Forwarded from Jim Craven

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Mr. Sandstrom, Mr. Brooks and Judge Jacobsen:

I am sending this notice in care of Mr. Sandstrom to be cc'd also to Mr.
Falconer, Mr. Brooks and Judge Jacobsen. I just sent to the web address
given for the Attorney General of the Federal Government of Canada: a) my
letter dated April 12, 2003 written as official notice of intent to raise
constitutional issues in the case of R. v Bella Yellow Horn, Provincial
Court of Lethbridge, Alberta, s.71(1)(a) MVA; b) the National Lawyer's Guild
Letter of support and endorsement for some of our proposed constitutional
arguments; c) a copy of our Blackfoot Indictment of the Governments of
Canada and the U.S. for Genocide (all accepted into the Court record in
Lethbridge to the best of my knowledge). These were sent with a Return/Read
function sent and the above are acknowledgments and receipts that they have
been received by the Office of the Attorney General of Canada. When I
receive acknowledgments that they have been read (or at least opened) I will
send those receipts as well.

Further, I am making inquiries to obtain the telephone records and/or
receipts of transmissions from the fax machine at the Research Department of
the Peigan Band Office on April 22, 2003 to attempt to document that
official notice was indeed sent to the Attorney General of the Canadian
Federal Government of intent to raise constitutional issues as was
represented to me to have occurred by Bella Yellow Horn.

I must also note that a finding that Bella Yellow Horn was indeed insured at
the time she was stopped and subsequently charged with driving without
insurance, does not, and should not, make her constitutional and other
arguments "moot". We gave notice previously that this case would involve the
legal existence and application of  Blackfoot National Sovereignty,
constitutional issues and applications of the 1948 UN Convention on the
Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, ratified in 1953 by the
Government of Canada and thus part of the Supreme Law of Canada; in a
previous Court session on April 8, 2003 we noted that we would not be
stipulating on the issue of whether or not Bella Yellow Horn was indeed
"insured" as the burden of proof on that issue rests with the Crown.
Further, if Bella Yellowhorn represents to me, as she did, that she was
indeed "insured" and believed herself to be insured (as a matter of personal
choice and not as a matter of any obligations recognized by her under the
Indian Act, Treaty 7 or summarily-imposed Canadian Citizenship), I am bound
to raise that defense as well since not to do so would involve a form of
fraud upon/misuse of the Court stipulating what Bella Yellow Horn considers
to be untrue for the purposes of using the Court to raise other issues and
defenses.

Further, in a brief conversation with Mr. Brooks, Bella Yellow Horn asked
for the name of the person who made the phone call to the Lethbridge Police
that led to her being stopped for possible impaired driving. Mr. Brooks
indicated that I must request that name and I am hereby formally doing so in
this letter.

Next, in the Courts of Canada every day, attorneys with law degrees and
considerable trial experience suffer sustained or overruled objections, and
Judges are often reversed on appeal; this indicates that possession of a law
degree and admission to the Alberta Bar is no guarantee that no mistakes are
made by those trained in law. In a pro se defense, Judges can easily give
guidance and make their rulings without shouting, anger and clearly abusive
tones and content of speech--and without compromising the right of the Crown
to a fair trial. Further, when I indicated to His Honor that we had tried to
secure Counsel in Alberta and were unable to do so, as we were told by some
attorneys that they feared being labeled "radicals" and being compromised to
practice in future cases and/or were unwilling to raise Constitutional
arguments, His Honor made the comment to the effect that to secure an
attorney that attorney must be paid. We found this comment to be deeply
offensive and troubling as well as beneath the obvious considerable learning
and preparation of His Honor. Further, His Honor accused me of intentionally
attempting to "cherry pick" favorable evidence and arguments while
attempting to hide the unfavorable to our case. Although this is exactly
what the Eurocentric Courts are all about--magnifying the positives while
minimizing or hiding the negatives of one's own case while doing the reverse
to the opposition or magnifying their negatives while hiding or suppressing
their positives of their case (which I might add Mr. Brooks and Mr.
Sandstrom did not attempt to do as they acted very honorably during the
trial)--in Blackfoot terms this is a charge of acting dishonorably and
deceptively and His Honor was purporting to be inside my head and "knowing"
my subjective intentions. I should note that every single Blackfoot Elder
present in Court was of the opinion that His Honor was intentionally trying
to provoke me into getting a contempt citation that would result in my going
to jail and/or being dropped for cause as the unpaid agent for Bella Yellow
Horn's pro se defense; I noted to them that they cannot purport to "know" or
even reasonably "infer" His Honor's subjective intentions without
considerably more evidence. Indeed, His Honor acted properly and honorably
when he asked that Bella Yellow Horn's Blackfoot Nation Identification,
presented to the police officer at the time she was stopped, be entered as
evidence; and His Honor acted honorably in allowing us to finally and fully
document service of notice of intent to raise Constitutional issues to the
Office of the Attorney General of Canada when we represented that we had
come to Court believing that such had been done but without our having--as
we should have--the requisite documentation.

As Blackfoot, we have every reason to disrespect and distrust the Courts of
Canada. It was not long ago, that in and through the Courts of Canada and
Alberta, judges, with flowing robes, called "Your Honor", and attorneys with
law degrees and the title "Queen's Counsel", gave legal authority and cover
to, and/or helped to cover-up, the sterilizing of Native children, using
Native children for medical experimentation and the kidnapping of Native
children to be taken to Indian Residential Schools where they were subject
to forced "de-Indianization", assimilation and other monstrous crimes. Yet
we came and respected the decorum and procedures of the Lethbridge Court as
well as the authority and rulings of His Honor. We ask only that we receive
the same level of respect and not suffer abusive anger and tones of speech
that frankly caused me to get thrown off in some of my direct and
cross-examinations and worry about a possible contempt citation.

I ask Mr. Sandstrom, as a Queen's Counsel and Officer of the Court, in the
interest of justice and as I do not have the email addresses of the others,
that you please forward this letter to the Presiding Judge, Mr. Falconer,
Mr. Brooks and other concerned parties you deem necessary and give notice of
intent to have this memorandum entered as part of the official record of the
trial.

We invite rebuttal of any and all points of view and issues raised in this
letter and stipulate that any rebuttals should accompany this memorandum for
the court record. This is not being sent to the Attorney General of Alberta
as that office has already stipulated to having been given proper notice of
intent to raise constitutional issues but this could be sent to that office
as well.

Thank you for your consideration and assistance.

Sincerely,

James M. Craven (Blackfoot Name: Omahkohkiaayo i'poyi)
(signed: call (360) 992-2283 if verification of source/signature is needed)
Acting as Unpaid Agent for the Pro Se Defense of Bella Yellow Horn


Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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