So you realize your mother has is the one who shot him mhm you feel pretty good about it well I’m happy for Mom she doesn’t have to deal with him anymore cuz ain’t right to have to be mentally [ __ ] abused and tortured on a daily basis nobody should have to do
That whoever’s doing the abusing yes they should be dead rather in my mind logic tells me I mean that everybody should feel that way I think a lot of people do feel that way no but you know what I mean like Society to me that’s the normal way to
Feel if you have only two choices either you he abuses her or he dies well I figure that he should be dead I don’t give a [ __ ] if it’s my parents your parents or anyone’s parents or anybody the abuser should be dead rather than the victim Usually goes the other way the reality we see the victim but you know like if anyone should should be dead and shouldn’t have to deal with it anymore it would have been her right in my mind well that’s what you get for being an [ __ ] you treat people like that what
Do you expect to happen there’s actually a history of juries in Canada finding women not guilty of killing their abusive husbands even after the women admitted to doing it but the system itself is stacked against them the battered woman defense as it’s called came to prominence in
Canada in a case that had a lot in common with Helens and to understand how it could be used to defend Helen though she’d confessed to shooting miles in the back of the head while he was sleeping we need to go back the 1987 trial of aneli Glen
Laval her case would go all the way to the Supreme Court and change Canadian law I’m Janna Pruden and this is in her defense from the glob and mail episode 5 the battered woman Defense in the Beautiful World So historically we never treated wife murder and husband murder as the same kind of uh criminal act women’s Act of husband killing was always seen as much more morally culpable uh diabolical and upending of the social order in fact this is Dr Elizabeth sheii she taught law at the University of
Ottawa for 35 years she literally wrote the book on defending battered women on trial it’s called defending battered women on trial it was considered to be accidental use of excess Force when men killed their wives in contrast women who killed their husbands were charged with the unique crime of petty treason so we
Know that treason is killing the King Petty treason is killing the master now that could be the master of a household but it also meant a woman’s master who was her husband so petty treason was a specific form of murder that was considered more heinous than ordinary
Murder um and had a very special punishment uh a form of public execution so you know I would say those ideas continue to linger in in many ways in our society I think that women killing is almost seen as everyday it’s very easy for people to see wife killing
As accidental somehow or mitigated by our understanding that men sometimes lose control or women can be frustrating um whereas husband killing is still seen as a matter of very very serious offending and upending of our social [Applause] order aneli Lin Laval was 21 when she killed her boyfriend Kevin rust it was
The summer of 1986 I think the two of them had argued and fought several times she’d gone upstairs to an upstairs bedroom and he’d gone upstairs to confront her her statements um to others and to police when she was arrested was that he told her shoot me or I’ll shoot you and she
Also said that he said he would get her later after the party when their guests had left and so she shot at him as he was exiting the bedroom to return to the party the crown had a strong case for murder at the time an argument of self-defense required an imminent threat
Sometimes described as the uplifted knife or the pointed gun that would mean an attacker coming toward you not walking away unarmed with their back turned self-defense also rested on what the hypothetical quote reasonable or ordinary man would do you’re probably getting the sense from that language
That these laws were written by and for men the original Law of self-defense was really framed around men’s experiences of an equal person fighting another person you know who has the same level maybe of power and uh and strength but there was growing awareness at the time about the unique circumstances of
Domestic violence and aneli Laval’s lawyer wanted to fight the murder charge with a claim of self-defense her defense lawyer introduced expert evidence about what’s called battered woman syndrome in her trial battered woman syndrome is based on the pioneering research of American clinical psychologist Lenor Walker she divided the cycle of domestic abuse into
Three phases tension building then acute acting out of violence or threat and then thirdly Contrition so it’s said to be a cyclical pattern that keeps a woman entrapped and in a state of fear and anxiety about what’s going to happen next and Lenor Walker basically said that a woman who’s gone through that
Cycle more than two times is a battered woman so someone who is truly you know entrapped in the relationship and unable to escape during the trial the defense called psychiatrist Fred Shane as an expert on battered woman syndrome his testimony was intended to help jurors understand what lavet did in the context
Of the abuse she’d endured so you know an expert like Dr Shane was there to testify that the experiences of Lin Laval and her behaviors how she reacted to Russ violence were consistent with battered woman’s syndrome but also talks about the collective experience of of women and the collective experence experience of
Men who engage in this kind of violence aneli Laval herself never testified the lavet case was the first trial in Canada where a jury was told they could find a woman not guilty based on the battered woman defense and they did 11 men and one woman unanimously found her not guilty of second-degree
Murder after the verdict defense lawyer Greg Broad said when aneli lavet killed her boyfriend that night she wasn’t just reacting to the assault of the moment but to her whole history as a battered woman the crown appealed the verdict arguing that allowing Dr Shane to testify about the battered woman defense
Turned the case into a trial by psychiatrist the court of appeal agreed but Brodsky appealed that decision to the country’s highest court the case went before The Supreme Court in October of 1989 among the judges deciding the appeal was Bertha Wilson Canada’s first female Supreme Court
Justice in her 8 years on the Supreme Court Justice Wilson had been a strong advocate for the rights of women in 1988 she was one of the five justices who struck down the law preventing women from getting abortions in Canada and she went the further in her writing on that
Case saying reproductive Freedom was part of women’s path to True equality in February of 1990 as the court was deciding on the lavet case she gave a lecture to a packed house at Osgood Hall law school we found a tape of that speech which was broadcast in full on a radio
Program called Forum we think this may be one of the only copies out there good evening tonight we begin the four fourth annual Barbara bman lecture presented by Osgood Hall law school of York University the speaker is Madame Justice Bertha Wilson the first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada
She’ll give a lecture entitled will women judges really make a difference here’s Madam Justice while the lecture wasn’t about the lavet case it’s relevant because we know that Bertha Wilson was considering the case at the time I think that a distinctly male perspective is clearly discernable and has resulted in legal
Principles that are not fundamentally sound and should be Revisited as and when the opportunity presents itself some aspects of the criminal law in particular cry out for change since they are based on presuppositions about the nature of women and women’s sexuality that in this day and age are little short of
Ludicrous as one newspaper story from the time characterized it Zen thank you very much my understanding is that the crowd erupted in Applause and a longstanding ovation and within days I mean there were also sorts of newspaper headlines reporting on her speech but within days there were also complaints made to the
Canadian judicial Council that she was a biased feminist so and some of those were made I think by defense loyers so you know there was not Universal uh appreciation for her remarks I can tell you that the Supreme Court decision in Laval came down 3 months later that speech I think
When and we all know now was a foreshadowing of the Judgment that was to be released it was written by Justice Wilson the court unanimously ruled that aneli Laval’s lawyer was allowed to call Expert evidence on the battered woman syndrome the not-guilty verdict would stand and so Justice Wilson said you
Know this evidence is not only legally relevant but it’s important for jurors to hear to assist them in identifying and setting aside their own stereotyped beliefs which many of us hold so not only did she Rule and the court agree with her that this evidence was relevant to these elements
Of self-defense and this evidence is relevant to educate jurors but she also put to rest other impediments to women’s access to self-defense those other impediments included the idea of an imminent threat that uplifted knife or point pointed gun Justice Wilson wrote that the cycle of domestic abuse makes it predictable
Unlike a bar fight or an attack on the street and that it’s possible for a battered woman to predict violence even before it happens she quoted an American court that said making a battered woman wait until she’s being beaten to defend herself is like sentencing her to Murder By
Installment and that’s because in hand toand combat most women women will never be able to save their own lives against a violent male partner Justice Wilson also took on the idea of a reasonable or ordinary man writing that if it strains credulity to imagine what the ordinary man would do
In the position of a battered spouse it is probably because men do not typically find themselves in that situation the definition of what is reasonable must be adapted to the circumstances which are by and large foreign to the world inhabited by the hypothetical reasonable man and she went
On to say you know the ordinary man she doubts has ever experienced battering and therefore you know we can’t use that standard we have to use a standard that incorporates women’s experiences as well as men’s um into our understanding of criminal law and finally Bertha Wilson wrote that
It was not for a jury to pass judgment on why a battered woman stayed in a relationship and she took on the age-old question why didn’t she just leave she wrote traditional self-defense Doctrine does not require a person to retreat from her home instead of Defending
Herself a man’s home may be his castle but it is also the woman’s home even if it seems to her more like a prison in the circumstances the other thing I wanted to say about the Laval decision is that I think it remain remains one of the most Progressive decisions on self-defense
For bed women in the world I think that’s because she took apart and identified all these stereotypes that lurk beneath the surface the lavet decision was controversial some said it signaled open season on husbands it didn’t but the case did set an important precedent and it showed what was possible in defending
Women who killed their abusers 30 years later the lavet case would be Helen’s best chance of avoiding spending her life in Prison my age of first degree murder charge was Des at the end of her 5 and a half hour interrogation by RCMP Helen nasland had admitted she shot her husband miles in the back of the head head while he was sleeping she was charged with first-degree murder so was her youngest son
Neil they were also both charged with offering an indignity to a dead body for disposing of miles after they killed him Wes was charged for that too darl who had turned his mother and brothers in wasn’t facing any charges I don’t know no way it was a
Relief yeah no more trying to hide no more trying to cover it up I mean it was it’s almost like that my life had come to an end one thing a lot of people don’t realize is how confusing it is to be in jail from the moment you’re arrested
You’re moving through a system that you may not really understand with little or no communication with the outside world what do you remember about your your first night in custody at the remen Center that was worse worse than hell as you would read or know about what people
Say hell is that was worse than that I think that was worse than anything I’d ever been through just uh wasn’t that I was being beat or abused but it was just that I know the mentalness around it it was excruciating really excruciating and the pain of that night is
From like being in custody and being imprisoned or was it from the physical environment there what what was everything the environment the I said the I thought that was the end of my life like uh I mean I knew I wasn’t going to die on the spot but I don’t know I don’t
Know how to put it into words it was just my life had ended what it was going to be like after that I didn’t know it wasn’t going to be a life a first-degree murder conviction in Canada is an automatic life sentence with no chance of pearl for 25 years at
The time Helen was 52 she had no previous criminal record paying for a lawyer isn’t cheap Helen was almost bankrupt before the charges they sold off almost all their land and their livestock they had really nothing of value Helen’s boss G Turnbull and his wife Lisa stepped up and offered to pay
For the defense you know a lot of bosses wouldn’t have anything you know to do with it why did you still help Helen why did you support Helen because I didn’t blame her if she did you know I seen what was going on for years like you know just little bits
In pieces and I think like who would live with this why wouldn’t you leave well I know why she couldn’t leave cuz she was threatened every day every day of her life and she was scared to death it’s the only I think the only reason you get rid of that problem is to
Take care of yourself what else you going to do I don’t know that I’ve never been in that situation so Dr me to sit here and say that was pretty hard but I can only imagine right why would anybody put a man man or lady right Helen and Neil watched their own
Bail hearings through closed circuit television from separate cells at the Edmonton remand Center Wes had already made bail but the crown was opposing Helen and Neil’s release meaning they would have to stay in jail for a year or two until they went to trial domestic violence did play a role in the
Way the crown considered the case but only with Helen as the attacker and Miles as victim the crown said in Helen’s case the victim of domestic violence homicide was the male party but the judge agreed to release them the Edmonton Journal reported at the time that mother and son wiped away
Tears when they heard the decision bail came with strict conditions Helen would be on house ARR rest totally controlled and monitored actually I was really I was okay with it I didn’t have a problem with it all cuz like I said it was something that I was accustomed to it
Was basically how my life was Helen’s sister Sharon started going to Helen’s Court appearances and it was only then that she realized the full extent of what her younger sister had been living with was devastating uh I think because I I I honestly didn’t think it I I didn’t realize it was that
Bad I and I guess I guess it was and I think having been through it myself I didn’t realize why I didn’t see it do you feel bad about that yeah yes wasn’t a big deal that he was dead and how or why didn’t and it still doesn’t it doesn’t matter to
Me but I I will support Helen and you know and the boys battered women cases are complex and uncommon as we’ve heard a jury could well be convinced to find Helen not guilty but going to trial for murder is also a huge gamble with Neil charged to
The stakes were no less than the rest of both of their lives and after getting her out on bail Helen’s lawyer told her he couldn’t continue with the case because Greg just didn’t feel confident he just he knew that he wasn’t wasn’t a lawyer for those charges
He I mean he’s a criminal lawyer but it’s more different kind of stuff not not murder charges and yeah battered women it’s just yeah he just didn’t feel that he would uh had what it took to do that yeah Helen found a new lawyer Kevin lesler he didn’t respond to my request
For an interview but Helen says he wanted to go to trial with the battered woman defense that was his goal he was reaching for it was was uh to get that information out there and present a case he was really into it should I say like he
Was he had a rush a drive it was his need like he really wanted to go to trial with this that’s all he talked about was the events how things are going to play out and a lot of our meetings were in the courtroom just an empty courtroom because that’s how he wanted
It because he needed to make sure that I was going to be okay with that environment and and it wasn’t all friendly like he put himself in the crown shoes as well and it’s horrible it was good but it was hor with Kevin um did you get a sense of how he felt
About um how that play how that your case would play out in front of a jury did he feel you know was he nervous about it did he seem to feel like you had a strong case did did you get a sense of how how he felt that would
Go yeah I got a good like he made me feel assured reassured I guess that I mean he he thought things would go good his Hope was that we would walk out of there over the front door together at the end of it all but that didn’t happen Kevin had
Some health problems and told Helen he had to quit the case instead he recommended a new lawyer Darren break Darren is a well respected lawyer in Edmonton he didn’t respond to my request for an interview but it’s clear he had a different view of Helen case Helen says he thought she should
Take a plea deal that would mean no trial and no gamble on the battered woman defense she would plead guilty and the crown would take life in prison off the table he didn’t want to go TR I don’t think he wanted to fight that hard he
Didn’t I don’t know they were just they were totally different liers so I don’t know what else to say but there again I I knew nobody else I and I wasn’t the one putting the money up either so I felt like I didn’t have full control of what was happening
Either those closest to her were divided about what she should do her boss G turble who was paying for the defense also thought Helen should take a deal and he told her that I’m sure you probably weren’t privy to all of the legal discussions happening but do you
Remember when you you know heard about what was going to happen happened with the case and what you thought well I knew all about it cuz I they they met with me too oh okay lawyers met with me through all this whole thing and I had
Some input into it yeah and I’m the one that told her to to go along with with what the deal they made because I said I know enough that you you’re not going to get out of first degree yeah because there was enough evidence to put her away from first degree so
What’s the point of taking a gamble on that cuz you’re gambling Sharon wasn’t so sure I talked to her about it and I thought at the time that her being able to to say her peace would have been good for her like he he wasn’t the the great neighbor and
Uh there was a lot more to him and and to her life and um again I you know I I don’t I don’t actually know what happened and and I it doesn’t matter and I don’t need I don’t want to know so I I think lots of what she did
Was to protect the boys and let’s just say that Wes was not into it again there’s quite a bit of swearing in this bit I told her not to do it is a [ __ ] [ __ ] thing they don’t have the evidence that they say they do and if you fight it you’ll
Win told her it was a [ __ ] thing there’s no way that a woman should be beating all her goddamn life and then finally stand up and shoot her [ __ ] husband in the sleep in the back of the head because she’s lost her [ __ ] mind she can’t take being [ __ ] mentally
Abused and called down and treated like a [ __ ] dog anymore she lost her [ __ ] people do that when they Abus like that it’s not their [ __ ] fault she should never even [ __ ] seen the inside of a jail cell cuz you know what if they if she wouldn’t have shot him and she would
Have had proof and videos and [ __ ] of all the [ __ ] that he did she never would have seen the inside of a jail cell and everybody would have thrown him in jail forever they would have well he would have been in for five years with the way that
Works look at all the rest of the cases that you see if anything you should [ __ ] offer counseling therapy instead of trying to torture somebody worse and make it worse why don’t you try and fix the mind is what I think and I told her that I told her if
You fight it guaranteed they won’t you won’t get the murder charge cuz that’s what they’re throwing at her if you don’t take it you’re going for murder indefinitely I told her no it’s not [ __ ] murder if anything it’s manslaughter if anything more like self-defense but Helen had to decide for
Herself whether to take a plea deal or go to trial for murder it was a huge decision that’s next time on in her defense to get the best for Neil that’s that was my biggest concern I think that the outcome was a just one for everyone involved which is always satisfying for
The crown I was well and truly shocked I was fuming when I read the judge’s Comments in her defense is made by casha mahovich and me Janna Pruden field recording by Amber Bracken special thanks today to Jamie Cameron for unearthing the tape of Bertha Wilson’s famous Osgood Hall speech sorry for all the pestering Jamie in her defense is recorded at mchan University by Sheena
Roser Emily rubita and Sasha stoich our executive editor is Angela Penza special thanks to head of visual journalism Matt frer and head of editing Ian bokoff David Crosby mixes the show also thanks today to Stephanie Chambers for research assistance and Peter S off for a bit of legal
Factchecking our theme song is The Fighter by Jen Grant I listen to this song about a thousand times while I was reporting this story and I’m so grateful she let us use it on the show Arrangement by David Crosby I would love to hear from you you
Can email me personally at jpr DN globeandmail.com we would also love for you to help us share Helen’s Story please share this podcast tell people about it rate and review it wherever you’re listening it really does help get the word out if you’re experiencing domestic violence and want to talk to
Someone you can find resources and your nearest shelter at shelters safe.com mail our listeners get a special discount on new subscriptions at www.g globama mail.com SLP podcast deal take care and thank you for listening
The 1987 case of Angelique Lavallee provides a roadmap for the “battered woman defence.” Canada’s first female Supreme Court justice, Bertha Wilson, attempts to expose systemic sexism in the justice system. Helen is charged with first-degree murder, and has to decide whether to accept a plea deal or go to trial.
Elizabeth Sheehy’s book is Defending Battered Women on Trial: Lessons from the Transcripts.
Learn more about this podcast and domestic violence in Canada, or sign up for our newsletter at
E-mail the reporter, Jana Pruden, at [email protected]
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