Like Leonard Peltier, U.S. authorities have extradited another innocent Canadian:
Free John Graham (2)
Public Forum, March 28, 2008 in Vancouver on the extradition of John Graham and the struggle for indigenous self determination against colonization, corporate control, and state repression
Video and audio from forum at Working TV
See also Free John Graham - August 2007
Questions linger about John Graham handover
By Matthew Burrows
The Georgia Straight (Vancouver, Canada)
April 10, 2008
Family and supporters of John Graham are still furious over unanswered questions relating to his high-speed extradition to the U.S. last December.
“Why would they put this man in chains and take him across the border, full speed, without him being allowed to talk to lawyer or family?” Vancouver-based justice advocate Jennifer Wade asked in a phone conversation with the Straight.
The Yukon-born Southern Tutchone man is charged with first-degree murder in the execution-style killing of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq and American Indian Movement member Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, whose body was found in 1976 on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Graham has always maintained that he did not commit the crime.
On February 21, 2005, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett ruled that Graham could be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for the crime. On June 22, 2006, months after the Conservative party gained a minority in Parliament, then–justice minister Vic Toews signed off on the handover of Graham to U.S. authorities.
On June 26, 2007, the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed Graham’s appeal. On December 6, 2007, the same day he was whisked to the border, Graham was denied leave to appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Canada. According to Wade, Graham was driven from the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam and turned over to U.S. authorities. He is currently being held in the Pennington County Jail in South Dakota.
Burnaby-Douglas NDP MP Bill Siksay wrote two letters to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, dated December 6 and 11, 2007, demanding answers to questions surrounding the surrender.
“Given that he was extradited the same day as the Supreme Court decision was delivered, it is clear that both Canadian and U.S. authorities had already made the necessary arrangements to remove him,” Siksay wrote on December 11. “Why then was Mr. Graham’s legal counsel or his family not informed about the timing of the extradition?”
In a two-page letter to Siksay dated December 18, 2007, Janet Henchey, general counsel and associate director of the International Assistance Group in the federal Department of Justice, stated that it was “standard practice to remove persons sought for extradition pursuant to a valid surrender order as soon as practicable upon the release of the final decision on any outstanding appeals”.
According to Wade, Graham was denied basic rights. “They [prisoners] are allowed to talk to family or lawyer before going,” she said. “He was not allowed access to family or lawyer or friends of any kind. He asked repeatedly if he could phone his family to tell them he was leaving, and they said no.”
Wade has been advocating on Graham’s behalf since he was arrested in Vancouver in December 2003.
Statement and call-out mentioning John Graham in relation to CANSEC security and weapons fair in Ottawa:
“Allies everywhere are facing exaggerated sentences for blockades (at Tyendinaga), land reclamations (at Six Nations), or even for the fabrications alleged by our exploiters (in the case against John “boy” Graham).”
- Hooligans who Hate Hierarchy, Attack on police station and fire set ( Ottawa, Canada, April 11, 2008 )
————————————————————————————–
SHUT DOWN THE WAR MACHINE!
CANADA OUT OF HAITI!
CANADA OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!
US OUT OF IRAQ!
FREE ALL PRISONERS OF WAR!
FREE ALBERT DOUGLAS!
FREE JOHN GRAHAM!
ABOLISH THE SPP!
DESTROY STATE AND CAPITAL!
solidarity and resistance,
~ottawa anarchists~
Free film screening of INCIDENT AT OGLALA - the Leonard Peltier Story
[ From Santa Cruz Indymedia - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/04/07/18491117.php ]
Tuesday April 08
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Big Yellow House
742 N. Branciforte
Santa Cruz
INCIDENT AT OGLALA: The Leonard Peltier Story
A free film screening, with information about Native prisoners and resistance movements.
7:30pm at the Big Yellow House.
Film description from the DVD case:
In 1975 armed FBI agents illegally entered the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Gunfire Erupted–a Native American and two FBI agents fell dead. After the largest manhunt in FBI history three men were apprehended–only one Leonard Peltier was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. This is his story.
From the very beginning, Peltier’s case has been dogged with controversy. Were the charges trumped up? Was the evidence falsified? Ware witnesses pressured to change their testimony? Many people, including some of today s greatest legal minds, believe that Peltier is an innocent man.
Twelve years ago Robert Redford visited Leonard Peltier in prison. Today after yours of struggle with the FBI and the prison system he and director Michael Apted are able to present incident at Oglala a riveting examination of the case and the real story of what my be one of the most outrageous abuses of justice in American history.
90 minutes / color / 1988
Some back story:
In the 1970’s a resurgence in Native American resistance occurred with series of land occupations and armed standoffs related to protecting sacred sites, opposing broken treaties, and fighting genocidal governmental policies. The American Indian Movement became a major target of the FBI’s Counter-intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) by at least 1972, when the Trail of Broken Treaties ended in Washington DC with the takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs office. The government repression resulted in the targeting and assassination of participants in the movement, including the death of between 70-250 people over a five-year reign of terror on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (where prospectors had recently discovered one of the largest uranium deposits in N. America).
Leonard Peltier was convicted based on faulty evidence and FBI manipulation of the murder of 2 FBI Agents who started a shoot-out at the Jumping Bull residence on June 25, 1975.
John Graham: Leonard Peltier II?
A female leader of AIM named Anna Mae Pictou Aquash was found murdered a few months after the shoot-out; authorities attempted to conceal her body as well as information of death threats she had received from FBI agents. The government is now attempting to cover-up this shameful legacy and sow contempt in contemporary indigenous struggles by framing Anna Mae’s comrade, John Graham, for her murder. Cointelpro’s legacy of infiltrating, imprisoning and otherwise disrupting resistant communities continues to be used and improved on by law enforcement. AIM was targeted extensively in the 70’s because it successfully restored hope and pride in the Native American spirit of resistance.
To learn more about John Graham’s case: http://www.grahamdefense.org/
Related links:
http://ourfreedom.wordpress.com/
http://www.freeleonard.org/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104504/
http://www.leonardpeltier.net/
