By Mario deSantis, June 14, 1999

I am appalled at the opinion regarding David Milgaard's compensation of $10 Million expressed by Mr. Marvin Wiebe of Codette, Saskatchewan. David Milgaard was imprisoned wrongly for twenty-three years, and courageously, he always maintained his innocence. David was raped in prison, suffered the injustices of a right wing Saskatoon police force, and the deplorable behaviour of his two prosecutors: Bobs Caldwell and Serge Kujawa. Only through the unconditional love of his mother Joyce, David was eventually able to get out of prison and be exonerated from a murder he didn't commit.

Our social and economic system is based on values and justice, not on money. We have the responsibility to know why such a miscarriage of justice occurred and make sure it will not happen again; yet, Mr. Wiebe labels Joyce as a "Gold Digger" and the compensation as an injustice. Mr. Wiebe goes on with his insults by mentioning that while Third World derelicts were starving, David was having free board and room at the expense of Canadian taxpayers throughout his imprisonment! To show his outrage, Mr. Wiebe states that the $10 Million settlement translates to roughly $1,200 per day.

I have a word for Mr. Wiebe, I would like him to have a better deal than David's, that is getting $1,200 per day while in prison for the next 100 years. I was forgetting a small item, the money would be paid, as per David's case, at the time Mr. Wiebe gets out of jail!

References

[1] Milgaard payout rich settlement, Opinion by = Marvin Wiebe, The Nipawin Journal, June 9, 1999, Nipawin, Saskatchewan

[2] When Justice Fails:The David Milgaard Story, by Carl Karp and Cecil Rosner, McClelland & Stewart, 1998