Wednesday night, around 1000 students came by to see what was going on and several stayed to watch "Scandal of the Century". There will be more showings tonight. | Tisdale Rape case

Sermonette: May, 2003

Still smearing Milgaard: Defamation Alive and well on lawn of Regina Legislature

Since Richard Klassen and his fellow campers resumed the camp out Tuesday morning, we have had regular telephone conversations to keep injusticebusters' visitors up to date. He recounted to me a discussion he had this morning with three MLA's who chose to come and discuss the justice system.

Besides Martensville and his own lawsuit, Klassen discussed the cases of Darrell Night with the two men and a woman.

As he has been doing throughout the camp out, Klassen pointed out that Darrell Night should have received a settlement and an apology from the Saskatoon police the day that Hatchen and Munson exhausted the appeal process and went to jail.

"He should not have to sue," Klassen told them. They seemed to agree as Klassen pointed out that since the cops had been found guilty of unlawfully confining him, Darrell Night deserved an immediate apology. The criminal case was no longer before the courts and he should not have to pay a lawyer 30 per cent of a civil suit which is won before it begins. "Don Worme wasn't left at the edge of town in freezing weather, Darrell Night was."

Which brought the conversaation around to the government's stalling on the public inquiry into the David Milgaard case.

"But that is before the courts," the woman visitor said, referring to Larry Fisher's appeals.

Klassen pointed out that Fisher's appeals have nothing to do with Milgaard. Milgaard was exonerated by DNA.

"Of the rape," the woman retorted, carrying on the same weary line which Saskatoon police and Fisher lawyer Brian Beresh have been promoting since 1999.

"Are you meaning to say that Fisher raped her and then Milgaard walked by a few hours later and killed her?"

The woman conceded this was an unlikely story.

Nonetheless, this vicious urban legend has gained legs in the four years since Fisher's conviction. The day of the conviction, Saskatoon law professor Howard McConnell and I were invited a local talk show to discuss the verdict. At that time, several callers promoted the idea that Fisher and Milgaard were a rape and murder tag team.

It is damaging to David Milgaard that this story has been allowed to persist. Brian Beresh defamed Milgaard with this suggestion, designed, I suppose, to justify the public money he had been provided to give Fisher a vigorous defence.

Nonetheless rumour and inuendo drive the Saskatchewan justice system -- along with who you know. One person's defamation is another's meal ticket.

Richard Klassen and I were arrested and charged for defaming crooked cop Brian Dueck in 1994. We were eventually acquitted but had our charter rights to expression and free speech denied us for several years. This meant that I could not write (which is what I do) and Richard could not work at many jobs which required secuity clearance.

Don McKillop and Matt Miazga have defamed Richard Klassen by continuing to promote the myth that the charges against the Klassens and Kvellos were stayed for the good of the children, the innuendo being that the foster parents could be guilty. Richard Klassen and I have challenged every slur against our names. It is important to do so. We are the only people who can defend our own integrity.

I continue to hear stories about Travis Sterling. It is always "I know a guy who was in P.A. with him and Travis told him he did it." We have done our best to defend Travis's reputation -- we were at the trial and we know that he was convicted because of bad lawyering. Ultimately the only person who can defend Travis's reputation is Travis himself. The rest of his family has engaged "pizza and a car" lawyer Geoff Dufour to handle their civil claim for wrongful arrest. When the Martensville case was aired on The Fifth Estate, in a show called "Hell to Pay," no one stood up for Travis. When they get their pizza, will they give Travis a slice while Dufour drives off in a new car?

Mercifully, David Milgaard does not have to live in Saskatchewn any more and hear the false stories which continue to circulate. If and when a full and proper inquiry is held, perhaps these lies will be put to rest. On the other hand, we have found it important to tend to the truth close to where we live. David Milgaard should be free to come home to where he once lived without being followed by pointing fingers and false rumours. He has been defamed by Brian Beresh and the Saskatoon police. If Beresh is successful in taking the Fisher case to the Supreme Court based on keeping a cloud of suspicion over the head of David Milgaard, it will mean the mad injustice disease has spread to the highest court in our land.

As we said in the Latimer case, no one wins but the lawyers. And even they win only a temporary satisfaction of their greed.--Sheila Steele, Sermonette May 22, 2003

As we wind down our campaign on the legislature lawn, where we have strongly made our views about the Saskatchewan Justice Department known, we are preparing to moveour injusticebusting campaign to Saskatoon. Mayor Jim Maddin and Chief Russell Sabo find themselves under attack. There is a crisis of leadership in Saskatoon. We went easy on Maddin when he was elected, giving him room to do the right thing. We supported his enlistment of Calgary ex-chief Silverberg, believing perhaps the community policing thing had something to it. Sabo blew it. Patronizing, insulting and insincere comments to a 23 year senior female employee showed he is thick, to put the kindest reading on it. After all, he had already been through the experience of getting too familiar with a waitress. More importantly, both he and Maddin failed to deal with Dueck. They also failed to handle the attempted murder of Darrell Night by two members of their force with any grace. Did they forget that Darrell Night is a member of the community? The same community where they built a new station and then failed to staff it during the hours when it could be useful. (Only public pressure forced them to expand their hours.) I took the time to write a lengthy letter to the mayor, the police commission and City Councillers, photocopying one for each of them in November, 2001. I received a perfunctory acknowledgement and the issues I raised were not addressed.

Since 1994, Saskatoon has been paying for Dueck's defence in the Klassen/Kvello lawsuit. This has included taking city solicitor Barry Rossmann away from other matters for a time, before hiring private (expensive) lawyer David Gerrand. It includes a bill for hiring a private investigator to try to entrap Richard Klassen last June and followed by an unethical attempt to have his claim against the city struck. These are the same tactics Dueck used along with Murray Zoorkan against Kim Cooper. We do not forget. The internet does not forget.

A garden of signs on the legislature lawn: Come clean, compensate or clear out!

The garden has become a tourist attraction. People from Alberta, tours from Japan and Europe and the U.S. are continually snapping pictures of this democratic action. The campout will become part of news stories and personal photo albums around the world. Good news can travel as far as vicious rumours!

The Klassen campaign resumed at midnight with a new batch of lawn signs telling the story of the misdeeds of the present government. Videos were shown throughout the chilly night and night hawks came to the leg and wandered through the well-lit display reading the signs. A Regina policeman came by to see what was going on and took a break from his nightly rounds to talk to Richard Klassen about the wrong which was done to him by Saskatoon police and Crown prosecutors.

The sun came up to reveal a colourful garden of signs and tents. We expect the print and broadcast media to come by today. This campaign will continue to diagnose and suggest cures for the mad injustice disease which has been infecting the province.

Most elected officials are choosing to go in through the back or side doors. A few of them have walked through the front.

Since nine oc'clock a looped tape has been playing "While it is before the courts I cannot speak," Chris Axworthy's words to The Fifth Estate.

The following press release was faxed/delivered to over 30 media outlets locally and nationally. Today the campaigners personally visited MLA offices and Saskatoon media after doing publicity in Regina on Monday. Richard Klassen has been warmly received by everyone he has spoken to, including MLA David Forbes who shares an office with Lorne Calvert. One MP's office secretary took copies of Klassen's material and said she would photocopy a hundred copies and give them out to visitors!

At midnight, videos of the campaign and "The Scandal of the Century" will be projected around the legislative buildings.

For immediate release: Come on down! Legislature camp-out continues

On May 15th Richard Klassen and his supporters showed up as promised on the Regina Legislative grounds to camp out for a cause. This demonstration did take place and was successful. We were treated with fairness by security and even received a permit from Blair Paterson, Executive Director of Wascana Centre. We received this permit with the help of Wascana Police Sgt. Ted Collins. The Permit extends to May 21-22 and I am informing all media that I, Richard Klassen and supporters will resume our camp out starting Tuesday MIDNIGHT in accordance with the permit. There will be seven tents erected with new signs made to bring to attention the "Foster Parent case" as well as bringing to the Government attention the Martensville affair.

My Message is clear! The NDP should deal with both of these cases swiftly and compensate all the victims of this injustice immediately. I remind all that the only person so far that was compensated out of these two cases was John Popowich. This Government announced last year through Chris Axworthy that the Sexual Abuse "cases" that were handled in 1991 went wrong. He was quoted as saying their policies evolved. My reason for continuing this campaign now and through the summer months as I prepare for the upcoming civil trial is simple: I want to know how their policies have "evolved," I want compensation and closure to these two cases that have destroyed a lot of lives, and I want the NDP powers-that-be to come and tell the public in person why they are refusing to deal with their failing justice system. Their famous words that "while it is before the courts we can not speak" no longer hold water since last year they admitted that they were wrong when they had charged the Klassen family and the Martensville nine.  -- Richard Klassen

Wednesday: Sask Party Justice Critic Ben Hepner has invited Richard Klassen into the visitor's gallery for question period this afternoon when Hepner will raise the Klassen/Kvello case, Martensville and Milgaard.

Precedent has been set: Reclaiming our institutions

 Our campaign launch at the legislature in Regina May 15 was smooth. Wascana Police gave us a permit and the Legislature Security watched out for us. We were given permission to plug into the legislature electricity so we didn't have to use the generator we had brought along. We played The Fifth Estate show "Scandal of the Century" several times. Linden MacIntyre's voice and the familiar theme could be heard amidst the hustle and bustle of people coming and going to our government offices. We will be around the legislature and elsewhere in Regina publicizing the case and showing "Scandal of the Century." We have a permit to camp again Wednesday night when the sessions resume.

The media is with us and the police are with us in this action. Because the public is with us. And the more the public becomes aware of just how unjustly the plaintiffs have been treated, the more strongly they are with us.

Richard Klassen provided several interviews and members of the opposition joined us on the lawn to talk. We passed out several hundred leaflets to passers by and received positive response from most people, several of whom remained unaware of the Foster Parent case, having confused it with Martensville.

Lorne Calvert was not there -- he was in Saskatoon announcing that he would not call a June election. We did not see Eric Cline. We did see government lawyer Don McKillop leaving the building at around 10.30 a.m. We have no idea why he was there. According to the StarPhoenix report, the party line is that it would be inappropriate for Cline or Calvert to talk to us.

We also suggest they fire their spin doctors, Jeff Bohatch and Deb MacEwen and get themselves a book on democratic manners. Their refusal to talk to us is just one more layer of falsity like those they have been using in cover-ups back to David Milgaard.

We are citizens of this province. Our Premier and Justice Minister can talk to us. Face to face. Not this behind our backs bullshit insinuation that they are the keepers of the code and custodians of the gate. That the Klassens and Kvellos may well be guilty as Don McKillop told the media last year. Look us in the eye and tell us what is really going on: that you blew it, that you prosecuted a bunch of innocent people and then tried to make it look as though you did no wrong. Court or no court, election or no election, every moment you carry on this charade is another moment you engage in a malicious act.

When Chris Axworthy settled with Popowich last year, he acknowledged that the government had made mistakes. This admission should have led to an immediate settlement of all other cases. Axworthy also said that they had "evolved" since 1991. Evolved? How? Where? When? Is there a policy change? Where is it? Ask the Vopni family about the government's policy on apprehending children and charging innocent people without a proper investigation. It this is evolution, they should go back into the cave and try again. The time to correct an error is at the time you discover you have made it. Not ten or eleven or twelve years later.

The story is this: Public opinion is overwhelmingly on our side. The message to "Come clean, compensate or clear out" is clear. We had many discussions about the fact that 25 people were charged in the Foster Parent and Martensville cases but only one person has been compensated: John Popowich. No one we spoke to suggested that the other falsely charged persons in these cases, or Darrell Night were less damaged than Popowich.

We had discussions about how damaging the label of sex offender is. After the Holly Jones murder in Toronto, police stated there were 256 "sex offenders" living within a 3 km. radius of her home. We wonder how many of those people are actually actually sex offenders and how many are on a list because public officials like Matt Miazga or Brian Dueck said they were -- then dropped or stayed their charges because they didn't have a case.

This story is about ordinary people forging new ways to get our voices heard -- in the courts and in the houses of power. Richard Klassen's achievement in getting his family's claim to pre-trial settlement stage is unprecedented. As far as we know, our peaceful camp-out at the legislature is also unprecedented. We are showing the way for unrepresented people to claim those places which are rightfully ours -- the courts and legislatures -- and open up the process.

We thank those who have e-mailed us support. And we draw your attention to the case of Derik Lord whose case is being stonewalled in B.C.

No tricks, no theatrics -- just the truth.--Sheila Steele, May 16, 2003

Previous sermonette --Calvert and Cline can still do the right thing | But, of course they did not. Dec. 2004: Saskatchewan appeals Judge Baynton's findings of malice | Frank Quennell has written to inform Richard Klassen the public cannot be served without the overturning of the decision (they need malice.)

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

Truth crushed to earth will rise again. --William Cullen Bryant

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Who we are:

Publisher Sheila Steele

Co-founder: Richard Klassen

www.flickr.com Sheila Steele's Hathway drawings photoset

New: injusticebustersblog. Participate!

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.

More Sermonettes

 

early commentaries mixed in with news reports

2001

January: Legal Treachery to keep Dueck's lies safe

September: Hatchen and Munson trial

2002

March, 2002 -- Gay Bashing still a legal sport in Saskatoon -- Even when it turns to murder

First conscious sermonettes

2003

 

Feb. 1: Where we stand

Feb. 15, 2003: Has Saskatchewan learned anything?

March 1: Connecting the dots

March 23, 2003: From Micro to Macro

March 25, 2003: About libel and malice

March 27 : Gangs of Saskatoon: the police and prison guards

April 28, 2003: The Naked Truth

May 5: How low will they go?

May 15, 2003: Come clean Calvert, Cline!

May 30: Still smearing Milgaard - defamation is alive and well on the lawn of the Regina legislature and Precendent has been set as we reclaim our institutions

June 11, 2003: --Eric Cline carries on a corrupt tradition

Nov 7: Courage -- the only reward is justice

November 20: Just following orders

November 24: Mayor Atchison, community policing and graffiti

November 25: Michael Jackson

November 30: Corrupt officials must be severely punished: otherwise they just keep on putting the administration of justice in disrepute!

December 1: Christmas comes early for injustice warriors

December 4: Wide open Saskatchewan?

December 16: Crawling through the tunnel of justice since 1991

December 24: The Crown keeps right on breaking the law

December 30: Who will find justice under their tree?

 

2004

 

January 1. 2004: Unprecedented publicity and Happy New Year

January 8, 2004: Malice still afoot

January 10, 2004: Shame and mugshots

January 14, 2004: Telling more truth about the undefamable: McKillop and Quennell, the static duo

January 17, 2004: Fifth Estate returns and A working class hero is something to be

January 22,23, 2004: Justice is still prevailing -- it is just taking longer and Bits and pieces are now coming together to tell the story of the century

January 27, 2004: Telling the truth about the undefamable, restoring reputations to the defamed.

February 5, 2004: Negotiations and strategies: getting an intransigent government to remedy its damage

February 10, 2004: How many lawyers does it take to ruin a province? and Lawyer continues to treat people's lives as a cruel game: monopoly?

Febrary 16, 2004: Calvert is not King Arthur

March 29, 2004: Counting down to the damages trial

April 16, 2004: The internet, the courts and now the movies -- We will so what it takes to get justice

May 1, 2004: If Frank Quennell is any example of what former Justice Minister Chris Axworthy called "evolving," Saskatchewan is ready to kiss justice good-bye!

May 27, 2004: Some observations on Saskatchewan and justice

June 7, 2004:Media coverage of Monique Turenne's story illustrates journalistic laziness

June 8:, 2004 -- The police not only failed to serve and protect Don and Lorna Smith and their children but set them up for false charges and community shunning

September 2, 2004: A tale of three cops: Dueck, Gobeil and Schinkel -- with an update on how they get away with criminal obstruction of justice

November, 2004: Wilfred Hathway, Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns -- RCMP stings offensive to community standards

November 11, 2004: Rogue Platoon? Identifying the rotten apples in Saskatoon Police Service and why we need a full public inquiry into our whole justice system

November 28, 2004: Can Justice Minister Quennell take a few more steps? The Prosecutors' office is still harbouring crowns who put the administrative of justice in disrepute

November 12, 2004: Saskatchewan Justice in chaos: The Stonechild report suggests it is.

November 28, 2004: The price for being a good judge or a good prosecutor

December 30: When the government interferes with the judiciary, we know a Police State is a dangerous possibility (The government appeal of the Klassen/Kvello decision)

 

2005

 

Jan 1, 2005: Chewed up digested and spit out

Jan. 5, 2005: More on chief Sabo

February 18, 2005: Tunnel vision: Darren Koehn, Wilf Hathway and Leon Walchuk

March 2: Fixing the system: Time to quit talking and implement previous commission recommendations

March 19, 2005 : Injustice as ShowBiz

 

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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

 

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz

Saskatchewan Centenary

Quint Blog discussion

Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police

Blogging for choice

Michael Cardamone witch hunt

Implement recommendations of public inquiries

Stealing from the poor

Vancouver's killer cops

Tisdale rapists appeal

Winnipeg police misdeeds

Milgaard Inquiry

Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?

The Old Boys' Club Must Go!

Vancouver activists

John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie

City of intolerance

Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!

Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years