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Eric
Cline
says it's just fine that his fund helped pay for the phony "wide
open Saskatchewan"
campaign.
(New
movie -- will open on new page) Axworthy | Quennell
|
MacNeil
Clinic report from 1987
| Witness tampering
in the Foster Parent case | Robert Mitchell retires: injusticebusters
comment | Mitchell
weazles out of providing a remedy for Howard Gowan | RCMP goes after FSIN
Robert Mitchell
2005: Robert Mitchell is now
head of the Police Complaints Department
Conflict of interest or just the Saskatchewan
way?
Upon retiring from politics,
Mitchell picked up some lucrative contracts. One was with the
Federation of Saskatchewan Indians for whom he got several favourable
financial settlements regarding casinos in the province. FSIN
no doubt felt privileged to have a former justice minister acting
for them.
Now dozens of people have claimed
to have their lives ruined by gambling and some have lawsuits
pending. Some are First Nations people. FSIN still have Mitchell
on retainer. Another tangled ball of string for the courts to
sort out?
3 yrs. ago
on injusticebusters
March, 1999: Robert Mitchell, has just announced
his resignation from politics and is coy about future plans.
He should consider fourteen
years in the federal pen with Sgt. Brian
Dueck and Richard Quinney, as cell
mates!
injusticebusters has this to
say to Mitchell: As Justice Minister you knew this case was fishy.
You were contacted by Michael Ross's grandparents in Weyburn,
you received many communications from many officials.
You knew what was going on
and we hold you completely responsible for all of it! You can run, but you
can't hide! We agree with
you that elected officials who steal public funds should be prosecuted
and punished. What do we do with public officials who steal years
from people's lives, turning tranquility to torment? And deliberately
cover it up! Face the music, Bob. You did wrong! You were named
as a defendant in QB 271, 1994 and
got your name off the lawsuit while Ed
Holgate had carriage of the file. Perjury is still perjury,
Bob
Whatever your
new exciting job might be, Mitchell, eventually you will have
to appear and defend your criminal past!
Meanwhile injusticebusters
is being warned about breaking publication bans. 486 and 486.3
orders are routinely applied for by crown and defense and granted
by judges.
These orders
are supposed to protect people from unnecessary and intrusive
invasions into their privacies, but they do no such thing. While
Bob Mitchell was Minister of Justice, he violated such a ban
by saying T.S.'s full name during a North Battleford radio talk
show. He made a big deal out of resigning for a while until Justice
looked into it, declared it was an "honest mistake"
and put him back in charge. Would that he would have taken as
seriously the other criminal actions which were going on uder
his auspices.
Saskatchewan
Justice is holding former elected officials accountable for their
crimes and has Senator Eric Berntson on trial right now. This
demonstrates that it is possible to hold accountable those who
acted arrogantly and as though they were immune from prosecution
-- untouchable. Elected officials should not steal money from
the public purse and they should not proceed to prosecute individuals
they know are innocent. They should disclose all exculpatory
evidence to accused! Richard Quinney, Matt Miazga, Sonia Hanson,
Bruce Bauer, Nancy Sullivan, and all those who participated in
the prosecution of John and Johanna Lucas broke the law while
Mitchell was their boss and knew about it.
Robert Mitchell was
Minister of Justice in 1993. On July 25 of that year, Richard
Klassen wrote a letter to the Premier,
Roy Romanow, asking for a full public inquiry into the foster
parent debacle. Romanow passed the letter on to Mitchell who,
three months later, replied giving the government's
reasons for refusing to have an inquiry Perhaps when these
dishonest politicians write their cover-up letters they assume
no one saves them. They expect not to be held accountable for
their proclamations. Joyce Milgaard did not forget and we haven't
forgotten, either.
Minister of Justice who stonewalled
the Milgaard settlement. "There's simply nothing left to
inquire into. This is a very cold trail and it just doesn't seem
productive at all to try to go back and inquire into it further,"
he said in 1992 after the Supreme Court ordered a new trial.
He was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying he believed
Milgaard was guilty and when confronted by David Milgaard's brother
Chris, said, "With respect, I feel the air is clear."
With respect, it is possible
that Mitchell was basing his belief on Prosecutor (later to be
Judge) Babs Caldwell's opinion that Milgaard had a long psychopathic
history and was Canada's version of Charles Manson. Caldwell,
in turn, had accepted as truth much falsified evidence from the
Saskatoon police (see Rusty Chartier's
letter to StarPhoenix.)
During the foster parent scandal
and Martensville, he promoted himself as someone who was helping
to save the province from horrors too large to speak about.
Refused to let the Ross
children's grandparents know anything about what was happening
while Dueck was preparing their lies.
Released the name of a young
offender in the Martensville case.
Retired from politics during
the winter of 1998 and was lauded as distinguished.
Has his eyes out for a plum
position where integrity should be part of the character reference.
July, 2001: Mitchell is representing
the people in North Battleford who failed to keep the water supply
clean
July 25, 1993
Mr. Roy Romanow
Premier of Saskatchewan
Legislative Building
Regina, Saskatchewan
S4S 0B3
Dear Mr. Romanow,
I am writing to you on behalf of
myself, my wife Kari and my three children, Krystal, 11 years,
Kayla, 4 1/2 years and Brady, 2 1/2 years, to ask that you order
a full public inquiry into the treatment we have received at
the hands of the justice system in Saskatchewan.
On February 10, 1993, after a long
ordeal that no human being should have to endure, my wife and
I, along with six members of my family which included my sister,
my two brothers and their wives, my mother, as well as my brother's
sister-in-law and her nusband, had charges against us stayed
for unspeakably gross acts of sexual abue of three children.
The charges against us were so obviously
false that they should never have been proceeded with. The three
children, a boy and his twin sisters, made up unbelievable stories
about being raped and assaulted almost daily by each of us, men,
women and teenagers alike, as well as my wheelchair-bound mother.
These same children accused their biological parents of killing
and eating several babies, mutilating animals and children, including
themselves, collecting their blood and drinking it, poling out
animal and human eyeballs and serving them for dinner, and regularly
eating feces and drinking urine as part of their meals. The children
claimed to remember that this was done to them when they were
infants -- one of them said she was two years old and still crawling
when she watched her mother slaughter the neighbours' babies
and bury them in boxes in her backyard, and she reported on how
angry the neighbours were when they came to get their children
and were told by the (deaf) mother that the babies were dead!
Nevertheless, according to this child, the neighbours did not
complain to the police because they had other children at home!
Needless to say, the police never looked for nor did they locate
any human remains in the back yards of these accused, and neither
did they find anyone whose children had been murdered by these
people. Also, a social worker and a medical doctor testified
at the trial that there had been no signs of this type of massive
physical abuse of the children when they were still living at
home.
These children were fostered by my
brother Dale and hs wife Anita, and at no time did the children
mention anything about how they had been mutilated and tortured
by their parents. They only made these accusations, first against
their parents, and then against Dale and Anita and the rest of
us, when the older brother, Michael, was removed from Dale and
Anita's home because of his obviously disturbed and violent behavior,
which had been fully documented by teachers and social workers
alike. (Among other things, the boy threw one of his siters under
a moving vehicle, causing her severe injusries.) The bizarre
"disclosures" started coming out only when the boy
moved into a new foster home where the parents were stong fundamentalist
Christians who believed that the boy, Michael, "had the
devil in him." In no time Michael and then later his sisters,
accused members of our family, no matter how little contact we
had had with them. These accusations were taken at face value
by the police and the social services, who should have been competent
enough to realize that there was no truth to what the children
were saying.
Our family has been torn to pieces
by these false accusations. We have lost of livelihoods, our
reputations, our mental health, and even hope. My sister Pamela,
who lost her much beloved adopted son because of these charges
has since tried to commit suicide on numerous occasions. It was
to protect her from having to g through a trial that my father
eventually pleaded guilty to acts that he was not guilty of,
and he is now serving a sentence of four years in the Bowden
Penitentiary in Alberta.
I am asking you, from the bottom
of my heart, to call this public inquiry without delay. We are
innocent people who have been injured by a process that completely
disregarded our lives and our rights. We want to have our names
cleared and the public has a right to know what happened to us
because it could happen to anybody, unless these kinds of abuses
get stopped. I have enclosed a set of articles that were recently
published in the StarPhoneix about my wife and me, my mother
and my brother's sister-in-law and her family. They will give
you a little glimpse of the hell we have been through and are
still living.
Sincerely (signed)
Rick Klassen
11 A Gibson Close
Red Deer, Alberta
T4P 2Z3
Tel: (403) 340-3195
CC.: All Saskatchewan Members of
Parliament
The reply:
Minister of Justice
And Attorney General
October 15, 1993
Mr. Rick Klassen
11 A Gibson Close
Red Deer, Alberta
T4P 2Z3
Dear Mr. Klassen:
Premier Romanow has referred your
letter to me for a reply. In your letter, you ask for a full
public inquiry into the handling of certain charges of sexual
abuse against you and members of your family. I have considered
that request carefully, but do not believe that a public inquiry
is warranted.
As I understand the circumstances,
you and other members of your family were charged in relation
to the alleged sexual abuse of foster children in the care of
your brother and sister-in-law. A preliminary inquiry was held
before an experienced Provincial Court Judge. The evidence presented
at this inquiry was strong enough to obtain a committal for trial.
As you will be aware, the evidence upon which the committal for
trial was based was provided by the children involved.
I understand that following the preliminary
inquiry, psychiatrists, therapists, councilors and the new foster
parents of the children involved advised the crown that the ability
of these children to testify had greatly deteriorated because
of the trauma they had under gone during the preliminary inquiries
and during the trial of the natural parents. The experts who
were familiar with the children recommended that they not be
subjected to any further traumatization through their involvement
in more court proceedings.
The Crown accepted the guilty plea
of one member of your family to four counts of sexual assault
and decided to stay the charges against you and the remaining
members of your family. This course of action was in keeping
with the Crowns duty not to proceed with any criminal case where
there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction or where it would
be contrary to the public interest to proceed.
It appears clear that in this case,
the condition of the children had deteriorated to the point where
the Crown could not meet the standard of a reasonable likelihood
of conviction and faced the substantial risk of exposing already
traumatized children to additional harm through a further court
process.
I recognize the charges against you
have not proceeded to trial. In these circumstances, it is important
to remember that our system of justice is based upon the principal
that an accused person is considered innocent until proven guilty
in a court of law.
At the same time, I assure you that
the Crown is very aware of the impact that criminal charges have
upon an accused, especially charges of the nature brought against
you and your family. Decisions to lay charges and to proceed
or not proceed with prosecutions are made only after painstaking
consideration of all the issues involved. I am confident that
the Crown exercised such diligence in relation to the charges
involving you and your family.
I appreciate that this response will
not please you, but for the above reasons I think that a public
inquiry is inappropriate.
Yours Sincerely
Robert W. Mitchell, Q.C
Minister of Justice and
Attorney General
c.c. Honourable Roy Romanow
Ten years later: See
what Eric Cline has to say
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. 