SR Vol 27 No 4, October 2009 - Nova Scotia Barristers' Society

Photo by Sydney Cape Breton Post/The Canadian PressConfronting the remnantsof racial prejudiceReaders of Donald Marshall Jr.’s obituary in the Saturday,August 8, edition of the New York Times would have foundthe following statement in the third paragraph:Late on the night of May 28, 1971, Mr. Marshall and a friend,Sandy Seale, went walking in a Sydney park and tried to rob anolder man, Roy Ebsary, who drew a knife and killed Mr. Seale.Come again? The Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall, Jr.,Prosecution spent three years investigating the Marshall case, andheld 89 days of public hearings. It concluded, unequivocally:• “That Sandy Seale was not killed in the course of a robbery,attempted robbery, mugging, or rolling.”• “That Donald Marshall, Jr., told the truth about the eventssurrounding the stabbing whenfirst interviewed by the SydneyCity Police on the night of theincident.”Parker DonhamCommunications Consultant• “That Ebsary and [Jimmy] MacNeil initiated the contact withMarshall and Seale,” and• “That the stabbing was the result of Ebsary’s violent andunpredictable character.”After Marshall’s friends intervened, the New York Times corrected itsobituary and published a gracious retraction September 3. It turnsout the obituary writer had based his faulty account of the murder onJustice Denied, a book by Michael Harris published three years beforethe Marshall Inquiry produced its authoritative report.October 2009 41