The CAVEAT - May 1993

CAVEAT: A Year Later

It has now been more than a year since CAVEAT came into being. From six people gathered around a coffee table to support their friends, Rocco and Priscilla de Villiers, whose 19-year-old daughter Nina had been tragically murdered, CAVEAT has become a not-for-profit corporation and a registered charity, with 60 active volunteers working on nine committees and a growing list of associate members.

During this time, CAVEAT has worked on many fronts for the promotion of a safe, peaceful and just society. Here are some of the highlights:

• CAVEAT has been invited to appear twice before the Standing Committee on Justice and the Solicitor-General in the House of Commons to make presentations on Bill C-36 (Corrections and Conditional Release Act) and on crime prevention. Earlier, CAVEAT Executive Director Priscilla de Villiers spoke before the Senate Committee on Gun Control.
  
  
• To raise public awareness, we have organized forums to afford access to information and discussion of aspects of the justice system. We have also spoken to more than 100 groups, schools and professional organizations.
  
  
• Priscilla de Villiers, supported by CAVEAT, took an active part in a coroner's inquest into the death of Jonathan Yeo, the man responsible for her daughter's murder. A number of the 137 recommendations made by the jury are already in effect.
  
  
• This spring Priscilla de Villiers participated in the federal Solicitor-General's Working Group on High-Risk Offenders, a special panel, which examined how the justice system can better control offenders who pose a high risk of committing violent offenses after their sentences have expired.
  
  
• Since we believe in a proactive as well as a reactive approach, our Education Committee has published a handbook, 'Break the Silence', a blueprint for a day-long symposium on violence for high schools.
  
  
• Our first national newsletter was published last fall - 11,000 copies have been distributed.
  
  
• To date, CAVEAT's national petition, started by Rocco and Priscilla de Villiers, which calls for changes to the justice system and increased accountability, has gathered more than 1.5 million signatures across the country.

Our original plan had been to present the petition in the House of Commons on Feb. 25. However, we were forced to postpone our presentation in light of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's sudden resignation announcement of the day before. Had we gone ahead with our initial plan while all attention was focused on this political event, the voices of the more than a million Canadians who supported the petition would have not been heard - and that was a risk we were not prepared to take.

However, interest in the petition has continued to grow and we are giving the campaign one last push before making our final presentation in the House of Commons later this year. Our new goal for the petition: 2 million signatures.

Thanks to the support of so many Canadians, CAVEAT's efforts are making an impact. Clearly, Canadians are no longer content to sit back and complain about violence. The justice system isn't something 'out there,' over which we have no control - it belongs to us all. If the pendulum has swung too far towards the rights of those who break the law and away from the needs of crime victims and protection of society, it is our job to bring it back into balance.

A CAVEAT FORUM

Crimes, Courts and Consequences

Since many Canadians know little about the workings of the legal/justice system, CAVEAT has organized community forums to give the public an opportunity to hear from those who work within the system. Our most recent forum, Crimes, Courts and Consequences, held in Mississauga, Ont. in January attracted 175 people.

Forum organizer Dawna Speers, who was herself forced to learn about the justice system in 1991 after her 19-year-old daughter Monica Drake was stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend, invited a panel of experts from various branches of the justice system to discuss their roles. The panel included Peel Region Police Chief Robert Lunney; Toronto defence lawyer Ted Minden, who acted as coroners' counsel for the Jonathan Yeo inquest last year; Peter White, Deputy Warden of Warkworth Institution, Canada's largest prison; and Paul Taylor, Crown Attorney for the Peel region and coroner's counsel for the Stephenson inquest. Toronto broadcaster Arlene Bynon moderated. Each speaker began by explaining his role in the system:

Chief Lunney said that police forces provide a community service to protect lives and property and investigate crimes. Lawyer Ted Minden explained that an adversarial legal system such as ours works best when both sides - the accused and the prosecution - are represented by skilled advocates. As a defense lawyer, his sole obligation is to defend the accused. 'We don't defend crimes,' he added. 'We defend people charged with crimes.'

Speaking on his own behalf, crown attorney Paul Taylor clarified the crown's role: in Canada, unlike the U.S., crown prosecutors have no investigating authority; relevant evidence comes from the police and must be disclosed to the defence by law. Crown attorneys prosecute cases on behalf of the public, not as lawyers for crime victims. The role of the victim is simply that of a witness. 'We try to be as responsive as we can to the needs of our main client group - the victims,' he said. 'But sometimes the constraints of the law come into conflict with the victims. We can't be their lawyer, no matter how empathetic we are.'

Warkworth's Peter White said that his work in corrections is all about 'making hard choices with a difficult group of people.' He said that one in two inmates is functionally illiterate and many of them are seriously damaged by extensive alcohol and drug abuse and have poor mental functioning, minimal social skills and serious anger control problems. He said that for some people, prison marks the first time in their lives that they are forced to take some accountability for their behaviour. White believes the detention does little to combat crime in the long term. He strongly supports controlled released programs that place individuals back into community, while providing social controls and risk management.

Many audience members asked thoughtful questions about sentencing and the need to protect the public from violent criminals and dangerous sexual predators. When asked if police have enough power to combat violent crime, Chief Lunney said that tough legislation is often watered down by the courts. For his part, Mr. Minden said that police sometimes fail to take advantage of their powers. In the Yeo case, for example, he said that senior officers did not bother to look for evidence and were ignorant of some of the powers they had under the Criminal Code.

The forum's most important message was Canadians must take a more active role to ensure the justice system deals with concerns about violence and protection of the public. There was agreement that growing violence in society must become an election issue.

The panel members all acknowledged that Canadians must do more to examine the root causes of crime and work towards crime prevention. In the meantime, police, lawyers, judges and prison officials must work within the justice system as it exists. The system's shortcomings will only be addressed if the public stands up for improvements. As Mr. Taylor put it: 'There is no such thing as the system. It's ours.'

EDUCATION: Violence Prevention Programs for Schools

CAVEAT's education team has been researching programs and resources for children and teenagers that focus on positive living and violence prevention. Dr. Donna Mitchell presented information on the 'Family Violence Prevention Project,' sponsored by the Community Child Abuse council of Hamilton-Wentworth, and Bea Mcdonough outlined the 'Better Bridges Program.' CAVEAT is supporting these programs, which are being implemented as pilot projects in Hamilton area elementary schools.

At the secondary school level, CAVEAT's 'Break the Silence Day' organizational handbook, a blueprint for organizing violence awareness and prevention days, based on a successful project at Ancaster High School last year, has been revised and will be available this spring. It includes a resource bibliography for professionals who work with adolescents. The Junior League of Hamilton/Burlington has generously assisted with publication. To obtain copies for your school or community association, contact CAVEAT.

If you are familiar with similar programs relating to violence awareness and prevention in your area, please tell us about them. Only by working together can we make our communities safer places to live.

Did You Know?

Violent crime among young people more than doubled in the period between 1986 and 1991. In 1991, police laid 18,800 violent offence charges against minors, up from 9,300 in 1986. Minors are now more likely than adults to be charged with violent offenses.

Minors tend to commit crimes against other minors: in about a third of sexual assaults and robberies, the victims were 12 to 17 years old. Children under 12 accounted for 60 percent of victims in sexual assault cases.

In 1991 aggravated assault charges (typically laid after someone is beaten up) accounted for one of every four violent charges laid against youths; aggravated assaults were up 87 percent from 1986.

Source: Canadian Social Trends, Statistics Canada, Autumn 1992.

CAVEAT News

Media Highlights

In the past months CAVEAT has received local and national media attention. The story of Priscilla de Villiers and the founding of CAVEAT was featured in November 1992 issue of Chatelaine magazine. Priscilla has appeared frequently on CHCH-TV's supper-hour news program in Hamilton and was featured on CBC-TV's 'Front Page Challenge,' taped in Vancouver in January. She was also interviewed on CBC Radio's 'As It Happens,' and on 'Cross Country Checkup,' where she took part in a discussion on how to toughen laws dealing with sexual predators. In February CAVEAT's Ann Walsh spoke out about the Young Offenders Act on CTV talk show, 'Shirley.'


Awards

Priscilla de Villiers was honoured in Hamilton as Citizen of the Year in January for her community service work through CAVEAT, 'I Feel, on the one hand very pleased, but on the other hand, it's a very sad moment for me as well,' she said. Two weeks later, she was honoured again as Hamilton's Woman of the Year in public affairs at a dinner sponsored by the Hamilton Status of Women Committee.


Special Working Group

On April 2, the federal Solicitor-General's working group on High-Risk offenders, chaired by lawyer Jane Pepino, in which Priscilla de Villiers participated, released 21 recommendations. Among the most important:

• a provision allowing for offenders already serving sentences to be declared 'dangerous offenders' so they can be detained for preventive reasons when their sentences end. (Under current rules, a 'dangerous offender' declaration must be made before sentencing, which is often not done.)
  
• development of guidelines to ensure national consistency in the use of the dangerous offender provisions of the Criminal Code.

Speaking Engagements

CAVEAT speakers continued to give talks to a variety of community groups, from school classes to professional associations. In addition Priscilla de Villiers participated in two panels at the Ontario Provincial Police Symposium on crime prevention in Toronto in January. She also took part in a panel discussion on violence at the Ontario Psychiatric Association's Annual Meeting in Toronto on Jan. 29. In February, she was the keynote speaker at the Ministry of the Solicitor General's western Ontario regional conference of Victims Assistance Services, in Brantford, Ont. In March, she spoke at a symposium entitled 'Protection, Predators & Parole: Releasing Sex Offenders' at the Queens University Law School in Kingston.


Inquest Donations

It seems wrong to us that families who have already suffered tragedies should be crippled financially while trying to bring about much needed examinations of aspects of the justice system. CAVEAT recently helped defray some of the legal costs incurred in two recent coroner's inquests in Ontario: the Yeo inquest, which came out with 137 recommendations last August, and the Stephenson inquest, which examined the circumstances that led to the murder of 11-year-old Christopher Stephenson by Joseph Fredericks, a violent repeat sex offender out on mandatory supervision.

One of the most disturbing findings of the inquest into the Stephenson tragedy was that despite a long history of violent offenses, Joseph Fredericks slipped through a crack in the system separating the federal Criminal Code from the more lenient provincial mental health laws under which he was dealt with for most of his crimes.

Last year Christopher's parents Anna and Jim Stephenson appealed to federal Solicitor General Doug Lewis for financial aid for legal costs. Their request was turned down, but after many months, Mr. Lewis announced that his ministry would reconsider and help defray a portion of the costs.

Darts & Laurels

Laurels

• Federal Solicitor General Doug Lewis, for recommending tougher legislation to keep repeated child molesters and sex offenders in jail if they continue to be a threat to the public. 'We have got to find a way to protect society,' said Mr. Lewis. - The Hamilton Spectator, Jan. 1993
  
  
• Federal Communications Minister Perrin Beatty, for telling broadcasters that if they don't tighten up their rules on television violence, he will do it for them. - The Globe and Mail, Feb. 20,1993
  
  
• Toronto Lawyers Austin Cooper and Mark Sandler for providing legal services to the de Villiers family for the Yeo inquest at a fraction of the normal cost, because they wanted to help right some wrongs in the system.
  
  
• British Prime Minister John Major, who in the wake of the appalling murder of a toddler by two 10-year-old boys in Liverpool, said: 'It's time to understand a little less and condemn a little more.'
  
  
• Judge Bernd Zabel for sending a strong message with the sentencing decision in a Hamilton case, in which a man stalked and harassed a woman for 13 years. The sentence: 15 months, plus three years probation. The crown had suggested only 9 months. - The Hamilton Spectator, Feb. 2, 1993

Darts

• Ontario's Ministry of Correctional Services, which is considering dropping the educational requirement that probation officers must have a Bachelor's degree.
  
  
• Toronto criminal lawyer, Steven Skurka, for trivializing the suffering of crime victims and challenging one of the few rights they do have. Mr. Skurka told a conference of criminal lawyers that the family and friends of dead victims should not be allowed to describe what the death meant to them in victim impact statements. He said: 'There exists the possibility that the murder of a homeless person with no family or friends might carry a lesser sentence than the murder of a prominent member of society with an entourage of grieving family and friends able to articulate the tremendous loss of such a fine individual.' - The Globe and Mail, Nov. 23, 1992
  
  
• The National Parole Board, which in following its own guidelines, fails to recognize that child victims of sexual assault suffer serious damage. According to a leaked Parole Board memo, Wray Budreo, a child molester who had been convicted eight times for sexual offenses against young boys - at least twice molesting children while on mandatory supervision - did not cause serious physical or psychological damage to his victims. The memo called Budreo a 'high risk release' and described his offenses as 'predatory,' but nonetheless ordered that he be released on mandatory supervision and not be gated - a procedure that would keep him in prison until the end of his sentence. - The Toronto Star, Oct.24, 1992

The Issues: Where CAVEAT Stands

Bail decision in the Morin appeal

Issue: Guy Paul Morin was granted bail by an Ontario Court of Appeal judge, pending a court decision to appeal his conviction for first degree murder in the Christine Jessop case. Morin was acquitted of the crime in 1986, but the verdict was overturned on appeal, and a second trail last year lead to his conviction. Mr. Justice Marvin Catzman described the case as unique. 'I am not unmindful that release pending appeal is, as a general rule, rarely granted,' he said, 'but this is not the usual or typical case.' - Globe & Mail, Feb. 10, 1993

CAVEAT's stand: We hope that the word 'unique' has been duly noted, and that this case does not become cited a precedent in future murder conviction appeals. Even more disturbing in this long drawn out case is the sense that there was a lack of professional conduct displayed in the way it was investigated and handled from the beginning.


Releasing offender's names

Issue: Some police forces have publicized names and photographs to warn people about the return to the community of paroled sex offenders who are considered dangerous.

CAVEAT's stand: Branding someone with the mark of Cain goes against the very tenets of our society. However, the action is a clear indication of the erosion of confidence in the will or ability of the courts and the justice system to protect society from dangerous sexual predators with a long history of anti-social behaviour.


Stalking

Issue: Many woman who are harassed, threatened and terrorized by ex boyfriends, ex-partners or even strangers feel that they have no recourse under the law. Tougher laws to deal with stalking are being studied by the federal justice ministry.

CAVEAT's stand: The terror and potential for tragedy caused by stalking has long been underestimated. It's not considered an indictable offense. We would urge an amendment to the Criminal Code to ensure protection for victims from their sadistic tormentors.

Fund-raising

Our sincere thanks go to everyone involved in three successful fund raising events held last fall. The money raised has been instrumental in helping CAVEAT to continue it's work. It is this community support that provides our main source of revenue.


Bobby Curtola

Last September, Bobby Curtola, Canada's teen idol of the '60's gave a benefit performance for CAVEAT at the Hillcrest Restaurant in Hamilton. Our thanks go to Bobby Curtola, who donated his time to promote CAVEAT.


Auction For Action

Last November's sold-out Auction for Action proved to be a tremendous success. More than 250 people enjoyed a great dinner and bid on marvellous items at Temple Anshe Sholom in Hamilton. CAVEAT appreciated the support of local businesses and individuals who provided donations despite difficult economic times.


Chris Pridham Invitational Tennis Tournament and Auction

Organized by Tracy Soodeen and Canadian tennis champion Chris Pridham, this successful event at Cedar Springs Athletic and Racquet Club in Burlington last November drew more than 450 people. The main attraction was a match between Pridham and fellow star Daniel Nestor. This event supported by Pridham's sponsor, Asea, Brown, and Boveri, provided generous donation toward some of the legal costs incurred for the Yeo inquest by the de Villiers family and funds to help CAVEAT continue its work. These fundraising events will be held again this fall. To reserve tickets and/or volunteer, contact CAVEAT.

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