Haggard and puffy-eyed yet stoic, Alberta MP Jack Ramsay was led away to begin serving nine months in jail yesterday for trying to rape a 14-year-old three decades ago -- while his aboriginal victim and native leaders criticized what they called a light sentence.
Mr. Ramsay hugged his wife, Glenna, and four adult children before he was taken into custody by RCMP officers for the 1969 offence. At the time the offence occurred, it carried a maximum 10-year sentence plus a whipping with a cat-o'-nine-tails.
Lawyers for the disgraced Alberta MP moved immediately to have Mr. Ramsay, 62, released on bail pending appeal. Those documents were filed in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal yesterday afternoon and Mr. Ramsay was released last night.
Mr. Ramsay was the justice critic for the Reform Party (now the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance), but declared himself an independent after his conviction. He continues to draw his $66,900 public salary, as well as a $22,100 tax-free allowance and $12,000 expense account. He has said he will not resign his seat in Parliament unless all avenues of appeal are exhausted. While the president of the Canadian Alliance constituency association for the riding of Crowfoot, Alta., said it will be tough for Mr. Ramsay to serve his constituents from behinds bars, there is no local pressure on him to resign.
"It has marked him," Ken Perreault said of the conviction. "But if he ever clears his name and goes back to Parliament, Ottawa's going to have one heck of an MP who's seen both sides, inside and out, of the justice system in this country."
Mr. Ramsay was convicted last November of the attempted rape in 1969 of a 14-year-old girl while he was an RCMP corporal at the northern Saskatchewan native reserve of Pelican Narrows.
He resigned from the Mounties in 1971, after 14 years in uniform. He went on to lead the now-defunct Western Canada Concept separatist party in the 1980s before his election as a Reformer in 1993. He was expelled from the Reform Party caucus after his arrest.
On Monday, Mr. Ramsay will again appear in a court in Melfort, Sask., to face a charge of unlawfully confining another young female in the same community in 1969.
Only two years ago, Mr. Ramsay called for, among other things, tougher sentences against sex offenders.
Mr. Ramsay has said that the 1969 incident amounted to an "inappropriate act" and that victim lied about being raped. Jurors convicted him of the lesser offence of attempted rape.
Asked yesterday if he had anything to say before sentencing, Mr. Ramsay said, "No, Your Honour. All I can do is reiterate my innocence to the charge."
His victim, now 44, said that the nine months imposed by Mr. Justice G. E. (Ted) Noble of Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench was insufficient.
"Nine months is not very long at all," she said. "It's enabling the guy to continue on."
Critics have said Mr. Ramsay's decision to stay in Parliament is outrageous. MPs can be barred from sitting in the House of Commons if convicted and sentenced to two years or more in jail. Mr. Ramsay had once argued in the Commons that MPs should be thrown out if they are sentenced to any jail time at all.
Communist Fred Rose was the last MP to be expelled from the House of Commons, when he was convicted of spying in 1947. Louis Riel was twice expelled from Parliament in the 1870s.
But Mr. Ramsay has strong support from his family and community, Mr. Perreault said, adding that the MP will have to decide in the fall whether he will allow his name to stand as the Canadian Alliance candidate in the next federal election.
Conditions of his bail include that he must keep the peace, report to court when required and continue to live at his current home.
The three-day rape trial in Melfort, Sask., largely came down to the word of the accused against that of the victim.
Jurors heard the victim, who by court order cannot be identified, describe a one-minute sexual encounter in which she said Mr. Ramsay had intercourse with her standing up in his RCMP office.
In a statement to police he said he asked the girl to unzip her pants if she wanted to have sex with him. It was, he said, a joke. He then walked down the police station hallway for a few minutes and said he did not expect her to be standing there when he returned, with her jeans unzipped. He said he became sexually aroused and placed his hands on the girl's waist. But he then thought better of the situation and backed off.
In a 1998 telephone conversation between Mr. Ramsay and his accuser, covertly recorded by the RCMP, the MP is heard telling the woman that he was "ashamed" of what happened, that he had mistakenly "thought she was attracted to him."
The sentencing judge called the crime a serious assault on the victim's privacy and dignity and said he wanted to send a strong message with the sentence.
"Retribution is clearly called for given the accused's moral blameworthiness," Judge Noble said. Calling the encounter between a young teen and the 29-year-old RCMP officer an "egregious mistake," the judge said that while Mr. Ramsay has suffered "substantial harm" to his political aspirations, "the accused, in my opinion, abused both his office and his position of trust when he assaulted the complainant."
The victim said her life has been changed by the incident and that it seemed the judge failed to realize this.
"I'm still numb," she said. "I'm still shocked. I don't think he's got any remorse."
Asked if the judge understood the impact the assault has had on her, she said: "I don't think so."
Chief Ron Michel of the native band at Pelican Narrows said Mr. Ramsay never got close to the community while serving as a Mountie there. He said residents would be "stunned" by the sentence.
During a sentencing hearing last month, defence lawyer Morris Bodnar, a former Liberal MP, had argued for a conditional sentence that his client might serve in the community.