Missing and Murdered Women

Monday, April 15

Trial for man charged with Bosse murder delayed another year

Accused requests seventh lawyer

Reported by Bre McAdam

First Posted: Apr 15, 2013 11:49am | Last Updated: Apr 15, 2013 6:04pm

A long-awaited murder trial in Saskatoon will possibly be delayed another year as the man charged with the first-degree murder of Daleen Bosse requested his seventh lawyer in Saskatoon Court of Queen's Bench Monday.
The trial for Douglas Hales, 34, was scheduled to begin Monday. Now, it has been tentatively set for February 2014 to give his new Regina-based lawyer, Bob Hrycan, time to review the file.

"When I think of the delay, what I'm thinking about is the effect that this is having on the family of Daleen Bosse, and my heart goes out to them," Crown prosecutor Robin Ritter said outside the courthouse.

He could not provide a reason for Hales' need to change lawyers, but said this is one of the longest-delayed cases he's ever experienced.

None of Bosse's family members were present during Hales' brief court appearance.

The 25-year-old University of Saskatchewan student disappeared from Jax Nite Club on May 18, 2004.
Her body was discovered north of Saskatoon in 2008. In addition to the murder charge, Hales is also charged with offering an indignity to human remains after he allegedly burned Bosse's body.

bmcadam@rawlco.com

Sunday, April 14

My Book of Life by Angel

by Martine Leavitt

After a brief return to romantic high fantasy with 2006’s Keturah and Lord Death, Martine Leavitt turns her sights to her other forte: troubled youth in gritty contemporary settings. And while it doesn’t get much grittier than teen prostitutes working the so-called “kiddie stroll” on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside at the time of the Pickton murders, the Alberta-born author handles the subject with uncommon grace.

Leavitt has always been something of a style virtuoso. In her fantasy novels she harnesses Arthurian-era language and rhythms to offset the sting of her often-dark themes. In My Book of Life by Angel, however, she uses minimalist blank verse to rich effect in telling the story of Angel, a 16-year-old, middle-class runaway coerced into addiction and sex work.

As in Leavitt’s other novels about kids on the street – the Mr. Christie Award–winning Tom Finder (2003) and Governor General’s Literary Award finalist Heck Superhero (2004) – our protagonist is separated from the safe harbour of home by a matter of degrees, though psychologically she might as well be on the moon. The duality of life on the street, open yet prisonlike in its inescapability, is one of the many paradoxes the novel subtly explores. Another is the literal and metaphoric “hole” Angel blames for her circumstances. The holes in her mother’s bones (osteoporosis) came first, but it was an undetected hole in her mother’s heart that killed her, leaving Angel feeling a void of her own: “Serena said, / that put a hole in you, Angel, / which you tried to fill up with Call.”

Call, who refers to himself as a businessman and dresses in such a way that “he could walk into an office / and nobody would blink,” offers yet another paradox. Lurking under the respectable clothes is a predatory pimp with a bloodhound’s nose for susceptibility (“renewable resources” is his answer when Angel asks him what business he’s in).

After her mother dies, a rudderless Angel hangs out at the mall, playing an unexpectedly poignant adolescent version of house:

the cinnamon bun smell
was Mom making them for me
and the clothing stores were my
walk-in closets
and the ice cream place was my freezer
and the bathroom was my bathroom
When she gets caught shoplifting display shoes from her pretend closet it’s the lupine Call who steps in like a hero, offering first a sympathetic ear and free lunch, then the “candy” that “makes the missing of mom [go] away.”

Angel’s bereft father, driven to despair by his daughter’s shoplifting and drug use, watches “with given-up eyes” as she packs to go live with Call. At his seedy apartment, kisses and sweet talk soon give way to entreaties: Call needs money to get more of the candy Angel likes so much, the candy she now needs to not feel sick. Angel says yes and senses, as she does so, a door slamming shut behind her. Assent, she realizes, has made her a “word,” and “my dad would never allow a word like me.” Once he has “made” her, Call blocks any possibility of Angel’s escape by threatening to harm her younger brother, Jeremy. Despite their brief appearances in the narrative, Angel’s father and brother remain powerful presences throughout – further examples of how Leavitt harnesses absence to great effect.

On the street, Angel encounters a wide range of humanity, each with peccadillos to match. “Poetry, that is twisted,” says Call of “John the john,” who pays Angel to read from Milton’s Paradise Lost. Word is also out about sinister Mr. P who drives a van with tinted windows that girls enter but never seem to emerge from. Angel wonders if Mr. P could be behind the recent disappearance of her friend Serena.

“Mr. P” refers to Robert Pickton, the real-life convicted killer implicated in the deaths of 49 women who disappeared from the Downtown Eastside in the 1980s and ’90s. Leavitt dedicates the novel to Pickton’s victims, but sensibly leaves the gruesome details to an afterword in which she provides background information.

“My Book of Life by Angel” is the title Angel gives to the notebook she buys after Serena goes missing. In it, she vows to honour her friend by cleaning up her act and getting back to her family. But it’s not until Call brings home Melli, an 11-year-old “baby” from a place called “Group Home,” that Angel concocts a risky plan she hopes will bring about some kind of escape.

Leavitt probes an exceptionally difficult, raw topic without resorting to cliché or melodrama. The nuance, economy, and delicacy with which she renders both the uniqueness and universality of Angel’s story is such that it’s easy not to notice that the novel contains no graphic sex or even swearing. In trying to illustrate how good this book is, it’s tempting to simply quote every line. Best just to read it and experience for yourself Leavitt’s remarkably powerful achievement.

Reviewed by Emily Donaldson (from the October 2012 issue)

http://www.quillandquire.com/books_young/review.cfm?review_id=7791

Corbella: Rehtaeh Parsons' death tarnishes RCMP

BY LICIA CORBELLA, CALGARY HERALD APRIL 13, 2013

A woman holds a photo as several hundred people attend a community vigil to remember Rehtaeh Parsons at Victoria Park in Halifax on Thursday, April 11, 2013. The girl’s family says she ended her own life last week following months of bullying after she was allegedly sexually assaulted by four boys and a photo of the incident was distributed.

Photograph by: Andrew Vaughan, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Rehtaeh Parsons' devastated father asked the question. Her mother asked the question. Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked the question. Thousands, and maybe millions, of Canadians have asked themselves the question. And now the Nova Scotia government is going to hold an inquiry to find an answer to the question as to why police in Nova Scotia didn't treat the alleged gang rape of the 17-year-old Cole Harbour girl more seriously.

Rehtaeh's devastated parents, like virtually everyone else in this country, are asking why and how it could take the RCMP 10 months before they even interviewed any of the four boys who allegedly raped Rehtaeh. It is alleged that about 18 months ago, when Rehtaeh was just 15, she drank straight vodka at the house of some boys she barely knew, got sick, was semi-conscious and was then sexually assaulted by four boys who took a photo of the assault and then posted it online. She was subsequently bullied relentlessly, moved schools and cities, and ended up committing suicide.

How come no child pornography charges were laid after the offending photos of her were posted on Face-book pages and sent via text to numerous people?

Rehtaeh's father, Glen Canning, put it best in his beautifully written memorial to his daughter:

"Why was this treated like a minor incident of bullying rather than a rape?" he asked.

"Isn't the production and distribution of child porn a crime in this country? Numerous people were emailed that photo. The police have that information (or at least they told us they did). When someone claims they were raped is it normal to wait months before talking to the accused?"

In an absolutely wrenching line he points out: "My daughter wasn't bullied to death, she was disappointed to death. Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school and the police."

Rehtaeh's mom, Leah Parsons, said: "I don't understand why it would take 10 months to interview the boys. By that time, their story is locked down solid, instead of getting them immediately and separating them."

While in Calgary on Thursday to rename a centre for victims of child abuse after former NHL hockey player Sheldon Kennedy, the prime minister echoed the questions Reh-taeh's parents asked.

"I can just tell you, you know Laureen and I, as a parent of a teenage daughter, you're just sickened seeing a story like this.

"I think we've got to stop using just the term bullying to describe some of these things. Bullying to me has a kind of connotation ... of kids misbehaving. What we are dealing with in some of these circumstances is simply criminal activity. It is youth criminal activity, it is violent criminal activity, it is sexual criminal activity and it is often Internet criminal activity," said Harper.

"And obviously we are looking at ways to combat this and to deal with it when it happens ..."

Well, if Harper really wants to do something, he can start by shaking up the leadership of the utterly incompetent RCMP.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson has not said a peep even though this is not the first time something like this has happened - not by a long shot.

Last year, the Coquitlam RCMP did nothing to help 15-year-old Amanda Todd, who had a topless photo of her posted on the Internet by a grown man who coerced her to pose for him online.

Like Rehtaeh (which is Heather spelled backwards) Amanda, who was the victim of a sexual predator, was victimized again by her peers who beat her up, called her a slut and ostracized her online and in person, leading her to commit suicide.

Janet Merlo, a former RCMP police officer who has launched a class-action lawsuit against the organization, says while she is heartbroken over how Rehtaeh was treated by the iconic police force, she is not in the least bit surprised.

"It's no wonder that the RCMP didn't take this girl's rape seriously. Look how they treat their own members who complain of sexual assault and sexual harassment," said Merlo, who was reached in Newfoundland, where she now lives with her two daughters.

"That's why 300 women RCMP officers have joined this class-action lawsuit with (law firm) Klein Lyons to help make a change in the attitudes and practices of the RCMP with how it treats harass-W ment and abuse of women," said Merlo.

"Women are still 100 years behind the times as far as the RCMP is concerned and I have no doubt that (Rehtaeh) was probably dismissed and they probably had a chuckle about it and thought, oh well, she went looking for it. I don't know, but that they don't take it seriously is not at all surprising," she said on Thursday night.

Merlo alleges that she suffered sexual harassment, bullying and verbal abuse throughout her 19-year career, most of it spent in Nanaimo, B.C., before she had to quit in March 2010 - from "a career she loved" - as a result of the unaddressed abuse she endured.

"I worked with hundreds of wonderful guys, but the public must demand that the RCMP is held to account, because they investigate themselves and they never find any wrongdoing, they sweep their abuse or incompetence under the rug and the victims are left dismissed - and that's what's happened to this young girl and it cost her life."

Merlo is right. Accountability is virtually nonexistent in the RCMP. After Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was Tasered to death at Vancouver International Airport, RCMP claimed they were attacked. Amateur video of Dzieka-nski's killing proved that to be a lie. It took years before the officers involved were charged with perjury.

The inquiry into the case of Robert Willie Pickton, who was convicted of murdering six Vancouver-area women, but is believed to have killed 20 more, revealed mountains of RCMP incompetence in that case.

In Alberta alone, the list of botched RCMP investigations is staggering and at least one has led to a lawsuit against the force. Three men and a boy who previously were charged with shooting a pregnant wild horse near Sundre are suing the RCMP for malicious prosecution and negligent investigation. In short, the RCMP took as gospel the word of two drug addicts who were seeking reward money into the killings of wild horses in the area. The facts in the case expose breathtaking ineptitude.

The RCMP in Nova Scotia refuse to say why it took so long to even interview the boys who allegedly boasted of raping Rehtaeh.

RCMP spokesman Cpl. Scott MacRae initially said: "In consultation with the Crown, there was insufficient evidence to lay charges."

But is that at all surprising? If you wait 10 months before interviewing the boys, any physical evidence would be long gone. Also, had the RCMP, along with the Halifax Regional Police who were also involved in the investigation, interviewed the boys as soon as Rehtaeh had reported the assault just days after the photo surfaced, maybe one of the boys would have confessed. Months later, that's much less likely.

On Friday, Nova Scotia RCMP are now saying they have reopened their investigation after receiving what they called "new and credible information." That's good news, but were it not for the public outcry, who really believes the RCMP would have reopened this investigation?

Rehtaeh's mother, Leah Parsons wrote with regard to the photo of her alleged assault that was taken that night "nothing was done about that because they couldn't prove who had pressed the photo button on the phone."

Isn't that what policing is supposed to do, to find out who did what to whom?

An earlier RCMP statement said photos online don't constitute proof.

That's news to Calgary police detectives contacted Friday. Of course, photos can be proof. Boasting online and in texts is proof - as the Steubenville, Ohio rape case that saw two young star football players jailed recently, will attest. And on Thursday, three boys in Saratoga, Calif., were arrested and charged with sexual battery after another 15-year-old girl was gang raped as she lay unconscious on a bed after drinking too much. She killed herself after photos of her assault were posted online. Without any public pressure and no knowledge by Audrie Pott's parents as to why their daughter committed suicide, police investigated the crime and laid charges. Talk about two solitudes in policing competency.

A high-ranking Calgary Police Service officer said he and his colleagues are actually embarrassed to listen to the excuses being given by RCMP on the Parsons case, the Amanda Todd case and so many others, as it diminishes the faith the public has in all police.

Consider the following: On Thursday, the newly renamed Sheldon Kennedy Child Advocacy Centre was officially opened by the prime minister. The 25,000-square-foot centre located across from Alberta Children's Hospital has been in the works for more than a year. It's where children who are abused can come to tell their story just once and then receive the help they need in a comprehensive, child-focused and friendly way. It's an inspired concept, developed by the Calgary Police Service, Child and Family Services, the Crown prosecutor's office and Alberta Health Services, along with philanthropic Calgarians and corporations. Apparently, the RCMP were approached repeatedly over the past year to join in the program to help general duty RCMP officers who investigate child sexual assault to get some help. An office on the floor was even built and set aside for them, but the RCMP is not on-board. Again, no surprise.

RCMP Chief Superintendent Kevin Harrison, who is the district commander for southern Alberta, said Friday "we certainly received an invitation from the Calgary city police quite some time ago," but, "we need to find the right resource."

In short, had Rehtaeh's rape been properly investigated and treated seriously - had she felt that others besides her family believed that a terrible crime had been committed against her and that she might see some justice done - then it's highly likely she would not have taken her own life.

It's long past time that the RCMP is held to account in Canada. The question we should all ask is, when is Stephen Harper going do something about it?

Licia Corbella is a columnist and editorial page editor. lcorbella@calgaryherald.com