Should the judge not judicially stay the charges and I be found guilty of something, after near 4 years of in and out of courts and everyone talking but myself about myself then I plan on requesting to make this statement and hopefully my right to free speech won't be hindered either.
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I thank the courts for allowing me to speak for myself as I haven't been able to do so for nearly four years other than to "Plead innocence or guilt". I was briefly allowed to testify recently on my own behalf but feel that I came across as very disassembled as it has been a long time coming and with so much to say, convey I was at odds because the nature of "testifying" is to answer direct questioning. I do apologize for coming across as so frustrated and do believe I did not do myself any service as I do suffer from P.T.S.D and to talk about the incident means to relive it and frankly it is terrifying and simply throws a person off.
First I want to thank My attorney and their firm for their tireless litigation on my behalf and I know that I have been a very difficult client however I beg one to understand that the ongoing 4 years for myself, defending myself , incarceration and lack of due process through the courts has been tiresome and one must understand that it is not just happening to myself alone but to those in my personal relationships such as family, work and friends as well as my own personal obligations in matters of finance and bills. And this underlying burden always weighs heavy on my shoulders. I do not fault my attorney, the system is the way it is.
I want to address a few things and they are as follows: It has been spoken several times as to my demeanour that I am an extremely violent man, within the context of court dates and in fact it has not only been mentioned in court but also added to my police file as I discovered through disclosure that "the AC (or accused ) is a well known cop hater and extremely violent" I ask the question of exactly where this comes from as NEVER have I been charged with assaulting a police officer, nor even resisting arrest until the current matter. ( and even in the current case ,I believe I am not charged with resisting arrest, which is odd given the nature of the accusations) What I do "hate" is corruption as should every police officer and court that is sworn to uphold the law. Still over the course of 4 years there has been multiple times where I was ordered to surrender myself 24 hours,last business day ( which often would be a Friday and court being a Monday) in advance before court and was always obliging and dutiful to submit to the will of the law and frankly, that is a difficult thing to do as often as I have had to knowing that you are innocent of that which you are accused of.
I do believe in transparency, without it there is the ability to lie, to hide things. As such I will openly admit to having a criminal record. Growing up a misguided youth I did some what I think to be horrible things.( Most certainly I have never done or been accused of that which started this whole mess.) However, I always seemed to be guided by a certain principle and that is to own up to what you have done, accept the punishment and change that in which you error. I accredit this inherited attitude impressed upon me as a young man ,trouble at home not even a teenager and living on the streets, cold at night the St Catharines police constables would often let me sleep in the cells at night with the door open and give their jackets to me as a blanket, share their lunch with me.
Thus I have never had a trial before for any of those long dated criminal offences and owned up to it. This is a fact that can be easily verified by the courts. Accepting responsibility for my actions I sought out to correct myself by attending all manners of programing available at the time as well as intensive psychotherapy throughout my incarceration, additionally I sought out and upgraded my education beginning with learning to read. I was one of the first few inmates released into the community on the "prisoner work release program" and it was due in part to my success within the program that it continued. ( I no longer know of its relative existence, or if it does exist still). I was then given day parole and accomplished that as I did full parole .The ex warden of Edmonton maximum security prison helped me to learn to drive and shop for my first car, a mentorship that I will never forget. Eventually I met my warrant expiry and I continued to be a success for nearly 2 decades until I was falsely accused and subsequently exonerated in a court of law. Should that not have occurred in my life I would be able to boast that I had been clean and a decent citizen for near a quarter century. The courts knowing the recidivism rate that this is no small feat and clearly points to a person that was not only rehabilitated but a believer in the general rule of law and order, justice. That being said, personally I do believe in law and order and clearly I have shown that but I most certainly do believe in a law and order that affects and governs us all, equally under the law, no matter your rank or file in life.
Detoxifying myself from prison life was not easy(especially given my young age) as one could imagine but it was a fight that I could control, I could make the positive outcome. Besides , because of my stupidity as a misguided youth I qualified for nothing much else in life as due to the criminal record, then to be a day labourer and eventually with alot of work a power engineer , working oil rigs. So believe me when I say, I took my rehabilitation and belief in doing well and right within my prospective community seriously and while I personally have a difficult time (even decades past) to forgive myself of what I did to myself and others I have come to accept it, always reflect on it and move continuously and consciously forward. These being my own words.
In context that "I am a violent man", or a "well known cop hater" these are not only unjustifiable but completely unfounded and as a rule of law, once we have served our time we are protected from being retried, re punished as it becomes a case of double jeopardy. This especially since the sheer amount of time is that in fact greater than the age of the committed act by near double and should we all be judged continuously for what we did as children, teenagers?.If this were the case one would think we would live in a different world and near all professionals in their various fields wouldn't be able to hold said position.
I do feel as though I have been treated extraordinarily within the last 4 years. when I wasn't fully incarcerated, I was under house arrest 24 hours a day and unable to even work. There were times that I would go up to a week and a half without eating until social workers would have the time to go to the food bank on my behalf to get me food all because I wasn't allowed to go myself due to the checks and balances of the judicial system and even in that state, I wasn't going to breach. There were times when I would explain this to my court appointed psychiatrist ( as those appointments I was able to attend) and he would personally give me food from his office so that I may have something to eat.This went on for months at a time. When the conditions would be changed so that I could work the bail supervisor demanded that I supply in advance the address where I would be attending a work interview, demand their phone number so that they can pre verify the interview and stated that one of the questions that would be asked was "do you have a problem with police attending his place of work to verify his whereabouts"? Under what possible circumstance could this work to my favour except to be what it was meant to be and that is purposefully against my favour and leave myself in a perpetual state of anxiety and desperation.
I was separated from my girlfriend for nearly 6 months straight, 3 of those incarcerated and the rest with a 24 hours house arrest again and a no contact order stemming from a court ordered no contact order as a result of an assault with a weapon charge laid by police against me ,towards her.That admittedly by the responding police officers mouths as well as kyla's, did not occur. After my Acquittal, that stemmed from a confession in front of a jury from my accuser. ( that started all of this) The police also dropped the 2 false breaches. My girlfriend demanded the no contact order be lifted and it was so as was my 24 hour house arrest lifted. I moved to Calgary, Kyla and I moved on and got married.Since that time I have had no positive or negative contact with police and certainly no near daily harassment as I experienced in Edmonton.
To wrap this portion up I will simply state what can obviously be checkout by your honour himself. Since being falsely accused and the resulting matter I now stand before you today. I have served well over 1 year of actual detention and most of it was in the old remand where I was housed on a unit that didn't even have windows, nor did we get yard time.With no clocks, windows or radio I was in a state of not even knowing what day it was, or night other than to be told to go to sleep or get up, reverting to scratch the wall to count the days to my seemingly endless court dates. I was placed in several different homes to stay at, had to pay rent at an extortionately high amount, else return to prison. Therefore I had no choice but to be placed on welfare from some helpful social workers just to keep me out of jail, to pay my rent. With over a year in jail, 24 hour house arrest, SEVERE conditions I feel as though in fact I have served a 4 year sentence, reminding you that until now I have in fact not been found guilty of anything in relation to these accumulative matters that have been argued to be seen as separate matters yet I was under one bail order for them all. Even after my acquittal for rape charges based on the confession, the dropping of the 2 breaches the police attempted to stick for attempting suicide, I was still under those conditions as an accused rapist for several months until the matter did receive minimal bail variations in which I acted as my own defense counsel. Those 2 conditions were that the no contact order was lifted and so was the house arrest. That being said, they are not separate incidents as in fact this very day as I stand before you I am still under the very same bail conditions that were set on December 21, 2011, then accused of 7 counts of various false sexual degradation ( acquitted of) and later 2 false breaches that were dropped after it was in fact proven it is not an illegal matter to attempt to take your own life in Canada.I might add that because I attempted suicide it does not point nor should it be concluded that I have some type of mental deficiency but rather it should be seen as it was. A man tormented by the very same system sworn to uphold my rights as well and anyone who would have the unfortunate circumstances I did would be hard pressed to answer truthfully if they would not do the same.
If I somehow am expected to be more noble than the average then One would think that the police officers that have been involved in my case should be held accountable to an even higher standard considering as full grown men and women they swore an oath to uphold and obey the law, yet some have been found guilty of crimes or out right plead guilty to violent crimes such as assault and yet for them this has been removed from their records, a clean slate given and they remain at their posting, a posting they would not even of had had they been convicted or plead guilty before applying. Yet as a 43 year old man, my decades old stupidity continues to haunt me and I am judged within that context.
I was in peaceful possession of my dwelling, the context for police to arrive at my address was proven to be false admittedly by their own mouths under oath. They never identified themselves until the situation escalated to the point in their minds that there was reason to charge me. To respond to a criminal act is one thing and within the law to first identify and arrest myself is another. But to arrive to a false call, create a situation to the outcome that they desired and while walking all over the same laws that they are sworn to uphold and in fact protect them, all of us , fought for by our forefathers, is in fact another. The very reason that the CBC news footage was never copied, nor the dozens of surveillance videos within and around my building seized, nor any one of the literally dozens of witnesses statements taken or the 911 tapes played is because they simply don't want the court to see what happened and should they have incriminated myself you can bet they would be made readily available for all.
Had I of known they were police that day, I certainly wouldn't have defended as I did and simply gave in to their will as I have done on any other occasion throughout this last four years and in fact my life and there is not a singular time that I have done otherwise. And despite the crowns depiction of me, besides my very dated criminal recorded that was committed as a youth and took a majority of my adult life to repay one would be hard pressed to find even a traffic violation on my license.
Thank you for allowing me to speak for myself and should I be ordered to "go to jail" I will do so without incident as requested and follow the appeal process.My very belief in the law, equal to ALL dictates that I submit to your ruling. It is a very unfortunate situation I find myself in and one that I simply could never have predicted but predictably it will be further devastating to my own existence. However, I have a strong moral compass and ethical will and regardless of any further detainment, restrictions to my liberty and constitutional rights I will always stand up for what is right. Often that choice is not a popular one but it is the right one.
Respectfully
Joseph Harms
TORTURED
I thank the courts for allowing me to speak for myself as I haven't been able to do so for nearly four years other than to "Plead innocence or guilt". I was briefly allowed to testify recently on my own behalf but feel that I came across as very disassembled as it has been a long time coming and with so much to say, convey I was at odds because the nature of "testifying" is to answer direct questioning. I do apologize for coming across as so frustrated and do believe I did not do myself any service as I do suffer from P.T.S.D and to talk about the incident means to relive it and frankly it is terrifying and simply throws a person off.
First I want to thank My attorney and their firm for their tireless litigation on my behalf and I know that I have been a very difficult client however I beg one to understand that the ongoing 4 years for myself, defending myself , incarceration and lack of due process through the courts has been tiresome and one must understand that it is not just happening to myself alone but to those in my personal relationships such as family, work and friends as well as my own personal obligations in matters of finance and bills. And this underlying burden always weighs heavy on my shoulders. I do not fault my attorney, the system is the way it is.
I want to address a few things and they are as follows: It has been spoken several times as to my demeanour that I am an extremely violent man, within the context of court dates and in fact it has not only been mentioned in court but also added to my police file as I discovered through disclosure that "the AC (or accused ) is a well known cop hater and extremely violent" I ask the question of exactly where this comes from as NEVER have I been charged with assaulting a police officer, nor even resisting arrest until the current matter. ( and even in the current case ,I believe I am not charged with resisting arrest, which is odd given the nature of the accusations) What I do "hate" is corruption as should every police officer and court that is sworn to uphold the law. Still over the course of 4 years there has been multiple times where I was ordered to surrender myself 24 hours,last business day ( which often would be a Friday and court being a Monday) in advance before court and was always obliging and dutiful to submit to the will of the law and frankly, that is a difficult thing to do as often as I have had to knowing that you are innocent of that which you are accused of.
I do believe in transparency, without it there is the ability to lie, to hide things. As such I will openly admit to having a criminal record. Growing up a misguided youth I did some what I think to be horrible things.( Most certainly I have never done or been accused of that which started this whole mess.) However, I always seemed to be guided by a certain principle and that is to own up to what you have done, accept the punishment and change that in which you error. I accredit this inherited attitude impressed upon me as a young man ,trouble at home not even a teenager and living on the streets, cold at night the St Catharines police constables would often let me sleep in the cells at night with the door open and give their jackets to me as a blanket, share their lunch with me.
Thus I have never had a trial before for any of those long dated criminal offences and owned up to it. This is a fact that can be easily verified by the courts. Accepting responsibility for my actions I sought out to correct myself by attending all manners of programing available at the time as well as intensive psychotherapy throughout my incarceration, additionally I sought out and upgraded my education beginning with learning to read. I was one of the first few inmates released into the community on the "prisoner work release program" and it was due in part to my success within the program that it continued. ( I no longer know of its relative existence, or if it does exist still). I was then given day parole and accomplished that as I did full parole .The ex warden of Edmonton maximum security prison helped me to learn to drive and shop for my first car, a mentorship that I will never forget. Eventually I met my warrant expiry and I continued to be a success for nearly 2 decades until I was falsely accused and subsequently exonerated in a court of law. Should that not have occurred in my life I would be able to boast that I had been clean and a decent citizen for near a quarter century. The courts knowing the recidivism rate that this is no small feat and clearly points to a person that was not only rehabilitated but a believer in the general rule of law and order, justice. That being said, personally I do believe in law and order and clearly I have shown that but I most certainly do believe in a law and order that affects and governs us all, equally under the law, no matter your rank or file in life.
Detoxifying myself from prison life was not easy(especially given my young age) as one could imagine but it was a fight that I could control, I could make the positive outcome. Besides , because of my stupidity as a misguided youth I qualified for nothing much else in life as due to the criminal record, then to be a day labourer and eventually with alot of work a power engineer , working oil rigs. So believe me when I say, I took my rehabilitation and belief in doing well and right within my prospective community seriously and while I personally have a difficult time (even decades past) to forgive myself of what I did to myself and others I have come to accept it, always reflect on it and move continuously and consciously forward. These being my own words.
In context that "I am a violent man", or a "well known cop hater" these are not only unjustifiable but completely unfounded and as a rule of law, once we have served our time we are protected from being retried, re punished as it becomes a case of double jeopardy. This especially since the sheer amount of time is that in fact greater than the age of the committed act by near double and should we all be judged continuously for what we did as children, teenagers?.If this were the case one would think we would live in a different world and near all professionals in their various fields wouldn't be able to hold said position.
I do feel as though I have been treated extraordinarily within the last 4 years. when I wasn't fully incarcerated, I was under house arrest 24 hours a day and unable to even work. There were times that I would go up to a week and a half without eating until social workers would have the time to go to the food bank on my behalf to get me food all because I wasn't allowed to go myself due to the checks and balances of the judicial system and even in that state, I wasn't going to breach. There were times when I would explain this to my court appointed psychiatrist ( as those appointments I was able to attend) and he would personally give me food from his office so that I may have something to eat.This went on for months at a time. When the conditions would be changed so that I could work the bail supervisor demanded that I supply in advance the address where I would be attending a work interview, demand their phone number so that they can pre verify the interview and stated that one of the questions that would be asked was "do you have a problem with police attending his place of work to verify his whereabouts"? Under what possible circumstance could this work to my favour except to be what it was meant to be and that is purposefully against my favour and leave myself in a perpetual state of anxiety and desperation.
I was separated from my girlfriend for nearly 6 months straight, 3 of those incarcerated and the rest with a 24 hours house arrest again and a no contact order stemming from a court ordered no contact order as a result of an assault with a weapon charge laid by police against me ,towards her.That admittedly by the responding police officers mouths as well as kyla's, did not occur. After my Acquittal, that stemmed from a confession in front of a jury from my accuser. ( that started all of this) The police also dropped the 2 false breaches. My girlfriend demanded the no contact order be lifted and it was so as was my 24 hour house arrest lifted. I moved to Calgary, Kyla and I moved on and got married.Since that time I have had no positive or negative contact with police and certainly no near daily harassment as I experienced in Edmonton.
To wrap this portion up I will simply state what can obviously be checkout by your honour himself. Since being falsely accused and the resulting matter I now stand before you today. I have served well over 1 year of actual detention and most of it was in the old remand where I was housed on a unit that didn't even have windows, nor did we get yard time.With no clocks, windows or radio I was in a state of not even knowing what day it was, or night other than to be told to go to sleep or get up, reverting to scratch the wall to count the days to my seemingly endless court dates. I was placed in several different homes to stay at, had to pay rent at an extortionately high amount, else return to prison. Therefore I had no choice but to be placed on welfare from some helpful social workers just to keep me out of jail, to pay my rent. With over a year in jail, 24 hour house arrest, SEVERE conditions I feel as though in fact I have served a 4 year sentence, reminding you that until now I have in fact not been found guilty of anything in relation to these accumulative matters that have been argued to be seen as separate matters yet I was under one bail order for them all. Even after my acquittal for rape charges based on the confession, the dropping of the 2 breaches the police attempted to stick for attempting suicide, I was still under those conditions as an accused rapist for several months until the matter did receive minimal bail variations in which I acted as my own defense counsel. Those 2 conditions were that the no contact order was lifted and so was the house arrest. That being said, they are not separate incidents as in fact this very day as I stand before you I am still under the very same bail conditions that were set on December 21, 2011, then accused of 7 counts of various false sexual degradation ( acquitted of) and later 2 false breaches that were dropped after it was in fact proven it is not an illegal matter to attempt to take your own life in Canada.I might add that because I attempted suicide it does not point nor should it be concluded that I have some type of mental deficiency but rather it should be seen as it was. A man tormented by the very same system sworn to uphold my rights as well and anyone who would have the unfortunate circumstances I did would be hard pressed to answer truthfully if they would not do the same.
If I somehow am expected to be more noble than the average then One would think that the police officers that have been involved in my case should be held accountable to an even higher standard considering as full grown men and women they swore an oath to uphold and obey the law, yet some have been found guilty of crimes or out right plead guilty to violent crimes such as assault and yet for them this has been removed from their records, a clean slate given and they remain at their posting, a posting they would not even of had had they been convicted or plead guilty before applying. Yet as a 43 year old man, my decades old stupidity continues to haunt me and I am judged within that context.
I was in peaceful possession of my dwelling, the context for police to arrive at my address was proven to be false admittedly by their own mouths under oath. They never identified themselves until the situation escalated to the point in their minds that there was reason to charge me. To respond to a criminal act is one thing and within the law to first identify and arrest myself is another. But to arrive to a false call, create a situation to the outcome that they desired and while walking all over the same laws that they are sworn to uphold and in fact protect them, all of us , fought for by our forefathers, is in fact another. The very reason that the CBC news footage was never copied, nor the dozens of surveillance videos within and around my building seized, nor any one of the literally dozens of witnesses statements taken or the 911 tapes played is because they simply don't want the court to see what happened and should they have incriminated myself you can bet they would be made readily available for all.
Had I of known they were police that day, I certainly wouldn't have defended as I did and simply gave in to their will as I have done on any other occasion throughout this last four years and in fact my life and there is not a singular time that I have done otherwise. And despite the crowns depiction of me, besides my very dated criminal recorded that was committed as a youth and took a majority of my adult life to repay one would be hard pressed to find even a traffic violation on my license.
Thank you for allowing me to speak for myself and should I be ordered to "go to jail" I will do so without incident as requested and follow the appeal process.My very belief in the law, equal to ALL dictates that I submit to your ruling. It is a very unfortunate situation I find myself in and one that I simply could never have predicted but predictably it will be further devastating to my own existence. However, I have a strong moral compass and ethical will and regardless of any further detainment, restrictions to my liberty and constitutional rights I will always stand up for what is right. Often that choice is not a popular one but it is the right one.
Respectfully
Joseph Harms
TORTURED
