STORY: "How a Wrongful Conviction Traumatized a Canadian Family for Generations," by Jake Kivanc, published by VICE on November 10, 2105.
GIST: 'When Tanya Olivares was nine, her father, Ivan Henry, was arrested by Vancouver police for a string of heinous sexual assaults. She wouldn't see him outside the walls of a prison until 27 years later, in 2009, when the courts determined that he had been wrongfully convicted. To Olivares, though, it was too late. She and her family had already paid the price. For years, Olivares's only connection with her father was through handwritten letters and the prison landline, the latter of which was a rare blessing considering he spent some of his earlier years in solitary confinement in a prison outside the province.She would see him in person for the first time since his imprisonment in 1994, four years after her mother passed away. This prompted Olivares and her sister to begin petitioning the province to have another look at his case, a battle they fought right up until his release in 2009. It was during that time that Olivares's sister also became addicted to drugs, which ultimately ended up killing her earlier this year.
GIST: 'When Tanya Olivares was nine, her father, Ivan Henry, was arrested by Vancouver police for a string of heinous sexual assaults. She wouldn't see him outside the walls of a prison until 27 years later, in 2009, when the courts determined that he had been wrongfully convicted. To Olivares, though, it was too late. She and her family had already paid the price. For years, Olivares's only connection with her father was through handwritten letters and the prison landline, the latter of which was a rare blessing considering he spent some of his earlier years in solitary confinement in a prison outside the province.She would see him in person for the first time since his imprisonment in 1994, four years after her mother passed away. This prompted Olivares and her sister to begin petitioning the province to have another look at his case, a battle they fought right up until his release in 2009. It was during that time that Olivares's sister also became addicted to drugs, which ultimately ended up killing her earlier this year.
Today,
Olivares and her father are entangled in a vicious legal battle with
the BC government and the City of Vancouver for compensation to make up
for the nearly three decades Henry spent unjustly behind bars. Just this
week, the lawyer representing the city of Vancouver made a scathing argument to the BC Supreme Court
to deny Henry's compensation based on his previous track record of
crime prior to being locked up (which included attempted rape), making
the argument that even if the sexual assault charges were unjust, he
would have ended up in jail anyway. Although Henry
hasn't told Olivares about what he experienced while locked up, she
assumes the worst from what she's observed while living with him. Henry,
who Olivares says lives in "constant paranoia" from his time in prison,
often wakes up in the middle of the night on alert. He yells from
nightmares and hurts himself in his sleep.
The entire story can be found at:
The entire story can be found at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Dear Reader. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog. We are following this case.
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.ca/2013/12/the-charles-smith-award-presented-to_28.html
I look forward to hearing from readers at:
hlevy15@gmail.com; Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog;
