 |
|
Signature
Count |
| Ontario
- 18 and Over |
6419
|
| Ontario
- Under 18 |
1451
|
| Outside
Ontario |
3094
|
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Why
should you sign the petition?
Steven
Truscott’s Case; 45-years is long enough!
On June 9th, 1959 in Clinton, Ontario a 14-year-old
boy named Steven Truscott gave a female classmate a
ride on his bike out to Highway 8. Other school friends
saw both of them as they rode across a bridge toward
the highway. After dropping the girl off at Highway
8, Steven retraced his path back over the bridge –
this time alone – a fact supported by witnesses
at the bridge. Despite this evidence, the authorities
seemed committed to a course that has led many to conclude
that there was a “rush to judgment” in this
case. Because of the honest answers he gave to questions
police asked regarding that night – answers that
have never varied over 45-years – Steven became
the ONLY FOCUS of the police investigation. His trial,
which Canada’s Minister of Justice, the Honorable
Irwin Cotler, has recently described as a “likely
miscarriage of justice, ” lasted 10-days, and
in a conviction and a sentence that stipulated this
14-year-old boy be “…hanged by the neck
until dead….” Eventually, the sentence was
commuted to life by the federal cabinet, but the injustice
remained. |
|
In the mid-1960’s, a book by Isabel LeBourdais brought
the injustices of this case back before Canadians and helped
in securing a review of the case by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Despite the Court’s refusal to overturn the 1959 verdict,
recently published reports indicate that the Justices were
divided – but with many more Justices supporting the
appeal than has ever been previously revealed. Then following
the Supreme Court’s review, Steven was paroled from
prison and eventually moved to Guelph, where he resided –
under an assumed name until 2000. With his children grown
and independent, Steven decided to begin the next stage –
the last stage - in the fight to clear his name.
Steven approached AIDWYC (Association in Defense of the Wrongly
Convicted), a group of lawyers and concerned Canadians who
have worked successfully to overturn the wrongful convictions
of such individuals as David Milgaard and Guy-Paul Morin,
and they agreed to take on Steven’s case. In November
2001, AIDWYC filed a 690 application (as it was then known;
now 696) under the Criminal Code provision with the Federal
Justice Minister, Anne McLellan. In January 2002, the Minister
appointed Judge Fred Kaufman to investigate the case. In the
early spring of this year, the Justice Minister received Judge
Kaufman’s report. The Minister reviewed the report’s
findings for more than 5-months and concluded that: “…
a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”
The remedy to this “injustice”, which the Minister
provided to Mr. Truscott and his AIDWYC team, is an appeal
to the Ontario Court of Appeal. Mr. Truscott has already been
forced to wait 45-years for what the Minister of Justice has
concluded was a “miscarriage of justice likely occurred”.
If Steven’s case follows the normal course through Ontario’s
Appeal Courts, it could take two, three OR MORE years before
justice is restored in this case. We think that 45-years and
the countless legal, academic and journalistic examinations
of this case – all of which drew the same conclusion;
that an “injustice” was committed – are
enough. Through this petition, we and YOU are calling upon
Ontario’s Attorney General, the Honorable Michael Bryant,
to examine Justice Minister Cotler’s statements and
Judge Kaufman’s report and reach the same conclusion:
that “…a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”
This is the only way to expedite this case. 45-years is long
enough!
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