QUICK FACTS:

 

John Graham was arrested in Vancouver in early December, 2003 on an American indictment and is now living under house arrest, awaiting an extradition hearing. He is a 48-year old Canadian native man from Whitehorse, Yukon Territories. Among other things, he is a father to eight, pipe layer, community organizer and AIM activist. In 1975 he was in the region when the FBI instigated a shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota

"My greatest fear is that the U.S. will use the same kind of flimsy and trumped-up evidence that they used against Leonard Peltier to justify the extradition of John Graham, a Canadian citizen, to the U.S.," said Amnesty International member Bob Newbrook, a retired police officer who arrested Peltier in Alberta in 1976.  - (THE PROVINCE, DECEMBER 5, 2003)

John is charged with the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, who was a friend and comrade of his in the American Indian Movement. He has repeatedly stated that he is not guilty of this crime. We believe that the charges against him have been manufactured by the FBI - aas part of their ongoing war against AIM and against self determination for Indigenous people


In the weeks before she disappeared, Anna Mae confided to John that she had been detained and threatened by FBI Officer David Price who told her that she would not live out the year if she didn't become an FBI informer.

John dropped Anna Mae at a safe house near the Pine Ridge Reservation. It was the last time he saw her alive.

When Anna Mae's frozen body was discovered on the reservation, FBI Agent David Price was one of the first to examine the body. He claimed he could not identify Anna Mae, despite having interviewed her. He had the hands cut off, sent to Washington for identification. Her body was buried as a Jane Doe. The cause of death was listed as "exposure:" The first coroner "missed" the bullet hole in the back of Anna Mae's head. Agent Price claimed there was no need to have a criminal investigation.

An exhumation and a second autopsy occured. Our understanding is that people within AIM asked for this. The 2nd coroner was able to identify the bullet hole.

Media sources in the U.S. and Canada are already running stories that assume John's guilt. These stories can be traced back to a man named Paul DeMain, who runs a newspaper and website called "News from Indian Country." It claims to be an independent media source, but in our opinion, should be treated with grave suspicion. DeMains' main purpose is to perpetuate positions invented by the FBI. DeMain also makes it his business to personally contact anyone who expresses an opposite point of view. DeMain has spawned a number of websites - including the "Indigenous Women for Justice."


We are alarmed by a mentality that equates justice for Anna Mae with convicting John Graham - whether or not there is any real evidence. Initially, we invited the family of Anna Mae to come to Vancouver and meet John personally. They did not agree to this. Now, due to John's bail conditions, this is no longer possible. But, we urge them to look in the direction of the people who most strongly point the finger at John Graham. We believe the real killer is hidden among them.

 

 

Background

There are many tragedies which resulted from the shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation and subsequent events of nearly 30 years ago. These include the deaths of Lakota people, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Canadian activist Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash.

In an effort to gain convictions for the deaths of the FBI agents, a continuing abuse of the justice system by the FBI has ensued, involving the fabrication of evidence and the use of false testimony and fraudulent affidavits. Perhaps the most infamous result of these tactics was the illegal extradition of Leonard Peltier from Canada to face charges for the deaths of the two agents.

Amnesty International has condemned the fact that the FBI knowingly used false evidence to obtain the extradition of AIM activist Leonard Peltier from Canada in December 1976.

~ Amnesty International - Statement on the arrest of John Graham, December 12, 2003

Warren Allmand, a former justice minister, and the judge who extradited Peltier later said they would never have agreed to his extradition had they known some affidavits and evidence presented by the U.S. were false.

~ As reported in The Province, December 05, 2003

While John Graham was not present at the actual Pine Ridge shootout, he was in the area at the time working with AIM as a junior security guard and assisting with routine activities. In the months following, AIM activists and other aboriginal people were regularly rounded up and interrogated, causing many to fear for their safety.

Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash was a friend and fellow activist from Canada. A Mi’qmak aboriginal woman from Nova Scotia, Anna Mae was also experiencing continued harassment by the FBI who believed she knew the identity of the shooter responsible for the FBI deaths. Several months after the shootout, after having expressed concern for her own safety to friends and family, Anna Mae was found dead on the Pine Ridge reservation, having suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head.

There are many questions that surround the death of Anna Mae, including the failure of the FBI agents to identify her while examining her body — even though they had interrogated her just weeks before — burying her in an anonymous grave and sending only her hands to FBI Headquarters for identification, and the failure of the FBI-led autopsy to detect the bullet wound — a wound which was immediately detected in a later autopsy — stating only that she had died of exposure.

An FBI-sanctioned pathologist missed the bullet hole in the back of her head and said she died of exposure. Still unable to identify her, Norman Zagrossi, an FBI regional supervisor based in Washington, DC, ordered her hands chopped off. "Our experts in Washington suggested and told us that the proper procedure was to cut off the hands, put them in jars with formaldehyde and send them to Washington, which we did. I never had before..."

~ As reported by the CBC's Fifth Estate, November 08, 2000

It was a mutilation that even twenty-five years later outrages the native community. A second autopsy with a different pathologist showed a bullet still lodged in her head. Zagrossi knew it looked like an FBI cover-up attempt, and he angrily phoned the first pathologist. "It looked like we were involved, it looked like we were trying to cover something up when in fact we weren't," said Zagrossi.

~ As reported by the CBC's Fifth Estate, November 08, 2000

Over the past decade, members of the FBI have made four trips to the Yukon to visit John Graham, asking him to identify Anna Mae’s murderer and offering him immunity from any related charges. They also warned that if John did not comply, they would in turn bring charges against him for the crime. During their fourth and last visit to the Yukon, the agents informed John that it would be the last time they would come to see him.

Living up to their promise, after extensive and questionable interrogations of John’s co-accused Arlo Looking Cloud, the FBI charged John Graham with the murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash.

The family and friends of John Graham, including numerous supporters, human rights and First Nation organizations, and the Honourable Yukon Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary Larry Bagnell, are now calling on the Canadian government and all involved with this process to provide great scrutiny to the evidence presented in the extradition hearing.

Amnesty is urging Canadian authorities to ensure that there is rigorous scrutiny of any evidence brought against him. If Graham should be brought to trial in the US, Amnesty International will seek assurances that his right to a fair trial is fully respected.

~ Amnesty International - Statement on the arrest of John Graham, December 12, 2003

We are deeply concerned about the safety of Mr. John Graham and the legality of the procedures in Canada.

~ Günter Wippel, Menschenrechte (Human Rights) 3000, Germany, December 14, 2003

In the wake of the experiences of Maher Arar and comments by the American Ambassador Paul Cellucci that the United States will "do what it has to do" to protect U.S. national security, and that homeland security comes first even before respect be given to the Canadian passport, there is strong sentiment that Canadians do not receive the proper respect and consideration by the U.S.

We believe that should an extradition occur under questionable circumstances, the public reaction would be loud, swift, and highly critical of the Canadian government for allowing it.