Innocence and Proof: R. v. John Alexander MacKenzie
| Author | Joel E. Pink |
| Pages | 3-25 |
Innocence
and
Proof:
R.
v.
John
Alexander
MacKenzie
JOEL
E.
PINK,
QC
2002
Johnnie MacKenzie,
as he was
known
to his
friends,
accumulated
a
host
of
criminal convictions during
the
years
he
lived
in
Ontario
from
the
mid-1970s
to the
mid-1980s. These convictions included common assault, assault caus-
ing
bodily harm,
theft
under $200,
and
wounding with
the
intent
and
dis-
charging
a
firearm—for
which
he was
sentenced
to two
years less
a
day.
In
1986 MacKenzie decided
to
return
to his
native Antigonish, Nova
Scotia,
to
embark
on a new
beginning.
He
wanted
to
have
a
home
on
Beech
Hill Road,
an
area where
his
parents
and
grandparents once lived.
In
August
of
that year, having accumulated
a few
dollars, Johnnie partially realized
his
dream
by
purchasing
a
piece
of
property
at a tax
sale
in
Beech Hill.
The
par-
cel
of
land, almost
a
hectare
in
extent,
was
used
as a
garbage
dump
by
local
residents. However, there
was one
clear patch
of
land
on the
property which
Johnnie
developed
as the
site
for his
mobile home. Once
he
settled
in, his
troubles began.
MacKenzie
had
three
neighbours-John
Boucher, Joey Deon,
and
Edmond
Deon-who
all
lived within
one or two
kilometres
of
him. Over
the
next eighteen months,
for
reasons unknown
to
Johnnie, these
men all
relent-
lessly
violated
his
peace
and
tranquility
by
continually harassing him, both
as
a
group
and
individually. They dumped garbage
on his
property; tore
up his
front
lawn
and
garden with
an
all-terrain
vehicle;
threatened
to
cause
him
3
4
JOEL
PINK
death; chained
and
nailed
his
back door
so he
couldn't
get out of his
resi-
dence; committed
a
break
and
enter
into
his
residence; knocked
on his
back
door during
the
early morning hours
to
awaken him; dismantled
his
propane
tank; bulldozed
his
driveway; tore down
his
front
gate; captured
his
dog,
put
it
on a
rope,
and
dragged
it
down
the
dirt road behind
an
all-terrain vehicle,
eventually
killing
it;
placed stolen property
on his
property
and
then called
the
RCMP
on
him; killed
his cat and
left
it on his
back steps; shot holes
in his
mailbox;
and
fired
gunshots
in the
vicinity
of his
trailer.
MacKenzie
lived
in
constant
fear
of
John Boucher, Edmond Deon,
and
Joey
Deon.
He
pleaded with
all
three
men to
stay
off his
property,
but
they
ignored
him and
laughed
at
him. They took advantage
of
him-a
meek
and
mild
man-at
every opportunity. These
men
made
life
so
miserable that
it
would have driven most people
to
move elsewhere.
MacKenzie,
however,
never
gave
in to
their cruel acts.
He
felt
he had
every right
to
live
peacefully
wherever
he
wished,
and he
wanted
to
live
in
Beech Hill.
He
refused
to be
forced
out by
these men.
The
harassment became
so
intolerable that
MacKenzie
began
to
sleep
on his
floor
with prayer beads, hoping that
the
bul-
lets
fired in the
vicinity
of his
trailer would
not hit
him.
He
turned
to
alcohol
to
calm
his
nerves.
For the six
weeks
before
June
23,
1989, MacKenzie never
saw
a
sober day.
On
June
23,
1989,
he
drank most
of the day
with
his
friend
William Cooger. According
to a
forensic
toxicologist, Johnnie's blood/alcohol
concentration
at
4:30 a.m.
on
June
24
would have read between
281 and 330
milligrams
of
alcohol
per 100
millilitres
of
blood.
Between
3:30
and
4:00
on the
morning
of
June
24,
Lorraine Boucher,
the
wife
of
John Boucher,
testified
that
she
heard gunshots.
Not
realizing
the
significance
of
what
she
heard,
she
drifted
back into
a
sound sleep, without
her
husband
by her
side, until
the
morning.
A
neighbour, Daniel Girrior,
heard three shots
at
4:17 a.m.
on
June
24,
then another
two
shots
at
4:58 a.m.,
and,
a few
minutes
later,
he
heard
two
more
shots.
He
testified
that,
on
each
occasion,
he
looked
at the
clock
in his
bedroom. According
to
Girrior,
it was
not
unusual
to
hear gunshots
in
Beech
Hill
at any
hour
of the day or
night.
William Gogger,
who was
staying with MacKenzie
on
June
24 in his
trailer,
woke
up
between 4:30
and
4:45 a.m., according
to his
watch,
and saw
Johnnie
sitting
at the
kitchen table with
a
beer
in his
hand.
In
the
early morning hours
of
June
24,
Lorraine Boucher discovered
the
body
of her
husband
and
called
the
RCMP.
Officers
responded
to the
scene
immediately. They discovered John Boucher, deceased,
on his
front
lawn.
On
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