Feb. 1, 1934: Court gives non-english speaker 3 years as example to others
A Lamont area farmer found guilty of perjury was sentenced to three years in Prince Albert Penitentiary.
Supreme Court of Alberta (now Court of Queen’s Bench) Justice John Robert Boyle said he was passing an “exemplary sentence” on Danko Manchuk because of the tendency of non-English speaking citizens to regard lying on the stand lightly.
“I am inclined to think there is a common impression among the people of foreign tongues that they can lie in the witness box and can’t be convicted of perjury,” Boyle said.
“I feel I would not be doing my duty as a judge of this court if I did not to some extent make this an exemplary sentence.”
Manchuk, a father of nine, was charged with perjury based on statements he’d allegedly made under oath in a trial on a debt charge at Lamont on Nov. 21, 1933.
Manchuk had sworn that he purchased a car and a new tire from an Edmonton man in 1932 and had used the car in 1932 and 1933. The tire had a partially obliterated serial number that Crown counsel required a magnifying glass to read. A second older tire was bought at a second-hand store, Manchuk testified.
However, Andrew Svarich of Vegreville testified he was driving near the Saskatchewan River, north of Bruderheim, in August 1933, when his car broke down. He swore he locked two tires in the back seat and produced a receipt containing the serial number found on the exhibit tire
Two days later, he returned to find his car door had been forced and the tires were missing. Manchuk lived a few hundred feet from where Svarich had left the vehicle.
A tire company employee identified the tire as the one bought by Svarich.
Manchuk’s lawyer tried to have the charge dismissed, arguing that his client had testified with the help of an interpreter and the interpreter or the magistrate hearing the case had misquoted the accused.
“If I had any reasonable doubt in my mind as to the guilt of this man I would not hesitate to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I haven’t the slightest doubt he deliberately committed perjury,”
Boyle said in his ruling.