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Joyce Milgaard takes the case to Brian Mulroney

Broadcast Date: Oct. 17, 1991

Joyce Milgaard will do anything to improve her son's chances of getting out of jail. Over a year ago, she confronted Justice Minister Kim Campbell and was rudely brushed off. This time, she's set her sights even higher, holding a vigil for David as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is heading into a Winnipeg hotel. Much to her surprise, Mulroney stops to talk with her. Joyce Milgaard tells the story on the CBC current affairs game show Front Page Challenge.

Joyce Milgaard takes the case to Brian Mulroney

• Joyce Milgaard has said that Kim Campbell's snub in 1990 gave David's plight a boost in the media. The campaign to free him had, until then, been a regional story. But when Campbell hurried past Joyce Milgaard, saying "Ma'am, if you want your son to have a fair hearing, don't approach me personally," the national media picked up on the story and kept it in the news.

• David Milgaard, his mother and his lawyer, David Asper, regrouped after their first application was rejected by the Department of Justice. Six months later, they filed a second application with new evidence that pointed to another man as the murderer: convicted serial rapist Larry Fisher. In 1969, Fisher lived in the same house Milgaard visited on his way through Saskatoon. Gail Miller's body was found just blocks away.

• With the help of a private investigator, Joyce interviewed six women who had been raped by Larry Fisher in Saskatoon and Winnipeg around the time of Gail Miller's murder. In each case, Fisher followed the same pattern as Miller's murderer: grabbing a woman from behind before dragging her into an alley. Some of the women didn't know that anyone had been arrested: Fisher had confessed to some of the rapes and been sent to jail without a trial.

• Joyce Milgaard always believed in her son's innocence, but she didn't start working in earnest for his release until 1980. The family posted a $10,000 reward for information that led to David's freedom and re-interviewed many of the people who crossed paths with David on the day of the murder. She and some supporters also produced a video re-enacting the Crown's theory of the murder and concluded it was impossible.

• After getting the brush-off from Kim Campbell, Joyce Milgaard recorded a song asking the minister to set David free. The recording session took place at a Winnipeg concert venue with professional musicians, and its lyrics, in part, went: "He is not guilty, you have the proof/How can you stand there so cold and aloof?"

• The vigil for Milgaard had been planned to take place outside Stony Mountain in hopes of having him moved to a lower-security facility. Just a day before the vigil, a friend told Joyce Milgaard about Brian Mulroney's visit to Winnipeg for Meech Lake discussions, and the vigil was moved to the hotel where he was speaking.

• In recalling the meeting, Mulroney told the Winnipeg Free Press: "…even the most devoted and loving of mothers would not continue their crusade for 22 years if there was any doubt in her mind. So I went back to Ottawa and I had a much closer look at it…I told the appropriate people I thought a review of this particular case was warranted and I wanted appropriate action taken to bring this about."

• Shortly after Joyce Milgaard's meeting with Brian Mulroney, the Prime Minister's Office began calling Stony Mountain for news on Milgaard's case. The prison warden met with Winnipeg MP Lloyd Axworthy and with Milgaard, who was then moved to the Rockwood Institution, a minimum-security prison adjacent to Stony Mountain.

Joyce Milgaard takes the case to Brian Mulroney

Medium: Television

Program: Front Page Challenge

Broadcast Date: Oct. 17, 1991

Guest(s): Joyce Milgaard

Host: Fred Davis
Panellist: Pierre Berton, Allan Fotheringham, Betty Kennedy, Jack Webster

Duration: 8:17

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Last updated:
Dec. 19, 2006