by Greg Marquis
Praise for Truth & Honour
“Truth & Honour is highly readable, engrossing, and above all, informative. It should prove to be of great interest to true crime enthusiasts, historians and students of criminology and justice systems.”
—The Miramichi Reader
“Marquis’s...effort offers more important context about the Olands, placing them in the socio-political fabric of a province dominated by a few wealthy families, notably the Irvings and the McCains. As well, Marquis offers more analysis regarding the strengths and weaknesses of purely circumstantial evidence.”
— Quill & Quire
“As a historian, Marquis is used to studying and writing about events in the distant past. The Oland case has given him the chance to observe history unfolding with far-reaching implications in Canadian criminal law.”
— Atlantic Books Today
“This trial captivated the Maritimes. A member of a well-established, very wealthy and influential family is killed and the lead suspect is another member of that family. We love to watch the mighty fall but the case divided a lot of people. Opinions as to Dennis’ guilt are mixed and Marquis does a great job of crafting the timeline of the crime. More thoughtful than your average true-crime book.”
— Goodreads
“Marquis competently and thoroughly explores all aspects of the grisly murder of one of New Brunswick’s richest and most high-profile citizens, and offers a nuanced presentation of a case that devastated and captivated the province.”
— The Halifax Chronicle Herald
Copyright © 2016, 2017 Greg Marquis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission from the publisher, or, in the case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, permission from Access Copyright, 1 Yonge Street, Suite 1900, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5.
Nimbus Publishing Limited
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(902) 455-4286 nimbus.ca
Printed and bound in Canada
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Cover photo: Canadian Press
Cover and interior design: Jenn Embree
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Marquis, Greg, author
Truth and honour : the death of Richard Oland and the trial of Dennis Oland/ Greg Marquis—Updated edition.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-77108-498-7 (softcover)
ISBN 978-1-77108-425-3 (hardcover).
ISBN 978-1-77108-426-0 (html)
1. Oland, Dennis—Trials, litigation, etc. 2. Oland, Richard—Death and burial. 3. Trials (Murder)—New Brunswick—Saint John. 4. Murder—New Brunswick—Saint John. I. Title.
HV6535.C33S3532 2017 364.152'30971532 C2016-908025-0
Nimbus Publishing acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities from the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of Nova Scotia. We are pleased to work in partnership with the Province of Nova Scotia to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.
Richard H. Oland
(1941–2011)
Courtesy Sail Canada
This book is dedicated to D. Gordon Willett, a well-respected Saint John barrister and community volunteer, who in February 1975 was robbed and brutally beaten in his Fredericton hotel room. Michael Alward and Raymond Mooney were arrested and charged with robbery, but when the diminutive eighty-year-old victim died of his injuries, they were prosecuted for murder. The attackers stole $120 in cash and a wristwatch, which one of the accused sold to the other for $5. That watch, when its serial number was matched to a bill of sale, helped send the two men to penitentiary. Mr. Willet, who at the time of his death had been a lawyer for more than fifty years, was the partner of my late father, Henry J. Marquis, Q.C.
A Note on Sources
Court records often contain inaccurate, uncorroborated, and contradictory information. For the most part, this book is based on evidence presented at the 2015 trial of Dennis Oland and the preliminary inquiry that preceded it in 2014. I was limited to exhibits and other evidence presented in court and did not have access to full disclosure in this case.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my wife, Donna, who lived with this project for two years, and my colleagues Professor Nicole O’Byrne and Professor Mary Ann Campbell of the University of New Brunswick, Professor Michael Boudreau of St. Thomas University, clinical and forensic psychologist Bernard Galarneau, lawyer David Lutz, Q.C., and Saint John Chief of Police John Bates, who consented to be interviewed for this project. John Henderson generously provided advice on criminal law and procedure. I need to recognize the special assistance of Christine Robson, administrative assistant for the Department of History and Politics at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, the staff at the Saint John Law Courts, and the helpful people at the Saint John Free Public Library. For photographs I am indebted to Kâté Braydon, Sail Canada, and Canadian Press photographer Andrew Vaughan. Artist Carol Taylor of Rothesay provided courtroom sketches. My sincere thanks to Jim Turnbull for his advice and research. Jim also contributed detailed drone aerial photography. Thanks to regular court attendees Judith Meinert and Alan Heward as well as to those members of the media with whom I shared the long days in court. UNB Saint John Dean of Arts Joanna Everitt allowed me to adjust my 2016 teaching term so that I could devote more time to writing. I appreciate feedback received on the hardcover version of this book from Mary Munford and several other individuals. And special thanks to Whitney Moran and the staff at Nimbus Publishing and editor Elaine McCluskey for helping to make this project happen.
Preface
Since the publication of the hardcover edition of this book, public interest in the Oland case, especially in New Brunswick, has not subsided. People still hold strong views.
The investigation into the violent murder of Richard Oland in his Saint John office and the trial of his son produced two best-selling books, including this one, in 2016. But the case continues to take unexpected turns, which a new chapter in this updated book explores.
Dennis Oland’s legal saga was named the top news story of 2016 by The Telegraph Journal. Viewers of the popular CTV Atlantic evening news voted it one of the top stories of the year, and developments in the case in late 2016 and 2017 have been covered by local and national media, including CBC’s The Fifth Estate.
For the sixth year in a row, the crime was a popular topic at Christmas and New Year’s gatherings and is likely to remain so in the future.
Many persist in believing that Dennis, convicted by a jury of murdering his multi-millionaire father, is a “nice guy” incapable of violence and is simply the victim of circumstance. Others are convinced of his guilt and resent his well-funded legal defence and the outward show of loyalty by his wealthy family and friends and the lack of a single prominent citizen who has publicly spoken of victim Richard Oland receiving justice.
On the other hand, there are signs that many people in Saint John and especially Rothesay have erected a protective bubble around the Oland family. Then there are those who think that Dennis is “probably” culpable but that the Crown did not find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Perhaps they would be satisfied with what the Scots call the “bastard verdict” of “not proven.”
Finally, I have met individuals who have so little sympathy for the victim that they describe the prosecution as a waste of money or assert that Richard Oland “deserved it.” Many of these opinions are a di
rect attack on the jury—an institution that judges and lawyers consider to be key to Canadian democracy. In Chapter 10 (a new chapter) I explore the problem of “trial by public opinion” especially in a “small, insular city” like Saint John.1
Media coverage of the trial and the two books continued to put the Saint John Police Force (SJPF), and its new chief, John Bates, under scrutiny. In October of 2016, Bates announced that Deputy Chief Glen McCloskey, who had been investigated by the Halifax Regional Police and the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service for alleged wrongdoing in the Oland investigation, would not face criminal charges. The SJPF has won other victories since the conviction of Dennis Oland in December 2015, but in many ways controversies lingering from the case continue to cast a large shadow on the force.
As this book goes to print, Dennis Oland is a free man, under bail conditions, living with his family in Rothesay. After spending several months in the federal maximum-security institution at Renous, where he was allegedly assaulted by two younger inmates, he was freed by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in October of 2016. Charges were laid against two violent offenders for the assault.
As explained in this book’s new chapter, Dennis was not acquitted, but his conviction for second-degree murder was quashed, and he was ordered to stand a new trial. In other words, the clock was turned back to early 2015, when the two sides in the case first met to discuss pre-trial matters.
The other important development was that the Supreme Court of Canada, which was under no obligation to do so, agreed to hear Oland’s appeal of the 2016 decision of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal not to release him on bail pending his appeal. Although the issue no longer directly affected Dennis, the Supreme Court agreed that the question of bail was of national importance. That ruling, which was released in March 2017, may be the most important contribution of the Oland case to our country’s legal history.
Unknown, at this point in time, is whether the Supreme Court will grant the Crown leave to appeal the October 2016 ruling of the New Brunswick Court of Appeal that the Oland murder trial was unfair to the accused. The prosecution is seeking a decision that would reinstate the 2015 conviction and force Dennis Oland to serve the remainder of his life sentence. In late March 2017, the defence filed for leave to cross appeal issues stemming from the murder trial, matters that the appeal court refused to consider in quashing the original conviction. The best-case scenario for the defence would be an acquittal. If the Ottawa court refuses to hear the appeal, the two sides will return to court possibly in late 2018 or in 2019.
A new trial, if it comes to pass, will probably be briefer than the proceedings of 2015, but hard fought, especially if the defence introduces new evidence and witnesses. There is also the possibility of new strategies and courtroom tactics, hinted at by the defence team’s request, in the summer of 2016, for further disclosure from the Crown.
The Oland family motto, Verdad Y Honor (Truth and Honour), inspired the title of this book. It remains to be seen the degree to which these principles will play out in the justice system, and in the court of public opinion, in the future.
* * *
1Eric Andrew Gee, “Dennis Oland Case,” Canadian Encyclopedia, http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/dennis-oland-case/
Introduction
July 6, 2011, was a typical summer night in uptown Saint John, New Brunswick, one of the oldest cities in Canada. The central business district was nearly deserted, but on the Market Square boardwalk near the waterfront people were gathering for a popular talent contest. Two blocks to the east, with the exception of a few customers leaving or entering Thandi’s restaurant, things were quiet on Canterbury Street. At some point that evening, a brutal murder was committed in a second-storey office across the street from the restaurant. This was a particularly vicious attack. The pathologist would detect a total of forty-five sharp and blunt-force blows to the head, neck, and hands, with fourteen of them penetrating the skull. For a criminal profiler, this was an example of “overkill”: an excessively violent assault motivated by rage or revenge, sadly typical of many intimate-partner homicides. The victim, who likely died within minutes, lay on the floor possibly for more than fourteen hours before his body was discovered face down in a pool of blood. He was one of the richest individuals in the province, a recipient of the Order of Canada, and a man with an active and adventurous lifestyle. He also had a wife, a son and two daughters, and a brother and sister who lived in the area. Yet when he failed to return home that evening, no family member appears to have attempted to contact Richard Henry Oland by telephone, text message, or email. Statistically speaking, the odds were high that the murder had been committed by a relative, friend, or acquaintance. The odds were also quite high that the killer would be discovered and successfully prosecuted.1
One journalist summed up the Oland case as “a miasma of rumour and prurient fascination,” fuelled by “sex, class and family discord” and characterized by “a series of maddeningly unanswered questions.”2 Responses to the murder, investigation, and subsequent trial suggested class tensions in a city that is experiencing an economic downturn. The size of the community and the need for police to protect the investigation from public scrutiny resulted in intense levels of gossip and rumour, enhanced by social media and unprecedented media attention, which included live tweeting from the courtroom. Although the victim was a member of the elite, the social profile of the accused, Richard’s only son, Dennis Oland, evoked a fatalistic response from many who doubted that he would ever be convicted. The outward solidarity of the accused’s family was interpreted by some not as normal loyalty but an exercise in protecting the Oland family brand, which is linked to Moosehead Breweries. It was almost as if an entire social class was on trial.
This turned into a case where the police chief controlled all statements to the media and where the police struggled to carry out their normal duties in the face of mounting criticism over the lack of an arrest. Although the Saint John Police Force (SJPF) in public described this as just another case of homicide, the chief acknowledged that the victim, Richard Oland, was well known locally, provincially, and nationally. The victim, it gradually became known, was overbearing, narcissistic, ruthless in business, stingy towards his own family, and an adulterer. Despite his reputation as a savvy businessman, much, possibly most, of his considerable fortune was inherited from his own father. The person charged with the murder, in contrast, was described by family and friends as polite, compassionate, kind, a loving husband, and an involved father, the quintessential nice guy. Dennis Oland, a divorced father of three who had recently remarried, lived in a heritage home in the upscale community of Rothesay but was struggling to earn a basic middle-class income. Caught in the squeeze between his lifestyle and income, he was charged and convicted of second-degree murder. Parricide, the killing of a parent, is a crime vilified throughout the ages as the ultimate act of betrayal. According to criminological literature, the typical child who kills a parent is an abused or severely anti-social adolescent or youth who suffers from conduct disorders.
The Oland murder, which many regard as a double tragedy, is intriguing not only because of the prominence of the victim and the accused, but also because of its unprecedented visibility, which included pretrial exposure of many investigatory details in the media. But the most compelling aspect to this story is that the murder was not an open-and-shut case and many in the community remain unconvinced of the son’s guilt. The diversity of opinion can be summed up as follows: (1) those who believe that Dennis Oland is innocent and is the victim of factors such as police tunnel vision, a poorly planned and executed defence, class resentment, or plain bad luck; (2) those who feel that he is guilty, that the police investigation, although not perfect, was adequate and that the Crown met the burden of proof; (3) those who believe that Dennis probably killed his father, but that the evidence against him was thin and he should have been acquitted based on th
e principle of reasonable doubt. The overall impact of the case, for many, was to put the justice system itself, including the police, the institution of the jury, and so-called legal dream teams, on trial. Rarely has a Canadian trial jury, which, according to one author, reflects a community’s “weaknesses and strengths,” been subjected to so much critical commentary—much of it based on a limited understanding of the role of the jury in our justice system.3
The high visibility of this case and its complex interconnections in the community were reflected in what was the largest jury pool in Canadian history: more than five-thousand potential jurors were contacted. Other than Saint John’s small size and the web of connections with the Olands, another reason that explains the intense public interest in the case is the increasing trend in North America for people to play detective. We are inundated with forensics-driven crime dramas on television such as CSI. More recent phenomena are the American public radio series and podcast Serial, about a Baltimore murder case dating from 1999, and the 2015 Netflix series Making a Murderer.
The murder of Richard Oland, the subsequent investigation—with attempts by media outlets to publicize investigatory information a judge had sealed—and the arrest and prosecution of his son, all add up to New Brunswick’s most fascinating crime story since the reign of terror conducted by Allan Legere in 1989. That convicted murderer escaped custody while on a visit to a Moncton hospital. Over a seven-month period, “the monster of the Miramichi” eluded police, terrorized northern New Brunswick’s Miramichi region, and murdered four people: seventy-five-year-old shopkeeper Annie Flam, sisters Linda and Donna Daughney, and sixty-nine-year-old Roman Catholic priest Father James Smith. He also seriously injured and sexually assaulted a fourth woman. The sisters had been sexually assaulted, and all victims had been brutally beaten. Legere was arrested in dramatic circumstances in late 1989 and convicted of four counts of murder in 1991.4 The Legere case was recently overshadowed in New Brunswick by another violent incident that captured national and international headlines: the murder of three RCMP officers and the wounding of two others by twenty-four-year-old Justin Bourque. A young man characterized by substance abuse, paranoia, and a love of firearms, Bourque had no criminal record. His Facebook page was full of pro-gun and anti-police posts. In June of 2014, wearing camouflaged clothing, he went on an anti-police rampage armed with a shotgun, a semi-automatic rifle, and a crossbow. Until his arrest, entire neighbourhoods of Moncton were on lockdown, with people advised to stay in their basements. The sacrifice of the members of the Codiac RCMP detachment, who left behind wives and children, prompted a massive outpouring of grief and support for the police by the citizens of Moncton and beyond, something that far surpassed similar public displays of grief for the four victims of Allan Legere.
