Thirty-five years ago I was found huddled against the wall of my local police station. Hospitalized without a clear memory of what happened that night, I have tried to be as open and honest in telling my story as best I could with the aid of people who were familiar with the case. The lady police officer who visited my cell after I was released from the hospital and returned to the station cells confirmed my inability to remember and comprehend the gravity of the assault. While I have struggled in the years since and accept responsibility for putting myself in a frightening state, much of the aftermath that followed I attribute to people who manipulated the sentencing outcome by casting aside the principles of due process, a promise every citizen in Canada is given. “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 committed the assault. But diary notes, recorded inteviews, court and institutional records tell the 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; yet both have remained silent and have refused to push for or produce the needed and corrective legislation. Judicial legislators have instead initited new and different paths which history shows can and will be abused, and in many cases help enhance prosecutorial and institutional corruption. New legislation like bail reform which has ties to what is described as intimate partner violence has such open ended applications attached to it that every spouse, husband or wife, is at risk of being labled an abuser over personal matters such as financial difficulties or infidelity. The stigma which is attached to such a label should not be taken lightly. It will harm families and leave members with an inabiltiy to heal as needed in the future. It took years for our family to achieve that peace of mind during such a difficult period in our lives. It is no secret that this open ended type of legislation will be abused by defense lawyers, prosecutors, even judges and correctional intitutions. But sadly, and intentionaly so, this legislation makes it easier for members of the legal community in Ottawa to promote self-serving laws at the expense of due-process, and especially for those who rely on legal-aid.

Poor Man’s Justice is that true story of one man’s fight to survive a decade of judicial abuse in Canada’s courts and correctional institutions. Betrayed by legal-aid lawyers and government prosecutors, a forty one year old husband and father of three is manipulated into accepting a plea bargain with time served. Evidence showed that shortly after his assault on a man involved in an affair with his wife he found huddled against the wall of the local police station, incoherent and in a state of shock. Hospitalized  and jailed, the father was held for eight months without bail while left in a state of depression. Awaiting trial, he is led to believe that a misleading and degrading forensic report written by a justice system social worker was being edited to reflex the truth. However, at sentencing he is bushwacked with a manufacture history of past violence and domestic abuse. Looking to expose the unjust character assassination, the father seeks justice in Family Court during a release on parole two years later. Knowing his intention to expose the sentencing, appeal and correctional abuse during his incarceration, a week before the scheduled family court hearing Corrections Canada and the National Parole Board create a false document accusing him of plotting and seeking revenge while out in the community. Silenced by the vindictive parole suspension and revocation, he is reimprisoned, stripped naked, and placed in the hole of a high security institution in British Columbia, Canada. Back in control, correctional officials, furious at his open condemnation of the justice system, push him to a near prison suicide with promises of release which are never realized. This heartbreaking story of judicial corruption comes to an end six years later in a shocking Supreme Court decision which makes, “Poor Man’s Justice,” a defining book on the art of courtroom manipulation and institutional abuse in Canada!

A author’s note:  Being bushwacked in court with a sentence which went four years beyond the offer I was given is bad enough, but having to live with a judicial social worker’s manufactured document portraying a history of violence and wife abuse which gave Corrections Canada cover to demand my capitulation to the dehumanizing deception was impossible to accept. ( The social worker’s manipulation used in this case was rightfully disputed by a forensic psychiatrist in his detailed summary and conclusion in the same document…a part of the report that was left unheard in court) When I refused to give into the government’s abuse and deception in this case, two years into my sentence Corrections Canada used its deceptive ability to falsely declare the children’s mother a victim, and with it, the National Parole Board was able to impose travel conditions which interfered with my access to our 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 which promises fair and equal justice for all is put at risk.

In my next post we will talk about the justice system’s latest attempts to incorporate its new legislation which will allow for further manipulation in the legal process and take it down a more sinister path which will leave due-process hanging by a thread. It is important to remember that honest legislation matters, but to leave legislation off the books which would deal with fair and equal justice hurts us all.