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Election 2003:
all parties declare war on the poor
November 3: With only two days left in the election
campaign, not one of the parties has raised the justice issues
we have been promoting. No politician is ready to acknowledge
that ten or more years of cutting back on education and social
programs has driven a large number of urban young people to petty
crime, gangs and prostitution. Instead of addressing the issues,
the government has expanded the prison system. Hard drugs have
penetrated into every part of the province. For those who become
addicted, there is no help. Where the health system should be
addressing this situation, it has ignored it. It found it easy
close down hospitals which had been built in medium sized communities.
Yet it could not build rehab centers to address an immediate
need. Those bright-eyed children in Hermanson's commercial, while
including racial and gender diverse kids, do not include the
real kids who are condemned to stay in this province because
they cannot leave: the poor.
In Saskatoon
two judicial proccedings are underway arising out of two glaring
injustices against poor people twelve years ago.
The inquiry
into the freezing death of Neil Stonechild has come about because
one poor person, Darrell Night, managed to get proof of Saskatoon
cops' willful disregard for his life and safety into the justice
system. This gave Jason Roy the courage to come forward. For
two months the Stonechild Inquiry has been hearing testimony
which reveals the official attitude towards the poor.
The Klassen/Kvello
civil trial is hearing how one Saskatoon cop, a social worker
and two prosecutors deliberately manipulated tainted evidence
to indict an extended family of working poor. The government
has thrown every possible obstacle in the way of Rihard Klassen,
who has managed to get this gross injustice to civil court.
The outcomes
of both these proceedings will find some evidence of wrong doing.
Which ever group of politicians forms the next government will
be forced to address these findings. Sooner or later.
They all lean
toward tougher enforcement of
the law, ignoring that most of the crimes against property and
even against people are done by desperate, often addicted people.
Poverty, addiction, and lack of opportunities for year after
year have created this situation.
Who is
prepared to declare war on poverty and promise rehabilitation
for its victims?
November 1:
With only four days left in the pre-election campaign period,
not one of the parties has raised justice issues.
Election November
5: Whoever wins, Open Crown Corporations' books to public
scrutiny and allow us to see what we own!
  Time to give these
hypocrites their pink slips!
Saskatchewan can start the
clean-up by getting rid of these two, Eric Cline, Attorney General
and Justice Minister who has abused his office in the tradition
of his predecessors, Chris Axworthy and Bob Mitchell; and Premier
Lorne Calvert, the snake-oil preacher.
The RCMP does not have to wait
for the election to launch an investigation into Dwain Lingenfelter
for fraud. Articles 1
| 2
| (These articles by Mario DeSantis are part of a collection
of commentaries written during the past several years which injusticebusters
will proudly host as soon as we get our technical act together).
Cline's promise of an inquiry
into the Milgaard case is
cynical. We need an inquiry which probes not only the Milgaard
case itself but how this case was part of ongoing tunnel-vision
policing which has continued to this day. The scope of any inquiry
must be wide enough to include related complaints.
 This summer, from early
to mid-June, we went to the legislature to confront Calvert and
Cline about their cover-ups in the foster parent and Martensville
cases.
They were well notified that
we were coming.
Calvert fled to Saskatoon,
where it was rumoured he was going to announce an election. He
chose to instead to announce that there would not be an election.
We take full credit for this
postponement. We knew that the Premier would not care to have
injusticebusters following him around the campaign trail and
asking embarrassing questions.
As we reported this as it was
going on, we handed out thousands of pieces of literature, talked
to dozens of people and showed The Fifth Estate show "Scandal
of the Century" to many people.
On the second day of our camp-out,
Saskatchewan Party justice critic Ben Hepner invited Richard
Klassen into the legislature during question period. Hepner asked
Cline directly what he was going to do about the several malicious
prosecution lawsuits which the government was facing.
Cline said that since Canada
had a better record than the United States for wrongfully indicting/
convicting people, we should just stop whining and be glad we
lived in Saskatchewan where everything is hunky dory.
 Before
we left on Friday of the first week, Richard Klassen sent a hand-written
invitation to Premier Calvert asking for a meeting. The letter
was delivered by a reliable person and we know that he got it.
He chose to simply ignore this gesture. Instead, both Calvert
and Cline have put their fares regarding these prosecution complaints
in the hands of Donald McKillop, a high-priced lawyer who has
billed the province (that's us) plenty over the last ten years.
McKillop has taken government side through four weeks of a costly
civil trial and has spuriously defended the actions of his clients.
Lorne Calvert blew us off and
while that is insulting to us as individuals, what is more important
to note is that if he will do it to us, most likely he will treat
any individual with the same disdain.
While it is true that he did
not have a direct role in creating the situation (his opponent
in the bid for party leadership, Chris Axworthy did, and we take
credit for his loss in that bid) he certainly had plenty of time
to acquaint himself with the facts before carrying on as though
he knew his butt from his elbow.
Much was made in the media
last week about a tasteles, offensive cartoon his staff had dreamed
up to smear the Sask. Party as Nazis. Two heads rolled on that
one. This all arose from the "hit list" of some 2000+
civil servants the Sask. Party has identified with NDP affiliations.
How naive can these people be? The first thing any transitional
government does is get rid of people it cannot count on to be
loyal. Roy Romanow extracted loyalty from his people by encouraging
them to carry on their work in secrecy. A full review of our
much-praised health system would perhaps show Romanow to have
been less of an expert than he presented himself.
Both Cline and Calvert are
dishonest and incompetent. They have to go. And whoever forms
the government elected November 5 had better brace themselves
for a lot of pressure to be more forthright with those of us
still left in this province.
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