Difference between revisions of "Document:Chronology of Attacks on Kevin Annett"

From Wikispooks
Jump to navigation Jump to search
(Upgrade to use DocProv)
m (Text replacement - "|Subject=" to "|subjects=")
 
(16 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{DocProv
+
{{Document
|DateYear=2010
+
|publication_date=2010/09/18
|DateMonth=9
+
|leaked=No
|DateDay=18
+
|type=timeline
|DocType=A chronology of physical, verbal and other attacks on [[Kevin Annett]]
+
|comment=It is posted on Wikispooks for two reasons:
|Author=
 
|Source=[http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/chronology_of_attacks.html#attacks "Canadian Genocide"]
 
|Comment=It is posted on Wikispooks for two reasons:
 
 
# To contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about Kevin Annett's work and the fundamental historical facts and issues that it addresses. <ref>[http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ "Hidden From History" - Kevin Annett's website]</ref>
 
# To contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about Kevin Annett's work and the fundamental historical facts and issues that it addresses. <ref>[http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ "Hidden From History" - Kevin Annett's website]</ref>
 
# As an example of how powerful Establishment hierarchies deal with dissident members whose campaigning activities have become effective and are therefore seen as a threat.
 
# As an example of how powerful Establishment hierarchies deal with dissident members whose campaigning activities have become effective and are therefore seen as a threat.
|Note=Kevin Annett's travel has now been restricted without due process<ref>http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/May302011UrgentAlertKevinAnnettJailed/tabid/152/Default.aspx</ref>.
+
|subjects=Kevin Annett
}}
+
|authors=Kevin Annett
 
+
|source_name=Canadian Genocide
 +
|source_URL=http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/chronology_of_attacks.html#attacks
 +
|declassified=No
 +
|note=Kevin Annett's travel has now been restricted without due process<ref>http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/RecentUpdatesampArticles/May302011UrgentAlertKevinAnnettJailed/tabid/152/Default.aspx</ref>.
 +
|publication_date=2010-09-18}}
 
==Chronology of Attacks against Rev. Kevin D. Annett (1993-2005)==
 
==Chronology of Attacks against Rev. Kevin D. Annett (1993-2005)==
 
===1993===
 
===1993===

Latest revision as of 05:30, 5 July 2015

Disclaimer (#3)Document.png timeline  by Kevin Annett dated 2010-09-18
Subjects: Kevin Annett
Source: Canadian Genocide (Link)

Kevin Annett's travel has now been restricted without due process[1].

Wikispooks Comment

It is posted on Wikispooks for two reasons:

  1. To contribute to the dissemination of knowledge about Kevin Annett's work and the fundamental historical facts and issues that it addresses. [2]
  2. As an example of how powerful Establishment hierarchies deal with dissident members whose campaigning activities have become effective and are therefore seen as a threat.

★ Start a Discussion about this document



Chronology of Attacks against Rev. Kevin D. Annett (1993-2005)

1993

  • June 5, 1993: George Geddes and George Liong, employees of MacMillan-Bloedel Ltd. ("Mac Blo") and members of Kevin's congregation of St. Andrew's United Church in Port Alberni, BC, tell Kevin to stop attending the Clayoquot Sound anti-logging protests. Geddes: "You have two kids to support. You wouldn't want them to go through life without a father, would you?".
  • June-August, 1993: A series of death threats are made over the phone against Kevin, between midnight and 5 am. Numbers cannot be traced.

1994

  • September 9, 1994: A bullet is found sitting upright on Kevin's front porch.
  • January 24, 1994: Close friend and supporter of Kevin, Mark Angus, is found dead in a Port Alberni motel after he spoke out in Kevin's church about the "corporate thieves like Mac Blo who are killing our future." City Coroner Gillian Trumper, who is also a Mac Blo official and the Mayor of Port Alberni, rules Mark's death "accidential suicide".
  • February 9, 1994: Danny Joseph, an Ohiat native man who attends Kevin's church, speaks from Kevin's open pulpit about a murder he witnessed in the United Church Alberni Indian Residential School in 1958.
  • February 11, 1994: Fred Bishop, former Mac Blo executive and ex-Mayor of Port Alberni, and present Chair of Kevin's church board, visits Kevin in his office at 4574 Elizabeth street. Bishop warns Kevin that his job may be in jeopardy if he allows "anyone" to speak from his pulpit. Bishop: "Things can get out of hand really quick in this town. There are a lot of reputations to protect. So if you don't stop all this social justice stuff and just stick to being a minister, I can't be held responsible for what might happen to you."
  • February - July, 1994: About ten more aboriginal people speak from Kevin's pulpit about their torture by staff and clergy at the United Church Alberni residential school. Two of them confirm Danny Joseph's account of the murder of children at the school, one of them saying, "Just dig around behind the school in those hills and you'll find a lot of little skeletons."
  • September 3, 1994: Kevin is informed by Fred Bishop that he no longer has the right to distibute food from the church food bank, which Kevin established, and which is feeding over 300 aboriginal families each month. Bishop also warns Kevin to change the subject of his sermons and to bar native people from his pulpit.
  • September 16, 1994: Kevin appeals Bishop's decision to the Official Board of his church and is reassured that he is free to continue acting as before.
  • October 14, 1994: Kevin learns from Ahousat hereditary Chief Earl Maquinna George that (in violation fo church policy) the United Church illegally sold off ancestral Ahousat land ("Lot 363") on the Marktosis reserve of Flores Island to the church's funder and business associate, MacMillan- Bloedel, in return for kick-backs to church officials.
  • October 17, 1994: Kevin writes a letter of concern about the Lot 363 sale to Comox-Nanaimo Presbytery of the United Church, Kevin's employer. He receives no reply.
  • October 30, 1994: Kevin receives an affirmation vote of over 90% of his congregation for his work. The same day, Presbytery officials Foster Freed and Phil Spencer meet secretly with Fred Bishop, Anne Gray and Wendy Barker (opponents of Kevin within his church) and plan his removal.
  • December 9, 1994: Bishop, Gray and Barker "order" Kevin to a meeting at which they issue to him three conditions for his future employment at St. Andrew's: 1. Close the food bank, 2. Stop preaching on social justice matters or native issues, and 3. Stop visting "non-members" (Bishop's euphemism for native people). None of these persons are delegated to issue such ultimatums. Bishop: "If you don't comply with these conditions, Kevin, we'll have to ask you to resign as minister."
  • December 24, 1994: A secret meeting of the church board is convened by Bishop and attended by Presbytery officials Bob Stiven, Cameron Reid and Colin Forbes. Kevin is not told of the meeting. Eyewitness Gerry Walerius (see affidavit) describes that Stiven told board members "Kevin is going to be removed as your minister and there's no say you have in this matter. Any decisions you've made regarding Kevin's future here are superseded by Presbytery. He's about to be removed and no-one is to tell him."
  • December 28, 1994: In Kevin's office, Stiven and Forbes lie to Kevin when asked if he is about to face "disciplinary action." Stiven: "Absolutely not - you have nothing to worry about."

1995

  • January 6, 1995: Kevin receives a serious death threat over his office phone by an unknown caller: "You think you're so fucking smart, you indian loving son of a whore. Well you and your whole fucking family may find yourself dead in the ashes of your fucking home some morning if you stick around here ...".
  • January 8, 1995: Kevin offers his resignation to the St. Andrew's church Board, via Fred Bishop, out of concern for his childrens' safety and because of his need to apply soon for another church posting. Kevin asks Board to allow him to work until June 30, 1995. Bishop accepts resignation "with deep regret" and asks board to accept Kevin's request to work until June 30. Board agrees.
  • January 15, 1995: Stiven, Reid and Forbes from Presbytery meet secretly with Bishop and selected Board members, and modify Board records and minutes to create the impression that the Board, not Presbytery, asked for Kevin's removal, and that it rejected his request to work until June 30.
  • January 23, 1995: Kevin is fired as minister of St. Andrew's church without cause, notice or review by BC Conference Personnal minister Art Andrews and Presbytery official Cameron Reid, in Kevin's office. (see Account of meeting) Dismissal letter is signed by Presbytery secretary Phil Spencer. No charges are made against Kevin. No evidence is offered. Firing is immediate and unconditional.
  • January 24, 1995: The Loaves and Fishes food bank at the church, begun by Kevin, is permanently closed without warning, leaving over 300 familes without help.
  • January 25, 1995: Registered letter from Cameron Reid to Kevin gives him until February 9 to agree to "psychiatric evaluation and pastoral retraining", or face permanent de-listing, ie, expulsion from United Church ministry. (Note: February 9 is the same day the RCMP will begin its "official" investigation into crimes at the Alberni residential school)
  • January 26, 1995: Kevin asks for a meeting with Presbytery executive to negotiate, and is refused. In reply, he is informed by Presbytery official Reid that he and his family will receive only one month more pay and they must vacate their home by March 1, ie, barely one month away. Kevin is denied the right to apply to other Presbyteries for employment elsewhere in the church.
  • The same evening, Kevin's mother Margaret receives a phone call from Presbytery secretary Phil Spencer at Kevin's home. Spencer yells at her, "Kevin had this coming to him! ... Go ahead and try to sue us! Lots of ministers have tried and they've never won!".
  • January 29, 1995: Supporters of Kevin are barred from regular worship service of St. Andrew's church. Church members are told from the pulpit by Presbytery officer John Abma that "Kevin has suffered a mental breakdown and had to be replaced."
  • February 3, 1995: A dead deer is found on Kevin's back porch with a bullet hole in its head.
  • February 8, 1995: Kevin's brother hires a lawyer for him, Earl Phillips of McCarthy-Tetrault in Vancouver. United Church agrees to negotiate, and is represented by lawyer Jon Jessiman, who will later chair both of the meetings which will hear and reject Kevin's internal appeals.
  • February 11, 1995: Another friend and supporter of Kevin, Metis Krista Lynn, is found dead in a Victoria hotel home after she had spoken in St. Andrew's church against Kevin's firing on January 29, and named a local Port Alberni man as an active pedophile. Her death is ruled "accidental suicide due to drug overdose", when Krista never used drugs.
  • February 15, 1995: Unknown church official, possibly Art Anderson or Bill Howie, meets with Kevin's wife Anne McNamee and offers to have the United Church pay for her to divorce Kevin, in return for information from her about Kevin's actions and plans. Anne accepts this offer.
  • February - May, 1995: Throughout negotiations with Kevin and his lawyer, church lawyer Jon Jessiman refuses to modify church's firing of Kevin or withdraw its demands on him, and he refuses to offer the cause of his firing or provide any evidence to support the action.
  • June 30, 1995: Penniless, Kevin and his family are forced to move from Port Alberni to Vancouver. Children are Clare age 6, Elinor age 2. They all live with relatives until finding student housing at University of BC (St. Andrew's Hall, affiliated with the Presbyterian and United Church), where Kevin registers for the fall in a Ph.D. program in native studies and his wife Anne in Education.
  • July 5, 1995: On behalf of entire church, Jon Jessiman informs Kevin that all negotiations are over, and that he is refused the right to seek work anywhere in the church.
  • September, 1995: Kevin's wife Anne and her father James McNamee receive first payment from the United Church to fund Anne's divorce of Kevin.
  • December 12, 1995: Kevin and his supporters hold a protest outside BC Conference office of United Church in Vancouver. Kevin meets Harriett Nahanee at protest, who tells the Vancouver Sun of her witnessing the murder of Maisie Shaw, age 14, by Principal Alfred Caldwell at the United Church residential school in Port Alberni on December 24, 1946. Harriett's story is printed in the Sun on December 18.
  • December 20, 1995: The Vancouver Sun prints a second article on Alfred Caldwell murdering another child, Albert Gray, in 1938 at the United Church school in Ahousat, BC, quoting eyewitness Archie Frank, an Ahousat elder.
  • December 21, 1995: United Church official Brian Thorpe meets with Kevin's wife Anne and asks her to proceed immediately with divorce action against Kevin. (Thorpe's file is subsequently found by Kevin in Anne's filing cabinet)
  • December 24, 1995: Anne tells Kevin that she is leaving him.

1996

  • January 3, 1996: Anne leaves family home at UBC with both children without telling Kevin where she is going. Divorce papers are served on Kevin in her absence; Anne demands full custody of both children.
  • January 4, 1996: St. Andrew's Hall student housing director Helen Piggott informs Kevin that he must move out of housing in the event he loses the divorce and custody case.
  • January 8, 1996: Kevin's Ph.D. advisor in UBC Educational Studies department tells him that faculty member Murray Elliot, a United Church official, has been "bad mouthing" Kevin in the department and urging that he not be funded for his program. Kevin had already announced his thesis topic will be a study of crimes at United Church residential schools in Port Alberni and Ahousat, BC.
  • February 3, 1996: First class action lawsuit is brought against United Church and government of Canada by fifteen native survivors of the Alberni residential school, making front page headlines in the Vancouver Sun. Kevin provides natives' lawyers with documents showing that the United Church was the sole legal guardian of students at this school, and hence is liable for all their injuries.
  • February 8, 1996: Comox-Nanaimo Presbytery recommends to United Church that Kevin Annett be placed on the "Discontinued Service List" of ministers, ie, expelled.
  • February 23, 1996: Presbytery committee chaired by lawyer Jon Jessiman (who acted for church against Kevin) hears Kevin's written appeal of his firing without Kevin being present, and rejects his appeal.
  • February - April, 1996: Kevin's and Anne's divorce trial. Anne's lawyer Ron Huinink submits confidential records obtained from United Church officer Phil Spencer which allege falsely that Kevin is suffering from "mental disorders". Church lawyers Iain Benson and Jon Jessiman work with Huinink to discredit Kevin.
  • 8 April 4, 1996: Family Court Judge rules completely in favour of Anne, awarding her sole custody of children and the control of all family assets and the car, and ordering Kevin to immediately vacate family residence. Kevin is also ordered to pay all court costs.
  • April 9, 1996: Kevin moves from home and finds residence nearby.
  • June 24, 1996: Kevin appears on Peter Warren program on CKNW radio and debates RCMP Sgt. Paul Willms about the deaths of native children in coastal residential schools. Willms is head of RCMP "Task Force" into the schools. In parking lot after the program, Willms threatens Kevin:
  • Willms: "We're upset about the allegations you and Mrs. Nahanee are making about children being killed at the Alberni residential school ... from now on, you'd better check with me first before you issue any more press releases ... Some important people are getting pretty upset at the claims you're making, and they may take action to stop you ... You'd better stop all this if you're concerned about your future."
  • July - October, 1996: Kevin is invited to attend first aboriginal healing circles held by survivors of the Alberni residential school, at the Carnegie Centre in downtown Vancouver. Kevin provides survivors more documents from his UBC Ph.D. studies proving that the United Church knew about the crimes against native children and did nothing. He is asked by survivors to record their stories.
  • August 29, 1996: BC Conference of United Church convenes official De-Listing hearing to decide whether to keep Kevin on active roll of ministers. Hearing is chaired by church lawyer Jon Jessiman with Brian Thorpe as advisor. On three occasions, Thorpe refuses Kevin's request to know the reason for his firing or the evidence against him. Kevin asks the hearing for this cause and evidence and is refused.
  • August 29, 1996 - March 7, 1997: De-Listing hearing continues, at expense of over $250,000 to United Church. Jessiman chairs, Iain Benson represents Presbytery. Hearing panel of three people is hand picked by Brian Thorpe, who worked with Anne McNamee in planning divorce action against Kevin.

Kevin is denied due process throughout the hearing. Hearsay evidence is submitted against him, and Jessiman acts prejudicially against Kevin on many occasions. Kevin is not allowed to know the charges against him, the rules of procedure of the hearing, or the grounds for delisting a minister in the United Church. (see description of the hearing in Chapter Three of Kevin's book "Love and Death in the Valley", www.1stbooks.com/bookview/11639)

Kevin is slandered publicly in Macleans magazine and The Globe and Mail during the hearing by church lawyer Iain Benson and Brian Thorpe, who make make untrue and libelous remaks about Kevin's "mental instability".
Hearing is monitored by RCMP "E" Division office, which is provided transcripts of Kevin's statements by Brian Thorpe and in turn gives Thorpe information on Kevin and his activities with residential school survivors and clergy support network ministers in the Maritimes.

Some important disclosures at the hearing involve the admission by church officials that the government of BC was inolved in having Kevin fired from his position as minister in Port Alberni. On october 9, 1996, Comox-Nanaimo Presbytery executive member Win Stokes testified under oath to the de-listing panel:

"We had no problems with Kevin until he wrote his letter about the Lot 363 land deal in Ahousat ... A senior government minister told me later, 'We can't have Kevin upset the applecart over Lot 363'".

The "senior government minister" was Rev. John Cashore, aboriginal affairs minister in the NDP government on BC, and a United Church clergyman, who brokered the land deal between the United Church and MacMillan-Bloedel, used his government office to protect his church from scandal, and helped to arrange Kevin's firing from the church and Chief Earl George's marginalization, after both Kevin and Earl objected to the Lot 363 deal.

Cashore subsequently used his lawyers to silence any debate about his actions, including by threatening to sue Canadian Dimension magazine in 2000 when it printed a small report of his involvement in the Lot 363 scandal. Under this threat, and "not because we doubt Kevin's story", the editorial committe of Canadian Dimension retracted their report and agreed not to cover the issue again.
On March 3, 1997, it is disclosed in the delisting hearing that its judge, Jon Jessiman, made the decision to halt all negotiations between the church and Kevin in 1995, and hence should step down as judge of the hearing because of his gross conflict of interest. He refuses to step down, and under legal advice, Kevin withdraws from the hearing because his further involvement in its unfair and wrongful procedures might compromise future legal action by him against the church.
After Kevin withdrew from the hearing, church lawyer Iain Benson introduces new, fabricated "evidence" against Kevin he had obtained that past week, and which Kevin was not allowed to see: supposed letters against him from unnamed church members. The panel votes in Kevin's absence to de-list him as a minister on March 7, 1997. Its final report on the hearing makes no reference to the thirty six letters of support for Kevin he had introduced during the hearing.
Previously ... on September 20, 1996: Kevin is denied all departmental and university funding or financial support for his Ph.D program, despite having a grade average of 88% the previous year. Kevin's advisor Prof. Don Wilson expresses "great concern" over this "unusual" situation, and says "Murray Elliot must be pretty upset with you or something." (see January 8, 1996) As a result, Kevin cannot continue in his Ph.D program. A formal complaint by Kevin to UBC about Elliot's actions is never responded to.

1997

  • March 7, 1997: Kevin is expelled from United Church ministry by de-listing hearing panel. The same day, he is issued a "Cease and Desist" order from lawyer G.R. Schmitt of Ferguson Gifford law firm in Vancouver, on behalf of the United Church, threatening Kevin with a lawsuit if he discusses any aspect of the hearing with anyone or with the press, or if he makes any further allegations about crimes in residential schools.
  • March 15, 1997: The United Church slanders Kevin over its internet websites and publications by printing an erroneous and false description of the delisting hearing, which vilifies Kevin and portrays him as being confrontational, unbalanced and untruthful. This character assassination remains the United Church's "official" statement on Kevin Annett and his ministry.
  • July 5, 1997: Kevin and Harriett Nahanee form The Circle of Justice among residential school survivors, and invite a United Nations group, IHRAAM , to hold a human rights Tribunal in Vancouver to investigate crimes in church residential schools.

Kevin is forced to move continually because of threats made against him.

  • July 8, 1997: In a conversation with RCMP constable Gerry Peters, Kevin is again threatened. Peters, who now heads the RCMP "Task Force" into residential schools, says over the phone to Kevin:

"This is really getting out of hand, Mr. Annett ... Nahanee is not a credible witness ... There's no evidence that Indian children were killed in the schools, and even if there were, nothing would ever be done about it ... You're treading on thin ice and I hope you know what the consequences will be for you."

  • July 1997 - June 1998: Continual harrassment of Kevin by unknown persons. His car is vandalized on several occasions, late night death threats become the norm, and a pair of men (one native, one white) follow him around Vancouver. His brake lines are cut and he collides with a telephone pole as a result (August 1997). Insurance Corporation of BC assesses him with a huge, unpayable fine of $1,200 for this minor accident.

Other supporters of Kevin are also attacked, including sympathetic reporters like Claudagh O'Connell, and human rights activist and Amnesty International founder Dr. Jennifer Wade. O'Connell is phoned at home and harrassed by church official Phil Spencer, who tries to have her fired at the Vancouver Courier newspaper because of an article she wrote supporting Kevin. Dr. Wade's friends and former employers at UBC are "spoken to" about her by unknown persons, and rumours are spread that "Jennifer's gone soft in the head about Kevin and can't be trusted".

  • September 3, 1997: Documents belonging to Kevin are stolen from his briefcase by United Church officers Brian Thorpe and Jon Jessiman at a press conference in Vancouver. The documents prove that the United Church is legally liable for crimes at the Indian residential schools. The theft is caught on videotape and witnessed by two people. Kevin asks the Vancouver police to lay charges against Thorpe and Jessiman, but after five months, he is refused. Crown Counsel Garth Gibson says, "A theft definitely occurred ... but it isn't in the public interest to prosecute this."
  • September, 1997: Penniless, and facing a debt load of over $45,000, Kevin declares bankruptcy through Smythe-McMahon firm in Vancouver.

1998

  • February 9, 1998: Kevin organizes first public forum into residential school crimes in Vancouver, attracting over 400 people, most of them aboriginal survivors of the schools. Members of the state-funded United Native Nations (UNN) are present, and are strongly criticized by other Indians for doing nothing around the issue.
  • March 3, 1998: UNN organizes their own forum into residential schools, featuring not school survivors but church and government officials, including RCMP officer Gerry Peters, who threatened Kevin on July 8, 1997 (see above). When confronted by Kevin at the meeting to explain the deaths of children in the schools, Peter states, "I have nothing to say to Mr. Annett".
  • March 28, 1998: Kevin holds a forum for residential school survivors in Port Alberni, attended by survivors and members of the local United Church and state-funded Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council (NTC). Kevin is physically and verbally assaulted by United Church member Terry Whyte after the meeting. Eyewitness to the discovery of a dead body at the Alberni residential school, Harry Wilson, is assaulted and threatened by NTC officials Ron Hamilton and Charlie Thompson, and warned by them not to tell what he knows. As a result, Harry refuses to tell his story at the forum. (see Harry Wilson affidavit). Later, Ron Hamilton leads a smear campaign against Kevin among Vancouver Island natives and threatens them if they have anything to do with any residential school investigation. (Hamilton and Thompson were both named as "collaborators and abusers" by fellow Alberni school survivors at the June, 1998 IHRAAM Tribunal).
  • June 12-14, 1998: UN group IHRAAM holds Tribunal into residential schools. Kevin is attacked and roughed up on opening day by Dean Wilson, United Church member and native man from Waglisla, BC, who has been flown to the Tribunal by the church. Wilson, holding Kevin by the throat: "We're the only ones who speak for rez school survivors - get it? ... You bad mouth the Mounties one more time and you'll regret it big time!".

Dean Wilson also intimidates witnesses to residential school crimes and prevents them from speaking to the Tribunal. Wilson claims to Tribunal member Lydia White Calf, "I'm here to do a job for Ed John and his boys, and hey, I'm doing it." (Note: Chief Ed John is a prominent native politician from Prince George, BC, who is closely tied to the Canadian government, the RCMP, and Liberal party funders. He was appointed to the BC cabinet in November, 2000 by Premier - now federal Health minister - Ujjal Dosanjh).


During the entire Tribunal, an unmarked, tinted-window van is parked across from the event, and is identified by local residents as an RCMP vehicle.
Tribunal judge James Craven and local native woman Kelly White are identified as police informants and provocateurs after the Tribunal. They smear Kevin to other judges and to native witnesses. On June 14, Kelly White issues a fake press release in the name of the Tribunal containing false quotes from Kevin, and sidetracks press coverage. As a result, there is no coverage of the Tribunal. (Kelly White will help have AIM activist John Graham arrested in 2003 in Vancouver)
Despite these attacks, the Tribunal concludes that crimes against humanity occured in Indian residential schools, and calls on the United Nations to investigate further. But a final statement to this effect is stopped from being issued by the IHRAAM headquarters after James Craven and others claim falsely that the findings of the Tribunal and other forums were "flawed" by "false statements".
The Tribunal also heard testimonies from witnesses that Chief Ed John and others connected to the government of Canada and the United Church operate and profit from the sexual exploitation of native children in northern BC, and help operate state-protected pedophile rings in the Moricetown and Burns Lake area.

  • July 18, 1998: Kevin is offered money and office space by state-funded United Native Nations official Tom Uhlman, if he will agree to stop his independent investigation of the residential schools. Kevin refuses, and asks the Circle of Justice to not receive any funding from any government-connected group like the UNN.
  • August 4, 1998: Uhlman and James Craven meet with four members of the Circle of Justice without Kevin present, and offer them money to publicly disassociate themselves from Kevin and expel him from the Circle. The four - Amy Tallio, her husband, and two others -agree.
  • August 8, 1998: These four people call a meeting and expel Kevin from the Circle, and demand from him all records and evidence from the Tribunal and his work. When he refuses, they slander Kevin over the internet and (with Craven's help) claim falsely that "Kevin is using survivors' testimonies without their permission and to make money off their suffering." (Amy Tallio and James Craven are subsequently flown by the Canadian government to conferences on residential schools in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and are paid to attack Kevin publicly and ridicule the allegations of murders in residential schools)
  • August - December, 1998: As a result of these smears and disruptions, Kevin's work is discredited and the evidence from the Tribunal is marginalized and delegitimated. The United Nations refuses to act on the evidence from the Tribunal, and IHRAAM is silenced. Nevertheless the lawsuits against the churches and government from residential school survivors grow to over 5,000 in number.

Tribunal judges Royce and Lydia White Calf, who are Kevin's strongest public supporters at the IHRAAM tribunal, face a series of attacks on their persons and home upon returning to Colorado, including break-ins, physical assaults and overt monitoring. As a result, they drop out of active involvement in the residential schools investigation.

Kevin has moved three times in just over a year because of numerous threats and harrassments.

  • October 17, 1998: The Province newspaper reports the admission of United Church lawyers that with the federal government, it has engaged in a sustained cover-up of crimes at the Alberni residential school since at least 1960.
  • October 20- November 2, 1998: Kevin travels to England and meets with editors of The New Internationalist magazine, sharing evidence of crimes of genocide in Canada.

1999

  • January, 1999: As a result, The New Internationalist prints a short article in its January-February edition on the deaths of Indians in Canadian residential schools, and the attacks against Kevin Annett. It is circulated around the world.
  • March, 1999: The United Church pressures the Canadian editorial office of The New Internationalist to disassociate themselves from the January article, threatening to boycott and sue the magazine otherwise. As a result, the head office of New Internationalist drops the story altogether and refuses to investigate further, not even running a promised review of Kevin's books on the residential schools when they are published in 2000 and 2002.
  • July, 1999: More threats to Kevin compels him to move out of Vancouver to rural safety on Salt Spring Island.
  • August 4, 1999: A dead deer is found on Kevin's doorstep on Salt Spring Island, BC. The usual random death threats continue to be made, and on one occasion the windows of his car are all smashed.
  • September 8, 1999: Kevin makes formal application to the Unitarian church for ordination as a minister. His application is accepted and welcomed by the Unitarian office in Toronto.
  • late September - November 16, 1999: Kevin's application for Unitarian ordination is disrupted by Brian Thorpe and Keith Howard of the United Church conference office, who contact regional Unitarian official Anne Heller in Seattle and "warn" her about Kevin. Heller then issues a similar "warning" about Kevin to every Unitarian church and regional body in the Pacific northwest. As a result, Kevin's application is prejudiced and put on indefinite hold.
  • December, 1999 - February, 2000: A similar smear and disinformation campaign against Kevin is begun in the Vancouver Unitarian church by persons associated with the United Church, with the result that a planned service to be led by Kevin is cancelled, and Unitarians are "warned" to avoid Kevin.

2000

  • February 4, 2000: Kevin publishes the first edition of his book, "Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust", which contains first-hand testimonies from survivors of residential schools plus corroborating documents from Indian Affairs and church archives, which prove that crimes of Genocide occurred in Indian residential schools.

The same month, the United Church tries to legally ban its publication, but Kevin prints the book himself after being turned down by over ten publishers in Canada.

  • February 12, 2000: Kevin receives a legal writ from lawyer Marvin Storrow of Blake, Cassells and Graydon law firm in Vancouver, who is acting for Chief Ed John. The writ threatens him with a lawsuit for supposedly "defaming" John in his book "Hidden from History", when Kevin has simply quoted public testimonies given at open forums and the IHRAAM Tribunal by aboriginal eyewitnesses.

Marvin Storrow is a personal friend of Prime Minister Jean Chretien - who was subpoenaed by the 1998 IHRAAM Tribunal - and has acted for the federal government and for numerous multinational companies seeking the water and minerals on native lands in BC. Ed John was also named as a defendent at the IHRAAM Tribunal and allegedly sent Dean Wilson and others to that event to silence witnesses.

  • August 19, 2000: Kevin is forced to move from his Salt Spring home after vandals broke in and stole his lap top computer and vital documents. The local RCMP refuse to investigate the theft.
  • September 3, 2000: In Vancouver, Kevin forms The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, which is mandated to carry on the work of the IHRAAM Tribunal and bring to justice the perpetrators of Genocide in Canada.

That same month, despite having lived below the poverty line since 1995, and having made no taxable income since then, Kevin is assessed by Revenue Canada to owe the federal government over $9000 in back income taxes. The same month, Kevin is informed by both the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program and the Insurance Corporation of BC that he is owing them, respectively, $5,563 and $2,391, when he has no record of such debts.

  • December 4, 2000: A second writ is issued against Kevin by Marvin Storrow on behalf of Ed John, hand delivered by a sheriff.

2001

  • February, 2001: Kevin begins to host a weekly public affairs program on Vancouver Co-op radio called "Hidden from History". The same month, the brake lines of his car are cut and he narrowly avoids an accident.
  • March 13, 2001: Kevin is warned by native supporters that "a goon squad run by Dean Wilson" is seeking him at nights in the downtown eastside and at the Indian Friendship Centre. When asked by Kevin who Wilson is working for, one informant says, "The feds. Everyone knows that. Anyone who works for Ed John works for Ottawa."
  • June, 2001: Kevin is attacked and knocked unconscious in the alley outside co-op radio after a program. His wallet is not touched, and local residents who witnessed the attack tell Kevin afterwards that they had never before seen the man who attacked him.
  • October, 2001: More eyewitnesses come to Kevin with stories of native pedophile rings operating in northern BC with outlets in Seattle and Vancouver, including at the prestigious Vancouver Club at 915 west Hastings street. Reporters Leo Knight, lawyers Jack Cram and Renate Auger, eyewitness Carl Kelly, and Dr. Jennifer Wade all confirm evidence that top politicians, judges, aboriginal and church officials are involved in this ring.
  • October 21, 2001: Kitty Sparrow of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs communicates to Kevin: "You'd better be cautious in your investigation of the Vancouver Club. Some senior chiefs and judges are worried about you, and your name is on a list of people to be watched."
  • November 5, 2001: Kevin and native activist John Graham (now under arrest and facing trial on a framed murder charge) leaflet Ryerson United Church in Vancouver regarding residential school crimes. Ryerson minister Gary Paterson verbally assaults both men, and calls police to have them evicted from a public sidewalk.
  • November 9, 2001: Paterson claims falsely to the United Church conference office that Kevin has defaced his church, and a charge is laid with the RCMP against Kevin. No evidence is found to substantiate Paterson's claim and the case is dropped.
  • December 5, 2001: Debra Bowman, secretary for BC Conference, sends an inflammatory email to all United Church ministers in BC, claiming without offering any proof that Kevin is the author of a poster placed on church doors the previous Sunday which names suspected pedophiles in the United Church. Gary Paterson, Jon Jessiman and Brian Thorpe are named in the poster, along with RCMP officers and Department of Indian Affairs officials. Bowman claims publicly that the RCMP are "investigating" Kevin.

2002

  • January 24-30, 2002: Two key eyewitnesses to crimes in coastal residential schools, Willie Sport and Archie Frank, both die just prior to being interviewed by Kevin and a documentary film team. Willie was a witness to the deliberate exposure of children to tuberculosis by United Church minister F.W. Pitts, and Archie witnessed the murder of Albert Gray by United Church minister Alfred Caldwell in 1938. Willie and Archie both die in West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni during the same week.
  • February 1, 2002: Kevin's home is vandalized again and more documents and computer disks are stolen. The TV, stereo and video machine are left untouched.
  • April, 2002: Kevin completes his second book, "Love and Death in the Valley", which describes the events of the past ten years and names all the persons responsible for the attacks made against him. The drafts are sent to First Books in the USA for publication.
  • May 3, 2002: First Books receives a letter from lawyer Marvin Storrow demanding that Kevin's book not be published because of its "defamatory" statements about Chief Ed John and the government of Canada. The book is published despite this, since First Books decides the issues discussed "are a matter of public importance." The same month, Storrow also attempts to have Kevin's website closed, with the same result.
  • July 8, 2002: Marvin Storrow reactivates a two year old writ against Kevin Annett and others, and issues a summons for them to appear in court in a defamation suit brought by Ed John and the government of Canada. The Attorney General's office in Victoria is paying for Ed John's lawsuit. Kevin is never served with the Summons, directly or vicariously.
  • July-August, 2002: Storrow quickly obtains a Supreme Court injunction that attempts to silence Kevin and others from speaking of the evidence linking Ed John to murders and other crimes against Carrier-Sekani native people in northern BC. The injunction bans any discussion of allegations against John and his associates, and any public reporting of the issue, on pain of imprisonment. Storrow also asks judge to issue a ban on Kevin's book "Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust".

Despite the injunction, Kevin continues to speak of the case publicly over his co-op radio program, and is threatened with further writs from Storrow, who informs Kevin that he is in breach of a Supreme Court Order and faces arrest.

  • September 3, 2002: A Sheriff from the Maple Ridge courthouse attempts to arrest Kevin Annett at his home in Maple Ridge, but Kevin is out of town.
  • October 1, 2002: The writ of arrest is placed in abeyance after inquires are made to Storrow's office by an advocate for Kevin.
  • October 6, 2002: Kevin is forced off the road while driving at night by a white van with a concealed license plate. His arm is injured and he requires medical treatment.
  • November 14, 2002: Kevin is evicted from his Maple Ridge home suddenly and without explanation, despite having been reassured that he could stay indefinitely.

2003

  • January 2, 2003: Kevin's new home is ransacked and more papers go missing. Despite this, he continues to speak at public lectures and demonstrations about the evidence of Genocide in residential schools.
  • January 15, 2003: At a vigil for residential school victims held outside St. Andrew's United Church in Vancouver, Kevin is threatened with violence by the minister, Gordon Turner. Kevin is also photographed by a policeman while standing outside the church.
  • January 20, 2003: Kevin receives another statement from Revenue Canada, demanding $12,302 in "unpaid taxes" and threatening legal action, including the suspension of his Canadian passport.
  • March 6, 2003: Family Maintenance Enforcement Program notifies Kevin that his drivers' license has been permanently revoked and can never be renewed, even if his supposed "fine" is paid off.
  • March 14-22, 2003: Kevin is asked to speak in a Sociology class at UBC by professor Richard Fredericks, concerning his work and research on Genocide in Canada. After the lecture, Fredericks asks Kevin to give a series of lectures on the same topic.

The next day, UBC President Martha Piper is contacted by the United Church office in Vancouver, which objects to further lectures by Kevin at UBC. As a result, Kevin's lectures are cancelled and professor Fredericks is placed on "review" before his department disciplinary board, and he is denied the right to teach his normal summer intercession course. Fredericks then backs off from further supporting Kevin and his work, and cuts off contact with him.

  • May 2, 2003: Kevin speaks over the air of his radio program about the censorship incident at UBC involving Richard Fredericks, and receives a call from lawyers for UBC and the United Church, threatening legal action if he discusses the incident.
  • July 5, 2003: Revenue Canada notifies Kevin that it has begun legal proceedings against him for unpaid taxes, even though Kevin remains an unreleased bankrupt.
  • September 19, 2003: Kevin and his wife Pamela Holm discover that a friend of Pam's father, a United Church minister named Hugh McKerville, was an associate of Dr. George Darby, who involuntarily sterilized and assaulted countless native women and men in Bella Bella, BC, between 1929 and 1963. McKerville is implicated in these crimes because of his involvement in darby's United Church work at the R.W. Large hospital in Bella Bella. Pamela communciates this concern to her father Flemming Holm, also a United Church minister, and is angrily rebuffed and criticized by him.
  • October 4, 2003: Kevin's wife Pamela is told by her father Flemming - a United Church minister -that she must choose between Kevin and her family. He begins to pressure Pam to leave Kevin, and lets slip the fact that he has been urged to say so to her by United Church lawyers and by national official David Iverson, who has coordinated the public smear campaign against Kevin since the fall of 1998.
  • November 16, 2003: Twenty aboriginal youth along with Kevin occupy St. James Anglican church in downtown Vancouver to protest the murder of children in residential schools. Police are called. Anglican church sends out a "warning" letter about Kevin to all their clergy and members, and hires private security guards to monitor church services. That evening, the tires on Kevin's car are slashed, and several of the native youth who occupied the church are arrested by Vancouver police and held without being charged.

2004

  • January 2, 2004: Kevin's wife Pamela tells him that she intends to leave him and return to her father and family in Nova Scotia.
  • January 30, 2004: Long-time supporter of Kevin, Lorisa Schouela, tells Kevin she has been "spoken to" by the RCMP about her connection to him, and was threatened with harrassment unless she stopped funding his work. She declines further involvement with him.
  • February 5, 2004: Pam announces publicly that she is seeking a divorce from Kevin without offering a reason.
  • late February, 2004: Kevin is followed regularly by the same white van that ran him off the road in October, 2002. When he stops, the van speeds past him. Two men are in the van, and the license plate is concealed.
  • March 15 - April 6, 2004: Kevin actively monitors police attacks on native people in the downtown eastside of Vancouver, along with members of WAHRS (West Coast Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society). He speaks of these attacks over his radio program and links some police and RCMP officers with the disappearances of native women.
  • May 24, 2004: A caller claiming to represent the RCMP detachment in Maple Ridge phones Kevin at home and attempts to ask him questions about his work. Kevin declines to answer.
  • July 2, 2004: Kevin is assaulted from behind in the downtown eastside of Vancouver by two men. They do not rob him.
  • July 4, 2004: A supporter of Kevin who works in the Vancouver Police department tells him that his name has been mentioned by police officers as "the asshole who needs to end up in Burrard inlet."
  • July 25, 2004: Trudy S., an aboriginal supporter of Kevin and survivor of Alert Bay residential school, is physically assaulted and threatened by Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council (NTC) official Ron Hamilton in Port Alberni when she attempts to show Kevin's book to other residential school survivors. (See February 3, 1998) Hamilton grabs her arm and warns her not to tell anything about her torture at the Alert Bay residential school or at the Nanaimo Indian Hospital. He tries to grab Kevin's book from her hand, but she flees.
  • August 2, 2004: Kevin's wife Pamela leaves Vancouver suddenly and without warning, and informs Kevin by phone that she has moved back to Nova Scotia without offering an explanation. Kevin is forced to move from his home in Maple Ridge and relocate to Vancouver Island.
  • October 4, 2004: Kevin and supporters resume their Sunday protests outside downtown Vancouver churches (Catholic, Anglican and United), demanding to know the location of burial sites of children who died in residential schools. Death threats against Kevin resume.
  • October 12, 2004: Kevin receives an anonymous (and untraceable) phone call from a woman claiming to work at the "E" Division office of the RCMP in Vancouver. She says that Kevin's name is on a "possible terrorist" list being compiled by Inspector Peter Montague, who engineered both the armed attack on native protestors at Gustafson Lake in 1995, and the government "spin" and disinformation campaign around residential schools since 1996.
  • December 5, 2004: Revenue Canada notifies Kevin that it intends to take him to court for non-payment of bogus "back taxes". The same day, a caller leaves a message on Kevin's pager which keeps repeating the musical refrain "This gun for hire ...".

2005

  • January 11, 2005: A forum held by Kevin in Gold River, BC is sabotaged by a non-native official of the state-funded Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council (NTC), who "orders" local native counsellor Margaret Amos not to attend the forum, despite Amos' support for it. Amos is told that she will lose her job if she supports Kevin in any way.

References