Leonard Peltier may still have his day in court. After 18 years of stalling, the Canadian government has agreed to officially reevaluate its 1976 extradition of Peltier to the United States, where he has been imprisoned ever since on murder charges.
Peltier was accused of killing two FBI agents in a standoff at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in June 1975. Overwhelming evidence suggests that he did not kill the agents and that the U.S. government’s case against Peltier is full of holes.
Peltier fled to Canada where he asked for political asylum. But he was extradited based on evidence provided by the FBI which later proved to be fabricated. The FBI, unable to come up with sufficient evidence to extradite Peltier, turned to a woman with a history of mental illness, Myrtle Poor Bear. Poor Bear was coerced into singing a false affidavit which stated that Peltier was her boyfriend and that she saw him shoot the two agents.
When they were in opposition, dozens of Liberal MPs demanded that the case be reopened, including Montreal-area MP Warren Allmand, a former Solicitor General. Allmand asked Liberal Justice Minister Allan Rock to review the Peltier case in March of this year. Leonard Peltier’s supporters are hoping that Ottawa will make a formal diplomatic request to have Peltier returned to Canada. This would increase pressure on U.S. justice authorities to reopen the case.
