Boulton said she did not store
back-up copies outside her home because she never expected police
to seize her work. ``I am being targeted, just because I live
with Stephen and I love him,'' she said.
Police are also in possession
of private e-mails from over 200 women who belong to the same
cancer support group as Boulton. At least a dozen officers participated
in the raid last summer and Boulton noted that her ``underwear
drawer was fingered through as well,'' in reference to the recent
RCMP search of the home and office of Ottawa Citizen reporter
Juliet O'Neill.
A spokesman for Attorney General
Michael Bryant has repeatedly refused to respond to requests
for an interview about the conduct of police and the ministry.
All questions have been referred to a ministry spokesman. ``The
investigation is ongoing. No further comment is appropriate,''
said Brendan Crawley in an interview last week.
Many of the criminal charges
relate to allegations that Williams published names of some of
Bernardo's sexual assault victims on a website. Legal experts
have said the Crown has a very weak case against Williams, because
he immediately disabled the website, which was up for less than
24 hours, when informed by police it may have contained banned
information.
The province is also continuing
with a civil suit against Williams. The ministry says it is acting
on behalf of the people of Ontario in asking a court to award
punitive damages against Williams, claiming that he was in wrongful
possession of Crown disclosure material from the Bernardo case.
This is despite the fact that there is no law that bans possession
of Crown disclosure material, other media outlets had many of
the same documents as Williams and the Bernardo proceedings concluded
several years ago.
``I cannot believe they are
willing to waste more public money on this case,'' said Kim McArthur,
president of McArthur & Co., which published Invisible Darkness
and nine of Boulton's books. ``This is unheard of in a democratic
country. There are real criminals out there.''
Lorne Honickman, who is defending
Williams in the lawsuit, said: ``I have never seen anything like
this.''
The Toronto lawyer and former
television news reporter said the civil action has been used
to assist in the criminal prosecution, which violates Williams's
right to a fair trial.
``The plaintiff is the attorney
general, who is the same person who is prosecuting Mr. Williams
criminally (all Crown attorneys in Ontario act on behalf of the
attorney general), Honickman explained.
The Toronto lawyer has filed
an abuse of process motion in Ontario Superior Court, asking
for the province's civil suit to thrown out. That motion is unlikely
to be heard before the spring.
The criminal trial is also
not expected to begin for several months, even though the initial
charges were laid last May.
Canadians awarded
persecuted-writer prizes
CBC News Online with files
from Geoff Ellwand
TORONTO - The Canadian author
of books about sex killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka has
been given a grant for writers working under repressive regimes.
Human Rights Watch -- an independent,
nongovernmental human rights organization based in New York --
announced that Stephen Williams is one of this year's recipients
of the Hellman/Hammett Grant.
Marcia Allina, who administers
the grant for Human Rights Watch, said it's unheard of for a
Canadian to win.
"What happened to Williams
is an aberration," Allina said. "He's being prosecuted
for information the government didn't like and there's no reason
the public shouldn't have it."
Marsha Boulton, an award-winning
essayist and Williams' partner, has also been named a grant recipient.
Williams, who wrote Invisible
Darkness and Karla: A Pact With the Devil about the couple, was
charged by Ontario Provincial Police in October 2003 in connection
to a website on which he posted information about the case.
In addition, the Ontario government
is suing Williams for what it says is improperly possessing evidence
from the court case.
The police have also targeted
Boulton: they seized her computer and the manuscript of an unfinished
historical novel in the summer of 2003.
In the past, Williams has said
that his criticism of Ontario's justice system, and some senior
people in it, have resulted in unwarranted prosecutions designed
to drain him financially and artistically.
"When you're besieged
in this manner you have two choices," he said. "You
lie down and die or stand up and fight."
Though he feels the grant is
a moral-booster, Williams doesn't expect that international condemnation
will make his fight with the legal system any easier.
Prominent attorney Edward Greenspan
is handling Williams' case, which has also received support from
other groups representing writers and journalists.
The Human Rights Watch award,
which focuses attention on the "repression of free speech
and censorship by publicizing the persecution that the grant
recipients [have] endured," is financed by the estate of
Lillian Hellman, the U.S playwright. Hellman, along with her
companion Dashiell Hammett, was interrogated in the U.S. in the
1950s about her political beliefs.
Since the Hellman/Hammett Grant
program began in 1990, more than 400 writers have received funds,
including writers in Bosnia, Burma, China, Peru and Sierra Leone.
Each year, a seven-member selection
committee distributes grants of $1,000 to $10,000 US to a number
of international writers, whom Human Rights Watch has identified
as being victims of political persecution and in financial need.
Author wants seized computer
back; Property was taken by police during search of area farm
HILARY STEAD, Guelph
Mercury, October 10, 2003,
HARRISTON - When Marsha Boulton
stepped up to the podium to read from her novel-in-progress at
the Eden Mills Writers' Festival last month she had only three
pages of the manuscript in her hand. "The rest of the book
is on my computer" the Canadian humour writer told her audience.
She wasn't trying to be funny. Boulton, backed by the Writers'
Union of Canada and high-profile lawyer Edward Greenspan, is
trying to recover her computer that was seized July 18 during
a police search of the Wellington County farmhouse she shares
with partner Stephen Williams.
Williams, author of two controversial
books about Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, was charged in May
with disobeying a court order after police alleged he posted
material on a Web site that was covered by a publication ban
during Bernardo's trial for murdering teenagers Leslie Mahaffy
and Kristen French. He was released on $25,000 bail and has his
next court appearance Oct. 23. In July, 10 provincial police
officers arrived at the couple's farm near Harriston with a search
warrant.
Boulton said although she maintains
an entirely separate office from Williams, her personal computer
and computer files were seized as well as his. She lost all of
the copies of her new novel, The Sea Birds, based on a Cape Breton
Presbyterian cult, which was scheduled to be published this fall.
When she was allowed back into her home after the search in July
she discovered her underwear drawer had been disturbed and a
book on the history of the New Zealand Presbyterian Church was
lying open on her desk. "I never thought writing about Presbyterians
was a criminal act," she said.
Boulton also lost diaries,
confidential legal correspondence, financial records and material
stored on her computer related to her two-year battle with cancer.
Included were deeply personal e-mails to and from members of
her support group for women with the same rare gynecological
cancer. Some of the women have written to the investigators to
express their outrage that intimate details of their medical
ordeals are now in the hands of police.
Williams' lawyer, Edward Greenspan,
called the seizure "utterly and totally scandalous"
and has been attempting to recover Boulton's belongings. "She's
entitled in law and in fact to be treated completely and utterly
separate from Stephen Williams," he said. He also believes
police should be returning items to Williams that are not covered
by the search warrant. "They came and did a sweeping search,"
said Greenspan, believing that Williams has "become a target"
because his book is critical of how the police and prosecution
conducted themselves during the investigation leading to the
plea bargain that will allow Homolka to be released from jail
in 2005.
The Writers' Union of Canada
has also taken an interest in the case, calling for a public
inquiry. The national organization especially criticized the
seizure of Boulton's computer when she was never charged with
an offence. "It interferes with her livelihood," said
Penney Kome, an author and journalist and chair of the writers'
union. Kome said on the surface there would appear to be an element
of retribution in what she feels was harsh and unprecedented
treatment of the two writers. Police are keeping quiet about
the case.
Det. Insp. Steven Rooke of
the OPP Criminal Investigation Branch, who is in charge of the
investigation, said he could not comment because the case is
still under investigation. He confirmed that items were seized
from the couple's residence during the July search but said police
were there lawfully. He would not say if any steps would be taken
to return Boulton's property or copies of the data on her computer.
"I can't comment on the status of her computer," he
said.
Boulton and Williams are back
at their farm after spending several weeks in New York where
she said they went because they were too uncomfortable to stay
in their home. "For the first time in my life I was almost
ashamed to be a Canadian," she said, recalling the pounding
on their farmhouse door at 6 a.m. "They were pounding so
hard the windows were rattling," she said, adding that her
first instinct was that there was a fire or a neighbour was in
trouble.
Boulton won the Stephen Leacock
Medal for Humour in 1996, "the fourth woman and first shepherd"
to receive the honour. She was a people section editor at Maclean's
magazine before moving to Harriston in 1981. She has written
three books in the Just A Minute series on Canadian history and
several books based on her syndicated column about country life
called Letters from the Country. Boulton said the loss of her
new manuscript and other information stored in her computer has
been personally and financially devastating. She stands firmly
behind Williams who she believes is being harassed because of
the criticism of the police described in his books.
Illustration(s): Photo: JOHN
REEVES, SPECIAL TO THE MERCURY Novelist and Wellington County
shepherd Marsha Boulton, with her dog Wally and another furry
friend, is trying to recover her computer, containing personal
medical information and the manuscript of her new novel. It was
seized in July during a search of the Harriston-area farm she
shares with partner Stephen Williams.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
