VANCOUVER –
In Halifax, Denise Pictou Maloney says the trauma and grief from the 1975 homicide of her mom, Indigenous activist Anna Mae Aqaush, has by no means dimmed. Pictou Maloney was 9 when she final noticed her.
In Vancouver, Naneek Graham vividly remembers American FBI brokers visiting her household’s residence in Yukon within the Eighties to threaten her father, John Graham, with prosecution if he did not co-operate with the homicide investigation.
Thirty-five years after the killing, Graham, a member of the American Indian Motion, was convicted of murdering Aquash by taking pictures her behind the top in South Dakota.
For many years, the 2 households on reverse sides of Canada have been unwillingly sure by the legacy of the homicide that rocked the Indigenous motion 49 years in the past, sparking years of authorized wrangling and publicity about who ordered the hit, who carried it out, and why.
Now, Graham, 68, is attempting to return to Canada to serve out the rest of his life sentence. He’s in search of what’s often called a treaty switch from South Dakota and final month utilized to the Federal Court docket of Canada to attempt to transfer the method alongside.
Graham’s daughter stated the case has been a defining thread all through her life, a “horrible nightmare” since her father’s incarceration.
“My dad’s been in jail for fairly a while now and he is prepared to come back residence,” Naneek Graham stated.
“He is at all times maintained his innocence proper from Day 1,” she stated. “He actually simply desires to come back residence.”
However Pictou Maloney stated Graham’s bid to return is “extremely offensive.”
She stated she nonetheless will get goosebumps fascinated with the final time she noticed her mom.
“She acquired down on her knees and appeared me straight within the eye and stated, ‘I would like you to please take care of your sister,”’ she stated. “The second factor she stated was, ‘at all times communicate the reality.”’
Pictou Maloney stated the Nova Scotia-born Aquash returned to the U.S. towards the desires of her household, who needed her to remain in Canada to keep away from each U.S. legislation enforcement and the American Indian Motion, which had suspected Aquash of being an informant.
“That was her goodbye as a result of I believe she knew that issues had been going to go terribly incorrect for her,” Pictou Maloney stated. “She had to return to show that she wasn’t the particular person they had been accusing her of.”
As a substitute of clearing her title, Aquash’s physique was found on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in early 1976.
It might take many years earlier than two members of the American Indian Motion, Graham and Arlo Wanting Cloud, had been tried and convicted of the homicide. However Pictou Maloney stated those that ordered the hit had been by no means delivered to justice.
Graham’s case turned a trigger celebre, along with his proposed extradition opposed by some Canadian politicians, unions and First Nations representatives. Some supporters believed he was harmless and unfairly focused by American legislation enforcement.
However he was despatched to the US in 2007 and was convicted in late 2010, leading to a life sentence in jail in South Dakota the place he stays.
‘OUR CLIENT DESERVES BETTER’
Controversy over Graham’s extradition has continued.
The B.C. Court docket of Enchantment in 2022 discovered his Constitution rights had been breached, as a result of, whereas Graham was extradited to face a federal cost of first-degree homicide, he was as an alternative convicted on state expenses, and a waiver permitting the swap was improperly granted by Canada’s justice minister.
Graham now desires to return to Canada, a bid that has been held up for years. His legal professionals say in an software submitted to the Federal Court docket of Canada final month that the switch has hit a snag as a result of South Dakota officers “didn’t comply” with requests for the paperwork wanted to course of it.
The courtroom software seeks to compel Canada’s public security minister to request the paperwork.
“The minister has unreasonably delayed in deciding on whether or not to make a direct request to the State of South Dakota for the required documentation. The minister undoubtedly has the facility to make such a direct request of the State of South Dakota,” says Graham’s Federal Court docket software.
The delay, Graham claims, has “undermined” his proper to request a switch underneath the Worldwide Switch of Offenders Act.
South Dakota Assistant Legal professional Common Paul Swedlund stated in an e mail that the allegations made to the Federal Court docket “will not be correct,” and the state opposes Graham’s return to Canada.
“These crimes had been dedicated within the State of South Dakota and, due to this fact, it’s within the State of South Dakota the place Graham should serve his sentence,” Swedlund stated.
Graham’s lawyer Marilyn Sandford stated in an interview that the waiver problem stays excellent and is separate from his treaty switch software.
She stated repeated makes an attempt to speak with U.S. authorities and jail officers have not produced outcomes.
“Within the meantime, we’ve got a consumer within the background who’s languishing and who’s in custody out of the country removed from his household,” Sandford stated. “We write and we write and we write and we appear to get nowhere and by no means get a solution, and I believe our consumer deserves higher than that.”
Sandford stated Graham has been caught in a “horrible scenario” as he awaits phrase on his switch bid.
“I have been all the way down to see him and it isn’t a pleasing factor to see a Canadian stranded in custody so removed from residence,” she stated.
The Ministry of Public Security deferred touch upon Graham’s case to the Correctional Service of Canada, which stated in an emailed assertion that it “is conscious of John Graham’s software to the Federal Court docket of Canada.”
The assertion stated, “for privateness causes, we can not touch upon particular instances.”
Naneek Graham stated her father “has a proper to his aspect of his story and his fact, however he is by no means been capable of share that, and he desires to share it.”
“He desires folks to know what occurred in all these lies, and he is by no means been capable of communicate for himself, ever,” she stated.
“He is been sitting in jail for over 16 years now for one thing that he did not do, and never having the ability to inform his fact is actually heartbreaking, it is unhappy.”
However for Pictou Maloney, John Graham’s bid to get again to Canada represents one other thorn of intergenerational trauma 50 years after her mom’s homicide.
She stated the killing was emblematic of the perils confronted by Indigenous ladies from inside and with out, once they increase their voices in opposition to oppression.
“There are lots of people on the market that wish to see me silenced, and I’d say that simply from realizing my threat as an Indigenous lady out right here talking the reality with what occurred to my mom,” she stated.
“He is capable of attraction as a lot as he can,” stated Pictou Maloney of Graham. “You understand, my solely want is that my mom acquired to come back residence too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed March 24, 2024.
