Please Endorse This Statement

(la version française suit...)

Justice and Freedom for John Moore is a committee supporting an innocent indigenous man's struggle for justice and freedom in Canada. We are asking organizations and prominent individuals from across Canada to endorse this statement supporting John's demand for a review of his unjust second degree murder conviction:

John C. Moore, an Ojibway man from Serpent River First Nation, was convicted of second degree murder in 1978. This happened despite the fact that he was not present when the crime was committed and had no role whatsoever in perpetrating it, and was based solely on him having spent time earlier that day with the individuals who committed the crime. His trials were tainted with systemic racism. The law under which he was convicted was ruled unconstitutional in 1987, and noone would be convicted under similar circumstances today. Yet Moore continues to bear the burden of the stigma of this conviction. He must regularly report to a parole officer and must ask permission if he wishes to leave the city of Sudbury, Ontario, which is impeding his freedom of movement and his capacity to find meaningful work. For all of these reasons, and in recognition of the long history of indigenous people being targeted unfairly by the Canadian justice system, we, the individuals and groups listed below, call upon the Government of Canada to conduct a review of Moore's conviction.

Before you get in touch with us to add your name or the name of your organization, you may wish to read the following:

• a more detailed letter describing our request for support;
  
• a message from John;
  
• a message from Glenn Thibeault, NDP Member of Parliament for Sudbury, in support of John;
  
• a message from John's lawyer, Denis Michel;
  
• an up to date list of organizations and individuals that have already signed on to the statement above -- the list continues to grow, so please check back from time to time.
  
• A mini video documentary about John's case by Ottawa-based filmmaker Samantha Pollock.
  
• A FaceBook group Justice for John Moore! Please join!

If you have read these things and wish to add your voice to those calling for justice and freedom for John Moore and for other people struggling against Canada's racist judicial system, or if you wish more information, please email John at johnpower1955@hotmail.com or members of the support committee at sudburyawo@gmail.com. You can also get in touch with us by mail at Justice and Freedom For John Moore, c/o Glenn Thibeault, MP, 40 Elm Street, Suite 102a, Rainbow Centre, Sudbury, ON, P3C 1S8.

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Veuillez signer la pétition ci-dessous

Justice et liberté pour John Moore est une comité de soutien à la lutte d'un autochtone innocent pour justice et liberté au Canada. On invite des organisations et des individus bien connus dans les communautés partout au Canada à signer cette pétition en appui de la demande de John pour une révision de sa condamnation injuste de meurtre au 2e degré.

John C. Moore, Ojibwé originaire de la Première Nation de Serpent River, a été accusé de meurtre au 2e degré en 1978. Pourtant M. Moore n'était même pas dans les lieux du crime et n'a joué absolument aucun rôle dans son exécution. La condamnation était basée sur le seul fait que plus tôt dans la journée il s'était trouvé dans la compagnie de ceux qui plus tard commettraient le crime. Ses procès étaient imprégnés de racisme systèmique. M. Moore a été condamné en vertu d'une loi déclarée inconstitutionnelle en 1987, dans une cause ultérieure, et les mêmes circonstances aujourd'hui ne pourraient conduire à une déclaration de culpabilité. Toutefois, sa condamnation injuste continue à ce jour à peser lourdement sur lui. Il est tenu de se présenter de façon régulière à son contrôleur juridique et ne peut quitter la ville de Sudbury, en Ontario sans autorisation. Ces restrictions entravent ses déplacements à l'extérieur de la ville et ses possibilités d'emploi. Pour toutes ces raisons mentionnées et en reconnaissance de la longue histoire du traitement injustice des peuples autochtones par le système de justice du Canada, nous, soussigné(e)s appellons le gouvernement du Canada à ordonner une révision de la condamnation de John.

Avant de contacter le comité de soutien pour ajouter votre nom ou le nom de votre organisation à la liste, vous aimeriez peut-être consulter les documents suivants:

• une lettre plus détaillée appelant a l'appui;
  
• un mot personnel de John;
  
• une lettre d'appui de Glenn Thibeault, député néo-démocrat de Sudbury;
  
• une lettre d'appui de Denis Michel, avocat de John;
  
• une liste mise à jour régulièrement des groupes et des indvidus qui ont déjà signé;
  
• un mini vidéodocumentaire par Samantha Pollock, documentariste basée à Ottawa.
  
• ou rejoignez John sur FaceBook Justice for John Moore!

Pour ajouter votre nom à ceux des gens demandant la justice et la liberté pour John Moore et en solidarité avec la lutte contre le système de justice raciste au Canada, ou pour plus de renseignements, veuillez communiquer avec John à johnpower1955@hotmail.com ou le comité de soutien à sudburyawo@gmail.com . Vous pouvez rejoindre le comité aussi en écrivant à: Justice et liberté pour John Moore, aux soins de Glenn Thibeault, député, 40 rue Elm, suite 102a, Rainbow Centre, Sudbury (Ontario) P3C 1S8.

Sudburians honoured in late NDP leader's name

Sudburians honoured in late NDP leader's name
By Carol Mulligan, from The Sudbury Star

A short time ago, John Moore hadn't heard about the Jack Layton Award for Social Justice.

So it came as a surprise to learn that a group that has been fighting for him for years was nominated for the honour.

Justice and Freedom for John Moore, a group of a half dozen or so people fighting to clear the Sudbury man's name, is one of three groups short-listed for the Outstanding Achievement Award in the program named after the late New Democratic Party leader.

Myths and Mirrors and the Ontario Coalition Against Replacement Employees have also been nominated in that category.

The Jack Layton Award for Social Justice, the first of its kind in Canada, is a program organized by Sudbury New Democrats to recognize outstanding community members who work to build a more equal society.

"Jack Layton's commitment to social justice touched the nation," said Richard Eberhardt, president of the Sudbury NDP. "In his name, we are proud to recognize those who are carrying on his work."

Three individuals were nomi nat e d for the Leadership award in the program -- Laurentian University professor Gary Kinsman, Leo Therrien, executive director of Maison Vale Hospice, and longtime activist Laurie McGauley.

Three people were nominated for the Youth award, which recognizes people who encourage awareness of social justice among their peers.

Laurentian University labour student Nicole Beaulieu, Laurel O'Gorman, president of the teaching assistants' union at Laurentian, and Max Merrifield, a rap artist involved with the Occupy Sudbury movement, were short-listed for that award.

Moore has tried for decades to clear his name after being convicted June 30, 1978, in the death of taxi driver Donald Lanthier in Sault Ste. Marie.

Moore, an Ojibwe, was convicted of second-degree murder under a section of the Criminal Code that was later ruled unconstitutional. No one in his position today would be charged with a similar crime, let alone convicted of it.

Moore said Wednesday that a handful of people meet monthly to discuss how to have him exonerated. He will speak this weekend to students at Waterloo University about his case and has several speaking engagements at Laurentian University in coming weeks.

Moore and his supporters are asking for a review of his conviction.

Wyman McKinnon, former president of CUPE Local 4705 representing inside employees at the City of Greater Sudbury, is a member of OCARE (Ontario Coalition Against Replacement Workers).

The group supports the efforts of Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas to have the province pass legislation prohibiting the hiring of replacement workers during labour disputes.

Merrifield said he was "absolutely honoured and a little bit shocked to be nominated for ... an award in the name of such a fierce leader and fighter for social justice as Jack Layton. To even be short-listed is an absolute honour."

The awards will be presented at a dinner March 1 at the Steelworkers' Hall.

Tickets cost $100 for two or $60 each. There will be a silent auction at the event and proceeds from that will be donated to charities of the award-winners' choosing.

Tickets are available by phoning 705-562-1239.

Two Audio Interviews With John Moore

Please check out these radio interviews done with John by Dee Blues of The Prison Radio Show on CKUT 90.3 fm based in Montreal.

The first is from December 2010, and the second from June 2011. The files are in MP3 format.

If you are on FaceBook, you can become a fan of The Prison Radio Show by clicking here. You can also email the show at prison(AT)ckut.ca.

Association gives renewed hope to man fighting to clear his name

Association gives renewed hope to man fighting to clear his name
by Doug Milroy, from The Sault Star, May 21, 2011.

John Moore, who bills himself as "an innocent aboriginal man fighting for justice and freedom in Canada since 1978," may possibly have found a formidable ally.

The Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC) has decided to review his case.

Moore was convicted of second-degree murder in the slaying of cab driver Donald Lanthier in 1978, even though he was not at the scene. Crown Attorney Norman Douglas convinced a jury that, because Moore had associated with Gordon Stevens and Terry Hogan, the actual killers, earlier in the day, he knew or ought to have known a robbery with possible dire results was going to take place.

Knew or ought to have known, strange as it may seem now, was a law that was in the Criminal Code of Canada at the time.

It was found faulty and removed from the Criminal Code after the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the 1987 appeal of Yvan Vaillancourt, who was actually at the scene when his accomplice shot and killed a man during a robbery at a pool hall.

Ironically the Supreme Court, for reasons that remain

known only to its members, dismissed Moore's similar appeal three years earlier.

AIDWYC became involved in Moore's case after a friend of his, Ritchy Dube, emailed it on March 14 asking if there was "any reason why your organization is not behind the John Moore case, the aboriginal man from Sudbury convicted of murder under an old law. Surely his case merits advocacy and support. He is garnering lots of support, so it is puzzling why you are not involved. Any words?"

AIDWYC replied to Dube the same day it received his email. Win Wahrer, director of client services, told Dube that Moore had contacted the association several years ago, but attempts to get in touch with him were unsuccessful.

As it cannot look at a case until an individual requests it do so, it sent along an application form for Moore to fill out.

Having now received the formal request, Wahrer has asked Moore for "all documents relevant to your case but not limited to the following:

"Preliminary transcripts, trial transcripts, appeal factums (both Crown and defence), expert opinions/reports, investigative reports/notes, witness statements (including any statements you made to police), documentation of fresh evidence.

"Once your case file has been received, we will begin the process of assigning your case to a volunteer case reviewer, whose job it will be to review your case on behalf of AIDWYC."

AIDWYC's involvement has given renewed hope to a man who has been fighting, to no avail to this point, to clear his name since he was released from prison in 1987.

The amount of paper he has distributed in fighting the justice system has to be approaching a ton. In one photograph in a Sudbury newspaper he is shown dropping three large boxes of files on former MP Diane Marleau's desk. I have, or did have until some recent weeding, a stack of material about 40 centimetres high.

When laws are overturned, those convicted under the law as it stood receive no benefit. They have to live with whatever sentence they received.

I don't think this is fair. I believe anyone convicted under such a law should at least have his or her case reviewed. If the decision would have come out the same as in Vaillancourt, then the record should be cleared.

Moore will have to report to a parole officer for the rest of his life because he was convicted of a crime for which he wouldn't even be charged today.

That isn't right.

MOORE FACES another ongoing battle, one to this point he has been winning.

Tim Lanthier, the brother of Donald Lanthier, has been attempting to sway the parole board into preventing Moore from even visiting Sault Ste. Marie to see his mother.

Moore had provided me with typewritten letters he said had been copied from correspondence he had had with Lanthier in 1984. In one, Lanthier is purported to have said he forgave Moore, who replied that he couldn't accept his forgiveness as he had done nothing to be forgiven for.

Moore also said Lanthier visited him in prison and in one of the letters Lanthier is purported to have said he enjoyed the visit and would be coming back.

I phoned Lanthier to see why he had since changed his mind about Moore.

To my surprise, he denied ever writing to Moore or visiting him in prison.

"You didn't write him letters when he was in jail?" I asked again.

"No," he said. "The thing is, he was involved in murder of my brother. He denies he was involved. Has never taken ownership for the part he played, so as far as I am concerned he is guilty as sin.

"I don't want him anywhere near me. I am very active in my community and I don't want to be running into him.

"I don't want him in town and will do anything I can to keep him out of town."

To that end Lanthier earlier this year submitted a victim impact statement to the parole office in Sudbury, telling it about the effect his brother's slaying had had on the Lanthier family.

In a report in October 2009, the office said Moore " demonstrate overall positive community functioning with no critical identified needs or concerns."

It said Moore has no special conditions attached to his full-parole release as he has been in the (Sudbury) community for many years, maintaining pro-social community functioning.

It is this record that has enabled him to continue his visits to the Sault despite any intervention from an outside party.

But I do have some further checking to do in regard to Lanthier's claim that he never wrote or visited Moore.

We should stop punishing those who couldn't be convicted today

We should stop punishing those who couldn't be convicted today
by Doug Milroy, from The Sault Star, January 2011.

For those of you who believe anyone convicted of murder, no matter how tenuous the circumstances, should be punished for the rest of his or her life, you will like this one.

As I have detailed in this space many times, John Moore was convicted of second-degree murder in 1978 even though evidence showed he was not present when cab driver Donald Lanthier was slain by Gordon Stevens and Terry Hogan in a ravine off Third Line in 1978.

He was convicted on the basis of a law, declared ultra vires in 1987 and therefore no longer applicable in the Criminal Code of Canada, that "he knew, or ought to have known," that Stevens and Hogan were planning to commit an armed robbery as he had been in their company earlier in the day.

Moore, who served 10 years in prison, has always maintained his innocence and has been battling with the justice system for years to get his sentence overturned, but lately to at least get some relief from his life-time parole.

If you wonder why such relief is important to Moore, consider the "instruction" from the Correctional Service of Canada (Parole), the entity which effectively controls his life, in regard to his request that he be

allowed to travel to Sault Ste. Marie to visit his mother for Christmas.

In it, parole officer Peter Moore tells Moore the travel pass is good for Dec. 23 to Dec. 27 with the following restrictions:

* He is not to board any bus providing public transportation within the city of Sault Ste. Marie;

* He is not to enter any of the grocery stores conducting business under the name of No Frills;

* He is to avoid contact with the family of the victim of his offence.

The idea behind the instruction apparently is to prevent Moore from accidentally coming into contact with any member of Lanthier's family. As such, I am surprised, since the instruction is so wide-ranging anyway, that Martell didn't go so far as to ban Moore from visiting local malls.

But the requirements as they stand, which haven't been applied to Moore previously, are stringent enough to be ridiculous.

I especially take issue with the instruction banning him from using the local transit system to get around.

Travelling from his Sudbury home to the Sault by bus and living on welfare, this virtually condemns him to walking everywhere he goes because he certainly can't afford cab fare.

The Crown didn't have any evidence to charge Moore with conspiracy to commit a crime, so it went with the ought-to-have-known offence, a law that was almost impossible to defend against. This was recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada which, in 1987, overturned the conviction of Yvan Vaillancourt, even though he was present when his accomplice in a robbery of a convenience store shot and killed the clerk.

Moore has caused no trouble since his release from prison in 1987. In fact, he thwarted a robbery at a convenience store in Sudbury.

So I say again: I think it is time we as a society should be able to find a way out of continuing to hang a lifetime of punishment on someone from the past when no one could be convicted under similar circumstances today.

That isn't much to ask.

Letter from NDP Justice Critic to Minister of Justice

Honourable Rob Nicholson
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Room 105 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6

December 2, 2010

Dear Minister Nicholson,

I am writing concerning the case of John Moore an aboriginal Canadian convicted of a 2nd degree murder in 1978 under s. 21(2) of the Criminal Code a section which as you are no doubt aware, s.21(2) was ruled unconstitutional in R. v. Vaillancourt.

At the time of Mr. Moore's conviction there existed a pattern of prosecution of First Nations as well as absence of representation on judicial panels which would now be ruled offensive to the Charter. Given the same set of circumstances today any objective observer would determine that he would not be charged, much less convicted of 2^nd degree murder.

Since his release from prison in 1989, Mr. Moore has continued to bear the burden and stigma of his conviction. He must still report to a parole officer, more than 30 years after his conviction and 20 years after his release from prison. The unique set of circumstances surrounding the case as well as the glaring injustice of his conviction cries out for clemency.

I would therefore ask you to investigate the matter and as is the Crown's prerogative under sections 748 and 749 of the Criminal Code, grant a full pardon to Mr. Moore.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Yours truly,


Joe Comartin, MP
Windsor-Tecumseh

JJC/grh
CEP 232

CBC Radio Sudbury Coverage of Petitions

See here for coverage of the presentation of John Moore's petition in Parliament by English CBC in Sudbury. It is a 5 minute interview with MP Glenn Thibeault, who presented the petition. The interview does not present as clearly as it could the patently unjust character of Moore's conviction -- it's not just that he wants to "move on with his life" now but rather that he should never have been convicted in the first place, given that the law under which he was convicted allowed people to be put away for a murder in which they had no involvement whatsoever, and given the systemic racism that shaped his experiences of the justice system. But it's exposure for the case, which is important, and Glenn and his staff should be commended for their work on John's behalf!