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Racism blights N.S. justice system

HALIFAX — An unfortunate but iso-
lated miscarriage of justice? To many, that
was the way it must have appeared six years
ago when Donald Marshall Jr., 2 Micmac
Indian, was finally released after having
served 11 years in prison on his wrongful
conviction for the 1981 murder of Sandy
Seale in Sydney, N.S.

Much of the story has unravelled since
then — woeful tales of witness intimidation
by police; shoddy investigation techniques;
bureaucratic bungling by the provincial
attorney-general’s office; the withholding of
evidence from the defence counsel during
Marshall’s appeal; and the subsequent
withholding of evidence by then Sydney
police detective John MacIntyre during the
RCMP re-investigations. But even these
serious breaches of\police and judicial
procedure mask a more profound malaise.

What has emerged after months of tes-
timony before the provincial Royal Com-
mission on the Donald Marshall prosecution
(and the years of research and court records
that preceded the inquiry) is an incontro-
vertible picture of institutionalized racial
and class discrimination at every level of the
justice system in Nova Scotia. No other
conclusion is possible.

Still, even at this late date, efforts are
underway to obscure the truth and minim-
ize the damage.

Take the issue of racism, for instance. it
was clear from the outset that it had played
a major role in the Marshall case and that
the investigation of racist discrimination
would form part of the inquiry’s mandate.
During. the hearings, RCMP Sergeant
Harry Wheaton told of detective MacIn-
tyre’s repeated slurs against Native people,
Blacks and other minorities, including his
remark that “those brown-skinned fellows
all stick together.”” Other witnesses have
also attested to the racist attitudes of not
only Macintyre but also of other Sydney
police officers.

Herb Desmond, an activist in the peace
and anti-racist movements in Halifax, was
raised in Whitney Pier in Sydney and knew
Sandy Seale and Donald Marshall person-
ally. According to Desmond, the Sydney
police would invariably single out Black
and Native youths for harsh treatment. “Tf,
for instance, there were problems at a dance
and Natives and Blacks were there, the cops
would always hassle one or the other of us,”
Desmond told the Tribune.

He added: “There were lots of cases of
racism — many of the police were racists
and rednecks — but very few cases were
reported because no organ exists to accept
such complaints except the police them-
selves.”

From the Maritimes

Miguel Figueroa

Despite the preponderance of evidence,
however, no action has been taken to coun-
ter racism in the ranks of the police, either
by Sydney City Council or by provincial
authorities.

Last week Halifax County Judge Robert
Anderson admitted that in 1984 he told
Felix Cacchione, then Marshall’s lawyer,
that Cacchione shouldn’t “get (his) balls ina
vice over an Indian.” Judge Anderson’s
Tacist comments were denounced by Clay-
ton Ruby, Donald Marshall’s lawyer, dur-
ing the inquiry and by the Union of N.S.
Indians (UNSI) and the Black United Front
(BUF). But he was quickly defended by

- Some peers on the bench.

Neither the provincial cabinet nor the
attorney-general’s office have called for dis-
ciplinary action against Anderson even
though the A-G’s own department found in
a recent study that Blacks and Native
people are three times as likely to “do time”
as whites. A recent case study “Is Blind
Justice Peeking” also found a recurring
pattern of ethnic bias in N.S. court rulings.

The Marshall case has helped to bring
out the other jaundiced side to Nova Sco-
tia’s justice system — its built-in class bias.
Donald Burgess, a supervising NCO in the

RCMP’s Halifax criminal detachment, told
the inquiry in effect that tie RCMP had two
sets of standards, and that had Marshall
been a prominent citizen, his murder inves-
tigation would have been handled more
thoroughly and a conviction probably pre-
vented. Staff Sgt. Wheaton went further,
noting that the A-G’s department gave per-
sonal, detailed attention to cases involving
politically “important” people, while other
cases were handled in a slipshod, “arbi-
trary” manner. ;
Wheaton testified that in the case of a
1982 “suspicious fire” in a Port Hawkes-
bury restaurant owned by then Tory MLA
Bill Joe MacLean (convicted in 1987 for
knowingly submitting forged expense
claims), the A-G’s office turned over the
RCMP investigation file to MacLean, who
himself was the target of the investigation.
In the Marshall case, by contrast, the
crown attorneys failed to even tell the law-
yer preparing Marshall’s appeal that the
RCMP had conducted a re-investigation
and that new witnesses, clearing Marshall of
the murder charge, had come forward. Had
Marshall’s lawyer received this information,
it is very likely that a new trial would have
been ordered and Donald Marshall spared

the misery of spending 11 years of his adult
life in prison for a crime he did not commit.

It was somewhat ironic that while these
revelations were coming out at the Marshall
inquiry hearings, another court across town
was convicting Tory Social Services Minister
Edmund Morris of contravening the Free-
dom of Information Act by releasing
information about Brenda Thompson, a
single parent and welfare recipient who had
publicly criticized Conservative welfare pol-
icies. Morris was fined $100 for his offence;
meanwhile the provincial government paid
his legal fees while Thompson’s legal costs
amounted to $10,000 with no government
funding to date. Thompson was forced to
take private action because the A-G’s office
refused to prosecute.

Not all is said and done. The hearings in
the inquiry into Marshall’s case have only
recessed until March 7 and are expected to
carry on for several more months. The final
report and recommendations from the
three-judge commission will likely not be
made public until some time in early 1989.
But regardless of the text of the final report,
the reality has already been set out for all to
see. Two sets of justice clearly exist — one
for the white, wealthy and well-connected,
and another for Native people, Blacks,
other minorities, working people and the
poor.

If nothing else, the Marshall case has
given progressive people a poignant
reminder that real democratic advance in
Nova Scotia and Canada will require an
unremitting fight against racism and for
fundamental, structural changes in both law
and the administration of justice in this
country.

RCMP Sergeant Harry Wheaton (right) Donald Marshall: two justice systems.

TORONTO — Calling the new fed-
eral budget a ‘“‘corporation budget, plain
and simple,” the Communist Party’s
central executive declared Feb. 11 that
Finance Minister Michael Wilson’s
proposals are “another good reason the
Mulroney government should go.”

In a statement released following the
tabling of the budget in the house, the CP
charged that the budget “does nothing to
stop the continuing shift of income from
the working people and lower middle
class to the wealthy and the corpora-
tions.

“Tt does nothing to redress the billions
the Tories have taken out of the hides of
working people in the last three years,”
the statement said. “And it reaffirms the
disastrous Tory economic policy of

complete reliance on the private sector.”

The CP noted that the budget comes
against a background of an uncertain
economic situation. “The U.S. economy
is On a course leading to recession, and as
always this will affect the Canadian
economy. Moreover, the debt burden of
the underdeveloped countries could
threaten the viability of the bank system.
The spreading trade war reflected also in
the free trade agreement between Can-
ada and the U.S. will aggravate the eco-
nomic situation in Canada.

“All the chatter about the healthy
state of the economy hides these basic.
facts,” it said. ~

What it also hides, the statement
added is “the fact that so-called prosper-
ity in Canada is prosperity for the rich

‘A corporation budget, plain and simple’

‘ and the corporations, not for the work-

ing people. Unemployment continues to
run high. So does poverty and homeless-
ness. The future for young people
remains grim. Rents and house prices go
sky high. The cost of living is rising for
working people.”

Added to that cost of living, it said, a
rise in the cost of gasoline will “increase
this heavy burden.”

The statement charged that the budget
“addresses none of these problems of
working people including the impact ofa
possible recession. Moreover the neo-
conservatives have not given up their
effort to attack unemployment insu-
rance, family allowances, universality in
social programs, assistance to the
farmers.”

The CP called on “the Canadian peo-
ple and the Liberals and the NDP in
Parliament” to reject the budget.

“SA real people’s budget is called for,”

_it said. “One which transfers income

from the rich and the corporations to the
working people by genuine tax reform; a
budget that is directed to expand the
economy and the purchasing power of
the people.”

“What Canada needs is not austerity
and restraint for the people but full
employment. This calls for changing
priorities. The budget commits the Can-
adian people to accelerated spending on
militarism as outlined in the white paper
on defence. It must be rejected with such
funds being transferred to the expansion
of social programs.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 17, 1988 e 5