Why does CBSA tamper with evidence?

Friday, December 18 2009, Nav Can Center, Cornwall Ontario, Davis vs CBSA Human Rights Tribunal

9:22 am, I am sitting at the Human Rights Tribunal waiting for it to begin.  Most everyone is here allready; Davis team (Teiohontathe Fallan Davis and Kakwerais), Canadian Human Rights Commision (Mr. Brian Smith, Nicole Bacon), and CBSA legal team (Sean Gaudet and assistant, Lucinda Reading and assistant).  The CBSA legal team brought two supporters with them and they are sitting in the public gallery now.

9:27 am, The tribunal is starting now that the chair, Rejean Belanger is here.  He is xplaining that the hearing was suspended early yesterday for internal discussions with the parties (excluding chair).

9:29 am, Sean Gaudet is starting first, because he wants to announce that he CBSA has mysteriously located the original video tape (dvd). Sean stated he provided a copy to Mr. Smith and Ms. Davis, but it only appears portions / of the interactions with Davis and the CBSA officers.  CBSA is not providing a complete interaction of the incident.  Sean Gaudet is also providing a video cassette that is multiplex that consists of 1 second images from several cameras throughout the CBSA port during the Davis incident (he never provided that yet either).  Sean is suggesting to de-multiplex the video before he submits it.

9:32 am, Sean Gaudet is explaining that Davis, Mr Smith, and CBSA legal team watched the DVD yesterday.  Sean Gaudet is explaining that they are speaking with CBSA forensic technician that will work on the dvd and tape recordings.  Sean Gaudet is asking for more time to work on the dvd (de-multiplexed) and that he can provide them by January 15th, 2010.

9:35 am, Sean Gaudet is stating he will also supply a hard-drive that may not contain anything, because they have never looked at it.  Sean Gaudet is suggesting that as they go forward, that CBSA and all parties have looked at the video and that CBSA wants to be sure that the video is submitted as evidence.

9:37 am, Kakwerais is asking the Chair, Rejean Belanger if she can ask a question before she decides if she wants to agree to submit the video as evidence.  Kakwerais is asking to verify exactly what camera’s video is being submitted into as evidence and that each camera’s recordings are submitted as one video for each camera.

9:39 am, Kakwerais is stating that each video submitted, that the camera it comes from is clearly identified.  Kakwerais also stated that the Davis team was not able to view the videos yet. Kakwerais is questioning why the videos are suddenly mysteriously available yesterday and were not available for the past 4 years.

9:41 am, Kakwerais is stating that the videos be given to a third party – independant of CBSA and Davis team to process.  Kakwerais is requesting a copy of the ORIGINAL VIDEOS again.  Davis team has requested the videos since 2005 using the ‘Access to Information Act’.  Kakwerais is requesting that all the original videos be given to a third independant party to process.

9:42 am, Kakwerais is stating that the video she saw yesterday, had breaks in the video.  Kakwerais is stating that the person that provided those videos need to provide details about how they processed it.  Kakwerais is stating that she wants a third party to process the original videos (not the CBSA, not the Davis team, not the Canadian Human Rights Commision).

9:45 am, Sean Gaudet is explaining that CBSA will provide all their own video experts, to explain why their are gaps in the videos provided by CBSA. Sean Gaudet is stating that it’s normal for video recordings to stop and have obvious gaps in the video.

9:46 am, Kakwerais is stating that Sean Gaudet and Human Rights Commision acknowledge that Davis team have asked for those video recordings…. Kakwerais is requesting that CBSA sign an affidavit stating why CBSA was refusing to show the video before?  Kakwerais is explaining that the past witnesses may need to re-testify again too.

9:48 am, Rejean Belanger is agreeing that affidavit’s and witnesses need to testify about why that tape was not produced.  Sean Gaudet is arguing about the admissibility of the tape, Sean is arguing that ‘now that we have the tape, the tape should go into evidence’.

9:49 am, Rejean Belanger  is explaining that the past witnesses should be brought back to discuss the video.  Kakwerais is stating that the video should be submitted, but that she has never been able to view it.  Kakwerais is explaining that it is unfair that Davis witnesses never had the opportunity to view the video first before they testified, while CBSA witnesses will view tape before they testify.

9:52 am, Rejean Belanger is suggesting to give Davis witnesses the opportunity to view the videos, return to the tribunal, and testify again, even correcting their previous statements, because the video may remind them of what they actually saw.

9:54 am, Kakwerais is stating that Davis will agree to have videos submmitted if they are not edited, the chain of custody is explained, witnesses explain why the video was lost for so many years, where did it go, who used it,

9:55 am, Kakwerais is stating that Helene Oakes testified and mentioned her past notes with CBSA.  Mr. Oakes past notes were also taken by CBSA and none of those notes have been disclosed.  Kakwerais is asking for some type of ruling in regards to all the evidence that has not been disclosed.  Evidence can not be with-held until after all the witnesses testify.

9:57 am, Mr. Smith is explaining that its not surprising to hear of the distrust of CBSA, after all the events in this tribunal.  Mr. Smith is concerned about how the CBSA has consistently hidden, refused to provide, and even lied about evidence even existingVACIS machine pictures, radiation reports, notes of CBSA officers.

10:00 am, Kakwerais is explaining that a licensing regulation group never provided a licence to CBSA for that VACIS machine.  Rejean Belanger is interupting Kakwerais, and he is stating that he will not go into that direction, because Davis is not able to provide any medical evidence of any harm that may have done to her.  Rejean Belanger is explaining that it’s not in the best interest of CBSA to hide information.  Rejean Belanger is asking CBSA to provide any other hidden information before January 15th.  Rejean Belanger is stating that he does not know if the tribunal has the necessary resources to provide a third party to review the videos.

10:03 am, Mr. Brian Smith is explaining that he agrees with Rejean Belanger.  Kakwerais is agreeing to allow the CBSA to provide the un-edited videos, hard-drive contents that CBSA hid from Davis since 2005. Kakwerais also wants a full detailed explanation of how and why the videos were hidden from Davis since 2005.

10:09 am, Kakwerais is stating that Sean Gaudet showed her an opened ‘evidence bag’ that contained a video tape.  Kakwerais is asking why it was in an opened bag marked as evidence. Sean Gaudet is agreeing to supply the videos, the evidence envelope & bag, including details about why the video was hidden for so long, why did CBSA claim that the video never existed from 2005 until December 17th 2009, and Sean Gaudet is agreeing to supply the information by January 15th 2010.

10:13 am, Mr. Brian Smith is asking for the CBSA technicians to explain why their are time lapses in the videos.  Mr. Brian Smith is explaining that CBSA hid the videos (CBSA also lied and told Davis that the video did not exist since 2005!)  Sean Gaudet is trying to interupt Mr. Brian Smith.  Mr. Brian Smith is still trying to explain that it is not fair that CBSA receives so much time for each of their requests, while Davis team does not get any time to even review evidence.  Rejean Belanger is telling Davis that maybe she can ask for assistance to review the videos.

10:18 am, Kakwerais is explaining that she wants the original VHS video and wants to be assured that the original VHS video will not be destroyed.   Rejean Belanger, eyebrows are raised is stating that ‘imagine how it will be, if the evidence is destroyed before coming here’

10:21 am, Teiohontathe Fallan Davis is asking why so much other evidence is also not being provided, while other evidence is being provided.  Kakwerais is explaining that many of the notes (evidence that CBSA is also withholding) from CBSA state ’see the tapes’  (proving that CBSA has most certainly hid the tapes from Davis). Rejean Belanger is explaining that each time the missing evidence shows up mysteriously, that does not really help CBSA.  It can cause doubts…

10:23 am, Rejean Belanger is stating that Davis  and all her witnesses, will be given opportunity to look at video and testify again about the portion covered in the video.

10:27 am, Kakwerais asked Sean Gaudet a question in private.  Lucinda Reading and her assistant looked at each other nervously.  Sean is talking quietly with his assistant.  Sean Gaudet is stating that ‘after CBSA supplies video and any other evidence, that Davis can consult with Tribunal to provide a third party to process the video’.  Sean Gauet is stating that Davis may want to call in another expert, and asking if they can all schedule a conferance call for that discussion.  Davis may want to receive assistance from a third party and then provide her own video from the original VHS.

I have a feeling that the so-called mysterious original VHS may not even be the original and may be another edited version of the original.  Why did CBSA state that the videos never existed?????????

10:32 am, Mr. Brian Smith is asking that each camera be identified, is the time, date, camera identified on each video recording?

10:34 am, Kakwerais is asking if they can also receive a video showing Davis leaving the island earlier that day?  Maybe that could also help everyone to discover if the video is actually an original or whether it is yet more tampered evidence.  **

10:36 am, Sean Gaudet is stating that he needs more time to speak with the CBSA technicians.  Rejean Belanger is stating that he does not see the helpfullness of video from another time other than the Davis incident.

10:36 am, Kakwerais is asking if the CBSA technicians were sitting in the room now?  Sean Gaudet said that their is a witness exclusion order, so they are not in the room now.

10:39 am, We are going on break until 10:45 am