'That is everything he fought for and I’m really glad to see that,' David Milgaard's son, Robert Milgaard, told SASKTODAY.ca. 'He’s smiling at that right now too.'
OTTAWA – It was a sweet but sad day for the Milgaard family when David and Joyce Milgaard’s Law [Bill C-40] was announced by federal Justice Minister David Lametti Feb. 16.
“I think he’s smiling,” said Mrs. Milgaard. “It was what he was struggling to get done. Finally, it has come true. At least it happened. It is sad he’s not alive.”“Some he succeeded. Some he didn’t.”“We supported him emotionally, prayerfully. It was his work.”“He always helped people,” she said. Lametti introduced Bill C-40 [David and Joyce Milgaard’s Law] to amend the Criminal Code paving the way for the independent commission, which is expected to replace the current ministerial review process to review wrongful convictions.
Sad, sweet day: James Lockyer Lawyer James Lockyer - who co-founded Innocence Canada and represented Joyce Milgaard at Saskatchewan’s public inquiry into David Milgaard’s wrongful conviction – was invited to attend Parliament in Ottawa for the announcement Thursday. Lockyer told SASKTODAY.ca that it was “a sad sweet day.”
She said in one of the earlier meetings that David Milgaard and James Lockyer had with Lametti about the creation of the commission, Lockyer said “wouldn’t it be nice if the law was named after David and Joyce Milgaard.” “As lawyers we had a lived and immensely frustrating experience seeing systemic failures and the consequences. This is a huge change in criminal justice in Canada and full credit to the minister for actually getting it done.
David Milgaard previously told SASKTODAY.ca that the ministerial review process was ineffective and “boiled down” to rules that only protected the people working within the justice system, keeping them from being embarrassed by their mistakes.David Milgaard said it’s important the new commission is up and running and people are freed from their cells, their cages.
Former justice minister snubs Milgaards David Milgaard and the Milgaard family endured decades of raised and crushed hopes after filing court appeals and parole applications that were denied. In 1971, both the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed David Milgaard's appeals. In 1990, then Justice Minister Kim Campbell refused to send his case to the SCC.
After that incident, the Milgaard family was able to get extensive media coverage in Eastern Canada, Susan Migaard told SASKTODAY.ca.It also caught the attention of Canada's then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who stepped in and had Campbell review David Milgaard's case a second time. Campbell did and she sent it to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Asper also referred to the Wheat Kings song after Lametti's Feb. 16 announcement of David and Joyce Milgaard's Law. He survived being shot in the back when fleeing from police after he had escaped in 1980 for 77 days as he grasped at the freedom he deserved. "I decided to live my life as if I was Jesus myself. You would not believe the difference it made in my life in prison.”“This gave me a real sense of morality and helped me inside prison. One thing you lose inside that place is your morality.”
“The students loved him,” Christopher told SASKTODAY.ca on Friday. “He spoke from the heart and he was honest. He was comfortable with the students.One of the students who heard David Milgaard speak that day decades ago remembers the talk well. “Next morning the Journal arrived at my door and David, over coffee in the kitchen, read it and was excited that we were together in the same story,” said Christopher. “He wanted a copy of the paper for himself and another for his mother, Joyce. So, we walked over to 7-Eleven and bought two copies. I remember how pumped he was walking back, holding the papers."
Honorary Doctor of Law degree In 2020 — 50 years after Milgaard’s wrongful conviction – the University of Manitoba announced they were presenting him with an Honorary Doctor of Law degree. “I could immediately see, plain as day, that it made no sense and this is how I was able to show Mr. Wolch and the other partners at the law firm that we needed to dive into the case.
“I did come to visualize a day when we walked David out of Stony Mountain Prison, and it eventually happened," said Asper. "It was a great day that I’ll never forget, not because of what I felt but because of what David, Joyce and the Milgaard family felt.”Rage against the system “It didn’t take long for me to be angry, and as I went back into my regular world of being a defence lawyer, I didn’t want any part of it and decided to stop doing it," David Asper told SASKTODAY.ca.
“I still speak periodically to groups about the case and every time I open my box of materials, I get lit up about what happened and how it was so unnecessary," said Asper. "How it destroyed a young man, David, his family, and how it allowed a very dangerous person to keep hurting people.” “So, there were and are some happy endings, but the beginning and middle of the story still hurt,” said Asper.
In June 2021, David Milgaard told SASKTODAY.ca that he planned to retire in a year. This is something he also often told his family.
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