Mr. Speaker, in the absence of the other parties taking their speaking spots, I will be happy to join in this debate regarding Leonard Peltier, a political prisoner for 26 years in the United States. I thank the member for Winnipeg—Transcona for raising the issue in the House of Commons and giving us this opportunity.
It is my position that Leonard Peltier should never have been put in prison. Even if there were grounds, the point has been made that after 26 years the United States government should free Leonard Peltier on basic humanitarian or compassionate grounds .
This is a tragic story. It was on June 26, 1975 that two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ron Williams, entered the Jumping Bull Ranch, a private property. They allegedly sought to arrest a young native American man who they believed had been seen in a red pickup truck. At that time a large number of American Indian movement members were camping on the property and many non-AIM members were there as well.
A shootout began between the red pickup and the pickup truck carrying the two FBI agents. When the skirmish ended, two FBI agents were dead. They had been wounded and then someone shot them at close range through the head.
Today the United States government admits that no one knows who fired the fatal shots. The red pickup truck has never been seen again and has never been found.
More than 30 American Indian movement men, women and children present on the ranch were then surrounded by 150 FBI agents, SWAT team members and local posse members. They barely escaped through a hail of bullets. When the gunfight ended, a young native American named Joe Stuntz also lay dead, shot through the head by a sniper bullet. His killing was never investigated and no one was ever found at fault.
This bit of history is the beginning of the issue. We and many people around the world believe that the United States government overreacted at Wounded Knee. What happened was the culmination of three years of violence. In the years 1973 to 1975 over 60 American Indian movement members were murdered in and around Pine Ridge. Over 300 were harassed, beaten and otherwise violated. This level of rancour was building slowly over many years and this was the culmination of it.
Leonard Peltier was one of the several high level AIM leaders who were present at the shootout. As was stated, murder charges were brought against him as well as two of his friends and colleagues, Dino Butler and Bob Robideau who had been present throughout the incident. Butler and Robideau stood trial separately from Mr. Peltier because he fled the United States to Canada convinced that he would never receive a fair trial given the three years of violence they had lived through.
At the trial of Butler and Robideau a key prosecution witness admitted that he had been threatened by the FBI and as a result changed his testimony. The jury found both men not guilty. They found there was no evidence to link the defendants with the fatal shots. Moreover, they said that the exchange of gunfire from a distance was deemed to have constituted an act of self-defence. The two people who stood trial for the murders were found not guilty and released because the shooting was deemed to be an act of self-defence.
Mr. Leonard Peltier was extradited from Canada on the basis of an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a local native American woman known to have serious mental problems. As was mentioned, she claimed to have been Mr. Peltier's girlfriend and to have been present and witnessed the shooting. As it turns out, both were false. She had never met Mr. Peltier and she was not present at the ranch at the time of the shooting. The judge barred her testimony at the trial on the grounds of mental incompetence but nothing had ever been done about the illegal extradition, what we are saying was a wrongful extradition, in that the same evidence that could not be admitted during the trial because it was so flawed was used to justify the extradition.
No known witnesses exist as to the actual shooting of the FBI agents Coler and Williams. Three adolescents gave inconclusive and vague testimonies, contradicting their own earlier statements. All three of them later admitted that they had been seriously threatened and intimidated by FBI agents to tell this story, and all later recanted their story.
What is perhaps most frightening is the gerrymandering of critical ballistic information which would have proved, without doubt, Mr. Peltier's innocence. This ballistic information was withheld from the defence team making a fair trial impossible. Specifically, at the trial, the FBI ballistic agent testified that he had been unable to perform the best tests, the firing pin test, on certain casings because the rifle in question had been damaged in a fire. Years later they did perform a secondary type of testing to mark scratches by the extractor but it was a far less conclusive test.
However, years later, documents obtained through the freedom of information act showed that in October 1975 a firing pin ballistic test had indeed been performed on that very rifle and the results were clearly negative. This evidence was withheld and was never given to the defence attorney.
The government of the United States undertook the modern day equivalent of a lynching. Two police officers were dead under tragic circumstances and someone had to pay. I think all of us here would be disappointed at the degree to which the FBI was involved in framing and setting up Leonard Peltier so someone would take the fall for this terrible and tragic murder.
At the appellant hearing, the United States attorney himself said:
We had a murder, we had numerous shooters, we do not know who specifically fired what killing shots...we do not know, quote unquote, who shot the agents.
That was a direct quote from the United States prosecuting attorney in this case. Yet Leonard Peltier has spent 26 years in prison, almost as long, as I am reminded, as the 27 years that Nelson Mandela was a political prisoner in South Africa.
When we raise the idea of releasing Mr. Peltier on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, there is another compelling reason why the American government should be interested in granting clemency. A terrible wound has developed in the relationship between aboriginal people and the government in the United States. Leonard Peltier has grown in status as a martyr figure, that he has been unfairly persecuted. He has come to symbolize everything that is wrong with the relationship between first nations people and the government. This would be a step toward healing these terrible rifts.
The point has been made that the Canadian government is directly implicit in the wrongful incarceration of Mr. Peltier because we extradited him on not just shaky information but false information. We acted quickly. I know because I have some experience with how difficult it is to have an extradition go through. We have been trying to have a woman extradited to stand trial for murdering a Canadian captain who was killed in Florida. One person has been locked up and is serving a life sentence for that murder. The other, the co-murderer, fled to Canada and four years later is still in Canada. We have had it on the desk of the Minister of Justice for over three years but the government refuses to extradite her to stand trial for murdering a Canadian soldier in the state of Florida even though the grand jury took only eight minutes to indict her, so compelling was the evidence.
So in some cases they drag their feet and refuse to extradite. In a case like Mr. Leonard Peltier, because the American government was so eager and so anxious to punish someone, anyone for this crime, I suppose phone calls were made and the Canadian government acted swiftly and handed Mr. Peltier over where he did not receive a fair trial. We believe the evidence was stacked against him to where it was a sham and an absolute mockery.
The Canadian government should appeal to the United States to show clemency. Even if they cannot find it in their hearts to admit that they were wrong, Mr. Peltier should be released from prison as his health is failing and 26 years is a tragic enough story. It should not go on another day.