Law student angered by court treatment

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A Native law student who butted into a conversation between a lawyer and two other people when she thought she heard racial slurs does not think she had her day in court.

Nancy Dion was given a conditional discharge by provincial Justice Percy Marshall Dec. 22 after he found her guilty of assaulting a police officer and causing a public disturbance in an Edmonton restaurant last February.

"I'm angry," she said. "I'm surprised at how racist the justice system is. The police were believed and they were brutal. But none of that is important. It happens all the time."

The 44-year-old Metis, who will not have a criminal record, was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and nine months probation because Percy felt she was "the author of her own misfortune."

Dion was arrested and charged after she got into an argument with lawyer Douglas Todd at a Humpty's restaurant last Feb. 22.

The University of Alberta first-year law student jumped into a conversation between Todd, his client and a government officials over a golf course development near Drumheller when she thought she overheard racist remarks about Natives.

"His tone was racist," Dion said. "I wish I'd never spoken to them. But once I'd spoken to them, I felt I had to make my point."

Dion asked the three if they were going to steal or develop Indian land. Todd told her in return that she should examine her own Native culture is she were looking for examples of savagery and brutality.

At that point, Dion threatened to slap Todd if he said one more word, and asked a restaurant employee to take down his name.

The employee asked Dion to leave. When she refused, the employee called for a security guard and then the police.

When the two officers arrived and began to question her, the younger of the two appeared to want a confrontation, she said. When she refused to give her name, the officer began to push her around the restaurant.

The police report said Dion began to swear at the officers, throw sugar and overturn tables.

"I probably did swear," she said. "They knocked me around from table to table. The younger policeman seemed proud of himself."

But Dion denied she caused a disturbance by knocking over any tables or throwing objects. Dion said she was in fact physically restrained, manacled, punched in the stomach and taken out to the patrol car by the two officers. At one point, she said she accidentally bit a police officer when he shoved his hand into her mouth, making it hard for her to breathe.

"I was terrified. I really thought they had gone amok. I thought they would take me some place and kill me...They were not acting like police. There was no harm in fighting, I was afraid. I was fighting what I thought were two crazy people."

Dion went rigid to prevent them from putting her inside the car, but once in, she continued to swear and struggle.

The police later found a diary in Dion's handbag which was used in court to assess she was depressed.

"But that's simply not the case," she said.

Dion's lawyer, Kirk MacDonald, said the police had the legal grounds to search his client's purse and read the diary.

"The officer, given her behavior, had the right to do it."

MacDonald is currently searching the judge's decision for grounds to appeal.

Although angry with the ruling, Dion said she has not decided if she will appeal.