Thirty-five years ago, found huddled against the wall at my local police station, I was driven to our community hospital while in a state of shock. I have memories of that evening, some clearer than others. I have been as open and honest about the events of that night and am grateful for the help I received in interviews which were conducted later on with those who were familiar with my assault on the other man in my wife’s life. My actions scared a lot of people, including myself after a talk with the lady officer during her visit to my cell the next day when I was released from the hospital and returned to the station. While I have struggled in the years since and accept the responsibility which was mine that night, much of the aftermath in that continuing struggle since can be attributed to people in the justice system who believed they had the right to manipulate principles of due process, something which every citizen in Canada is promised and deserves. “Poor Man’s Justice” is not about guilt or innocence. Despite the mitigating circumstances regarding my state of mind that night, (which were hidden at sentencing) I, without question, committed the assault. But diary notes, recorded inteviews, court and institutional records tell this story in a different light, one dimmed by a deceitful plea bargain and an abusive parole revocation which caused years of pain and suffering for a family that deserved better from its justice system. The need for legislation to end plea bargaining abuse and vindictive parole suspensions and revocations has been submitted to media and government officals; both have remained silent and refused to produce the needed legislation, but instead, have initited new and recent ones which can be abused and used to enhance and promote prosecutorial and institutional abuse in cases where every spouse, husband or wife, is at risk of being labled an abuser for as little as espressing a disagreement over family matters such as financial difficulties, including holiday spending. The stigma attached to such a label will undoubtably harm families and leave behind an inabiltiy for these families to heal in the future. It took years for our family to achieve that peace of mind needed.  New legislation on intimate partner violence with undoubtably be abused by the system’s lawyers, both for and against false accusations of emotional abuse which will leave such a stigma on one partner or another. And attaching emotional harm to these subjects makes it a whole lot easier to promote legislation by members of the legal community in Ottawa, especially those inside the justice sytem who are seeking more power in support of a soft police state.

Poor Man’s Justice is a true story which highlights a father’s fight to survive a decade of deceit and abuse by individuals who eagerly dismissed the rights of due process. In my case, the betrayal of legal-aid lawyers, government prosecutors and correctional and parole officials will leave readers with hundreds of unanswered questions; “Why was a deceptive plea bargain and a vindictive reimprisonment used to send a father and his children down a path to which no citizen of this country should ever be asked to walk. Lacking a criminal record and promised early release with consideration for time served, (eight months without bail) why was I imprisoned four years after accepting an offer of early release? I agreed to accept the offer with my children in mind. Being bushwacked in court with a sentence which went four years beyond the offer was bad enough, but having to live with a social worker’s manufactured history of past violence and alleged wife abuse gave Corrections Canada cover to demand my capitulation to the deception. ( The social worker’s manipulation used in this case was rightfully disputed by a forensic psychiatrist in his detailed summary and conclusion, something which went unheard in court) When I refused to give into the government’s abuse and deception, two years into my sentence Corrections Canada used the deception to falsely declare the children’s mother a victim, and with it, the National Parole Board imposed travel conditions which interfered with access to my children. Abuse of power has many levels to it, and when it is administered by individuals who feel protected by an unaccountable judicial bureaucracy, the strength of a civil society is put at risk. I attempted to expose this abuse of power in family court shortly after my release. Threatened with the exposure, (as later told to me by my parole officer) a week before a scheduled hearing with my children, where we were to discuss access with the court, I was reimprisoned for a travel violation after taking my children out of their community for a day of bowling with their mother’s permission. For this crime, I was stripped naked and secured in the hole of a high security institution in British Columbia, Canada. Surviving a near prison suicide after toyed promises of release which were never realized, this heartbreaking story of judicial corruption ends in a shocking Supreme Court decision which makes, “Poor Man’s Justice,” a defining book for an entire nation!