Featured Letter: Justice department showing lack of sympathy

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I have been reading with great interest and sympathy the judicial plight of two Saint John men, Walter Gillespie, 80, and Robert Mailman, 76, who spent four decades in prison and on parole for a murder they did not commit. Recently, their acquittal was pronounced by Chief Justice Tracey DeWare, who apologized to the men.

The two are now cleared, but what about all those lost years? Mr. Gillespie is living in poverty in a converted hotel room, barely getting by on peanut butter and eggs. Mr. Mailman is dying of liver cancer.

There is no compensation formula for wrongful conviction in New Brunswick. There is no accepted procedure, yet in the United Kingdom there is an immediate payout to help with living expenses, eventual payout or not.

That should be our policy here, but there seems a lack of political will to help the wrongfully convicted in any way — perhaps because doing so requires the Justice Department to admit its error.

The only thing more shocking than the great disservice dealt these men is the utter silence of our Justice Minister, Ted Flemming, who has not said a word about the acquittal, the many years these men lived under a cloud, nor any coming financial settlement to make things right.

A recent Canadian Press story noted that “a spokeswoman for Flemming said the minister was not available for an interview and has no comment.”

How’s that for smug arrogance? The Justice Department should be falling all over itself to make its grave error of 1984 right in some way. Instead, its minister seems to be waiting for these men to die. The shameful lack of respect shown by Mr. Flemming and his department is beyond belief.

Gisele McKnight

Sussex