As in Part 8 of this blog article, the criminal complaint by lawyer Marion Buller in early November had the most negative impact on my activity in the fall of 1993 to revive civil litigation versus University of British Columbia and Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The October 6, 1992 lawsuit over a UBC employment dispute had been part of broader issues regarding then UBC Head of Computer Science Maria Klawe’s management, and also challenged RCMP’s role in my eviction on July 2 upon end of my UBC faculty job.
The lawsuit needed expansion, to cover psychiatric oppression RCMP brought in after I also challenged Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s leadership conduct in press releases to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and BCTV. As in Part 6, RCMP did so with UBC and B.C. Supreme Court Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick, who happened to be wife of my former UBC colleague David Kirkpatrick, on November 30, 1992 after I had just faxed the press releases to local Member of Parliament Kim Campbell – also Mulroney government’s Justice Minister.
But as in Part 8, in August-October 1993 I couldn’t find a civil lawyer to replace Brian Mason, who had launched my lawsuit but quit in April 1993. By early November I was instead facing 3 counts of Mischiefs for being persistent at Cram & Associates, the last law firm I had visited for my civil case, at YMCA Enterprise Centre where lawyer Richard Dempsey had an office, who had defended my earlier incidents of civil disobedience but now skipped my appointment for the new charge, and at law firm Warren & Eder, which agreed to defend the two preceding mischiefs but refused to set trial earlier than April 1994.
My acts of persistence were peaceful, as in Part 8 described by Crown prosecutor Marjorie Munkley as “passive resistance or mere nuisance”, as reason for filing Mischief charges when Vancouver Police wanted Assault-by-Trespass – a type RCMP had upgraded to Assault in two earlier incidents of standoff with UBC Hospital security guards as in Part 7.
But with Marion Buller, who claimed an unspecified “conflict of interest” for declining my civil case, my persistence led unexpectedly to a Criminal Harassment charge on November 4.
Vancouver Police report on November 3, 1993 by officers T. Catchpole and C. Egge showed that the concern by Marion Buller’s law firm really did not justify a charge that was, as in Part 8, newly created to deal with violent stalkers and carry a possible 10-year jail punishment on the basis of fear alone, not actual violence:
“Due to GAO’s previous behaviors regarding the same type of behavior with other lawyers in recent weeks, the employees of the law firm are very concerned for their well being and safety. At this time GAO’s continued behavior of the same nature suggests that he has a great deal of difficulty accepting no for an answer, and there is an obvious concern that without restrictions he will continue to inconvenience and bother the people of the law firm.”
Could behavior of “inconvenience and bother” justify worry of violence?
Listed in police record info as “Accused Background” were the 3 mischief charges, and “record of violence” without detail. Among pages attached to the police notes was a copy of my May 6 bail under the first Assault charge, probably evidence of “violence” but I had been found not guilty of it, though guilty of a second such charge in June but given an absolute discharge as in Part 7.
Earlier there had been an escalating pattern of prosecuting, as prosecutor Marjorie Munkley’s comments indicated I likely had not been violent. The falsely profiled violence had their source in my UBC dispute as discussed in Parts 4, 6 & 7.
Adding Criminal Harassment to 3 Mischief charges was a “Three strikes and you’re out” type of escalating punishment, as I have asserted in Part 8.
Marion Buller had been suggested by lawyers at other firms, to represent both my criminal defence and civil lawsuit – and as a female lawyer which I preferred as discussed in Part 7.
At that point I had met lawyers Peter Eccles and Brian Rhodes at her firm, who couldn’t due to their other work, possibly for Justice Department as I recall; but they cautioned that Buller had recently gotten ‘engaged’ and was quite busy. I didn’t get the message they conveyed as these lawyers chose not to be explicit, and I was unaware of two crucial facts that would have given me serious second thoughts.
The first crucial fact I missed was that I had been to this law firm in September 1992 and had one of my most extensive discussions with any lawyer before lawsuit’s launch.
That law firm had been Ray Connell, but in early November 1993 it was called Connell Lightbody, where Marion Buller was. The name change had taken place on June 1 (“Campbell fundraiser draws familiar faces”, by Malcolm Parry, June 26, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“… though Walley Lightbody didn't mention it, one recalls that 28-lawyer Ray Connell became Connell, Lightbody June 1.
For the record, the be-bop-playing barrister handles a tenor sax – and his haircuts – better than U.S. president Bill Clinton.”
In this The Vancouver Sun social column, lawyer Walley Lightbody was compared to Bill Clinton, who had been in town his April summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, held at UBC as in Part 7.
Among the pages attached to Vancouver Police’s November 3, 1993 notes was a record of my two consultations, costing $35 and $350, at the law firm on September 4 & 9, 1992, with lawyer E. Ajit Saran who referred to “Dr. Ghoa” and “wrongful dismissal claim against U.B.C.”.
The police notes said that I had just been to this law firm 7 times in 2 days, and that building security and police were called to “remove” me. I am confident that when security, and possibly police, were first called I hadn’t even spoken with Marion Buller: by the time I was given a chance, directed by a security guard to an internal intercom phone to wait for her call from an office floor above, my ‘pattern’ of persistence at this firm had been established.
I recall it was around the time of this phone conversation when I turned around and saw a vaguely familiar gentleman in the midst of an empty office floor, staring at me with a bepuzzled look.
Mr. Saran was possibly thinking, “Why is Dr. Ghoa here? Last year I advised him to expand the proposed lawsuit suing UBC to include RCMP, but told him that our firm couldn’t do it because while we do some legal work for UBC we do a lot for the federal government.”
I, on the other hand, was befuddled looking at Saran, “He looks like a lawyer I discussed with last year, but why is he here?” I was unable to recall the past specifics, and security personnel quickly re-emerged to escort me out.
It had likely been due to Saran’s suggestion that suing RCMP came onto the agenda. As in Parts 5 & 6, unbeknown to me at the time, my lawsuit served to RCMP by lawyer Brian Mason brought instant consternation and punishing reaction from RCMP Superintendent D. G. Cowley, Officer Commanding Vancouver Subdivision.
Ajit Saran later did take on that line of legal action himself, in 1998 for fired West Vancouver police officer Glen Mason against his former employer, which I note wasn’t part of the federal RCMP; Saran also claimed that police favoured prominent people (“Fired West Van police officer sues”, by Glenn Bohn, May 2, 1998, The Vancouver Sun):
“A former West Vancouver police officer who was fired after he allegedly displayed his handgun during a Block Watch meeting filed a wrongful dismissal suit …
The municipal police department forced Constable Glen Mason to resign in April 1996 after a disciplinary hearing found Mason guilty of “deceit” …
Mason successfully appealed to the B.C. Police Commission … but the West Vancouver police department hasn’t reinstated Mason …
“He’s working elsewhere, but he wants to go back to his life as a police officer,” Mason’s lawyer, Ajit Saran, said Friday in an interview. …
…
During Mason's appeal to the B.C. Police Commission, his lawyer tried to introduce a 1996 internal report written by another police officer.
It suggested prominent people weren’t given the same treatment by police as other members of the public. One incident cited involved a traffic ticket issued to former Vancouver Canucks hockey player Cliff Ronning. The ticket was cancelled … for “public relations” reasons.”
When Marion Buller was pitched against my political activism, “public relations” being in her favor was an important factor – but it will take the presentation of many more facts for the real picture to emerge.
The second crucial fact about Connell Lightbody I was unaware of in November 1993, was its being in the same office building as the Justice Department representing RCMP defence over my lawsuit. The building housed some government offices as I had been there for an Unemployment Insurance appeal hearing, a matter related to my May-June standoffs with security guards at UBC Hospital, which as discussed in Part 7 refused to provide a mental-health clearance over the psychiatric oppression it had started.
Justice Department’s first letter to my lawyer, dated October 20, 1992, relaying indignation by RCMP as discussed in Part 5, had listed its address as 28th floor, 1055 West Georgia Street, while my November 9, 1993 bail following the Marion Buller incident listed Connell Lightbody’s address as 1055 West Georgia Street – a legal document on the internet lists it as on the 19th floor (Petition to the Court, The Neighbourhood Pub Owners’ Association of B.C.).
Even today I still can’t tell what her “conflict of interest” was, albeit it was within Marion Buller’s right not to take any case. But helping police bring down the Criminal Harassment ‘stick’ meant for violent stalkers?
Press archives show that Buller had been a Justice Department prosecutor (“RCMP paid snitch $80,000”, by Marc Edge, April 18, 1990, The Province):
“RCMP Cpl. Barry Bennett told Vancouver county court Judge Marion Allan that Cahill came under suspicion as part of a 15-month sting known as Operation Deception.
Bennett said a small-time criminal who has been a paid RCMP agent since 1983 tipped police to Cahill, saying the construction superintendent could provide quantities of cocaine.
…
Prosecutor Marion Buller refused to provide Cahill’s age, as did her boss, Brian Purdy of the federal Justice Department.”
Buller’s former boss Brian Purdy was Justice Department’s acting director in B.C., and later supervised all criminal prosecutions there (“Americans - again - looking to Canada as draft refuge”, by Mark Hume, January 12, 1991, The Vancouver Sun; and, “Open door to police commission, critic urges”, by Don Braid, November 7, 2000, Calgary Herald). So if the Buller charge against me was in fact a ‘sting’ wanted by RCMP, then Purdy may have had a role.
In August 1992 when I was looking for a lawyer and about to visit Ray Connell, Buller was still reported as a federal prosecutor on drug cases (“‘Merchant of misery’ must pay fare of 14 years, judge rules”, by Larry Still, August 13, 1992, The Vancouver Sun).
Then in October when my lawsuit was filed, there was news about B.C. Cariboo-Chilcotin region’s aboriginal natives complaining of RCMP mistreatment, B.C. government holding an inquiry by provincial court Judge Anthony Sarich, and the inquiry lacking a lawyer. Buller spoke out as a member of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada in support of the natives’ request for a lawyer, after Justice Department agreed (“Natives demand commission counsel”, by William Boei, October 21, 1992, The Vancouver Sun):
“Federal justice department lawyer Gordon Bourgard, representing the RCMP, said he has told Sarich the natives’ request “makes sense, and we encourage you to do it, because our interest is to have an orderly and efficient inquiry where all of the evidence gets heard in a reasonable way.”
…
A Vancouver native lawyer said a commission counsel is essential.
Running the inquiry without one “would severely impair the native people’s ability to state their position adequately and thoroughly,” said Marion Buller, a member of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada, which represents about 160 native judges, lawyers and law students.
…
Bourgard, the RCMP lawyer, said a commission counsel ensures an inquiry doesn’t drag on for months longer than necessary, and that witnesses are not inconvenienced.”
When the inquiry opened in December 1992, Marion Buller, now with Ray Connell, was the commission counsel nominated by the natives (“Natives vs. justice system: Hearings open with probe of Indian leader’s death”, by Robert Mason Lee, December 5, 1992, The Vancouver Sun):
“Buller, a Cree from the Vancouver law office of Ray Connell, was nominated by a native law centre to act as the non-partisan lawyer for the commission. Before her appointment earlier this month, natives were saddled with the job of researching and presenting evidence.”
So there should have been no direct conflict of interest for Marion Buller to act for my lawsuit suing RCMP, given that she had recently moved down several floors in her building, from being a federal prosecutor working with RCMP to being a private lawyer and counsel for a public inquiry into RCMP conduct.
Moreover, a few days before my attending Connell Lightbody in early November 1993, unaware that it was Ray Connell, an October 29 news report – also cited in Part 8 – had reported that Buller would do province-wide legal consultation for the natives (“Native justice report raps arrogant RCMP”, by Scott Simpson, October 29, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“The attorney-general said the RCMP are moving forward on some areas of aboriginal policing.
…
Gabelmann also announced that Marion Buller, who acted as counsel for the commission, will carry out a province-wide consultation on aboriginal legal issues.”
Thus, even if past federal government work was a hindrance for Ajit Saran it was for Marion Buller as illustrated by her role at the Sarich inquiry. That would leave RCMP and Justice Department as behind Buller’s rejection of my lawsuit. It could be RCMP, or Justice Department given other facets of the politics, such as my past communication to then local MP Kim Campbell on November 30, 1992 – and another in early December also for her capacity as Justice Minister, as in Part 6.
But Buller’s negative act critically added to the oppression against me, recalling Justice Department lawyer Paul F. Partridge’s ‘veiled’ warning to my lawyer on October 20, 1992:
“… the named defendant, R.C.M.P., is not a legal entity capable of being sued.”
In other words, civil legal actions against the Canadian law-enforcement icon, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, should be only pre-approved legal shows such as the Sarich inquiry for which Buller was the lawyer, or the plaintiffs risked troubles.
Such was ‘rule of law’, and rule of engagement.
After getting out on bail in November 1993 with surety-bail help by my Aunt Sally, who happened to be a court interpreter and who also helped get me defense lawyer Phil Seagram as in Part 8, I continued to attend UBC Hospital to seek a review of the original “Delusional Disorder” diagnosis. In my mind, the psychiatric oppression related to my UBC dispute was a main obstacle to my civil legal action.
But UBC Hospital would no longer do psychiatric re-assessment for me after the last two: in August by Dr. A. Bergmann as in Part 7, stating I was “nondelusional”; and on October 20 sending me to Vancouver General Hospital for a committal, claiming I was obsessed and harassing staff, from which I was released on the federal election day October 25 as in Part 8.
In the afternoon of November 29, I was informed by UBC Hospital psychiatrist Dr. (Jonathan) Fleming that provincial Medical Services Plan would no longer cover my visits. It could be that I was no longer considered a mental patient there.
Earlier that day, I had an appointment with my new probation officer, Fred Hitchcock assisted by Randy Watts, as reassigned from David Phillips starting November 22. I had known both from my detentions at Vancouver Pre-trial Services Centre, normally in the Disordered Offender Unit; Hitchcock was director for this program in Vancouver and Watts supervised the inmates’ Sheltered Workshop. Hitchcock’s notes stated:
“The initial combined supervision of Mr. Gao (by Watts and Hitchcock) is a reminder to the subject of his previous incarceration for not complying by court orders (resulting in further charges). Basically the message to Mr. Gao is that Corrections and Forensic will assist him including referring for job placement and community work if he is cooperative. Otherwise we will have him returned to court for a review (or if applicable a breach).”
Looking back, these two events taking place on the same day was no coincidence: assigning jail detention staff as my new probation staff and ending my medical coverage for hospital psychiatric visits – both provided by B.C. government agencies.
This followed the riskiest criminal charge I had faced –due to complaint by a lawyer who was the counsel for a high-level B.C. government commissioned inquiry and had a prosecutor background working for federal Justice Department and RCMP.
As earlier quoted, the rationale by Justice Department and RCMP to allow a legal counsel for the Sarich inquiry to address aboriginal natives’ concerns was that it “ensures an inquiry doesn’t drag on for months longer than necessary, and that witnesses are not inconvenienced”.
That same rationale was probably also applied to my case, to cut my civil litigation short without any real action, so that it wouldn’t be “longer than necessary” as the authorities deemed, or “inconvenience” important persons: Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative party had been decimated under Kim Campbell – all that was “necessary” for Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s Liberals – while Maria Klawe’s UBC management career was still advancing – and not to be “inconvenienced”.
As in Parts 7 & 8, my earlier persistent phoning of Vancouver lawyer Patricia Connor after a no-contact condition had been added to my bail on an Assault charge, led to more criminal charges and a guilty verdict in July 1993 at Richmond Provincial Court for Breach-of-Recognizance, and a December 1 sentence to conditional discharge with 1-year probation.
The probation reassignment happened on the eve of that sentencing. New probation officer Fred Hitchcock’s reminder, i.e., warning, implied that further persistence – with Marion Buller now – would mean harder punishment.
No doubt had I not deemed it necessary I wouldn’t have gotten into such troubles at all. During my jail detentions I was not only forced to take the anti-psychotic medication Haldol with its unpleasant side effects but, for persisting against correction staff’s orders, was slapped with various restraints, including: lockdown, i.e., confined to my cell without access to the common area; hogtie with chains; sleep naked on cement floor in the basement; and ‘helicopter ride to the hole’, i.e., taken on an elevator ride by the toughest Officer-in-Charge – jail supervisor – and his assistants, with my hands held at the back and lifted up so my body severely bent forward, to a windowless solitary cell on the top floor, where he put his knee on my back to force my lying facedown until I agreed not to make noise – likely already less than the proverbial thing with its rumored beatings.
In the clampdown on my political activism, the local RCMP did decide not to overdo it as on December 20, 1993 the Forensic Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic, handling my court-ordered counselling, received a phone call from Hitchcock about a conversation with RCMP “Cpl. Libel”, who said that RCMP’s UBC detachment didn’t view me as a “violent” threat:
“Cpl. Libel reports that this detachment doesn’t perceive Mr. Gao as a threat to be violent, but rather that he seeks to be arrested in the hope of obtaining a psychiatric report that would guarantee him a pension that was otherwise denied him when his contract expired and was renewed at U.B.C.”
While Cpl. Libel’s descriptions were all mixed up in regard to my UBC dispute and my attempts to get rid of the psychiatric oppression, his words did point to forensic psychiatry as an alternative measure in criminal justice – a subject touched on in Part 8, in particular in the case of serial child killer Clifford Olson.
Around December 30, Hitchcock produced a new “Case Management Plan”, with Forensic Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic’s Dr. Clifford Kerr and nurse Daniel Mets leading the contact list. Compared to the first one devised in September as in Part 8, Cpl. Libel was a notable addition, whereas hardline UBC Hospital psychiatrist Dr. M. O. Agbayewa was now omitted – likely because I was no longer allowed SMP-funded visits there.
Co-relating to the escalating prosecution utilizing Marion Buller’s involvement, was the ending of other community involvement.
As in Part 8, the September case plan had come out of a “Multi-Service Network” case conference organized by the community-based Vancouver South Mental Health Team, and in December VSMHT was trying to do a second conference that might also involve Aunt Sally, and my mother who had come from China in June.
But now, the involvement of MSN and VSMHT was ended by Hitchcock.
On the same day when Forensic Clinic recorded RCMP UBC detachment Cpl. Libel’s statement that I was not perceived as a violent threat there, VSMHT was also told by Crown counsel Marjorie Munkley that UBC should get its own civil restraining order.
Piecing together the various info from probation, Forensic Clinic, UBC Hospital and VSMHT, a picture emerged in November-December 1993, of consolidating control in the hands of provincial jail staff acting as probation staff, and in the hands of provincial forensic psychiatrists, with a plan to escalate penalties through the criminal court if I was not “complying” or “cooperative”.
Indeed, when I attended UBC Hospital in December, staff there just phoned probation staff. On January 13, 1994 I was there for the last time, and without the option of interviews with psychiatrists I just asked that the hospital review my records to correct any wrong diagnosis. I was told nothing had been done wrong:
“Arrived by bus asking for the Dr. to read his past charts to see if a wrong dx has been made. Informed that there were no mistakes made. left to parking lot in his own car.”
But this last record item already had a fact wrong: having arrived by bus, how could I leave in my own car when I hadn’t been there for days?
To shift my focus, Fred Hitchcock introduced me to Nancy Carroll and Katherine Au who could help find volunteer work and employment, but I was more interested in a computer science job. On December 30 Hitchcock told me Microsoft was hiring in Vancouver.
So in the week prior to UBC Hospital’s January 13 final statement of denial of psychiatric oppression, I went to Microsoft Canada’s Vancouver office, left a resume and was later told that it would be kept on file and I would be contacted if the company was interested.
According to Vancouver Police record on January 11, 1994, from January 4 on I “attempted to gain access” to Microsoft office several times and was removed by security. The incident was then reported to police along with background info found from UBC, including: “let go under questionable circumstances”, “RCMP were called to assist in evicting”, and “institutionalized for a short term”. “Additional information” was referred to, but is not in the police report as in the personal-information disclosure.
I didn’t persist further with Microsoft, and police didn’t witness an incident. Still, the January 11 police report categorized the offence as “Threatening/Harassing”, despite nothing “threatening” in its info.
The Vancouver Police was likely acting on the same master plan as with Marion Buller’s involvement, taking it to the next level of the ‘violent stalker’ scenario Criminal Harassment charge was about. I had accumulated 3 Mischief charges due to my activity of civil disobedience prior to the Criminal Harassment charge. But there was no violence in any of the incidents.
The entire period, from my July 2, 1992 UBC eviction by RCMP to the November 4, 1993 Criminal Harassment charge due to Marion Buller, coincided with that of a political campaign drive in California – and other similar drives in the United States – to enact a “3-strike” law – spurred by the June 29, 1992 murder of Kimber Reynolds by repeat felons Joseph Michael Davis and Douglas David Walker, and the October 1, 1993 kidnapping and eventual murder of Polly Klaas by repeat felon Richard Allen Davis. Under such new laws, a person convicted of a third violent felony would see a much longer prison term, or life in prison. “Three strikes and you are out”, even President Bill Clinton got in on the act in his January 1994 State of the Union address. (“State of the Union Address” by William J. Clinton, January 25, 1994, Electronic Classics Series, The Pennsylvania State University; and, “Passage of the 3-strikes Law”, by Douglas W. Kieso, February 2010, Vol. 1, Issue 12, SJRA Advocate)
But these laws have been controversial. Two of the major criticisms are: many of the prisoners, in the thousands, serving life sentences under “3-strike” laws do so not for violent offences; and, among those serving “3-strike” sentences a disproportionate number are minorities, particularly Blacks (“Three Strikes Law of California Proposition 184. of March 1994: A Policy Analysis”, by Cesar Urizar, May 2009, UMI ProQuest; and, “'Three Strikes of Injustice’”, By Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway, October 8, 2012, The New York Times).
After I began political blogging in January 2009, and in February started a series of blog posts on Canadian politics especially regarding former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Microsoft announced on March 9 that Maria Klawe became a director of its board, as in Part 4. When I learned it I felt a sense of deja vu, as when Microsoft recruiter “Ken Button” phoned me in Silicon Valley in early 2000s the above 1994 incident had come to my mind.
Powerful interests seem to have the prerogative to do as they please, and in the process trample on others whose existence they can even deny.
In January 1994 I also began looking for an academic job. Hitchcock’s January 19 notes recorded:
“Mr. Gao (in the company of his mother – who can’t speak English) … He stated he received his medical injection from the Forensic Clinic nurse on Jan 14, 1994. He appeared restless, wanted to telephone a New Jersey University twice within 15 minutes. re: their response to his seeking employment. He stated that when he has completed his court dates in February, 1994 he intends to move to the U.S.A. to seek University employment. I advised him that he would have to seek permission from the court …”
so I was restless about going to the U.S. for academic work while still facing criminal charges at Vancouver Provincial Court, to be tried on February 11 & 23 as in Hitchcock’s December 30 notes, and being enforced on anti-psychotic medication by Richmond Provincial Court as part of the December 1 sentence as in Part 8 – I disliked Haldol so much that the Clinic switched to long-term injection of it.
I recall something interesting trying to reach the academic institution referred to in Hitchcock’s notes. The first time I phoned, a young woman answered that it was the company Dow Corning. I hung up, dial the same correct number and reached the same person who again answered it was Dow Corning. Eventually a New Jersey telephone operator connected me to the right destination. The episode reminded me of episodes as in Part 7, that in November-December 1992 B.C. Tel kept tap of my phone calls to CBC TV, providing phone record for Vancouver Police, and in June 1993 cutting my phone service at my apartment at 1640 West 11th Avenue.
At the next probation appointment on January 26, I told Hitchcock the injected medication didn’t have effect – meaning that it wasn’t necessary – and he suggested I report to the Forensic Clinic, but really thought of me as “very agitated”. As Hitchcock’s notes recorded, I complied with his advice, and was unexpectedly certified at the Clinic and taken to a psychiatric committal at Forensic Psychiatric Institute.
Visiting me at FPI on February 3, Hitchcock noted improvement in my behavior. He now recorded my claim – I am sure I had said the same on January 26 – that I could control behavior without medication, and said I would likely be released before the February 11 court date:
“… I noticed a substantial improvement in his behaviour. Though he is on a different medication, he claims he is controlling his behaviour – separate from meds. He will likely be released prior to his next court date – February 11, 1994.”
It was a trap to send me to an involuntary committal before recording my point of view – not unlike from the start of this political saga when my political views were acknowledged only as “delusions” for hospital records.
This was my 4th and last committal. The first two had direct political backgrounds as in Parts 6 & 7: the first, at UBC Hospital, was initiated by RCMP Sergeant Brian Cotton on November 30, 1992, with a role by newly appointed B.C. Supreme Court Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick, hours after I had faxed documents to MP Kim Campbell’s local constituency office; the second, at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital, was brought in by Vancouver Police and Vancouver Provincial Court after my January 14, 1993 arrest at CBC TV for insisting on a media interview to expose Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s handling of Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa’s health as weakened by cancer.
The third committal, for which I was certified at UBC Hospital and sent to VGH by RCMP, occurred a few days before the October 25, 1993 federal election that would see Mulroney’s successor Kim Campbell suffer a crushing defeat; I was released on election day as in Part 8.
This fourth committal showed no obvious political background in its timing or as in my patient records.
Attending the Forensic Clinic on January 26 as Hitchcock advised, I didn’t get to meet my counselling psychiatrist Dr. Clifford Kerr, who held the opinion – as in his October 19, 1993 pre-sentencing report discussed in Part 8 – that despite no observed psychotic symptom I had “Paranoid Schizophrenia” as inferred from my persistent behavior.
Instead, I was interviewed by forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mel Dilli, whom I hadn’t met before. Dr. Dilli said he would have to send me to an FPI committal for two reasons: one, since I claimed Haldol didn’t have effect but had bad side effects, FPI would try a new experimental medication; and two, if he didn’t send me to a committal for the experiment to calm me, I might be sent to “Matsqui” – the medium-security Matsqui Institution prison in now Abbotsford, B.C. – where I could be “raped” by other inmates – a scary claim but in any case the committal was involuntary and not up to me.
Months later in May, I read a newspaper article by him and realized Dr. Dilli was the leader of Bosnians in British Columbia (“Bosnian holocaust ignored at our peril”, by Mel Dilli, May 13, 1994, The Vancouver Sun):
“As B.C. Bosnians, we monitor closely the western news-media reports on the holocaust in the former Yugoslavia, and we are immeasurably pained by the considerable ambivalence, if not indifference, that is shown by Judeo-Christian civilizations.
…
Even the late president of the United States, Richard Nixon, concluded that had this genocide been perpetrated on Christians or Jews, it would have been stopped a long time ago.
…
Are there any Christians left in the world to raise their voices against the Hitlerian “final solution” of an innocent and decent people with a culture of tolerance and compassion going back to the 15th century? Where did Sephardic Jews escape from the Spanish Inquisition if not to Bosnia? Sarajevo was a city of exemplary coexistence of religious beliefs -- centuries before the Philadelphia declaration of human rights -- a church there, a mosque adjacent to it and a synagogue next to it.
Has the world really become so numb and so indifferent? Why not take pity at least on women and children and take them away from the least-safe havens on planet Earth, even to the Arctic or the Sahara desert, where they may perish with more human dignity? Even Palestine, comparatively speaking, would be a great premium. If nothing else, let us send a horde of Kevorkian doctors to put them out of their misery in a far more humane manner than the constant fear, torture, rape, hunger and deprivation they have been going through for years. ”
Dr. Dilli’s claim to me that psychiatric committal was a merciful alternative to prison “rape” now appeared vividly in this article, but for a much worse life-and-death fiasco in his native land, and expressed in a manner worthy of a history scholar.
For years afterwards I didn’t realize that there had been a stream of political news with Dr. Dilli at the center of, that had connections to the psychiatric oppression against me.
On December 7, 1992, as I was sending a second letter to MP Kim Campbell a week into my first psychiatric committal for attempting to publicly challenge the leadership conduct of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as in Part 6, Dr. Dilli appeared in his first major political news story, meeting Mulroney whose wife Mila – mentioned in Part 1 – was a Serbian Canadian with a psychiatrist father Dr. Dilli had known, over the plight of Bosnian refugees (“PM to consider more refugees, Bosnian, Muslim groups told”, by Frank Rutter, December 7, 1992, The Vancouver Sun):
“The prime minister … said the crisis in the Balkans had affected many peoples’ lives and said it had touched his family personally when his father-in-law, Dimitri Pivnicki, a Montreal psychiatrist, had been booted out of the Serbian Orthodox Church because he did not agree with what was happening in his native land.
Pivnicki was born in southern Serbia. His mother-in-law, Bogdana, came from Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital still under Serbian siege despite supposed ceasefires and agreements to allow movement of aid convoys arranged by the United Nations.
Mulroney met in the lobby of the Hotel Vancouver with Dr. Mel Dilli, a Vancouver psychiatrist and immigrant from former Yugoslavia, who is leading a campaign to raise funds for refugees.
Dilli said that Mulroney had promised to consider raising the ceiling of 26,000 refugees at present allowed to enter Canada from the region.
“I will talk to the minister about it. We will discuss this in cabinet,” Mulroney said.
During the conversation with Dilli and lawyer Al Jina, Mulroney called over his press secretary, Mark Entwistle, and asked him to see that External Affairs Minister Barbara McDougall telephoned Dilli this week. …
…
Dilli, who said he came from the same region in southern Serbia as Mila Mulroney's father, and had known him earlier in Montreal, said the local Bosnian Association, of which he is president, had collected $150,000 in the last few weeks in Vancouver. The money is for medical supplies and food aid to besieged Bosnians.”
With a much worse human tragedy going on, a political leader who I strongly felt exhibited bullying behavior was instead someone else’s hope of a saviour. It wouldn’t be surprising if Dr. Dilli participated in my oppression in exchange for Mulroney’s promise.
In my 2009 blog posts on Canadian politics, I referred to journalist Christopher Young’s criticism published on February 20, 1988, that Mulroney’s Meech Lake constitutional accord could push Canada into a Yugoslavia-style civil conflict (“The myth of political vendetta in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Airbus Affair investigation, the politics of Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien, and some social undercurrents in Canada (Part 7)”):
“… the late columnist Christopher Young of The Ottawa Citizen pointed to the potential break-up crisis developing in Yugoslavia where Mulroney’s wife Mila was from, and warned Canadians to take a look in relation to the provincial-veto issue before deciding to accept the Meech Lake accord:
“Prime Minister Mulroney in particular should take a look, in the light of his decision at Meech Lake to concede a constitutional veto power to every Canadian province.
Prime Minister Mulroney … may soon have the chance. At meetings in Ottawa and Calgary last week, Mulroney told Yugoslav Prime Minister Branko Mikulic that he and his Yugoslav-born wife, Mila, may accept an invitation to visit the country in September or October.
…
Yugoslavia is in a deep crisis, both economic and political, a crisis aggravated and made more difficult to solve by a constitution that allows each of the country’s six republics and two provinces a veto on major constitutional change.”
Despite these and a few other voices of opposition, prime minister Mulroney forged ahead …”
Well, Canada wasn’t as violent so to Mulroney there obviously was plenty of cushion for his politics.
By February 22, 1993 – 2 days before Mulroney’s sudden announcement to retire as in Part 7 – Dilli was frustrated with lack of progress in the Bosnian crisis, and became persistent (“Bosnians call for end to atrocities”, by Kevin Griffin, February 22, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“With a sheaf of photocopied newspaper stories from The Vancouver Sun, Time, and other print media, he pointed to story after story, commentary after commentary about the continued Serbian aggression in the former Yugoslavian republic.
“Everybody writes about it, but nobody does anything,” said Dilli, president of the Bosnian Association and director of the B.C. Muslim Association.
“When I read these, I cry and cry and cry.”
Then suddenly a Muslim extremist bombed New York City’s World Trade Center. Dilli came out to condemn it and plead for others not to treat all Muslims like terrorists (“Don’t implicate all Muslims for alleged sins of one individual”, by Mel Dilli, March 16, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“A Muslim has now been implicated in that bombing. If a Muslim individual or group did play any role in the bombing, they acted on their own and against Islamic principles that assure the safety of civilians even in times of war.
As Muslims, we are outraged by violence against civilians wherever it occurs. We therefore ask official agencies and the media to stop using misleading terms like “fundamentalist Muslims” and “Islamic fundamentalists” in such situations. …”
With the public clarification made, Dilli continued lobbying on the Bosnian crisis. He met with many government politicians including Defence Minister Kim Campbell (“End to ‘ethnic cleansing’ sought”, by Douglas Todd, March 19, 1993, The Vancouver Sun), who was on her way to succeed Mulroney as in Part 7, and B.C. Premier Mike Harcourt, while lamenting that Canadians paid little attention (“B.C. balks at Bosnia victim aid: It’s federal issue,Victoria says as 2 provinces offer treatment”, by Pamela Fayerman, August 12, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
““We sent out 7,000 invitations to a fund-raising lecture. Everyone in the medical community was invited. We expected 300 people. Only eight showed up. Three of them were organizers, and another four were my friends.”
Dilli said Harcourt and other political leaders should stop using the it's-not-our-jurisdiction line.”
When even Dr. Dilli’s medical community peers were a no show, one couldn’t just blame Brian Mulroney or his Serbian psychiatrist father-in-law, could one? It was familiar to me: as in Part 8, around the same time in August 1993 I had a meeting with Member of B.C. Legislature Dr. Tom Perry, Advanced Education Minister, over my UBC dispute, then a few weeks later Premier Mike Harcourt shuffled Perry out of his cabinet job; and as in Part 4, back in 1992 while pursuing a UBC internal grievance, I attempted many times to have a meeting of Computer Science Department members to hear my complaint of Department Head Maria Klawe’s management tactics, but had no success.
By November 1993 Mel Dilli became co-chair of B.C.-based World Movement for Peace in Bosnia, with a surprising co-chair, disgraced former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm whose downfall and my former lawyer Brian Mason’s role in related politics have been discussed in Part 6, in the news on the day Aunt Sally bailed me out after the Marion Buller incident (“Refugee plan start of group’s effort for peace”, by Moira Farrow, November 9, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“Mr. Vander Zalm has been very kind and helpful and we’re delighted he’s joined us,” Dilli said. He said it’s important both Christians and Muslims should be involved in the new organization.”
So months before his May 1994 article decrying the indifference of the world’s Christians while heaping praise on former U.S. President Richard Nixon, Dilli had figured out that ‘devils’ like Mulroney and Vander Zalm were smart to be with – I guess so long as they weren’t the worst ones against him.
After the December 1992 coincidence of his meeting Brian Mulroney while I was psychiatrically committed due to attempts to expose Mulroney, in February 1994 while I was psychiatrically committed through him, Dr. Dilli talked to the media about meeting Prime Minister Jean Chretien (“Vancouver Bosnian calls for air strikes”, by Kim Bolan, February 8, 1994, The Vancouver Sun):
““Fifty years after what happened to innocent Jews in Warsaw ghettos, now it’s happening all over again and there is no excuse,” Dilli said.
Canada must take in more refugees as Prime Minister Jean Chretien promised to do before he was elected, Dilli said. “Only about 2,000 Bosnians have been allowed in so far,” he said. “I hope to see Mr. Chretien again in the next few weeks.””
In FPI committal I knew nothing about Dr. Mel Dilli’s political activism, but I knew psychiatric oppression was “happening all over again” under Jean Chretien’s government, with Dr. Dilli’s explanation of it being “more humane” than prison “rape”.
Forensic Psychiatric Institute record for the committal included two medical certificates written on January 26, 1994. One with handwritings similar to, e.g., Forensic Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic notes on November 24, 1993, was by Dr. Clifford Kerr, stating that I believed TV & radio were giving me messages:
“His family tell us that he believes that TV & radio are giving him messages. He wants Radio & TV to broadcast his predicament, i.e., he is being persecuted. He is mentally ill and in need of hospitalization and treatment for his own protection.”
My “family” meant my mother and Aunt Sally. But Dr. Kerr didn’t claim danger to others – in fact not even in his detailed, October 19, 1993 pre-sentencing report discussed in Part 8.
The other certificate would be by Dr. Dilli, whose difficult-to-read handwritings appeared to say:
“He is intemperate[?] and unpredictable with his behavior and needs inpatient observation & treatment with medical neuroleptics for his own protection and others.”
Protection of “others”? I wonder Dr. Dilli added that for the authorities or for his friends Brian Mulroney and Mulroney’s psychiatrist father-in-law.
At admission I was categorized as a “Paranoid Schizophrenic” with “Obsessive-Compulsive Personality” and 3 problems:
“01. Alteration in Thought Processes (Paranoid Type Delusions)
02. Impaired Insight Into Mental Condition
03. Non-compliance RE: Medical Regime”
A corresponding plan of treatment was devised:
“01. Use of psychotropic medications as prescribed. Reality orientation.
02. Chemotherapy. Reality orientation.
03. Reality Orientation. Pt. Teaching. Monitor for Compliance.”
As it turned out in the Progress Notes, basically everyday at FPI no such problem was found:
“No Listed Problem”
I wasn’t mentally ill, so to be perfectly fine I just refrained from discussing politics or being persistent on anything, and took medication as required.
It helped that the experimental medication, Risperidone, didn’t have Haldol’s side effects such as depressed appetite, drowsiness, low mood, poor concentration, and physical trembling. I did suffer slight nosebleed while taking it.
Despite lack of ‘symptoms’ and Hitchcock’s note during a February 3 visit that I likely would be released before the February 11 court date, FPI did not voluntarily discharge me. A Mental Health Review Panel I appealed to ordered my release on February 9.
As in Parts 6 & 7, while VGH discharged me on the election day in October 1993 a few days into my third committal, a review panel was needed for my first two committals at UBC Hospital. For this last Mental Health Review Panel hearing, again I had patient advocate Brett Haughian and at my request the presence of B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
A February 3 FPI Psychiatric Social Worker’s report to the review panel omitted the politics regarding Brian Mulroney, reviewing only the UBC dispute, and overstated the criminal-law aspect by describing my conditional-discharge probation due to breach-of-recognizance as having been “convicted” of “assaulting a security guard”. The report also showed the extent I was monitored, citing sources ranging from my mother to unspecified persons “in the community”:
“Although he has at times appeared to have put his differences with others aside and got on with other things, his mother recently became concerned that his problems were coming back to him. He was continuing to believe that he had been persecuted by his former employer, and that his grievances actually had been aired on television in the U.S. (they were not.) As well, he had recently got his car repaired and felt he had been overcharged for the work and on January 23, 1994 four spare tires were coincidentally stolen, and Mr. Gao perceived a connection which was not apparent to others, and there was a concern in the community that he was again decompensating and would again be harassing people.”
So when I didn’t talk politics to them, FPI staff would raise what they got from other sources; and when I questioned things that happened to me, they would raise unspecified “concern in the community” to dismiss my view. But if there was concern in the community against me, why couldn’t some persons have acted against me? Gossips in the grapevine about me were ‘legitimate’ to this social worker, but my perceiving links among negative things to me was “delusion”.
A February 7 forensic psychiatrist’s report to the review panel, based on January 26 & 31 and February 7 interviews, recorded my explanation about TV & radio messages, namely that I “read between the lines”. Despite referring only to the UBC dispute regarding “delusion”and no psychotic symptom, the report concluded that I had “Paranoid Schizophrenia”, and that without medication I might “deteriorate” and be “potentially dangerous”, thus substantiating the assertions of both Dr. Kerr and Dr. Dilli in the January 26 certificates:
“… Mr. Gao was convinced he was wrongly diagnosed there [at UBC Hospital] and was insistent on disputing his diagnosis with his psychiatrist at the Forensic Out-Patient Clinic. Furthermore, he apparently told his mother that he was receiving messages from the radio and t.v. and that he indeed still wanted his claimed injustices broadcast on the media.
…
I interviewed Mr. Gao on three occasions, January 26, & 31 and February 7, 1994. …
… Mr. Gao admitted that in November 1992 he wanted to contact Gloria Makarenko (host of a CBC news program), and be interviewed by her so that he could tell his story to the public and explain the conspiracy against him, as well as tell the public that the Charlottetown Accord was a “scam” planned by the then Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. … In reference to the claim that he receives messages from the T.V. and radio, he states that his mother misunderstood him. He states he does not receive messages, but believes he has a keen ability to “read between the lines” and interpret the “true and hidden” meaning of the news broadcasts.
It is my opinion that Mr. Gao suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia and has some paranoid and schizoid personality traits. … Mr. Gao does not believe he suffers from a mental illness… I feel he has a fixed delusion in regards to his failure to secure a permanent teaching position at U.B.C. Although to date his actions have not been seriously aggressive, I believe that if he is not compliant with medication he may deteriorate and would then be potentially dangerous, and for these reasons I recommend the Review Panel detain Mr. Gao until he is fully stabilized.”
Apparently the social worker’s claim of community concern and the psychiatrist’s claim of potential danger to others had some sway; the review panel ruled to release me, but also reached a “paranoid disorder” diagnosis:
“It is our opinion that Dr. Gao suffers from a mental disorder, namely paranoid disorder with a persistent lack of insight. However, it is also our opinion that he does not meet the B.C. Mental Health Act criteria for continued in-hospital treatment as an involuntary patient and must therefore discharge him.”
So this was the kind of help from the sympathetic community activists: I shouldn’t be in committal – but given my “paranoid disorder” and others’ “concern” the psychiatrists could always initiate another one.
Life wouldn’t be normal.
In fact as in Parts 6 & 7, a “paranoid” disorder diagnosis was what RCMP Sgt. Brian Cotton had wanted at the start when he took me to UBC Hospital on November 30, 1992, then in summer 1993 hardline UBC Hospital psychiatrist M. O. Agbayewa, Officer-in-Charge of its psychiatry department, insisted that I still had “paranoia” – both men played key roles manipulating my seeking review of psychiatric diagnoses into standoffs with security guards and assault charges – to justify false profiling of “violence”.
In the end, the review panel wouldn’t get past that. How could oppression end when my advocates and my oppressors disagreed only on its degree?
In a similar vein, how much could one expect a change of government from the Mulroney Tories to the Chretien Liberals to change my predicament, or to change the calamitous Bosnian situation Dr. Dilli tirelessly campaigned to government politicians on while cooperating with my oppression?
After my FPI discharge, the Criminal Harassment trial on Friday, February 11 at Vancouver Provincial Court didn’t go forward, as my lawyer Phil Seagram negotiated a deal whereby I would agree to a 1-year peace bond with probation conditions, acknowledging the complaint without a plea of guilt or innocence, for the charge to be stayed. I wanted to go to trial and use it to present background political issues like I had done at Richmond Provincial Court in July 1993 as in Part 7, but Seagram advised against it, informing me of Marion Buller’s strong position that I be criminally convicted based on her fear for “personal injury” – without actual violence.
A conviction would have been twisted traverse of justice, when Buller herself dealt with RCMP policing of aboriginal natives where physical violence was more commonplace.
I agreed to the 1-year peace bond approved by Judge A. W. (Anne Winter) MacKenzie. The no-contact condition was detailed: among “any staff or lawyers at the law firm of Connell and Lightbody”, 8 individuals “involved in the incident”, led by Marion Buller, Brian Rhodes, Peter Eccles and Ajit Saran, were singled out to have no contact with.
The condition for counselling specified “treatment including medication as prescribed at the Forensic Outpatient Clinic”. A similar rule was first set for the December 1, 1993 1-year conditional-discharge probation, as in Part 8 ordered by Richmond Provincial Court Judge J. R. Groberman whose request for a forensic psychiatric pre-sentencing report was met by Dr. Kerr.
Seagram later explained that Judge MacKenzie had been a federal Justice Department lawyer and he knew her as a University of Victoria classmate, hinting to me that it was his acquaintanceship with the judge that got this peace bond deal.
But I find no public information to indicate Judge MacKenzie as a UVic – not UBC which Seagram didn’t mention – alumna (“UBC Alumna Anne MacKenzie first woman promoted to Associate Chief Justice of the BC Supreme Court”, By Katie Fedosenko, May 14, 2010, Arts Wire, The University of British Columbia), whereas the complainant Marion Buller turned out to be a UVic alumna (“2012 Distinguished Alumni Awards”, University of Victoria Alumni).
Justice MacKenzie, today of the B.C. Court of Appeal as is Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick, had indeed been a Crown counsel with the Justice Department in Vancouver until 1990 (“British Columbia Judicial Appointment Announced”, December 2, 2011, Department of Justice Canada). As Buller had also been a Justice Department prosecutor, Seagram’s real hint could be that the judge and the complainant were close to each other so my conviction would have been very likely – a question mark on how justice was reached!
As in Part 8, my previous defence lawyer Richard Dempsey, who had handled two charges, Assault and Breach-of-Recognizance, at the Richmond court in July 1993 but who then partially facilitated my second Mischief charge at YMCA Enterprise Centre in October, was a part-time prosecutor at the Vancouver court, which I hadn’t been aware of earlier.
Again unbeknown to me, Phil Seagram had been and would again become a provincial prosecutor (“6-year-old testifies father left him”, by Larry Still, January 26, 1990, The Vancouver Sun; and, “Bad heart puts end to sex trial: But accused plays golf -- alleged victim”, by Judy Smith, July 20, 1995, The Province).
In 1993-94 Phil Seagram was a duty counsel at the Vancouver court and a defence lawyer, in the news when an accused of indecent act bared himself in court (“BUTT, YOUR HONOR . . .”, by Greg Middleton, April 22, 1993, The Province), and later in December 1994 for a case bearing remarkable resemblance to mine but for its obscenity (“Woman freed on stalking charge: Sent former lover ginger-bread man with head broken off”, by Phil Needham, December 17, 1994, The Vancouver Sun):
“A woman was found not guilty of stalking her former lover Friday but is on a one-year peace bond to stay away from him.
Port Coquitlam provincial court Judge Susan Antifaev concluded chiropractor Kenneth Mikkelsen, 44, had reasonable grounds to fear for his safety in November, 1993, when Sylvia Caroline Swan, 35, resumed phoning his Langley office and sending letters to him despite a court order against having contact with him.
The final communication, Nov. 29, 1993, was a note taped to a gingerbread man with its head broken off.
She agreed to the peace bond which requires her to have no contact with Mikkelsen and prohibits her from going to Belcarra, where he lives.
Swan's lawyer Phil Seagram said she has already found alternate stabling for her horse, which she used to keep in Anmore.
The judge said Swan deluded herself into believing Mikkelsen was the man prowling outside her apartment window Nov. 10 and seen masturbating by two witnesses.
The apartment caretaker, Alan Bell, said he saw the prowler from 30 metres away under a street light. But the judge said Bell was improperly led to the identification by private detective Ron Foyle, hired by Swan through a lawyer to try to obtain evidence against Mikkelsen.
The Crown refused to approve a charge of committing an indecent act.
Swan swore out a private information in May, 1994, but the resulting charge against Mikkelsen was stayed by regional Crown counsel Austin Cullen in June.
The charge of criminal harassment, colloquially known as stalking, was laid against Swan last December. Swan is believed to be one of the first women charged with the offence, which came into effect Aug. 1, 1993.”
My goodness, in December 1993 Sylvia Caroline Swan, 35, was one of the first women charged with Criminal Harassment that had become law only on August 1. In early November was I, 34, one of the first?
It also looked like I was lumped into a category where indecency made the news. Why was my asking for anchor Gloria Macarenko in November 1992 while seeking publicity at CBC TV – as in Part 7 – was singled out in the FPI psychiatrist report to the review panel, and why was my asking psychiatrist Dr. (Susan Jane) Finch to review my record in October 1993 – as in Part 8 – was cited by UBC Hospital as the cause for my third committal? It might be because sexually harassing important women would have had a better chance of media coverage than my issues about Maria Klawe’s management conduct and Brian Mulroney’s leadership conduct.
At our next meeting after February 11, Fred Hitchcock said he did some legal research and found that medication could not be enforced by a probation order. Sympathetically, Hitchcock said that he wouldn’t enforce the medication requirement in the two probation orders I had received, and that if I declared my refusal of it he would write a letter to the judge overseeing my last trials on February 23, so that the requirement would be dropped from any new probation orders.
I followed his suggestion, and Hitchcock’s February 16 letter to Crown counsel stated:
“… on February 15, 1994, Mr. Gao advised that he:
(1) Does not believe he has any psychiatric/Psychological ailment.
(2) He adamantly refuses to take any medication as prescribed by the psychiatrist at Forensic Outpatient Clinic.
On January 26, 1994 Mr. Gao reported to Forensic Outpatient Clinic and Dr. [name withheld] psychiatrist was of the opinion that Mr. Gao had deteriorated and had him certified and transferred to Forensic Psychiatric Institute where he was stabilized on medication. …”
A passage in this letter has not been released. But the disclosed part was very different from what Hitchcock had told me: it didn’t refer to medication’s unenforceability by probation order, and instead hinted at effectiveness of FPI committal Dr. Dilli/Dr. Kerr had initiated to enforce medication.
Hitchcock probably ‘double-crossed’ me, more so than on January 26, potentially playing my dislike of anti-psychotic medication to a worse outcome.
My refusal of medication was promptly recorded in Forensic Psychiatric Outpatient Services’ medication record, in Dr. Kerr’s handwriting:
“94/2/17 Mr. Gao has refused all medications.”
The scenario was fraught with danger to me.
In his October 19, 1993 pre-sentencing report Dr. Kerr had told the Richmond court something close to what Hitchcock conveyed in his February 16 letter, that counselling at Forensic Clinic was for the purpose of committal when needed:
“Unfortunately, we are unable to force Mr. Gao to take medication treatment unless he is certified under the Mental Health Act. …
…
… I would certainly recommend that Mr. Gao be instructed to attend the Forensic Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic so that we can continue to monitor his mental state and if his mental state deteriorates to a point where he is certifiable and then he could be placed in hospital and appropriate treatment commenced.”
Dr. Kerr’s report then led to the medication requirement in the December 1 probation order to help the Clinic enforce it. That might not be legal as Hitchcock now found out, but he mya not have said so to the Crown counsel or the court. Given his letter’s relay of the Forensic Clinic’s view, he likely played jeopardy with the situation: my formal refusal of medication could be basis for even stronger psychiatric enforcement given that Mental Health Review Panel had freed me from a Clinic-initiated committal – next time I probably could not be easily freed.
In court on February 23, Phil Seagram again arranged for peace bonds. But this time I seriously objected: these were Mischiefs not Criminal Harassment; but the peace bond was a criminal bond for which the complainant would swear fear that I would “cause personal injury to her”; how could my persistent annoyance become violence?
The Criminal Harassment charge I had faced was intended for the ‘stalking’ scenario, carrying up to 10-year jail even without actual violence. But the Mischief charges I was facing were only about “wilfully obstructing, interfering and interrupting with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property”.
Seagram responded that the Mischief complainants had now also sworn fear for personal injury; again I would likely be convicted. So I again accepted his ‘goodwill’ arrangement.
Not until years later that I realized I had been misled into a potentially really bad outcome. The Criminal Code’s Mischief section had penalties much tougher than the up to 2-year imprisonment for interfering with use of property, but life sentence for danger to life (“Criminal Code: Mischief 430”, Department of Justice Canada):
“Every one who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.”
By swearing “fear” for personal injury caused by me, the Mischief complainants had in effect escalated minor-looking charges into the spectre of “actual danger to life” punishable by life in prison.
Recall when she told Vancouver Police she would file Mischief instead of Assault-by-Trespass prosecutor Marjorie Munkley explained, “there’s no evidence of resistance beyond passive resistance or mere nuisance”. Still, I had seen 2 Assault-by-Trespass charges upgraded to Assault charges at Richmond court, yet the worst Assault conviction carried only 10-year imprisonment (“Criminal Code: Assault with a weapon or causing bodily harm 267”, Department of Justice Canada) just like Criminal Harassment without the actual violence.
But without my awareness, my “passive resistance or mere nuisance” could lead to life in prison!
Now one gets a feel how so many repeat offenders in the United States could legally end up life-term prisoners on 3 strikes of nonviolent crimes.
In front of the judge, Seagram pulled me aside for a solemn warning, “You shouldn’t be persistent with these law firms again. They want to send you to prison. You should change your focus now.” He might not have meant the complainants per se, but Seagram’s warning was consistent with Dr. Dilli’s January 26 warning of being sent to “Matsqui” where I could be “raped”. I took it seriously.
It turned out that the judge on February 23 was Judge Conni L. Bagnall – I knew about her.
As in Parts 5, 7 & 8, from early spring of 1989 to June-July 1993 I lived in an apartment at 1640 West 11th Avenue in Vancouver. My landlady, Mrs. Norma Bagnall, had lived there before moving to New Westminster, the suburb where only days before my psychiatric oppression started – in late November 1992 – B.C. Supreme Court Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick was appointed, with jurisdiction over RCMP’s UBC area as discussed in Part 6.
When we first met Norma had said her daughter was a lawyer. Then in 1992 as my UBC dispute was escalating, she told me her daughter was being appointed a provincial court judge, though Norma didn’t mention the provincial prosecutor background (“Professor accused of harassing student”, February 12, 1987, and, “Jury finds man guilty of violent sex assaults on 3 prostitutes in ’88”, by Kayce White, June 27, 1989, The Vancouver Sun).
So that was a second instance of a local connection turning into a judge – after Justice Pamela Kirkpatrick.
Part 8 has mentioned Justice Kirkpatrick’s collaboration on legal education with Justice J. P. van der Hoop, who had been controversial in 1989 for referring to a 3-year-old girl’s sexual drive as the reason for leniency for her adult sexual assaulter.
Well, Judge Bagnall later collaborated on legal education with prosecutor Austin Cullen who – as in a news story quoted earlier – back in 1994 had made a decision against my lawyer Phil Seagram’s other Criminal Harassment client Sylvia Caroline Swan in a case laden with obscenity and indecency, not long before Cullen was appointed to B.C. Supreme Court in March 2001 (Conni L. Bagnall and Austin F. Cullen, Criminal Law Advocacy: Materials Prepared for the Continuing Legal Education Seminar, Criminal Law Advocacy, Held in Vancouver, B. C. on November 23, 2000, 2000, Continuing Legal Education Society of British Columbia; and, “Members of the Supreme Court of British Columbia”, The Courts of British Columbia).
Maybe lightening didn’t strike twice, but sexual curiosity was more pervasive in the justice system.
On February 23 Judge Bagnall was of some help given Hitchcock’s February 16 letter to Crown counsel, reversing a bit of the accumulated psychiatric-oppression regime begun since Justice Kirkpatrick on November 30, 1992. Instead of imposing a harsher rule for my “adamant” refusal to take medication, Judge Bagnall excluded any mention of medication or Forensic Clinic from the peace bonds’ counselling condition she approved:
“Take psychiatric and psychological counselling as directed by your Probation Officer.”
So on the psychiatry issue Judge Bagnall sent the ball back to the probation staff.
But the scenario was still fraught with danger to me.
Judge Bagnall’s probation orders without medication requirement were exceptions that may have come out of her sympathy due to her family’s awareness of my predicament, rather than legal confirmation of Hitchcock’s interpretation that medication couldn’t be enforced by probation orders.
No attempt was made by Hitchcock to change the previous two probation orders by Judge J. R. Groberman and Judge A. W. MacKenzie, probably because he didn’t think those judges would easily accept his view. Thus my refusal of medication was in violation of the earlier issued orders, but in an unenforced situation per Hitchcock’s understanding.
The situation was indeed as precarious as Phil Seagram and Dr. Mel Dilli had warned, that if something led to a deterioration in his opinion of my “behavior” – similar to back on January 26 – Hitchcock’s unproven legal interpretation would likely ‘go out the window’ and the fragile “peace” at his favor with the earlier bonds would crash down on me, and the “behavioral” issue would likely also destroy the more stable peace with Judge Bagnall’s bonds.
Adding to the difficulty if the “peace” collapsed, was that most of the complainants were lawyers or law firms, making it even harder than before to obtain lawyers’ help to fend off the ‘upgraded’ complaints with “fear” of violence sworn against me in these criminal bonds.
In such a doomsday scenario, even if the law and the real facts were actually in my favor the outcomes would not.
There was another bit of easing of tension besides removal of medication requirement in the last batch of bonds for the 3 Mischief charges: only two of the complainant entities, YMCA Enterprise Centre represented by Roma McGill-Bowen and Warren & Eder represented by Tamara Sheer, entered affidavits against me. with the former’s executive director Kofi Ohene-Assante and the latter’s law partner Birgit Eder, mentioned in Part 8, in the no-contact conditions.
Cram & Associates apparently decided to let its Mischief charge stay, i.e., be dropped, unconditionally. It was rather ironic because the first Mischief had arisen at Cram & Associates in early October 1993, where lawyer Arnold Shuchat had reviewed my civil lawsuit vs. UBC and RCMP, decided not to take it, and instead prodded me to persist as to incur a criminal charge – likely motivated by a financial agenda as discussed in Part 8. The other Mischiefs and Criminal Harassment followed as a result.
With this disposition of my charges through peace-bond arrangements, my ongoing complainants also became an all-female cast – to make “fear” of injury by me appear more real presumably.
So by late February 1994 my criminal charges were all disposed of, and I was on 1-year probation for a conditional discharge and 3 peace bonds, without any criminal conviction. But all 3 peace bonds were loaded with sworn fears of personal injury caused by me, related to charges that set high premiums on danger of violence, while my refusal of anti-psychotic medication was in breach of an unenforced requirement of the conditional discharge and a peace bond.
It wouldn’t be too bad if this peace could last. Most importantly, the duties paid wouldn’t be in vain if the political issues for which they were paid and other sacrifices were made could open up in the future.
During the period of my FPI committal and court disposition of charges, there was an important change at RCMP. On February 4, nearly a year after former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s February 24, 1993 announcement of retirement which then took place in June, Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced RCMP Commissioner Norman Inkster’s retirement, to take effect in June (“Top Mountie to turn in his badge, says force needs periodic renewal”, by Stephen Bindman, February 5, 1994, The Vancouver Sun):
“Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced Friday that Inkster will step down after almost seven years as RCMP commissioner when Parliament adjourns for the summer, likely in June.
…
He could stay on as president of the international police organization Interpol – he was named in November 1992 to a four-year term – but will discuss it with his replacement as commissioner and the world body’s executive.
…
Among the low points, Inkster said, was the political storm he created on Parliament Hill in 1989 when he revealed more than a dozen MPs and senators were under RCMP investigation.
Another was last year’s suicide of Insp. Claude Savoie, who was under investigation for leaking information to a Montreal drug kingpin.
“We will never know why he chose to be his own judge and jury. It was a very sad point for all members. We all suffer and we all lose a little bit if one of our own gets into that sort of difficulty.””
Norman Inkster’s resignation was of special interest because, as in Part 5, he was elected President of International Police Organization on November 10, 1992, the same day I began circulating political press releases, unopposed after a candidate from China withdrew in his favor.
Inkster was hoping to keep his INTERPOL presidency, but later gave that up in September (“TOP MOUNTIE BACK IN SADDLE: Former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster takes on a different kind of sleuthing with KPMG”, by Carolyn Green, March 1, 1995, Financial Post).
In my 2009 blog posts on Canadian politics, I viewed Inkster’s stepping down not as merely an attempt to depart from the Mulroney era, but a “retreat” from the international arena by Canada (“The myth of political vendetta in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Airbus Affair investigation, the politics of Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien, and some social undercurrents in Canada (Part 5)”):
“Imagine what kind of clout in the international law-and-order arena the new Chretien government would lose with the departure of RCMP Commissioner Norman Inkster, whose Interpol appointment had been praised by the RCMP as “a great honour for Canada” and for the RCMP, even if within the RCMP there were different opinions about the Interpol: while Inspector Claude Sweeney, head of Interpol’s Canadian branch, was enthusiastic about the benefit of computerized information hook-up in the plan, others pointed to examples of concern, such as in Venezuela where Interpol was expected to help track dissidents as criminals, or former Interpol drugs committee chairman Manuel Noriega, the Panamanian leader indicted in 1988 in the United States on narcotics charges, or former Interpol president Jolly Bugarin, crony of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, widely accused of a cover-up in the killing of Marcos opponent Benigno Aquino in 1983.
…
While Inkster’s resignation in 1994 was expected to give the Liberal government a fresh start in gun control at home, it also took place amid the Liberals’ retreat from its election promise of higher priority for international human rights, to focus on the economy and business; and as if that had not been enough, prime minister Chretien’s first official foreign visit – to Mexico instead of traditionally to the U.S. – in March 1994 was marred by the assassination by gunshot of Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio (of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that had ruled uninterruptedly for 65 years) just before Chretien’s arrival, by a large and angry mob shouting “out” while Chretien attempted but failed to pay respect to the body of the slain, and by a rare type of rebuttal of Chretien’s notion that Mexican democracy and Canadian democracy were just different types – from Subcomandante Marcos of the rebel Zapatista Army of National Liberation in a jungle interview in Chiapas, Mexico.”
After my court dispositions, the forensic-psychiatry regime slowed down while holding steady its negative views of me, as seen in two FPI reports for my January 26-February 9 committal, coming out in March and April.
The Nursing Assessment dated March 7 quoted me on what happened at the Outpatient Clinic on the day of committal when I was seen by Dr. Dilli instead of Dr. Kerr:
“The patient states … “I went to see [name withheld], but I didn’t get a chance to see him. So [name withheld] saw me. The ambulance then took me here to F.P.I. …”
…
Questioned the patient as to why he was sent here to the F.P.I.: “They don’t know if I have Schizophrenia or not. So the doctor feels I can take a large injection or take pills here.”
I carefully omitted Dr. Dilli’s warning of otherwise Matsqui prison where “rape” could happen, while highlighting that at least Dr. Dilli didn’t know if I had Schizophrenia – as in Part 8 Dr. Kerr had told me his “Paranoid Schizophrenia” diagnosis at a pre-sentencing interview in October 1993.
After a series of test questions and answers, including about names of the prime minister and B.C. and federal ruling parties – none in Brian Mulroney’s corner for that matter – and no psychotic symptom was found, the nursing assessor reported 3 problems in conclusion:
“PROBLEM FORMULATION:
1. Alteration in thought process (persecutory type thinking).
2. Lacks insight into mental condition.
3. Non-compliance regarding medication regime.”
During my FPI committal the staff didn’t find any of the 3 problems listed at admission on January 26. In this report they were modified: “Paranoid Type Delusions” became “persecutory type thinking” and “Impaired Insight” became “Lacks insight”, with the 3rd problem staying the same.
This interview was done during my committal but the report was dated a month later, and so the subtle changes probably reflected the assessor’s thinking for the longer term, dropping words like “delusions” and “impaired”. As for medication, in mid-February after FPI discharge I formally declared my refusal.
As in Part 6, during my first committal at UBC Hospital there was a similar change in the psychiatric diagnosis: at admission on November 30, 1992 it was “paranoid delusional disorder”, but in the psych ward the next day it became “Delusional Disorder, Persecutory Type”.
But in this March 7, 1994 nursing assessment the dropping of the term “delusion”, other than when reviewing history, signalled a possible, tentative step toward easing the psychiatric regime.
As if showing any progress would be fragile, on March 22 probation officer Fred Hitchcock’s note made an error on recent history, missing my last probation orders on February 23, thus flip-flopping on the medication requirement:
“Since Feng was released from F.P.I. he has refused to take medication but he is conscientous about his reporting both with Probation and Forensic Outpatient Clinic. He has no further charges since his disposition of February 11, 1994 to a Recognizance of non-association with several lawyers (victims) and his is to accept treatment with Forensic Services including taking medication.”
Recall on February 15 at Hitchcock’s suggestion I had announced refusal of medication, he then wrote a letter to prosecution, and Judge Conni Bagnall’s February 23 probation order dropped the requirements of “treatment” and “medication”. But when Hitchcock counted the February 11 order from Marion Buller’s complaint as the last, then accordingly I was to accept treatment and medication.
Indeed, any potential progress from the March 7 nursing assessment was erased by the next FPI report, a Separation Summary dated April 11.
The report’s first part consisted mainly of the nursing assessment content, and the second part contained info from the psychiatrist’s interview. It recorded an initial psychiatric interview on January 26 by Dr. (Philip) Adilman, and two more on January 31 and February 7 – the interviewers’ names for the last two have been withheld, but it was the same doctor as per the February 7 FPI report to Mental Health Review Panel quoted earlier.
In it was an interesting anecdote at the end of the January 26 interview:
“When Dr. Adilman got up to leave the interview the patient asked, “Just what did [name withheld] write about me on those notes?”
It was [name withheld] assessment that, due to the patient’s non-compliance with oral medications, he is a potential risk to others given his paranoid belief.”
This occurred on the day of my admission so I was asking what the psychiatrist who had committed me had written, and Dr. Adilman replied it was about me as “a potential risk to others”. Comparison to the January 26 certificates quoted earlier can confirm that it wasn’t the one in my counselling psychiatrist Dr. Kerr’s handwriting, but the other.
After the two January interviews, Dr. Adilman’s tentative conclusion was:
“Assessment: ? Paranoid Schizophrenia. Poor insight. Plan: Continue Risperidone.”
At this point he was unsure about “Paranoid Schizophrenia” as diagnosed by Dr. Kerr at Outpatient Clinic. But after the last interview on February 7, the same day when he sent the earlier-quoted FPI report to the review panel, Dr. Adilman became more sure of it – despite lack of real symptom:
“Assessment: The patient continues to deny any mental illness and his suspicious nature suggests that he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Plan: Recommend he stay at F.P.I. for a short while longer and stay on Risperidone.”
My “suspicious nature”? The only thing obvious in this report about such nature was the episode when I asked what Dr. Dilli had written “about me on those notes”.
The report’s final conclusion, dated April 11, was “Paranoid Schizophrenia”.
In this manner without real factual basis, the Forensic Psychiatric Institute legitimized the “Paranoid Schizophrenia” label on me previously given by some psychiatrists like Dr. Clifford Kerr but disagreed with by others as acknowledged in Dr. Kerr’s October 1993 pre-sentencing report. Dr. Dilli’s allegation that I would be a danger to others without anti-psychotic medication was also accepted.
“Paranoid Schizophrenia” was much worse than symptom of “delusion”. Any tentative inclination toward progress in the March 7 nursing assessment was now overridden. Schizophrenia was normally incurable as mentioned in Parts 6 & 7; the conclusion and late dating of the psychiatrist’s summary signalled long-term psychiatric oppression.
Since January I had ceased attending places with persistence which I had felt might move forward my grievances and political goals – chiefly at UBC Hospital.
Forensic Outpatient Clinic records in April-July showed a return to normalcy, with one intriguing episode of exception.
At the April 7 counselling session – just ahead of FPI Dr. Adilman’s April 11 Separation Summary – I was interviewed by one of two nurses whose handwritings regularly appeared in the Clinic records – Kelly Lynd, assigned during the pre-sentencing stage in September 1993 as in Part 8, and Daniel Mets as in a December 1993 probation management plan discussed earlier. We discussed job searching and my mother’s stay, and the nurse concluded I remained “in denial around” my “illness”:
“Hasn’t had any response to his job applications, which he states isn’t surprising as there are very few teaching positions available. Not even remotely interested presently in job training through Canada Manpower. Presents as depressed & quick to deny same & present as superficially brighter. … Mother is staying until at least June ’94 & her return to China hinges on whether or not Feng is employed & “doing well”. Remains in denial around his illness.”
Then at the April 21 session, the other nurse and I were able to discuss my past persistence in the context of “anxiety or nervousness” that could “disrupt other areas of our life”; immediately starting at the April 26 session with Dr. Kerr, the weekly counselling schedule was reduced to biweekly, and possibly even less frequent if it went well.
My mother’s visitor visa, who had come from China in June 1993 as in Part 7, would end in June but she applied for an extension, hoping to be around until I became employed and “doing well”. Given her situation, I began to consider applying for early termination of probation orders so I could accompany her to China if she had to leave Canada. At the May 25 session, I told Dr. Kerr I might discuss it with defence lawyer Phil Seagram.
On June 2, I spoke with probation officer Fred Hitchcock, who provided the forms to apply for early termination and filled out one for Judge Groberman’s December order. I followed suit with Judge MacKenzie’s and Judge Bagnall’s February ones. Hitchcock’s stylish handwritings and my awkward ones remind me of being taught read-and-write at over 4 years old by my maternal grandfather, as recalled in my Chinese blog post, 忆往昔，学历史智慧（二）——童年的启蒙 (an English synopsis is posted on website FengGao.ORG).
At my June 7 session I brought along probation documents to ask for Dr. Kerr’s help, and the nurse’s notes illustrated how I had to behave as completely non-anxious to try to obtain a good opinion – even though with the short timeframe for my mother I must have been somewhat anxious:
“Requests that [name withheld] write a letter of support re: his applications. Was informed that [name withheld] would make that decision at his next appointment in 2 weeks. Was accepting of same. Stated that if he was turned down he would accept same. Denied any feelings of urgency to have forms & letter completed. States his mood is good, Denies any present concerns or worries. Mother has applied for extension on visa to remain in Canada.”
Whether Dr. Kerr would be supportive was be critical. Hitchcock’s June 10 notes outlined his conditions for supporting early termination of probation:
“I told him that I would not support his request unless:
(1) He obtained a letter from [name withheld] Forensic Outpatient Clinic which advised the court that he no longer required treatment and/or medication.
(2) That he had to complete 6 months supervision of his three one year court orders.
I believe Mr. Gao is successful in controlling his compulsive/obsessive behaviour while attending appointments with Forensic and Probation, […
contents withheld …]”
For the February orders the termination couldn’t happen until August. But was Hitchcock about to say that outside of my attending Forensic and Probation he knew I wasn’t so “successful”?
I recall asking Hitchcock at the time if I could get another psychiatrist’s letter of support but he said no, that it had to be by Dr. Kerr, who was my counselling psychiatrist at the Clinic.
I felt that Hitchcock was playing it very tight that could put me in jeopardy. For Dr. Kerr to say that I wouldn’t require treatment/medication would not be easy – it was his October 1993 pre-sentencing report that had led to the treatment-medication requirement in the probation orders.
My Clinic interview for this purpose was either also on June 7 – Clinic record’s date was altered – or most likely 2 weeks later on June 22 as the nurse had said. Dr. Kerr and another person interviewed me. Dr. Kerr’s notes said I told of a major obstacle:
“ – Probation – Dec 93 – Dec 94.
3 peace bonds Feb 94 – Feb 95.
Mr. Gao says that his lawyer has told him that it is unlikely that the Richmond Judge would agree to an early termination of the Richmond probation order the Dec 93 – Dec 94.
Mr. Gao will discuss this with Mr. Hitchcock.
I spoke with Mr. Hitchcock and say that I would support early termination in August 1994.
Mr. Hitchcock will make final decision with Mr. Gao.”
In other words, according to my lawyer it would be unlikely for Richmond Provincial Court Judge J. R. Groberman to end his order early – for Breach-of-Recognizance due to phoning lawyer Patricia Connor – if not for the two Vancouver Provincial Court female judges.
To me, Dr. Kerr and Judge Groberman were the biggest obstacles. In the worst case, it could be ‘suicidal’ to ask the psychiatrist most adamant about my “Paranoid Schizophrenia” and medication need to write to the judge who had strongly enforced his recommendation, who could tell the judge I had been refusing medication since mid-February.
Dr. Kerr’s written notes, which I had no access to, say he would write a letter of support for early termination in August. In my understanding at the time I interpreted it as willingness to write a letter, not unambiguously supporting the early termination. But my progress was apparently satisfactory as my next Clinic appointment was made for July 19 – from bi-weekly to now in 4 weeks or a month.
Guessing hard what Dr. Kerr really meant about his support, later on June 22 I suddenly snapped and phoned the Clinic frequently, “in excess of 10 times” according to the nurse, who interpreted it as anxiety and asked me to come in to discuss. I declined but said:
“I have a feeling that I will have a job next week in the States.”
In my mind it felt like going to be a repeat of my January 26 drop-in at Hitchcock’s advice when I was then taken to a FPI committal, another ‘trap’ again. My mention of a job prospect was likely an attempt to head it off. On the phone an additional appointment was made for June 30, and the nurse noted:
“Mr. Gao is +++ ambivalent & is demonstrating behaviour that is similar to his past difficulties. Writer will notify Fred Hitchcock.”
Then I changed my mind, coming just to notify the Clinic of my decision not to pursue the early termination, and then leaving quickly. I was told not to be anxious as paperwork hadn’t been done:
“When writer attempted to aleviate Mr. Gao’s anxiety by informing him that no paperwork has been done & won’t unless Mr. Gao requests this, he stated he had to leave & left this Clinic.”
By the Clinic record disclosure, it wasn’t a pre-arranged scheme to ‘trap’ me into a bad situation whereby my noncompliance with medication would ruin the “peace” with Judge Groberman. But when I panicked and thought it could be a “trap”, my persistent anxiety was reported to Hitchcock – then something bad could still come.
I had trouble assessing the paradoxical scenario correctly: according to lawyer Phil Seagram, Judge Groberman was unlikely to agree to early termination; Hitchcock required the support letter to be by Dr. Kerr, who had told me in October 1993 during pre-sentencing assessment for Judge Groberman that I had “Paranoid Schizophrenia”; and, though I had Hitchcock’s consent my refusing medication since February 15 was in violation of Judge Groberman’s order. Depending on what Dr. Kerr would have stated in that support letter, I risked harder punishment from Judge Groberman.
Like discussed in Part 7, there appeared a lot of game playing towards me that made my persistence more intense.
I dropped in at the Clinic again on June 24 to ask for sleeping pills – likely another attempt to head off anything unpleasant in the works.
To my surprise I was interviewed by – the notes’ handwritings indicate – Vancouver General Hospital’s Dr. (John Mark) Levy, who in contrast to Dr. Kerr had viewed me as “not mentally ill” and provided a support letter for my unemployment insurance appeal in 1993, although later when discharging me from VGH on election day October 25 he didn’t completely rule out mental illness, as in Parts 7 & 8. What a rare appearance that Dr. Levy now showed up – but Hitchcock had required Dr. Kerr’s letter.
Such coincidence of timing indicated the Clinic knew exactly what was in my sudden “behaviour” problem, that I couldn’t trust what would be in Dr. Kerr’s letter without trying to get more feedbacks; it also reinforced my perception that others were playing games that put me at greater risks.
Dr. Levy prescribed Imovane. At the additional appointment on June 30 Dr. Kerr also prescribed Imovane, and noted that I made “no further phone calls” and that my mother would “await result of application to extend her visa until Dec 1994”.
Then at the July 19 session scheduled a month earlier, Dr. Kerr noted that I had no psychiatric symptom:
“No evidence of psychosis.”
So this intriguing episode ended with any disaster averted for now, but my hope of probation early termination was aborted, and apparently due to the June 22 frequent phone calls my next appointment was back to bi-weekly.
Three days later on July 22 – exactly one month after the June 22 episode – Department of Justice changed its lawyer defending RCMP in my lawsuit, from David Fitzsimmons since August 1993 as in Part 8, to D. Nygaard.
It turned out that the June 22 episode took place just one day before the official retirement of RCMP Commissioner Norman Inkster, who was replaced by Philip Murray, Deputy Commissioner in charge of criminal operations (“Inkster steps down as forces’ top Mountie”, June 24, The Vancouver Sun).
Inkster was departing under a cloud over a major criminal investigation into MPs and Senators, under his watch since 1989, as quoted earlier from a February 5 news story:
“Among the low points, Inkster said, was the political storm he created on Parliament Hill in 1989 when he revealed more than a dozen MPs and senators were under RCMP investigation.”
Low to the point that a conclusion of the 1989 RCMP investigation didn’t come until June 1994 before his retirement (“One MP cleared, one guilty, in House of Commons fraud”, by Stephen Bindman, June 8, 1994, The Vancouver Sun):
“After a four-year legal battle, one former Quebec Tory MP has been acquitted and a second has pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with House of Commons contracts.
Gilles Bernier, now sitting as an independent MP, was cleared of charges of fraud and breach of trust following a preliminary hearing last week.
Bernier represented the riding of Beauce near Quebec City for the Conservatives since 1984, but former prime minister Kim Campbell refused to sign his nomination papers before October’s election and he was re-elected as an independent.
Former Tory MP Richard Grise pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of trust in connection with the same incident and was fined $5,000.
Grise, who quit his Parliament seat in 1989 after pleading guilty to 11 corruption charges for demanding bribes from contractors and pocketing Commons funds, was also ordered to perform 300 hours of community-service work.
At issue were two contracts worth $4,000, issued by Bernier in June and November 1987 for Grise's son Bruno to do political research on free trade, acid rain and tax reform. (Commons rules forbid MPs from hiring their own spouses and children.)
At last week’s hearing, Bruno Grise testified he knew nothing about the contracts and had not endorsed two government cheques made out to him.
His father testified he had signed the contracts in his son’s name, forged his signature on the cheques and pocketed the money.
Richard Grise said he never discussed what he was doing with Bernier, did the research himself and passed it on to his fellow MP.
In discharging Bernier, Judge Maria Linhares de Sousa of Ontario Court provincial division said it was “clear” a fraud took place in the contracts between the MP's office and the younger Grise.”
That was a long saga when the guilty guy, Richard Grise, had pleaded so to much more in 1989 but took another 4 years to testify that his fellow MP, Gilles Bernier, wasn’t that bad. Meanwhile, Bernier’s 1993 election candidacy caused a headache for then Prime Minister Kim Campbell, who broke with him but ironically lost her party and her own seat as in Part 8, while Bernier won as an independent.
At this point The Vancouver Sun, on a daily basis my sole printed news source since my arrival in the fall of 1988, likely didn’t cover a related major story – not I can find in ProQuest database for Canadian Major Dailies – that Norman Inkster’s own role in another 1989 RCMP investigation, that of a federal budget leak, was being probed (“Inkster probe can proceed, court rules”, June 24, 1994, Times – Colonist):
“An independent probe into the way top Mountie Norman Inkster investigated the leak of the 1989 federal budget can proceed even though he begins retirement today, says the Federal Court of Appeal.
The court, in a judgment released Thursday, said the RCMP Public Complaints Commission can investigate former Mounties if they were on the force when the complaint was lodged. "Parliament did not go through the whole business of setting up a new and independent commission . . . to have complaints . . . abandoned on the ground that the members concerned were discharged from the force after the filing of the complaint," the court said in its ruling.
Inkster was on the force when a citizen complained in 1990. But a second Mountie named in the complaint, former deputy commissioner Henry Jensen, had already retired.
After the budget leak, the RCMP began a criminal investigation that led to charges against journalist Doug Small and public servants John Appleby and Normand Belisle. The prosecution was eventually dropped.
John Colvin, of Ottawa, complained that Inkster and Jensen allowed charges to be laid even though no crime had occurred.
Inkster has refused to co-operate with the commission's probe, arguing that he has to decide how to respond to any findings of RCMP wrongdoing.”
The 1989 federal-budget leak investigation as discussed in Part 7 was an achievement for Chief Superintendent P. M. Cummins who at the time headed RCMP national security directorate. Now the review of Comm. Inkster’s role was to be conducted by RCMP Public Complaints Commission, which as in Parts 5 & 6 had handled a complaint by me in August 1992 that was later withdrawn under RCMP pressure, when C/Supt. Cummins was in B.C. in charge of Contract Policing.
Upon Inkster’s retirement The Vancouver Sun instead reported a June 24 RCMP announcement, that Assistant Commissioner Frank Palmer of B.C.’s “E” Division was promoted to Ottawa to fill Comm. Murray’s previous job of second-in-command (“Senior B.C. Mountie promoted to Ottawa”, June 25, 1994, The Vancouver Sun).
At the time I wasn’t familiar with “E” Division’s hierarchy, but was with the news coverage of its leader Deputy Commissioner Dennis Farrell. A year earlier I had read a story in which Palmer also appeared, when Hong Kong police commissioner Li Kwan-ha visited around the time of the UBC summit between U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin – I had known a retired Hong Kong police superintendent as in Part 5.
That news article was mysteriously titled, “If Judas got all the headlines, would it be fair to the other Eleven?” (by Denny Boyd, April 12, 1993, The Vancouver Sun):
“When you fret about the drug trade, youth gangs, extortion, home invasions, teen violence, crime in general and its possible acceleration through
Pacific Rim immigration, stop and think about the better part of a ruler.Commissioner Li Kwan-ha urges you to do so.
Commissioner Li is a decorated 36-year member of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, currently finishing up his watch in a city that has powerful ties and similarities to Vancouver in geography and problems.
At noon on April 2, when it seemed every uniformed and plainclothes police officer in the nation was at Canada Harbor Place, seeing to the security of Presidents Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, a few of them were just up the street, sitting down to an intimate lunch for 20 in the Fireside Room of the Terminal City Club at 837 West Hastings.
Chief Constable Bill Marshall of the Vancouver Police Department was there with Deputy Chief Ray Canuel. So was Deputy Commissioner Dennis Farrell, Commander, E Force, the RCMP, and Assistant Commissioner Frank Palmer.
There were two members of Vancouver City Council, four members of the Vancouver Police Pipe Band, several members of the Vancouver Chinatown
business community and, sitting smack in the middle of the head table, Commissioner Li and his theory on rulers.Host for the lunch was Vancouver businessman Pat Claridge, the former B.C. Lions tight end, who also underwrites the annual Police Pipe Band
Gentlemen’s Dinner.Commissioner Li came here after attending a symposium on organized crime in Washington, D.C., to meet informally with local police and to visit a daughter who lives in Vancouver.
The 56-year-old policeman, born in Hong Kong, took some pains to arrest what he calls “a persistent rumor and whisper in international police circles
since 1984 that I plan to move here. I don’t.”…”
Who is Judas? And who is Jesus then? In April 1993 I had given it some thought, with no good answer.
“E” Division Commanding Officer D/Comm. J. D. (Dennis) Farrell was a business-friendly figure sitting on the same B.C. Science World board as UBC’s Maria Klawe as in Part 7.
But A/Comm. Palmer’s position was assigned the attention for a January 6, 1993 letter to “E” Division from RCMP Director of Enforcement Services, that forwarded my complaint sent to MP Kim Campbell on November 30, 1992 against UBC/RCMP, which was then forwarded to C/Supt. P. M. Cummins, as in Parts 6 & 7.
So these RCMP senior officers probably had awareness of the Maria Klawe controversy.
However, Palmer had a history going back to 1977 when he used RCMP power to intimidate Canadians who wanted more RCMP accountability, quoted before in Part 7:
“Opposition MPs are encouraging a trial by press of people implicated in RCMP wrongdoing, Liberal Roderick Blaker charged yesterday.
…
Canadian Civil Liberties Association counsel Alan Borovoy quickly countered that he agreed there should be no accusation without a trial, but he only wished that some trials would take place.
In a spirited exchange punctuated by enthusiastic applause, the two men debated the federal Government’s use of a royal commission to handle charges of Mountie illegalities…
…
Conservative MP Elmer MacKay (Central Nova), another member of the panel, said he had been disappointed in the ability of parliamentary committees to look into allegations of wrongdoing.
…
The panel’s fourth member was Sgt. Frank Palmer of the RCMP, a member of the force’s legal branch who holds a master’s degree in law. Sgt. Palmer discussed the need for more police powers, particularly in regard to the opening of mail.
He told the students that we do have spies running around this country, regardless of how unimportant Canada may seem to you in the scheme of things in this universe.”
As in Parts 6 & 7, on January 29, 1993 while I was in my second psychiatric committal on my birthday, RCMP C/Supt. M. K. M. Clegg sent RCMP Director of Enforcement Services a reply that a lawsuit was already in place in regard to my complaint – a response recommended by Cummins. Days later, Palmer was quoted in a news story expressing reservation about freedom of information, also quoted in Part 7:
“While people who fight for the rights of psychiatric patients, paraplegics or union employees are excited about the legislation, the institutions that hold information about them are wary.
“There’s great paranoia at the beginning,” admitted RCMP assistant commissioner for B.C. Frank Palmer, who has already been through a round of this once with the federal government's freedom-of-information legislation.
“That’s what’s happening here now, with people worried about protecting privacy and coping with the demands for information.””
It’s perplexing that in June 1994 no one in the media expressed surprise, that a career officer with a pedigree in law and in enforcing policies and police tactics that were oppressive and against openness was promoted by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien to hold RCMP’s second most powerful position.
But the 1977 story in the era of Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau suggests that on some things the difference between the Liberals and the Mulroney Tories could be paper-thin.
After the June 22 episode was deemed not a psychiatric trouble by Dr. Kerr on July 19, things became normal and uneventful.
After my next Clinic session with a nurse 2 weeks later, counselling schedule was reduced to every 3 weeks in August-September and with a nurse only, though not to the onetime 4 weeks/1 month as from June 22 to July 19. In this period, the nurse noted that I expressed “hesitancy towards any type of medication”, that I would like my mother to remain in Canada longer and if she left with me still unemployed my stress level could go up, and that I would discuss with probation officer about taking a trip with her back to China if she had to leave by the end of December 1994.
On September 21 – in the month when Norman Inkster also stepped down from his INTERPOL presidency – a news story titled, “BRIEFLY: Indian lawyer, DNA expert named judges” (September 21, 1994, The Vancouver Sun), reported that Marion Buller was appointed a judge at Port Coquitlam Provincial Court, along with 7 others in the province, most notably prosecutor Rick Miller, a champion of DNA identification:
“The commission counsel for the Cariboo-Chilcotin native Indian justice inquiry and an expert on genetic identification have been named provincial court judges.
Marion Buller, a native Indian lawyer, is one of eight provincial court judges named Tuesday.
A member of the Indigenous Bar Association of Canada, Buller has carried out B.C.-wide consultation on aboriginal legal issues for the provincial government.
New Westminster prosecutor Rick Miller, who championed efforts to make DNA identification as acceptable in court as conventional fingerprinting, will sit as a judge in Surrey. DNA analysis is considered to be the most significant investigative tool since fingerprinting was devised.
The other appointments are: Legal Services Society lawyer Agnes Krantz in Prince Rupert, tax-law specialist Jeanne Watchuk in Vancouver, civil, family
and criminal lawyer Gurmail Singh Gill in Surrey, criminal lawyer Daniel Steinberg in Vancouver, B.C. Native Lawyers member Christopher David
Cleaveley in Fort St. John, and Expropriation Compensation Board chair Lorna-Jeanne Marie Harvey in Victoria.”
As in Part 8, in October-November 1993 the Outpatient Clinic had done a DNA test on me and told probation officer David Phillips the result that remains a mystery. DNA is not an acceptable scientific tool for psychiatric diagnosis.
Recall that in December 1994 my lawyer Phil Seagram was in the news for defending a Criminal Harassment case for Sylvia Caroline Swan, that was laden with obscenity. Well, that was at Port Coquitlam court though Susan Antifaev, not Marion Buller, was the trial judge.
In the The Vancouver Sun article about Buller’s appointment were other interesting stories of relevance. One was about policing victims not as fortunate as the Cariboo-Chilcotin natives:
“An Abbotsford man is upset that Attorney-General Colin Gabelmann is rejecting the ombudsman’s requests for a royal commission into an alleged police beating almost 10 years ago.
“This is a slap in the face for everybody in B.C. who believes in the ombudsman,” said Bob Fullerton.
Ombudsman Dulcie McCallum urged that a new inquiry be held to deal with matters not addressed by a B.C. Police Commission inquiry concerning the Fullertons.
Fullerton and his wife Francine claim they were beaten in 1985 by several Matsqui police officers in a gravel pit.”
Cariboo-Chilcotin aboriginal natives had better success lobbying B.C. government for a public inquiry, with Marion Buller’s lawyer role as ‘icing on the cake’, than Bob and Francine Fullerton, victims of brutality by – literally – “Matsqui police officers” 9 years earlier, despite help from B.C. Ombudsman Dulcie McCallum.
In 1992 prior to launching lawsuit I had contacted McCallum’s office but it determined my UBC dispute as outside its jurisdiction, as in Part 6.
Another story regarded B.C. government corruption in a native region:
“A former employee of the B.C. forest ministry in Lillooet has been charged with fraud and breach of trust after a three-year investigation by Kamloops RCMP.
The charges involve alleged overbilling of about $300,000 for work done in the forest district.
Wolf Hickl will appear in Kamloops provincial court Oct. 21.
Charges of fraud have also been laid against Martin Andrew White and M.A. White and Associates Ltd.
The investigation took place after the discovery of alleged irregularities in billing practices in the Lillooet forest district involving M.A. White and Associates Ltd. between 1989 and 1991.”
As natives, Lil'wat Peoples Movement of the Mount Currie Indian Band in Lillooet had held the Duffey Lake Road blockade protests in 1990-91 around the time of this local forestry fraud by Martin Andrew White and associates, and the protests’ crackdown was led by RCMP Vancouver Subdivision commanding officer Supt. D. G. Cowley, who later in 1992-93 was behind oppression of my civil legal action and political activism, as in Parts 5 & 6.
One more story was about tragic deaths in a airlines plane crash:
“The Transportation Safety Board and the coroner’s office are investigating a plane crash last Saturday in Illahie Inlet, 80 kilometres south of Bella Bella, which claimed the lives of three people.
Killed in the Twin Otter float plane operated by Pacific Coastal Airlines were Gerard William Carson, 34, of Port Hardy; Carson’s mother, Mary Stachan, 64, of Mississauga, Ont., and co-pilot Jeffery Miller, 29, of Powell River.
The pilot of the plane was in stable condition in Vancouver Hospital. His name was not released.”
The unnamed sole survivor was stable at Vancouver (General) Hospital.
So in this “Briefly” news summary headlining Marion Buller and a DNA-identification expert, next to the 3 tragically killed in a float plane accident the Fullertons were the unluckiest – for their encounter with Matsqui police.
The notoriety of “Matsqui” was not just the prison Dr. Dilli mentioned on January 26.
The location of Marion Buller’s court appointment was of serious implication to me.
As in Part 4 there had been UBC Computer Science programmer Martin Frauendorf’s murder by Alfred James Bailey of Port Coquitlam on August 11, 1993, but that particular Vancouver suburb link appeared random.
Then in January 1994 I was taken to Forensic Psychiatric Institute for a committal that legitimated the false “Paranoid Schizophrenia” label placed on me, by Outpatient Clinic’s Dr. Clifford Kerr and before him a forensic psychiatrist on January 15, 1993 after my arrest at CBC as in Part 7.
FPI has been located at 70 Colony Farm Road in Port Coquitlam, among a vast psychiatry complex tucked away in a forested hill surrounded by farm land. I remember walking a long road out of Colony Farm to the bus stop after discharge, sensing pastoral serenity amidst historical farm fields – a feeling in my local experience second only to at the Minnekhada marsh and farm in Coquitlam.
A century of history for B.C.’s “Hospital for the Mind” and “the best farm in Western Canada” (“History: BC Mental Health Timeline”, BC Mental Health & Addiction Services), has been eloquently told from a uniquely intriguing perspective by author and journalist Stevie Cameron – I have cited another of her trailblazing books in Parts 5, 6 & 8 regarding former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s lawyer and financial trustee Bruce Verchere – in On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women (2010, Alfred A. Knopf Canada) :
“For several years the Picktons’ nearest neighbour was the new Essondale Hospital, built on a thousand acres of cleared land at the top of their hill to house mental patients. Essondale, named after Dr. Henry Esson Young, the provincial politician responsible for it, had been designed to replace B.C.’s first hospital for the mentally ill, the Provincial Hospital for the Insane, which was built in 1878 in New Westminster…
By the time the Pickton kids were climbing onto a school bus in the 1950s, Essondale had become a sprawling hospital complex. Five handsome houses on the hill were for the senior doctors who worked there…
…
“We were all terrible to the Picktons, especially to Robert”, says a doctor’s daughter who now lives in Alberta. Part of the reason was that the boys had speech problems…
…
Paradise or not, it sounds more like Lord of the Flies than Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. Or perhaps even more like One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest…
…
Patients who needed psychiatric assessment before being transferred to the appropriate centre at Essondale also worked in the dairy, fields and barns of Colony Farm. This was a working farm at the bottom of the hill below the Pickton property that provided food for all the patients and staff at Essondale and Woodlands. Government records show that farm supervisors used patient labour to clear and dike the original land there to prepare it for farming use. Doctors would take their children down to Colony Farm to see the prized Colony Clydesdales, which won awards at the Pacific National Exhibition every year. Government statistical records brag that it was regarded as “the best farm in Western Canada”…”
Of course in early 1994 I had no idea there was a Robert William Pickton in this neighborhood of the community, who would one day replace Clifford Olson, a personality discussed in some details in Part 8 relating to psychiatry, as Canada’s worst serial killer – in the number of murder charges if not convictions.
It was a tragic irony that Marion (Ruth) Buller (Bennett), British Columbia’s only aboriginal woman judge and founding judge of the First Nations Court in New Westminster (“2012 Distinguished Alumni Awards”, University of Victoria Alumni), has held court for nearly two decades in a Vancouver suburb where Canada’s most notorious murderer of aboriginal women, mostly prostitutes in Downtown Eastside around Chinatown, has held his butchery.
The locale was perhaps no coincidence for Buller, given her focus on aboriginal justice. In 2007, the 4th Annual Forensic Psychiatry Conference held in Victoria, B.C., featured Judge Marion Buller Bennett in “Plenary Session: First Nations Mentally Disordered Offenders”, educating the professionals “in relation to the particular sensitivities and cultural considerations of First Nations patients/clients as they move through the Justice System”, issues that seemed a lifetime matter (“Mental Health and the Justice System Across the Lifespan”, March 28-30, 2007, 4th Annual Forensic Psychiatry Conference, Victoria Conference Center, 720 Douglas Street, Victoria, BC).
The troubling reality for me was that as a complainant Buller had contributed decisively to the escalating oppression of me, leading to the justice system’s legitimization, through FPI at Port Coquitlam, of a false “Paranoid Schizophrenia” outlook that could mean lifetime political repression, and she then became a judge overseeing that jurisdiction where it was officially on file.
My forensic psychiatric counselling schedule continued to be triweekly in October-December 1994, with only one interview with Dr. Kerr post-July 19, on December 6, before the entire January off and the final session with Dr. Kerr on February 2.
Two weeks after news of Marion Buller’s judge appointment, at the October 4 session the nurse recorded just one issue of substance, my UBC dispute’s effect on my job search:
“No changes in lifestyle, no responses to job applications – he speculates because if a potential employer contacted U.B.C. where he was employed, they’d likely disclose his behaviors when his contract expired. Pleasant and co-operative throughout interview.”
At the October 25 session I again said that if my mother had to leave by the end of 1994 I would accompany her to China, and the nurse insisted that I discuss it with probation officer as there were “two peace bonds running until Feb 95, and with conditions to attend this clinic”.
I spoke with Fred Hitchcock, and the nurse’s notes on December 29 recorded some result of it:
“States that his concerns are focused around his mother’s pending visa extension and this will not be confirmed until mid January. He has a letter of support from Mr. Hitchcock P.O. to have his mother remain in the country. … If mother returns to China Mr. Gao will remain in Canada and wait for his peace bonds to expire and then look for employment opportunities in the U.S. & Canada.”
Hitchcock’s letter of support for my mother’s visa extension is not among the B.C. Corrections personal-information disclosure. But it was a mixed help at best, as it disclosed to the Canadian immigration authority my criminal-law problems when I had no criminal (conviction) record.
At the final Clinic session on February 2, 1995, Dr. Kerr noted that there was still no response to my mother’s visa extension. Both Dr. Kerr and the nurse in their last sessions advised I could continue to seek Clinic help on a voluntary basis. But as Dr. Kerr wrote at the end:
“file to be closed.”
Besides lack of Dr. Kerr’s role after July 19, brevity of probation officer’s record for August 1994-February 1995 also confirmed the normalcy of things: it had only one short passage on August 28 and a final one on February 22, 1995 – although some contents have not been released for each of these two short notes.
But probation officer Fred Hitchcock did write a letter of support for when I might take a trip to China prior to end of probation.
Dated November 22, 1994, the letter also recorded my idea of moving to Ontario to seek employment upon return from China. On February 7, Hitchcock wrote another letter to confirm my completion of all court orders and my “right to travel and live anywhere in Canada”. Both were written in his capacity as Local Director, Vancouver Disordered Offender Unit.
Coinciding with my probation’s ending, RCMP and Justice Department began long-overdue update in regard to my lawsuit.
On December 30, 1994, Supt. D. R. Canning, RCMP “E” Division Officer-in-Charge, Admin Services, sent a letter to Justice Department lawyer David Fitzsimmons, who as in Part 8 had been assigned since August 1993, to request “update to the current status of this matter”. Justice Department received the letter on January 9, 1995.
In her January 11 reply letter, Justice Department lawyer Donnaree Nygard advised RCMP that she had now “assumed conduct of this matter” from Fitzsimmons. It was received by RCMP on January 13 – some content has not been released.
Recall as in Part 6, 2 year earlier on January 25, 1993, C/Supt. M. K. M. Clegg, “E” Division Officer-in-Charge, Administration & Personnel, had sent a handwritten note to Officer-in-Charge, Admin Services, attention of Cpl. Dennis Garrett, to request a reply letter be written to RCMP headquarters regarding my complaint sent via Solicitor General, and that reply was dated January 29.
Supt. D. R. Canning was likely C/Supt. Clegg’s subordinate to whom the handwritten note was addressed, and now this December 30, 1994 letter looked like signed by Cpl. Dennis Garrett on his behalf. As in Parts 5 & 6, since my lawsuit’s filing Cpl. Garrett was the “E”Division Civil Litigation Unit officer “monitoring” my file after Sgt. Frank Kelley received negative feedback from Vancouver Subdivision Supt. D. G. Cowley.
So there was continuing RCMP senior management oversight over my matter while the work was done by junior personnel.
As earlier, a month after the June 22 Forensic Clinic episode and 3 days after Dr. Kerr concluded there was “no evidence of psychosis”, on July 22 a Justice Department memo showed my lawsuit case reassigned from Fitzsimmons to “D. Nygaard”. The coincidence of that timing, and now the timing of reviving lawsuit update between RCMP Supt. D. R. Canning and Justice Department as my probation was ending, were circumstantial evidence that senior managements were aware of my criminal-law probation status and inability for the lawsuit process.
There was stronger evidence that Justice Department persons were aware of my inability with the lawsuit due to lack of a civil lawyer. On the same day January 11 when Nygard sent her reply letter to RCMP, Justice Department prepared, and then on January 13 filed, a B.C. Supreme Court change of delivery address for defendant RCMP, to:
“Department of Justice
900 – 840 Howe Street
Vancouver, BC
V6Z 2S9”
As discussed earlier, in the same office building as Criminal Harassment complainant Marion Buller’s law firm Connell Lightbody, Justice Department had been located at:
“2800 – 1055 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
V6E 3P9”
as late as of August 23, 1993 when David Fitzsimmons was assigned to my lawsuit.
It is unclear when Justice Department moved its Vancouver office, but the fact that it didn’t bothered to update its address for my lawsuit showed that it didn’t consider the civil litigation to be active.
Moreover, both the November 18, 1992 Statement of Defence as in Part 5, and this change of address were formally filed by Justice Department lawyer J. D. Bissell, who happened to be the regional director also overseeing criminal prosecution where it was “business as usual” (“‘Business as usual’ for police enforcing Canada’s drug laws”, by Neal Hall, June 20, 1995, The Vancouver Sun) – very relevant if there was a ‘sting’ on me in the Marion Buller and other incidents.
No other excuse for that.
On January 17, Cpl. Garrett phoned Justice Department and left a message, and his call was returned by Justice Department. The content of their conversation has not been released, but it appeared like an actual update between the two.
On January 23, Donnaree Nygard sent me a letter to notify that she was now the lawyer for RCMP, and that Justice Department had a new address. But her letter was returned on January 30, as it was mailed to 201 – 1640 West 11th Avenue in Vancouver, the apartment owned by Mrs. Norma Bagnall, mother of Judge Conni Bagnall. As in Part 7, Aunt Sally’s husband Rev. Stephen Lee had moved my belongings out of it in June-July 1993 while I was in detention at Vancouver Pre-trial Services Centre, charged by RCMP with Assault due to standoff with UBC Hospital security guards.
So I, too, hadn’t updated my address for the lawsuit. But any comparison between my predicament and Justice Department’s circumstances would have been like night and day.
It so happened that on the last day of my probation, a California State Legislature Analyst report was issued on the impacts of the “3-strikes” law in its first year (“The Three Strikes and You’re Out Law”, February 22, 1995, California Legislative Analyst’s Office), and it already found widespread misuse of the new law:
“… about 70 percent of all second- and third-strikes are for nonviolent and nonserious offenses.”
It has probably been “business as usual” since then.
The next day, my first day of freedom from criminal law since June 1993, woodcarver and handyman Bill Wilson saw a cut-in-half human skull at the riverbank near the mouth of Stave River at Mission, B.C., 40 kilometers east of Port Coquitlam; already with 2 violent crime convictions for indecent assault and sexual assault, Wilson hesitated for a day before reporting to Mission RCMP on February 24, 1995, which sent over Constable Chris Annely to recover it – according to Stevie Cameron’s book “On the Farm”.
To me that would have been the 2-year anniversary of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s announcement of stepping down.
DNA of the female’s skull later matched with bones found since 2002 in Robert William Pickton’s pig farm, and she officially became the first victim chronologically among his 27 murder charges – and the only one unidentified.
Through INTERPOL, RCMP has appealed to police worldwide for help, but “Jane Doe” remains a mystery (“RCMP seek help identifying woman tied to Pickton farm”, February 19, 2011, CTV News).
At his 2006 trial in New Westminster, Pickton pleaded not guilty to all other murder charges but refused to enter a plea on Jane Doe, and that charge was later thrown out by B.C. Supreme Court Justice James Williams (“Judge throws out murder count against Pickton”, by Greg Joyce, Canadian Press, March 2, 2006, missingpeople.net), who stated:
“I find that in the circumstances of this case, the count as drawn fails to meet the minimal requirement set out in Section 581 of the Criminal Code. Accordingly, it must be quashed.”
But like my misunderstanding in 1994 with Phil Seagram’s tale of saving me from criminal conviction by a certain judge, here I don’t quite see the application of Criminal Code Section 581 – curious justice!
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