As the jury continues deliberations, friends, family, supporters, and other Defenders drum and sing in vigil outside the Surrey, BC prison where Ts'peten Defenders Wolverine (William Jones Ignace) and OJ Pitawanakwat are being held. In front of the courthouse across the street, the media and others also await the conclusion of "Her Majesty the Queen against Mary Jane Pena et al, No. X043738 New Westminster Registry".
In a phone conversation earlier today, Wolverine told S.I.S.I.S. that he was feeling confident and believed a decision "would come down soon." The Shuswap elder, jailed since early autumn 1995, also expressed appreciation for the continuing prayers, solidarity and support.
"The Sundancers at Gustafsen Lake have one demand: that the petition dated January 3, 1995 be addressed publicly by an independent and impartial third party tribunal, one that is neither Canadian nor Indian, such as the special constitutional court established by Queen Anne at the request of the Mohegan Indians to which court the petition is addressed: (a) is the popular assumption that the Canadian courts and police have jurisdiction legal? (b) or is that assumption criminally treasonable, fraudulent and complicitous in the genocide of the aboriginal peoples of Canada as alleged in the petition?" - signed by members of the Ts'peten Sundance camp, Aug. 25, 1995
"There is a line and that line is that there shall be no alien intervention in the affairs of this state." - Ujjal Dosanjh, BC NDP Attorney General, Sept. 1995
"Any person charged with an offence has the right... to be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law in a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal." - Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section 11(d)
"Any contention that the newcomer judge and jury in the present action can be seen to be 'independent and impartial' within the spirit of either the 'Order in Council (Great Britain) of 9 March 1704' or, if it were applicable (which it is not), section 11(d), patently and blatantly is insupportable. The jury and judge, qua newcomers, are partis pris. As newcomers, they are effectively adjudicating upon their own complicity in genocide, which genocide occurs in consquence of the newcomers' premature application of their own criminal law process to the aboriginal people occupying yet unpurchased territory. Preventing in future the crime of genocide and, correspondingly, rehabilitating the rule of law, ultimately is the point of this petition/motion/notification, as it was the point of the Gustafsen Lake event." - Petition/Motion/Constitutional Question, Ignace and others v. Dosanjh and Rock, Feb 12, 1997, introduced during the Ts'peten trial and dismissed by Justice Josephson.
"You must accept the law as I explain it to you without question. This means that when you decide what the facts of this case are, you must apply the rules of law I will give you. It also means you must apply the law as I explain it to you... You are not allowed to decide this case on the basis of what you think the law is or what you think it should be if that conflicts with what I tell you about the law... you must not apply your own interpretation... because as I just stated, I am the sole interpreter of the law. You must take the law from me as I relate it to you in my instructions." - Judge's Instructions to the Jury: Outline, May 7-12 1997.