YOU BE THE JUDGE.

As I have stated numerous times in the past I do not occupy my time in getting caught up in most of the junk that has floated around and haunted the Coffin case for the past half century. As long as there are people out there in society who thrive on sensationalism, there will be those who in my opinion, are ready to answer the call. These are the ones who traditionally occupy the "wannabe a best seller" shelf in the local book store.

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Again this is my opinion, but I do know that it is an opinion shared by others who have an interest in this case. Occasionally, someone will send me an e-mail pointing out something that they have read and want clarification on what someone is writing. Such is the case of things being written and published with reference to a particular gentleman named Jacques Hebert.

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I was pointed to the site of Clement Fortin. You will no doubt recall Mr. Fortin. It was his site that routinely "borrowed" information and comments from my site and published it as his own correspondence from his readers. You will also recall that it was necessary that I issue a cease and desist order to Mr. Fortin to curb this practise. You will also recall that I set up a fictious character and sent myself an e-mail from this fictious character and I then published it on my web page. Lo and behold, the very next day this fictious character that I named Reg suddenly began to breathe life and somehow was able to send Mr. Fortin the same letter for his comment page. I took this approach to prove that this type of activity that I describe was actually taking place. You may also recall that Mr. Fortin established a direct link to his page from mine without my permission, which again, forced me to advise him to remove it. I do not bring up these things again as a means of throwing salt into an already open wound, but merely as an avenue to display to you, the readers of this site, some of the credentials of the author who takes many cheap shots against Jacques Hebert and others.

It was suggested by a couple of readers that I take a look at what has been said about Jacques Hebert on Mr. Fortin's site. I have to say that I am much disappointed with Mr. Fortin. In my view, he comes just short of labelling Mr. Hebert a liar. It is real easy to knock a dead man. If Mr. Fortin had these things to say, why did he not make the statements directly to Mr. Hebert, whilst Mr. Hebert was still with us, as it was only last December that he departed.

I do not know how much you may or may not know about Jacques Hebert. I know that Jacques Hebert was a man of distinction. I know that he was respected by thousands and that he had many friends and aquaintances the world over. I had the honour, and I do class it as an honour to have spoken with Mr. Hebert on many occasions. He kept appointments and he answered my questions with class and dignity. Mr. Hebert believed in the innocence of Wilbert Coffin. He was really the only one, other than Jean Beliveau who had the courage to stand up and be counted on the matter.

You must remember the Brossard Inquiry was brought about as a result of Jacques Hebert. It was not convened because the judiciary cared anything about the people. It was a vain attempt to prove Jacques Hebert wrong in his sayings and writings. It was nothing more than the police and judiciary investigating themselves and shovelling it down the throats of the people. It did nothing to prove or dis-prove the case against Wilbert Coffin as when the inquiry took place he had been executed nine years before.

The following are some brief notes extracted from the official biography of Jacques Hebert.

Jacques Hebert received his early education in the maritime provinces. Mr. Hebert later received an honourary Doctoral degree from Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto.

From 1951 - 1953 Mr. Hebert worked for Le Devoir newspaper.

From 1962 - 1970 Mr. Hebert worked as a host and writer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

From 1965 - 1972 Mr. Hebert was president of the Association of Canadian Publishers.

In 1963 Mr. Hebert, with Pierre Elliot Trudeau founded the Civil Liberties Union.

During his career, Mr. Hebert founded two publishing houses, Editions L'Homme and Editions du jour.

Jacques Hebert wrote and published many books, including the 1963 publication titled J'accuse les Assassins de Coffin which he steadfastly defended until his death.

Jacques Hebert travelled to more than 130 countries of the world promoting peace and harmony.

Jacques Hebert was the founder of Katimavik in Canada which promoted the involvement of youth, while promoting cultural diversity.

Jacques Hebert was nominated in 2002 to receive The Nobel Peace Prize.

When one peruses the above credentials of an individual such as Jacques Hebert, one has to be very cautious in accepting the cheap shots fired in his direction by someone such as Clement Fortin. One must remember, it is Mr. Fortin who constantly states that he is a lawyer. One must also remember that it is the same Mr. Fortin who evades the question when asked as to where he was engaged in private practise. He states that he taught law. What kind of law? Was it criminal or civil litigation? Down deep, I couldn't care less as to what the answers are to these questions. I do care a lot though when an individual can hide under a veil of secrecy and publicly try to influence the public to accept a doctrine for which there is no basis.

Equally disturbing is the fact that Mr. Fortin has embarked upon a course of action to discredit the late Sgt. Henri Doyon and the late Lewis Sinnett. These two officers were two of the very few on the Gaspe' coast who worked tirelessly on this case from day one. It would appear that because their opinions did not entirely parallel those of the thugs who were appointed to steer this investigation, Mr. Fortin has chosen to take passages out of context and label them as liars and drunks. Most of Mr. Fortin's passages are from the Brossard inquiry, which took place some eight or nine years after the trial at Perce. It is to also be noted that this enquiry was not to establish innocence or guilt, but was an attempt to convince the public that the judiciary of Quebec made no mistakes during the investigation and trial. It was an attempt that failed miserably. That is precisely why this case is still being studied more than fifty years later.

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Lew Stoddard

WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS

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The term wrongful conviction is a broad term, a very broad term indeed. In reality it is a flowery term that displays error, but in most cases does not address the real root of the problem unless exerted pressure from the public is sufficient to erode the very infrastructure of the process itself.

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If one takes the time to research cases of proven wrongful conviction, it is prudent to deduce that in all cases, the problems either stemmed from sloppy investigations of the crime or corrupt practises on the part of the police and judiciary. In many cases the wrongful convictions were the result of a combination of both.

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Unfortunately, when a wrongful conviction becomes apparent, never do we simply see a politician or senior police official rise to his or her feet and simply say, "we screwed up." No, no, no you will never see or hear that. If that were the case, politicians would be trampling on other politicians, police officers would be breaking that silence code that exists among their ranks, and lawyers would be in violation of their favourite old adage stating that "it is better for one thousand guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to go to the gallows."

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It is important to note, and again statistics will bear me out on this, wrongful conviction numbers are much higher in certain parts of the country as compared to others. The provinces of Ontario and Quebec carries by far the highest wrongful conviction rates in Canada. True, these two provinces have the highest population, however, in terms of sheer numbers the count is staggering.

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Lets take a look at Ontario for a moment. Do you listen to the news? If you do not, you should, because the number of people who have been wrongly convicted there at the hands of the Ontario judiciary in the past few years is abhorrent. It is not something from the past, it is still going on. Many have been convicted because of drummed up reports by people unqualified to act as pathologists on the part of government. The government is now beginning to admit this. They have no choice. Did the government admit to this as a result of their own findings? Not a chance. They had no choice because the people took a stand on the matter. People who obviously had no connections to these crimes are now being set free. There are many more to go yet.

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You will recall very recently the conclusion of the long saga of Steven Truscott. At the age of 14, Steven was sentenced to hang by the neck until he was dead, the result of a very botched case brought about as a result of a very corrupt judicial system. It took 49 long years to see justice done on Steven's part. I am of the opinion that the only thing that actually saved Steven from the gallows was the fact that he was only 14. Look at it this way. John Diefenbaker may have signed the order commuting his sentence from death to life in prison, but I believe that it was done for a reason. I ask you to answer the following question for yourself. Which way would Diefenbaker and his crew have a better chance at re-election, by allowing the hanging of a 14 year old boy from a case that was already full of holes, or signing a piece of paper. Again, it is my opinion, but I do not believe that the government of the day back in 1959 was any more compassionate than it is today. Fortunately for Steven Truscott, he had the stamina to fight a long hard battle. He won that battle and I congratulate him.

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Before we leave Ontario, let us not forget that darling couple from St. Catherines, Carla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. The Ontario government looks and smells terrible on this one. You see, Carla was wrongly convicted. She was allowed to cut a deal with the attorney general of Ontario. She would be allowed to enter a guilty plea on a charge of manslaughter in exchange for her testimony against Bernardo. At the time the government said they were doing this because otherwise they might not get a conviction against Bernardo, and they further said that they did not have enough evidence against Holmolka.

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In the search of their house in St. Catherines the police did not find two dozen video tapes of the torture, rape and murder of two innocent school girls. These tapes were there and were retrieved by a lawyer who did not present them. Very definitely, Carla Holmolka was a willing participant in this affair. In addition, Carla Holmolka supplied the drugs to administer to her younger sister rendering her unconscious, so that Bernardo could rape her. Apparently this was done as a "gift" to Bernardo. The sister died in the process. As I pointed out above, Carla Holmolka was wrongly convicted as a result of all this. She was wrongly convicted because her unrepentant butt should have occupied the cell next to Bernardo's for the rest of her days. Holmolka should have faced the same first degree murder charges. She did her 12 years and is free now thumbing her nose at society.

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As if those revelations are not startling enough, a gentleman was just released from custody in Ontario. He was there serving time for murder. He was declared wrongly convicted when the true killer admitted his guilt to a television news crew. The true killer who confessed his crime and was able to prove it was Paul Bernardo.

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Moving eastward, the province of Quebec can boast the highest numbers for unsolved murders of any region of Canada. Again my research comes from official numbers from the government. Indeed, Quebec is also known for a high incidence of wrongful convictions dating back many years.

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These events and figures are alarming. They are also scary. Will we ever know the true figures as to how many people have been wrongfully convicted? Of course we will not.

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One of the most celebrated cases in the history of Canada took place in Quebec. That of course was the conviction and eventual hanging of Wilbert Coffin at Bordeau Jail in Montreal in 1956. The question that is being studied is whether or not Wilbert Coffin was wrongfully convicted and executed. I believe that he was, and I further believe that based on the evidence that was used to convict him, I can produce evidence and information that was never raised at trial that would have freed Wilbert Coffin.

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We have to ask ourselves, how and why did this happen? Was it a case of societal pressure on the justice system? Was it a case of political pressure exerted by the United States of America on the Canadian government in Ottawa? Perhaps it involved both. I can produce documentation that lends credence to that theory.

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Earlier on in this report I mentioned problems that Ontario experienced with pathology reports and autopsies. In the Coffin case, a true pathology report was virtually non-existent. It was not complete, it was hastily thrown together, and it lacked key elements.

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Very soon the Coffin case will be reviewed by the Criminal Conviction Review Group in Ottawa. I am now in the process of putting my report together that is based on two solid years of research and investigation by myself and Lani Mitchell. I shall be forwarding the report to the review group in Ottawa. There are some things contained in my report, that for obvious reasons, I have not written about. We are truly hopeful that our report will have an effect on the outcome of this case.

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This case was a major undertaking not only for me, but for Lani Mitchell as well. We have talked to scores of people across Canada and elsewhere. As soon as the report has been delivered to the proper authorities, I shall be explaining everything to you.

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Once in awhile someone will ask me why I have arrived at this or that conclusion. My answer is always the same. If it cannot be backed up by a document or an interview, it does not get published on this site.

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In the next few days, I shall be forwarding my report to Ottawa. My plan at that time is to provide you with the complete findings. I have had to exercise caution, as there is apparently one or two people who try to scuttle my report from time to time. I know who these people are.

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Folks, as usual you are a great audience. I thank you for your patience for the past month or so. Medical problems have wreaked havoc from time to time. Now is a great time to write a note about the case to your member of parliament. Just click on the link marked letters to members of parliament on the left side of the first page.

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As usual, it is good to read your comments. Feel free to leave a note on the comment page. As you know, only submissions bearing the name of the author can be considered for publication. God Bless you one and all.

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Lew Stoddard