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Here are some tips to help you represent
yourself in Court
injusticebusters stand firmly for people representing
themselves in Court. We give advice based on our own beliefs
and experience. Anyone taking our advice is doing so based on
their own agreement with these beliefs, which include taking
full responsibility for your own actions.
If you have
doubts about taking your legal life into your own hands, we suggest
you closely look at the track record of lawyers and ask yourself
why, with so many more lawyers out there, are the jails fuller
than ever? Are people becoming more criminal in their behavior?
Has human nature changed dramatically in the last 40 years? We
don't think so. The co-relation between more lawyers and fuller
jails might have something to do with where greedy interests
lie. (Pun intended.) As long as you remain in the Justice System,
someone is making a buck off you and that buck is coming right
out of your taxes. injusticebusters know that in some
parts of the world there are human beings who ethically practice
the law, willing to put themselves on the line for no other reason
than a firm belief in their clients' rights to justice. In Saskatchewan
there are no such people. That is why at injusticebusters, we
do not claim to practice law. We practice justice. And no bar
on earth can deny us the right to do that!
Court Menu (click links or scroll down)
Defence lawyers
are no better than Crowns. In fact a lot of them would like to
be Crowns. The only reasons you would hire a Saskatchewan defence
lawyer is:
- to
impress your friends
- to
scare your enemies (my lawyer's bigger than your lawyer!)
- to
clean out your bank account
- somebody
told you you should get a lawyer
- because
you feel you need someone to tell you not to talk to your friends,
or the media, or anyone else who could help you.
Legal
aid lawyers are just as bad.
Anything a lawyer can
do, you can also do. Except that as your own counsel you have
certain advantages a lawyer doesn't
have.
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We no longer hang people
in Canada but if we did, a lot of innocent people would have
been hanged by now. And they all would have had lawyers.
Public
hanging in the United States
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Traffic Court
- Parking tickets are simple
enough and you know when you pick the damn thing up off your
windshield whether you deserved it or not.
- If the meter had only expired
five minutes ago, you might be fighting mad, but your best bet
still might be to pay it immediately before it grows to $40 or
whatever they are now charging in your town.
- However, if you don't have
the money to pay it, or you forget and wind up with a summons,
it is worth
going to Court.
- It is even worth pleading
"not guilty."
- Then you will get a Court
date and the policeman or commissionaire who wrote that ticket
will have to show up in Court.
- If he is sick that day, the
ticket will be dismissed. Traffic court can be fun but it can
also be frustrating and time consuming.
- It can also be your first
experience of how the justice system works -- and an opportunity
to observe first hand the revenue-grabbing aspect of it.
- A parking ticket is not something
you should even consider paying a lawyer to handle for you.
Disclosure on a parking
ticket
In traffic court, the disclosure
is simple. It is the notes the officer made at the time he wrote
you the ticket, sometimes a carbon copy with a date. It is still
disclosure and can have important information. Study it. There
may be a sloppy mistake -- number, date, time, address, etc.
It's up to them to get it right. You obtain this by calling
the Provincial prosecutor's office (or, in Saskatoon, going to
the office at the back of the Provincial Court Building.)
What is disclosure?
When you are first charged,
whether it be a parking ticket on your windshield or a murder
charge where you are hauled off to jail in the middle of the
night, the police had some reason for charging you.
- You are entitled to know these
reasons and the police are obligated to provide you with these
reasons.
- This is called disclosure.
- Remember, disclosure is exactly
what it sounds like it is.
- It is the Crown's case against
you and you are entitled to it.
- If you need help getting your
disclosure, e-mail
injusticebusters | back to court
menu
Since January 1996, when the
Saskatchewan Court of Appeals ruled against the Lucases Saskatchewan
Justice has made it much more difficult for citizens to get disclosure.
If you are seriously interesting in studying this encroachment
on the rights of citizens, see our page Disclosure
and Saskatchewan Justice.
As long as
Saskatchewan Justice is fighting to keep disclosure from citizens
you are helping not just yourself but everyone in Saskatchewan
by representing yourself and getting a full understanding of
just how important your right to disclosure is!
A
word on disclosure in Canada
Many of us have received what
legal education -- or miseducation -- we have from watching television.
A lot of what we see there is accurate and useful. Some is not.
One important
distinction between American law and Canadian law is the defense's
right to keep to itself whatever information it turns up in the
course of investigating its own case. In the U.S., the defense is required to turn
over its case to the prosecution just as the prosecution is required
to disclose its information to the defense. This is called reciprocal
discovery. Whether or not you think that is a more fair situation,
we do not have reciprocal discovery in Canada. This advantage
for the defence has been fiercely fought for and when you consider
the resources and advantages of the Crown, you might understand
why. The point is: do not hesitate to investigate your case,
follow up leads or ideas you get from the Crown's disclosure,
and ask for full disclosure on anything which you believe the
Crown may have but has somehow forgotten to give you. During
the pretrial conference is a good time to go after full disclosure,
and the judge will help you get it. You are entitled to see the
notes which the police took at the time of the occurence and
from which they made their reports. If you suspect there is a
discrepency, this becomes part of your defense. After the pretrial
conference, a pretrial date will be sent to you.
To our American
visitors: While we have
much better protection regarding disclosure, we envy your First
Amendment, and have found our Charter, which claims to protects
free speech has not always done so. Furthermore, people in Canada
who serve on juries are coerced to keep forever silent about
their jury experience, even if that experience includes pressure
to influence them by the prosecution or the Crown. We encourage
you to use our advice to defend yourself and any Court tips you
find helpful.
Disclosure
should belong to you and you alone. injusticebusters stands for
the rights of the individual to own/his her own stuff and to
have it in your own possession!
Encroachment
on this right gives those in authority too much power!
Why you should get your own dislosure
on Criminal Matters
When you are charged
on a criminal matter, disclosure is vital.
- You find yourself charged
with a criminal offence.
- If you contact a lawyer, the
first thing he will do after talking to you is obtain disclosure.
- Often, you don't even get
a chance to see this, or he will flash it under your nose briefly
while assuring you that you are lucky you called him. Recently
the Crown has become so paranoid about disclosure that they have
got defence lawyers to agree not to give anything out. Defence
lawyers also might tell you that the disclosure is the property
of the Crown and he has to return it to the Crown. Who is he
working for, anyhow? This is another good reason to handle your
own case.
You must remember
these pieces of paper belong to you and you are entitled not
only to see them but to own them.
These are
not just pieces of paper! These are pieces of your life and nobody
knows your life better than you do!
You are
the only one who knows whether the police reports accurately
state what happened. A lawyer would discuss
what he thinks your disclosure means and will charge you for
that service. The next time you see
him will be in court where he may pass a couple words with you,
but will probably behave as though he has many more important
things on his mind and that he is doing you a big favour by taking
time out from his busy schedule to appear for you. Of course this makes
you feel small and insignificant which is how the court system
has been designed to make you feel.
If you are
a young person, the Court may insist that you get a lawyer, or
may assign an aggressive legal aid person to appear for you.
If this happens, you must get the attention of the Court and
insist that you wish to represent yourself. Make it clear that
you understand what you are doing. Be polite, but be FIRM.
How to get
that disclosure
Step-by-step
- Getting disclosure
should take only a few days in most cases, and certainly not
more than a week from the time you are first charged.
- You obtain
your disclosure by contacting the Provincial Court (except for
drug cases where you contact the Federal Court).
- Ask for the
Prosecutor's Office. State who you are and what you are charged
with.
- Be sure to
inform them that you are defending yourself and that you request
disclosure as soon as possible.
- Remember that
at no time have you given up your right to hire a lawyer.
- You have,
however, saved yourself some money and made major preparations
for your case.
Since we posted
this page, we have a lot more experience with disclosure. See
how the Crown
is now trying to force Saskatchewan people to get lawyers, sometimes with the
Court's cooperation. This is illegal and we are trying to put
a stop to it. Sask
Court of Appeals
is also implicated in this legalization of deception of the courts.
The landmark case backing everything we adise regarding disclosure
is Stinchcombe.
Researching the Law
If you had a lawyer the next
thing he would do after receiving disclosure is look up the number
of the charge in the Criminal Code.
- Common defenses which have
been previously successful and all defenses which are allowed
are provided right there.
- There are several annotated
versions of the Criminal Code and they are available in the Reference
Section of the library.
The
Criminal
Code of Canada is
also available on line.. back to court menu
injusticebusters
is working on other resources to help you. Here is the best
one
we've found yet. It is international and full of practical as
well as entertaining material.
Election and Plea
- Now you have your disclosure
in your hands you are ready to go to Court for election and plea.
- At this time the Crown will
inform the Court if it intends to proceed by way of summary conviction
or indictment.
- A summary conviction remains
in provincial court.
- An indictable offence generally
carries a much greater penalty. (If you already know that it
is a summary charge, anyone can appear for you with your instructions.
However, if you are charged with an indictable offense or are
not yet sure, you must appear yourself, with or without a lawyer.)
- Stand when your name is called.
- Approach the front of the
courtroom.
- The judge will ask you if
you are ready to enter a plea.
- Respond by telling him you
will need time to look over the disclosure.
- The judge will then give you
up to two weeks if you request that amount of time. Remember,
you should have no fear . This is not a trial.
Spend your two weeks wisely,
researching your case -- and save yourself between three and
five hundred dollars.
Court Appearance
- If you are charged with an
an indictable offence the Judge will ask you if you want to be
tried by a magistrate, judge alone or judge and jury.
- Magistrate means you will
be tried in the very court you are in (provincial court.)
- If you elect to be tried by
magistrate your next step will be a trial.
- If you elect to be tried by
judge alone or judge and jury, your next step will be a preliminary
hearing.
- It has been our personal experience
to ask to be tried by judge and jury.
- You can always ask for it
to be transferred back to whatever court you choose if you change
your mind. This is called electing down.
You can always elect down but
you cannot elect up. Once you've said no to a jury, that opportunity
is gone
Pretrial
Hearing
- A pretrial is held in chambers
at Queen's Bench which is where you will be from this point on.
- The judge will not be your
trial judge.
- This is an informal hearing
where normally the lawyers and the judge talk about the trial
process and determine how many witnesses, applications etc.,
in short how much time and space to set aside for your trial.
- The pretrial is basically
housekeeping which allows the Court Registrar to schedule cases
in an orderly way. If you had a lawyer, he would appear for you
and probably discourage you from attending.
- But since you have decided
to take charge of your own legal life, you are now beginning
to really save money.
- While the pretrial process
is a matter of convenience for the Court registrar, for you it
can be a matter of becoming more and more comfortable with the
whole process and discovering how comfortable the Crown is with
its case.
- If you are observant, you
can learn a lot at this stage.
Your
rights in Court as your own counsel
- You must remember that you
are acting as your own counsel and that you have the same rights
as a lawyer would have acting on your behalf.
- In most cases you will receive
more leeway from the Court than a lawyer would.
- You have the right to cross-examine
the Crown's witnesses.
- You have the right to examine
the evidence.
- Remember that a lying witness
will find it much harder to lie to you in person than he would
to your lawyer!
Most preliminary hearings will
end with you being held over to stand trial. The Court will then
notify you of a date for Pretrial.
Trial
- If you are
held over to stand trial, you are still better off without a
lawyer.
- If you are
innocent, you have nothing to fear from anything the Crown might
present. It is your job to dismantle the Crown's case through
cross-examination of witnesses and challenging the evidence.
The judge is obligated to advise you of your rights, so in a
sense you have the best legal counsel available!
- If you are
guilty, it is your job to keep your culpability within reasonable
bounds. If you have been overcharged, you want the charges adjusted
to fit the crime.
- There are
many people in jail who went through a trial with a lawyer.
- Read up on
all the available defenses. Make sure you present your defenses.
Make sure you voice your objections to anything the Crown presents
that you think they shouldn't. If the Crown makes a mistake,
you still have at least two levels of appeal.
- injusticebusters
recommend
according the Court the same respect it grants to you. Most judges
will treat you with respect. Stand when they enter the Courtroom.
Address them as your honour or my lord or my lady.
- In the event
the Court does not treat you respectfully, and tries to shut
you down, do not hesitate to remain standing and raise your voice
until your point is recognized. But always listen carefully to
what the Crown and the judge say.
Make sure you
get the truth of your case in as clearly as possible. Think of
how the transcript will read in case you need to appeal. But
once you are certain you have made your case, shut up. injusticebusters
say it is not fair to dribble on and bore people to death and
we think it should be a crime.
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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
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
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How
to walk yourself through the justice system
-
- Why
you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
-
- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
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.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
- Nfld Defamation story:
- Wanda
Young
- Racism
in the Federal Civil Service
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
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The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
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- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
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- Brandon Morin:
- Convicted in Oregon
- of rapes which did not happen
- This website has good information
about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements
which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how
the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors
who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful
convictions.
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Canadians who
have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations
combined with zealous Crown
A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
- Robert
Baltovich
- Michael
Burns
- Sebastian Burns
- Rodney
Cain
- Wilbert
Coffin
(hanged, 1953)
- Jason Dix
- Jim
Driskell
- Jody
Druken
- Randy
Druken
- Hugues
Duguay
- Michel
Dumont
- Peter
Frumusa
- Walter
Gillespie and Robert Mailman
- Clayton
Johnson
- Yvonne
Johnson
- Herman
Kaglik
- Darren
Koehn
- Kulaveeringsam
"Kulam" Karthiresu
- Stephen
Leadbeater
- Donald
Marshall
- Chris
McCullough
- Michael
McTaggart
- Felix
Michaud
- David
Milgaard
- Guy Paul
Morin
- Shannon
Murrin
- Jamie
Nelson
- Greg
Parsons
- Benoit
Proulx
- Atif Rafay
- Louise
Reynolds
- Thomas
Sophonow
- Gary
Staples
- Billy
Taillefer
- Steven
Truscott
- Joe
Warren
- Leon
Walchuk
-
- AIDWYC
- Innocence Project (Canada)
- Innocence Project (U.S.)
- Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions
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- Kirstin
Lobato
- Jeffrey
Scott Hornoff
- Willie
Upshaw
- Hurricane
Carter
- Guildford
4
- Birmingham
6
- Amirault
- Houston
- U.S. wrongful convictions:
Exonerateed
- Kirk
Bloodsworth
- Laurence
Adams
- Ludrate
Burton
- Stephen
Cowans
- Wilton
Dedge
- Albert
Johnson
- Kenneth
Marsh
- Dwayne
McKinney
- James Bernard Parker
- Peter
Reilly
- Peter
Rose
- Sylvester
Smith
- Clifford
St. Joseph
- John
Stoll
- Marty
Tankleff
- Wilton
Dedge
- Ray
Krone
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- Still working on it:
- Dennis Deschaine
- Dennis
Perry
- Tim
Sandfort
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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
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