🚀 go-pugleaf

Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 11:57:31 -0800
From: Steve Kisby <skisby@web.net>
To: sovernet-l@speakeasy.org
Cc: casnp@io.org
Subject: Tspeten Defence Committee release

TS'PETEN DEFENCE COMMITTEE
174-1472 Commercial Drive, Vancouver, Salish Territory, V5L 3X9
Phone: (604) 322-7934, Fax: (604) 323-0224
Information: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/gustmain.html

Press Release
February 18, 1997
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED LAWYER DR. BRUCE CLARK RETURNS TO BRITISH COLUMBIA
RCMP Continue It's Intimidation By Arresting Dr. Clark

VANCOUVER, Salish Territory -- The Ts'peten Defence Committee announced
today the arrival of internationally renowned lawyer Dr. Bruce Clark.  Dr.
Clark arrived on Canadian Airlines flight CA989 and was subsequently
arrested by RCMP on his way to meet Ts'peten Defence Committee officials and
supporters.  At the recommendation of Regional Crown Counsel Ray Hall, Dr.
Clark was returning to Vancouver to meet his legal agent, Mr. Manuel A.
Azevedo, and seek "early hearing dates of all matters."

Given that Sergeant Peter Montague, Chief RCMP media liaison in B.C., and
other senior RCMP officials were disclosed in court to have planned a "smear
and disinformation campaign" against Dr. Clark and the Gustafsen Lake
Defenders, and that the chief RCMP negotiator Dennis Ryan is also on a video
shown in court stating RCMP Command wanted to "kill this Clark and smear the
prick and everyone with him", there are fears of more improper conduct of
the RCMP and for Dr. Clark's safety.

When Dr. Clark attempted to represent Ts'penten Defendants at their first
appearance on September 15, 1995, the RCMP denied him access to or
communication with his clients, literally locking him out of the courtroom.
When he finally gained entry, the presiding judge refused to hear him or to
permit him to file a motion outlining that court's lack of jurisdiction
beyond the treaty frontier. Clark was then assaulted by police, dragged away
in shackles and leg-irons, and subsequently ordered by the judge into a
compulsory fourteen day "psychiatric assessment". When he was certified sane
and ordered to appear on charges of contempt of court and assaulting a
police officer, he fled Canada on the instructions of his clients, to exile
in the Netherlands, and eventually to New York.

Human Rights organizations world wide condemned Canada's outrageous abuse of
indigenous rights at the time of the Gustafsen Lake siege.  It now appears
that the "crisis" was manipulated and deliberately provoked by BC's ruling
New Democratic Party (NDP) as an election strategy designed to appease
anti-Native voters. Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh, deputy AG Stephen Owen
(ironically a former legal advisor to Amnesty International) and assistant
deputy AG Maureen Maloney, coordinated the Gustafsen Lake "crisis" with
senior RCMP officers and federal politicians. Regrettably, government
sponsored native organizations like the Assembly of First Nations
collaborated also.

Dr. Clark has returned to British Columbia at the request of his clients,
including Shuswap elder Wolverine (Jones William Ignace, currently
imprisoned without bail).  They want Dr. Clark to present to the jury the
evidence which will establish the "fraud, treason and genocide" (as defined
in natural, international, and Canadian law) of the Provincial and Federal
governments' unlawful invasion of the unsurrendered Indian Territories.  So
far the non-native legal system has acted with panic and viciousness at the
threat this law presents to the powerful vested interests involved.

In a letter dated September 26, 1995, regarding the treatment of Bruce Clark
by the Canadian legal establishment, the prominent US human rights
spokesperson and former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark advised BC Attorney
General Ujjal Dosanjh and B.C. Chief Justice Allan McEachern "You have
created the appearance of an outrageous abuse of judicial power to deprive
persons accused of crime of their counsel... Have you no sense of judicial
ethics or common decency?... You give the appearance of an arrogant and
hateful tyrant determined to humiliate Indians and destroy the professional
and personal reputation and the livelihood of their lawyer. Do you expect
Indian peoples to believe they can receive justice in your court? And where
will Indians obtain independent, courageous and effective counsel to
represent them in your court?" (copy available by fax on request)

The Law Society of Upper Canada dismissed attempts by the B.C. legal
establishment to have Dr. Clark disbarred, ruling that "the genocide of
which Mr. Clark speaks is real... we are sympathetic moreover to his
assertion that the Courts have been unwilling to hear his argument."

The Gustafsen Lake Trial, the longest and costliest in Canadian history, has
produced stunning revelations of a criminal conspiracy on the part of the
B.C. and Canadian establishment, to resort to state terror, smear and
disinformation, political chicanery, judicial thuggery, and a complete
disregard of the rule of law.

The Ts'peten Defence Committee Calls For A Full Public Enquiry

Dr. Clark plans to appear in the Supreme Court of British Columbia in
Surrey, "for the purpose of speaking to the draft petition / motion /
constitutional question delivered to the crown attorney and the court [on
February 12] in the trial in progress of Regina v. William Jones Ignace and
others."

- 30 -

Media inquiries:

Ts'peten Defence Committee spokespersons:
Splitting The Sky,  phone/fax: (604) 543-9661
Bill Lightbown,  phone: (604) 251-4949

Gustafsen Lake Legal Team:
Manuel Azevedo, fax: (604) 687-0241

Press Kit Materials Available On Request:

Letter from Dr. Bruce Clark to J. Ray Hall, dated November 4, 1996
Letter from J. Ray Hall to Dr. Bruce Clark, dated November 27, 1996
Letter from Dr. Bruce Clark to J. Ray Hall, dated February 13, 1997
Letter from Mr. Azevedo to the Law Society of B.C., dated February 11, 1997
Notice of Motion from Dr. Bruce Clark, dated February 15, 1997
Letter from former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark to BC Attorney General
Ujjal Dosanjh, dated September 26, 1995
The Law Society of Upper Canada, Convocation Hearing Report, November 23, 1995
Transcript of Supreme Court Hearing, dated January 17, 1997
Petition/Motion/Constitutional Question index, dated February 12, 1997
Vancouver Sun newspaper article, page A18, dated February 15, 1997