Kelly Marie Richard: "the canary in the coal mine" of the New Canadian

Through the UN Police (UNPOL), which the RCMP led after the coup, Canada trained and funded Haiti’s police (HNP) which committed, it is alleged, countless crimes, including murder, illegal arrest, torture, rape, drug trafficking, and kidnapping. RCMP officer in charge, Graham Muir, was described by (later disgraced and forced-to-resign) Guiliano Zaccardelli, RCMP Commissioner, as “responsible for all of the international police resources … in Haiti….[He was] not only doing excellent work, [but] his leadership abilities [were] highly respected.” Canadian press/media reporting, from major centres, was almost completely without criticism of Canadian action. Enough! (Read Press For Conversion, Issues 60 and 61, 541 Mc Leod Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1R 5R2 for the elaborately sourced story.) The Canadian International Development Agency funded and supported much of the improper behaviour in Haiti, including the non-violent program to reduce the minimum wage, end the adult literacy program, tax-gift large corporations, privatize all state enterprises in Haiti – and more. Canadian aid went to Rightest, repressive forces. Haiti’s (illegal) Deputy Minister of Justice, for instance, was appointed to his post by CIDA which also paid his salary. The Haitian Ministry of Justice was notorious for winking at gross human rights violations. Elections Canada, it is alleged, aided the improper structures put in place to mismanage elections. Nonetheless, after two years of horror and an energetic attempt to produce fraudulent results in the 2006 election, Rene Preval was, finally, named the new president of Haiti. Though the UN Troop Mission in Haiti continues and has been extended to October 2008, Haiti is struggling to its knees by allying with some of its South American neighbours. Throughout these events, major Canadian press/media have almost monolithically supported and misreported Canada’s lethal policies in Haiti. What, you ask, has Canada and Haiti got to do with an almost unknown single mother, Calgary dental malpractice victim Kelly Marie Richard and her two sons, seeking medical care and reasonable compensation in Canada for the damage allegedly done to herself and her sons? The answer is “everything”. To manage the ugly policy Canada conducted towards Haiti there had to be a convergence of forces – what one might call an undemocratic merging into one vehicle of what are usually separate and reasonably independent democratic institutions. Such a development is usually described as “corporatist” or “corporativist”. What happens isn’t hard to understand. Government seeking total power covertly and openly takes over direction of all “independent” state institutions: army, police, justice (the courts), electoral agencies, international aid bodies, and the press/media – to begin – and uses them as a single force to drive State policy. It does the same, later, with banks, education, trade unions, etc., if corporatism is to grow and consolidate. But since private corporations are usually on the ground floor of the convergence movement, they usually work cooperatively, beneficially, and in tandem with corporatist government. That is why we speak of “the New Canadian Fascism”, for fascism is the other name for “corporativism”. Even 30 years ago it would have been impossible to organize the RCMP, the Canadian military, CIDA, electoral agencies, our press and media – and direct their energies and support to the overthrow of a democracy and the empowerment of ruthless private corporations suppressing human rights. Even 30 years ago some leaders of those institutions would have balked, would have made the “convergence of forces” too dangerous to try. That was then. This is now. This is now, and I allege that Kelly Marie Richard is entrapped – “ a canary in a coal mine” – in a parallel convergence of forces, inside Canada, working to prevent democratic processes from working in this country. It is no accident that minority prime minister Stephen Harper has eliminated the role of deputy prime minister, has muzzled Harper members of parliament (even cabinet ministers) into robot silence and has ended meetings with the press. It is no accident that he now keeps secret even the place of cabinet meetings so no representatives of the public can question cabinet ministers. He has, as well, produced a 200 page manual instructing parliamentary committee chairpeople how to wreck the democratic legitimacy of parliamentary committees. He attempts to fully propagandize and control the cabinet’s every move. He has bound and gagged all Canadian diplomats. (It took a retired diplomat recently to write graciously that the Canadian government and media reporting of Putin and Russia is irresponsible nonsense.) Harper has blacked out, as much as he can, facts and truth about Afghanistan and any other possibly-controversial issue. He took the opportunity of RCMP Commissioner Juliano Zaccardelli’s disgrace and resignation to push into the Commissioner’s job a civil servant hack who has, apparently, stopped any investigation of alleged serious wrong-doing at RCMP headquarters. He has had love-ins with the Canadian military force’s top officer, Rick Hillier. He has covertly set to work to undermine, harass, and victimize opponents of his Afghanistan policies by “permitting” assaults on individuals and groups devoted to peace, to anti-war actions, to the end of Canadian soldier presence in Afghanistan. The Border Services Agency and appeal bodies connected to it now unilaterally serve Harper desires to destroy democratic resistance to War policies. He has, according to leading Canadian scientists, muzzled climate change research to prevent public knowledge of global warming in Canada. He has lifted the Canadian policy – consistent with Canada’s ending of capital punishment – to attempt to prevent Canadians in the U.S. from being executed for crimes. No parliamentary discussion was invited on the question before the unilateral decision. Parliament and democracy are plainly obstructions in Stephen Harper’s way … to what? In doing all those things Harper is moving on from Haiti, in fact, and beginning the Haiti’cination of Canada. In that world of repression, the “convergence” of institutions and what we may call the growth of corporate fascism in Canada, Kelly Marie Richard is a canary in the coal mine. Her story could be the story of any Canadian – and it is terrifying. In fullest innocence she and her sons underwent dental (orthodontic) work in Calgary in late 2001 and 2002. They determined the work was faulty and seriously harmful. What follows is her story as she tells it. She claims to have abundant evidence to validate her claims. I have examined some of that material. The materials I have examined lead me to believe her case warrants a full public inquiry because of the harm it has done her and because of its larger, dangerous implications for Canadian freedoms. Information allegedly has been withheld from her - records of medical service and judicial documents. The administration of justice has been astonishingly anomalous. Legal advice, apparently, has been inadequate. RCMP actions – and the actions of both the Commission for Public complaints Against the RCMP and the Canadian Judicial Council – leave open so many questions that only a full public inquiry can bring order to the apparent chaos of allegation/denial concerning oversight, policing, judicial action, government records … and more. Naturally, Kelly Marie Richard and her sons sought advice from the Alberta professional association of dentists. Apparently the orthodontist who treated them contacted the large insurer of dentists, ING, concerned with claims against dentists. ING apparently contacted the organization which undertakes all litigation for ING, an organization which is involved very widely with Information Technolgy among its many operational faces, a corporation called CGI. Ms. Richard (1) claims the dental associations of Alberta and British Columbia closed all access to her, for care, forcing her and her sons out of those provinces for assistance. She claims (2) her Alberta government Health and Wellness files were entered and changed to frustrate a malpractice case even before it was filed. She alleges the files were entered by someone from CGI which has multiple contracts with Canada Post, RCMP, government of Canada, government of Alberta, etc. etc. She was contacted, she alleges (3) by “a dentist” naming another Alberta dentist who agreed to consult with her. She claims the person she met was not a dentist but a psychological professional employed, she alleges, by CGI, seeking to report unfavourably about her mental state. She sought assistance (4) from the Calgary RCMP by filing on its economic crime section of the RCMP website a request for investigation of the alleged entry to her confidential government of Alberta health files and the alleged tampering with information there. The RCMP site assures all information will be confidential. Within two days (5), she alleges, her lawyer contacted her with information that the CGI lawyers had been informed of her (confidential) request to the RCMP economic crime section of Calgary and wanted her to undergo a psychiatric test. Her malpractice claim (6) in the meantime had been filed. Lawyers she consulted, she claims, assured her the case was clear, uncomplicated, and should be resolved in a matter of months. It has dragged on and on and on and on, a recurring aspect of it being repeated attempts, she alleges, to name her mentally incompetent. Her case (7) has been (and is) shifted to “case management”, a pretrial process in Alberta intended to resolve differences and/or bring parties to a point at which trial resolution may be quick and effective. During this process (8), she alleges, her lawyer ceased to take insturction from her and she dismissed him. The Examination for Discovery (9), (a process peculiar to Canada) in which counsel seeks to discover the basis for argument in a case has been protracted, she alleges, beyond all reason, and, indeed, used to harass her and her sons. The whole “case management” process, she argues, reveals a desire to force her to a court-imposed psychiatric test. She found (10), she alleges, several kinds of impropriety in the actions of higher court judges of Alberta, and in the actions of counsel acting against her malpractice claim. She lodged a complaint (11) with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP regarding the alleged breach of confidentiality by Calgary RCMP concerning her request that her allegation of entry and tampering with her confidential Alberta government health records be investigated. A sergeant (12) in the same office as the one she complained of, she alleges, acted for the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP and, she alleges, so frightened and intimidated her that she phoned the Commission and withdrew her complaint. In the meantime (13) an RCMP officer wrote to her that her tampering-with- government-records request is [incorrectly] a civil not a criminal matter and [incorrectly] it should be a part of her already live civil malpractice case. And so the RCMP would not investigate. She wrote a long and detailed set of complaints (14) to the Canadian Judicial Council about what she alleges were improper judicial actions and improper forms of conduct in her civil case by judges of the higher court. The CJC found her complaints do not fit its area of authority and refused to investigate. Head of the Canadian Judicial Council is Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverly McLaughlin. [My experience with the Canadian Judicial Council is that it refuses to act on the grounds that a complaint is “unsuitable” and does not fit the CJC mandate where that often seems patently untrue. Or it supports judges at the expense of what seems to be common sense, reason, logic, and credibility.] Because of medical needs that could only [for the reason stated in (1)] be served in Ontario, (15) and out of fear for her and her sons’ safety, Ms. Richard went to Ontario. Counsel acting against her malpractice case in Alberta filed to have her named in Contempt of Court if she failed to appear for another of the interminable “case management” hearings being held. She alleges (16) that the orthodontist treating her and her son in Toronto expressed his supprt for her allegations, agreed to appear for her in the civil trial, worked well to repair previous damage, and then – inexplicably – reversed his position, and, she alleges, began to do faulty work. When she severed relations with him, she alleges, he delayed first and then submitted incomplete records to her of work done. As I write (17) Ms. Richard is seeking legal representation and is appealing to the Ontario professional association of dentists for medical assistance. Major press and media have chosen (18) to ignore the plight of Ms. Richard and her sons. What should be a story of prime concern to them seems, so far, to be of no interest. Welcome to Haiti in the making…. Ms. Richard and her sons appear to be the victims of “convergence” parallel to that which took place among Canadian institutions in Haiti from 2004 to 2006. Reasonable and prudent Canadians might see in Ms. Richard’s situation a determination by lawyers, judges, the RCMP, the press/media, the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, the Canadian Judicial Council, a large private corporation – or more than one, government agencies, the Harper government and the Alberta government, and even other MPs and MLAs to work together to defeat Ms. Richard’s reasonable desire for the completion of a reasonable civil dental malpractice case. And – in the proces – reasonable and prudent Canadians might see a design cruelly to victimize Ms. Richard by the improper use of democratic institutions founded on the essential requirements of integrity and trust. After examining some of Ms. Richard’s evidence I wrote a new, completely independent, carefully composed complaint to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, carefully detailing alleged facts and naming officers and requesting examination. I sent the Complaint directly to Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP in Ottawa. I sent it to Stockwell Day, federal cabinet minister in charge of the RCMP, to William Elliott, new Commissioner of the RCMP, asking for investigation by him since all the officers named are responsible to him. I sent a copy to top CEOs of CGI. I sent it to the premier, the attorney general, and the solicitor general of Alberta. I sent and am slowly sending it and related material to federal MPs, Senators, MLAs in Alberta, and others in press/media and elsewhere. Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Pubic Complaiints Against the RCMP, apparently sent my complaint on to one of the officers named in the complaint - a wholly improper thing to do. That officer, Carson Turncliff - completely improperly - wrote to me that he didn;t know what my relation to Ms. Richard may be and that the case is closed. My complaint could not be closed since it has never been “opened”. I have written to Paul Kennedy (three times) asking for reply and for pursuit of my complaint. He has not replied. Willliam Eliott, new Commissioner of the RCMP has not replied. One reply came from a Harper cabinet minister’s assistant saying she has forwarded my material to Stockwell Day and I will surely be hearing from his department. I haven’t heard. The reply I received from the Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security in Alberta mentioned my letters to the premier and the attorney general. The Honourable Fred Lindsay reported that he had passed the matter to the “Provincial Public Complaint Director” (unnamed) who took it (improperly) to the office containing personnel named in the complaint and received assurance there that the matter was closed and my completely independent complaint was a “duplicate”. (?) One other, completely separate complaint had been filed by Kelly Marie Richard much earlier. (See #12, above) She withdrew the complaint because (she alleges) she was so harassed and attacked by the officer supposedly conducting the investigation she feared for her safety. (Reason, itself, for inquiry.) The complaint was not so much closed as withdrawn out of fear for the complainant’s safety. In fact, the Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security in Alberta chose – as apparently Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP has (so far) – not to make any kind of independent inquiry but to hand the complaint to people named in the complaint: RCMP officers who may have failed in their duty, in support of corporate interests. The “convergence” of institutions and forces revealed here is not merely fightening. It is terrifying. Institutions that should have powerful independence and authority appear to be submerged in a single, repressive force. Provincial professional associations allegedly are acting as one. Bodies involved with insurance allegedly are acting as one. Judges of the higher court and lawyers involved are allegedly acting as one. The RCMP is allegedly acting as one, as is the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP and the Canadian Judicial Council. Harper federal cabinet ministers and the cabinet of Ed Stelmach in Alberta seem, so far, to be acting as one. The Honourable Fred Lindsay said in his letter to me that he was “certain [no doubt!] that [I] will hear directly from the CPC [Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP] with regard” to my complaint. I have received a letter from the office in which people are named in the complaint. I refuse to open it until Paul Kennedy, Chair of the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP, involves himself responsibly in the matter (and I have told him that). The “one” that all these democratic Canadian forces seem to be acting for seems to be a single repressive, corporatist force working to deny law, justice, fair treatment and democratic freedom in Canada. That ties it to Canadian actions in Haiti and to the present Harper moves to terminate Canadian democratic freedoms. It places Kelly Marie Richard in the position of a canary in the coal mine of “the New Canadian Fascism”. If there is not a breakthrough in her case and clear evidence that law, justice, police, the courts, and oversight bodies are functioning democratically, independently, and with integrity, then Canadians will know their democracy is in genuine peril. The canary in our coal mine – Kelly Marie Richard - will have revealed the “democracy” we are in is highly poisoned and ready to explode. Only Canadians determined to prevent such behaviour can save the Canadian democracy that is slipping away. In the meantime, a cross-provinces committee for the defense of Kelly Marie Richard is beginning to take shape. Join it. [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 15, 2007]

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Kelly Marie Richard: "The Canary In The Coal Mine" Of The New Canadian

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