The office manager of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, Win Wahrer, froze in astonishment recently as she shook out the contents of a letter from Calgary.
Out tumbled a personal cheque for a million dollars.
In an instant, AIDWYC ended 15 years as a grassroots outfit struggling for every dime in order to ferret out and help exonerate the wrongly convicted.
The identity of the donor was surprising – Ian Cartwright, a retired Ontario Superior Court judge whose family has operated the Canada Law Book publishing house for several decades.
Retired judge Ian Cartwright, photographed at home in Calgary on Friday, says he hopes his donation will prompt others to fund the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted. (Chris Bolin/For The Globe and Mail)
As word of the donation – which will provide no tax deduction to Mr. Cartwright because the group does not have charity status – travelled through the upper echelons of AIDWYC, the directors were flabbergasted. Lawyer Paul Copeland sent a one-word e-mail to Mr. Cartwright: “WOW.”
Another director, lawyer James Lockyer, felt woozy. “I felt a sense of wonder and joy – and a bit frightened,” Mr. Lockyer recalled Friday. “I had to hear it two or three times before I could believe it.
“This demonstrates such a tremendous commitment to justice. It was so much money that my immediate thought was: ‘We can't take this; it's too much responsibility.'”
Ralph Steinberg, co-president of AIDWYC, said he was heartened to learn it was a former judge who made the donation.
“We can assume that he is aware of the need for some mechanism outside of the appeal process to bring wrongful convictions to light,” Mr. Steinberg said. “The last 15 years have seen a steady, increasing progression in the work AIDWYC does. There just doesn't seem to be an end to these cases.”
Mr. Cartwright and his wife, Pat, asked AIDWYC to put the money into a fund in the name of former Canada Law Book president Stan Corbett, who is fighting cancer.
“I've been a very keen supporter of this association,” Mr. Cartwright said in an interview Friday. “The huge thing with these volunteer organizations is that they live hand-to-mouth, wondering, ‘How are we going to continue?'”
Mr. Cartwright said he normally makes donations anonymously, but he hopes that his million-dollar gesture will prompt others to help fund AIDWYC. “They just don't have the capital funding they need,” he said.
Mr. Corbett expressed delight that at a time when most organizations are downsizing and contemplating layoffs, AIDWYC can now envision a golden future.
“You know, the state has unlimited resources,” he said. “We have a wonderful justice system in Canada, but I have often thought that there is a one-sided balance. Mistakes can and do happen. Prosecutors take a more adversarial position nowadays, and there needs to be a counterbalance.
“This organization has really picked up the gauntlet and taken a lead role in finding these cases where there may have been wrongful convictions,” Mr. Corbett said. “I think they have done a fantastic job in this area. Having my name attached to this – I couldn't be more pleased or honoured.”
AIDWYC directors said Friday that the donation will likely go in many directions. With funding available for forensic testing, court transcripts and expert witnesses, they said clients will no longer have to languish in prison for months or years as a case for their exoneration is prepared.
AIDWYC also can contemplate lobbying politicians and justice officials for criminal justice reforms. And Mr. Lockyer said the association will move to expand its primary base – in Ontario, Newfoundland and Manitoba – into provinces where it has had difficulty gaining a foothold, particularly Alberta and British Columbia.
“Lawyers have always worked for free, and that won't change,” Mr. Lockyer said. “But the administration behind the cases, as well as the work that is required to investigate cases, does cost money. We have to think how we can free more people, and free them quicker.”
Mr. Cartwright said he only wished there was an organization like AIDWYC he could have donated money to 40 or 50 year ago, when Canada still had capital punishment.
“I just hate to think of the number of people who have been hanged,” he said. “Some innocent people have definitely been hung, because the evidence against them just wasn't there.”
Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Capital of Male Gender Apartheid, Canada) wrote: Wow, What a pity the truly, honourable, Ian Cartwright is not still on the bench. When you go to court in Ontario, you sometimes have the honour of meeting some the finest example of humanity not to mention the legal profession who have universal respect and admiration, their court rooms are often like a class out of law school. Unfortunately, most judges don't fall into that category. Most have a pathological bias if not hatred towards men. Then we have the extreme most vile underbelly of the judiciary that are at the other extreme end of the ethical measuring stick that crosses the line into deliberate obstruction of justice by a judge, and they have absolute power and even absolute immunity for criminal offenses such as obstruction of justice while on the bench. They issue draconian orders called "Power Orders" or "Sheffield Orders" named after Justice Dennis Power and Justice Allan Sheffield of Ottawa, their orders include "vexatious litigant orders" simply to "get rid of a politically incorrect father seeking access". It costs our economy billions, injustice, especially in family court is life long, it results in multiple generations of dysfunctional families, be it devoid of fathers. McGuinty should be looking at an independent authority to oversee and discipline the well known bad apples of the judiciary who leave a trail of injustice, wrongfully convicted and worst of all, they bring the administration of justice into ill-repute. Now our judiciary attracts those who are most likely to abuse their absolute power that can happen in the snap of a finger of Justice Allan Sheffield or Justice Denis Power just to name two of the very worst of the worst judges in Ontario or perhaps the western legal world. www.OttawaMensCentre.com Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Capital of Male Gender Apartheid, Canada wrote: Every day, thousands of innocent fathers are arrested simply because the Ontario Government issued "guidelines" that men are to be arrested thrown in jail, only to be released on conditions that include no contact with their kids, simply because a vindictive mother dialed 911. Its just too easy, no family court order required, just dial 911 to get rid of father, no need to speak, just dial and drop the phone, punch in him the face, blood dripping down his shirt, no matter, HE gets arrested, she is announced to be 'the victim' and he the accused.
Convictions without trial? Quadruple hearsay resulting in criminal
convictions? Not in Canada? Sorry, try Ontario Superior Court of Justice where
you have underbellies of the judiciary making "summary judgements" that result
in "criminal convictions" with the father having "the right to a defense" or
"the right to a trial" or "the right to a jury".
There are three judges in Ontario who leave collectively, a greater trail of
injustice and destruction than hundreds of other judges combined. They are
Justice Allan Sheffield, Justice Dennis Power and Madam Justice Feldman of the
Ontario Court of Appeal, Then there is Justice Jennifer McKinnon, who is smart
enough not to put her own name on those decisions but makes "administrative
decisions" to hold hearings when the father cannot possibly be ready or
specifically fail to allow an adjournment of a hearing when any lawyer would be
granted the same request. They engage in "the process of justification" and
knowingly encourage feminist lawyers to "personally fabricate evidence" (google
search that term + Kingston), they allow feminist lawyers to pit their own
credibility against male self reps. These feminist lawyers give evidence
personally while representing their clients, and it does not matter how much
evidence there is, including admissions, judges simply take a feminist lawyers
word over a male self rep. Judges turn a blind eye to a lawyer giving evidence,
its against the rules, bending that rule allows even more injustice that the
most vile of the judiciary know will create injustice and they just turn a blind
eye happy in the result that they "got revenge" or made a politically correct
"legal decision" that had nothing to do with law and plenty to do with
politically correct feminist doctrine. See the research by Peter Roscoe at
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Capital of
Male Gender Apartheid, Canada wrote: Convictions without trial?
Quadruple hearsay resulting in criminal convictions? Not in Canada? Sorry, try
Ontario Superior Court of Justice where you have underbellies of the judiciary
making "summary judgements" that result in "criminal convictions" with the
father having "the right to a defense" or "the right to a trial" or "the right
to a jury".
There are three judges in Ontario who leave collectively, a greater trail of
injustice and destruction than hundreds of other judges combined. They are
Justice Allan Sheffield, Justice Dennis Power and Madam Justice Feldman of the
Ontario Court of Appeal, Then there is Justice Jennifer McKinnon, who is smart
enough not to put her own name on those decisions but makes "administrative
decisions" to hold hearings when the father cannot possibly be ready or
specifically fail to allow an adjournment of a hearing when any lawyer would be
granted the same request. They engage in "the process of justification" and
knowingly encourage feminist lawyers to "personally fabricate evidence" (google
search that term Kingston), they allow feminist lawyers to pit their own
credibility against male self reps. These feminist lawyers give evidence
personally while representing their clients, and it does not matter how much
evidence there is, including admissions, judges simply take a feminist lawyers
word over a male self rep. Judges turn a blind eye to a lawyer giving evidence,
its against the rules, bending that rule allows even more injustice that the
most vile of the judiciary know will create injustice and they just turn a blind
eye happy in the result that they "got revenge" or made a politically correct
"legal decision" that had nothing to do with law and plenty to do with
politically correct feminist doctrine. See the research by Peter Roscoe at
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Capital of Male Gender Apartheid, Canada) wrote: Just imagine the Hells Angels being given authority to investigate allegations of criminal activity and the power to find themselves not guilty of any and all charges?
There are literally tens of thousands of fathers in Canada who have Criminal
Convictions, wrongfully convicted due to one reason, Parliament's FAILURE to
legislate a legal presumption of equal parenting and their failure to police
judges.
Judges have absolute power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, therefore,
judges are the most potentially corrupt and dangerous persons in society. It is
our governments failure to POLICE JUDGES, its deliberate setting up of a
Judicial Council whose obvious and clear purpose is to "SANITIZE" any complaint
except of course something that crosses the feminist line, such as pinching a
female court workers butt, but, Good Old Judge Richard Lajoe of the Ontario
Court of Justice is famous for leering over the top of the bench right down at
the V-line of a female crown or lawyer and saying "how very nice it is to see
you today" with that classic look that would make a classic piece of humourous
art work if it was not so creepy. That particular judge is known by Criminal
Lawyers from one end of Ontario to the other, commonly described as "a nasty
piece of works", He did not like an appraisal on his home and pressured the
appraiser to "up the value", it did not work. Justice Richard Lajoie did not
like being called an "insult to justice" on the internet and because a father
protested outside the court building demanding his resignation. Lajoie just had
that father arrested on a charge of "criminal defamation" , thrown in jail and
released on conditions not to even use a computer, (that was to stop
litigation), and not to attend court (so Lajoe could not have his dirty works
made public)... Richad Lajoe then HEARD the matter in his OWN COURT! Then months
later, simply wrote a letter that he did not want to testify. This is just one
example of the underbelly of the judiciary who flagrantly abuse absolute power
and leave a trail of destruction that costs Canadians billions.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Ottawa Mens Centre.com, from Ottawa Capital of Male Gender Apartheid, Canada wrote: There are literally tens of thousands of fathers in Canada who have Criminal Convictions, wrongfully convicted due to one reason, Parliament's FAILURE to legislate a legal presumption of equal parenting and their failure to police judges.