Readers: As I Have Dedicated My Other Blog (Waterloo Region Advocate) To Publishing My New Book titled "Elmira Water Woes: The Triumph Of Corruption, Deceit, And Citizen Betrayal" found at www.waterlooregionadvocate.blogspot.com; you may find on occasion a post here that is not environmental such as today's.
Mr. Glen Assoun was acquitted of the murder of Brenda Way last winter in Nova Scotia Supreme Court after spending seventeen years in jail and 52 months on bail. The acquittal occurred after the 52 months spent on bail with an ankle monitor and with hopes of soon putting his ordeal behind him. It was not to be due to "...a slow, overly political and under-staffed system for probing wrongful convictions."
During his incarceration he suffered multiple heart attacks as well as mental illness. Currently he and his lawyers from Innocence Canada want an independent, well-funded review system to investigate alleged cases of wrongful conviction. Similar recommendations were made by the royal commission in 1989 on the wrongful conviction of Donald Marshall Jr. and as well at four other public inquiries with the most recent being the 2008 inquiry into the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard. To date our politicians and our judicial system appear content to let innocent Canadians rot in jail for crimes they did not commit.
It was five years ago that a preliminary assessment in a Halifax courtroom showed that a key witness had recanted her testimony AND that the RCMP had erased potential evidence of an alternative suspect. During this five years of waiting in limbo Mr. Assoun was hospitalized due to the stress and his mental state occasioned by his being refused access to his family.
This story is in last Monday's Waterloo Region Record and is titled "Wrongfully convicted man calls for Ottawa reform". Our federal politicians can take a large amount of the blame for the tardiness and procrastination that caused this man even more suffering after seventeen unnecessary years in jail. Perhaps even a month or two in jail might smarten some of them up. Maybe.
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