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PAGE 26. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2001.
Review
Truscott account disturbingly readable
By David Blaney
Citizen staff
If you are looking for an easy and
comfortable 'read' this Christmas
season Julian Sher's book, Until You
Are Dead is not the one for you.
- As immensely readable as it is
Sher's long and detailed examination
of the Steven Truscott case, arguably
Canada's most notorious murder
conviction, is deeply disturbing on
several levels.
Twelve-year-old Lynne Harper
was murdered, in the summer of
1959, near Clinton, not far from the
airbase where her father, a flying
officer was stationed. Sher goes over
.the ground between the murder and
Truscott's conviction with a thor-
oughness and attention to detail,
which often comes close to over-
whelming the reader.
The author combed through boxes
of files from the police and military,
pages of transcripts from the trial and
appeals, and talked to nearly every
surviving participant in the original
investigation and trial.
The picture he paints is not com-
forting. For over 300 pages he leads
us through an investigation and trial
Which from the first seemed
designed, more to put Steven
Truscott in jail, than to uncover the
truth.
Sher puts forth a suggestion even
more disturbing than a botched
investigation.
Trials were often conducted quick-
ly at that time, without our current
safeguards. He contends that the
crime affronted rural Ontario's
image of itself and society and this
public pressure resulted in a speedy
verdict rather than the correct one.
He makes it clear that several of
those involved in the case were pre-
pared to make the evidence fit the
defendant rather than the other way
around. Sher points out that it was a
more innocent time when many peo-
ple believed that being arrested auto-
matically meant you were guilty.
The second half of Sher's manu-
script details Truscott's life behind
bars and later his new life outside
prison walls. Truscott was to eventu-
ally marry and have three children
while forced to live and work under
an assumed name in Guelph.
It also details how efforts to prove
his innocence were to become entan-
gled with arguments over the death
penalty.
The 1950's faith in public institu-
tions was giving way to the raucous
questioning of the 1960s and the
cynicism of later generations.
Sher .recounts how the case
became politicized with police and
legal officials reacting to the
increased criticism as an attack on
the justice system and by implica-
tion, society. One man's guilt or
innocence had become a loud public
fight over the fairness and objectivi-
ty of the Canadian judicial system.
Sher's research is currently being
used as the basis for an application to
the federal justice minister to have
the conviction re-examined.
At the beginning of this review I
characterized the book as disturbing
and uncomfortable. It is however
something that should be read if you
have any interest in the Canadian
way of justice.
The contents may surprise you. I
doubt they would surprise Donald
Marshall, David Milgaard or Guy
Paul Morin.
Julian Sher is currently a freelance
journalist teaching investigative
journalism via the internet. His work
has appeared in The Globe and Mail,
Ottawa Citizen. La Presse and
CNN.cora He was the producer of, Until You Are Dead is published
the CRC's fifth estate documentary by Alfred A. Knopf Canada and can
about the Steven Truscott case. be purchased from The Citizen.