Throughout History Justice Is Not Always Served

To understand a nation you should know its history. Once you start digging through the past it will be inevitable meeting people fighting for all the great things, which as Winston Churchill once said “are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope”. Unfortunately the path to achieve this greatness often passes through slavery, injustice, dishonor, cruelty, despair and death. That is clearly expressed in the story of Marie-Joseph Angélique, one of the biggest mysteries and Louis Riel, one of the biggest heroes in Canadian history.

To appraise the fairness of the trials of Marie Joseph Angélique and Louis Riel we need to understand what constitutes a fair trial. In criminal proceedings today, the meaning of fair trial is assessed by the following criteria; the right to be notified of charges in a timely manner, the right to adequate time and means for the preparation of a defense, the right of the accused to defend him or herself, or the right to a counsel chosen by the accused and the right to communicate privately with the counsel, the right not to incriminate oneself, the right to appeal at first instance to a higher court, but most of all a defendant must be entitled to an impartial judge and jury. Thus, if a judge’s interest in a trial is both personal and substantial, the defendant’s due-process rights are violated. Furthermore, fair trial might be impeded by witness’s intimidation, non-disclosure of evidence, through malice or through abuse of public interest immunity. Moreover, the right to a “public” trial and the right of public access to trials, work together to protect against judicial bias or tyranny. Sometimes, however, the two rights are at odds, as when publicity before or during the trial produce prejudice against the defendant, thus violating due process.

To make an objective judgment about the trials of Angélique and Riel we must understand the time at which the events occurred, the...