Love Letters, or what?--Part 2

Considering the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal was a quasi-judicial agency, there was no excuse for me in sending any personal letters at all to the adjudicator who was involved in my case at the beginning.  I just wasn't aware of it at the time.  In the regular courts, one of the first things that happens in an appeal is that the matter is sent to the original judge on the case.  And I didn't know that.  I should've been more careful to keep the business and personal matters separate.  [Never mind the fact that there had been flirting in between the hearings on my hearing day.]

My landlord/tenant case was somewhat complicated but it was even more so than I realized.  And I knew the adjudicator might not share all the same concerns I did, although there had seemed to be a genuine effort at fairness at the hearing.  And I ended up writing more than one personal letter without waiting for a response between--but I wasn't planning to continue writing.  I wrote about a half dozen short notes or letters before I decided to stop.  And then I got a phone call from the police!  I was living in the city of Thunder Bay, in northwestern Ontario, and these police were from Kingston in the southeast. 

It was hard for me to understand exactly what the police complaint was about, at the time.  There were elements of the landlord/tenant matter mixed into it.  And I really hadn't meant to bother anyone!  I contacted the Information and Privacy Commissioner's office to see if I could get my personal letters returned to me--I wanted them.  But they didn't have the authority to order their return.  I didn't know that it would've been helpful to obtain a copy of the police report and that their office could've helped with that.  This report was the missing evidence in my trial about seven months later. 

After the phone call from the police, I felt quite distressed and I spent time writing to another executive, although not an adjudicator, at the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal.  There were quite a number of these letters.  My "indecent" letter had also come up and I soon tried to apologize for it--and I got arrested because it was seen as further contact, which I wasn't supposed to have.  [I knew I was taking a chance but I didn't know what else to do--without money for a better lawyer--and I thought I'd have a chance to explain at a fair criminal trial.--But I've explained I don't believe the trial was fair, for a number of reasons--including my lawyer's incompetence and that there was some dishonesty on the prosecution side.] 

Regardless of everything that happened, I want to say I'm sorry for sending the personal letters and I never should've sent any! 

[Note:  There ended up being a second or third police report but they were based somewhat arbitrarily on the first report; and they weren't helpful to me.  I'd have needed the first report in order to understand what the actual complaint against me was.--And it was complicated!--It was only about 6 months after my first trial and conviction that I was able to see the complete police reports.]

Love Letters, or what?

When I sent a few personal letters to an Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal office in 1998, there were misunderstandings on both sides.  And the situation escalated from there over the coming months.  One time, I sent an indecent letter as a joke.  I didn't mean to interfere in the official landlord/tenant business which was being conducted through other ORHT offices but it was sometimes hard to keep the business and personal matters separate.  It was the first time I was directly involved in any court or quasi-judicial agency and I didn't know what all the rules were.  If I'd known better, of course I wouldn't have sent any personal letters at all.

In the criminal court, some police deliberately withheld evidence and my young lawyer from Legal Aid* wasn't sharp enough to go after it.  He also had a conflict of interest in my case and didn't represent me properly.  The law society later told me I would've had grounds to sue him.  Myself, I had almost no knowledge of how criminal cases were handled, at that time.  It was only later when I learned to understand what the mistakes were and it was too late to do anything about them, more or less. 

Within the criminal process, some of the police had also referred to me as a "love-obsessed stalker" and that's what a lot of people heard about me.  But it wasn't a true picture, in my opinion, and it wasn't the whole picture.

*Some other lawyers from Legal Aid, who have assisted me over the years, have been more experienced and have provided excellent service.