Racist justice system in Sask. gives 2 year house arrest sentence for sexual assault of 12 year old native girl
From the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, Friday, October 21, 2005
High court decision denounced by chief
Regina (CP) - Aboriginals say the Supreme Court's refusal to review the sentence of a Saskatchewan man who sexually assaulted a 12 year old native girl is another example of a racist justice system.
"The justice system has never given Indian people a fair shot at anything." said Robert Whitehead, chief of the Yellow Quill First Nation, the girl's home reserve.
"If anybody from my community did that to a 12 year old girl it would be an automatic jail sentence - and it wouldn't be a lenient one, either."
Dean Edmondson escaped prison time when he was sentenced to two years of house arrest in 2003.
The girl's uncle, who can't be named to protect her identity, said the teen has turned to alcohol since the 2001 attack and has attempted suicide.
In an interview with the Canadian Press, he called the decision by the Supreme Court "awfully disappointing."
"The gilr's life is ruined, there is just no two ways about it," the uncle said.
From CBC News - Last Updated Oct 20 2005 12:42 PM CDT
High court declines to hear sex assault case
Canada's highest court will not look into a high-profile Saskatchewan sexual assault case.
Dean Edmondson was convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old Cree girl in 2001.
During his trial, court heard Edmondson and two other men picked up the young girl.
Everyone was drinking, and eventually the men tried to have sex with the 12-year-old.
Edmondson was convicted and was given two years for his crime, to be served at home. He spent no time in jail.
The trials captured the public's attention across Canada, raising issues of racism and women's rights.
Saskatchewan's appeal court suggested that Edmondson should have gone to jail, but that it had no power to change the sentence.
That's why Saskatchewan's attorney general wanted the Supreme Court of Canada to look at the case.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal application. As is the normal court practice, no reasons were given.
Meanwhile, although the application to appeal was dismissed, the case is not over.
Two other men, Jeffrey Kindrat and Jeffrey Brown, face a trial next June.
Originally they were acquitted, but a new trial was ordered by the courts.