A Note of Thanks from Wrongfully Imprisoned Alberta Grandmother Helen Naslund

Wrongfully jailed Alberta abuse survivor, farmer, and grandmother Helen Naslund (shown with one of her grandkids) wrote the letter below to share how much it means to her that over 22,000 have signed a support petition, and others have written cards and letters. “All this public attention is a huge overload for me,” Helen writes. “Yet at the same time it does help to give me strength.” (Details on how you can support Helen are included below too).

 

It is truly astounding that Helen received an 18-year sentence for defending herself after 27 years of a brutal coercive-controlling marriage in which she faced the constant threat of being killed by her abusive husband.

 

Helen truly appreciates all who have signed our petition (keep sharing this link: https://www.change.org/p/this-grandmother-of-8-should-not-be-in-jail-please-support-her-appeal/ ) and written cards and letters (see below for how you can do this). People have signed the petition far and wide, including from Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Chile, Japan, India, Pakistan, Hungary, Poland, Guyana, Italy, Egypt, Ireland, South Africa, Argentina, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Cameroon, Tunisia, Lebanon, Israel, Greece. Male violence against women is a truly global pandemic.

 

In addition, leading advocates who work the frontlines in the struggle to end male violence against women and children have been incredibly supportive of Helen and the appeal she has launched. You can read more about that below. 

 

But first, a note from Helen:

Hello Everyone,

This is Helen Naslund. I have a much needed message to pass along to all the kind, caring supporters who have taken the time and shown their interest in signing the petition in support of the appeal of my sentence. 

 

There are many that have sent me a card and a letter expressing their sincere concern and positive support. However, there are also thousands of people across the country whose names I do not know but who have signed the petition. I do not have the words to thank you all enough. And a special thank you to Matthew Behrens and those who helped him with this incredibly overwhelming support group that is in progress. 

 

I have always been a very private person. Having said that, all this public attention is a huge overload for me. Yet at the same time it does help to give me strength. I need to power through this hellish situation I am in. 

 

Thank you all again for all your kind words and positive support. I truly appreciate all that you are doing.

 

Sincerely,

Helen

 

The support that Helen references has been seen from coast to coast to coast.

Jan Reimer, the Executive Director at the Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters, put the issue clearly when she wrote: "For 30 years society failed to provide Helen Naslund with a basic human right, her right to safety, and now we see her being incarcerated for 18 years. She suffered this abuse and also saw the impact it had on her children over and over again. If a man had been held hostage by terrorists for 30 years and then killed his captors to escape we would applaud his courage, bravery and endurance. Because she killed her captor, a domestic violence terrorist, we shame and sentence her to life in prison. How does the justice system reconcile this contradiction?"

 

Lise Martin of Women’s Shelters Canada, which represents over 600 nationwide shelters and women’s support services, wrote: "We trust a successful appeal that takes into account the time she has already 'served' – 27 years in a domestic prison and now over six months in federal prison – will bring an end to the punishment this abuse survivor must endure."

 

Jenny Wright of Newfoundland and Labrador, who has spent decades working to end male violence against women in that province, noted that: "Such a cruel and disproportionate sentence against Ms. Naslund erases 40 years of vital advocacy – culturally and systemically – to educate society about what gender-based violence is and its devastating impact on victims, families, communities and society as a whole."

 

JoAnne Brooks of the Women's Sexual Assault Centre of Renfrew County writes: "Thankfully, Helen Naslund did not become another femicide statistic. If the proper supports and services needed to address the unending epidemic of male violence against women had been in place and available to her, she would likely not be behind bars today. If a true understanding of the dynamics faced by Helen Naslund had been at play throughout her judicial journey, then we would have seen a far less severe outcome.”

 

Myrna Dawson of the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability writes: "Helen Naslund’s case is stark evidence that years of alleged education and training for justice system actors have failed miserably in this jurisdiction. It also begs the question of how many other similarly situated women in this country have been failed. We need answers to these questions, fast. In the short term, Helen Naslund’s experiences of violence and how she was ultimately forced to respond are not her failings. These are our failings. They are society’s failings. A more compassionate and appropriate response is crucial. We support Helen Naslund’s appeal for justice."        

Helen still faces a challenging road ahead. While Helen is appealing her sentence, we will continue to build public support and awareness to end her nightmare and to prevent similar ones from taking place in the first place.

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

 

1. Take a Selfie of support while holding a statement like “I Stand With Helen Naslund: Stop Punishing Survivors!” or “Helen Naslund Should Not Be In Jail for Surviving” or “Jailing Women Who Defend Themselves is a Crime, #StandWithHelen”, etc. 

 

2. When you post your selfie, share a few words about why you are doing this, and include a link to the petition in support of Helen: https://www.change.org/p/this-grandmother-of-8-should-not-be-in-jail-please-support-her-appeal (If you are not on social media, email it to tasc@web.ca and we can share it for you on the Women Who Choose to Live Facebook page) 

 

3. Email a copy of your selfie to Women Who Choose to Live at tasc@web.ca, and we’ll be sure to send a copy to Helen. 

 

4. If you would like to write a card/note to Helen, contact tasc@web.ca for details and an address. 

 

5. If you work with an organization that would like to write a support letter, contact tasc@web.ca and we’ll send you details!

 

Thank you to everyone for standing with Helen.

Please stay in touch as we campaign to end the jailing of survivors and work toward a world in which male violence against women and children is brought to an end.

Matthew Behrens

Women Who Choose to Live

tasc@web.ca

 

Hope for Helen: Stand With Imprisoned Grandmother/Abuse Survivor Helen Naslund

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the week leading up to Mother’s Day (May 2-9), join our social media campaign to show support for Alberta abuse survivor, farmer, and grandmother Helen Naslund. 

 

Helen was sentenced to 18 years in prison for defending herself against the constant threat of being killed by her abusive husband. She endured almost three decades of coercive-controlling abuse, only to be punished for surviving. Allowing the current sentence to stand would constitute a grave miscarriage of justice.

 

This week of online action is to support Helen’s appeal, and to publicly denounce one of the most severe sentences ever meted out against a woman in Canada defending herself from male violence in the home. 

 

WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1. Take a selfie while holding a statement like “I Stand With Helen Naslund: Stop Punishing Survivors!” or “Helen Naslund Should Not Be In Jail for Surviving” or “Jailing Women Who Defend Themselves is a Crime, #StandWithHelen”, etc. 

 

2. When you post your selfie, share a few words about why you are doing this, and include a link to the petition in support of Helen: https://www.change.org/p/appeal-draconian-18-year-sentence-of-alberta-abuse-survivor-helen-naslund   (If you are not on social media, email it to tasc@web.ca and we can share it for you on the Women Who Choose to Live Facebook page)

 

3. Email a copy of your selfie to Women Who Choose to Live at tasc@web.ca, and we’ll be sure to send a copy to Helen.

 

4. If you would like to write a Mother’s Day card/note to Helen, contact tasc@web.ca for details and an address. 

 

5. If you work with an organization that would like to write a support letter, contact tasc@web.ca and we’ll send you details!

BACKGROUND
In October, 2020, Helen Naslund was sentenced to 18 years in prison on a charge of manslaughter. As many have pointed out, she had already been held captive for close to 30 years in an incredibly abusive marriage. In an agreed upon statement of facts, the Crown acknowledged that throughout the marriage, there were “many” instances of physical and emotional abuse committed against Naslund, who at five foot, one inch, weighed about 100 pounds.

 

Indeed, the way Helen Naslund described it, her spouse was a classic abuser: "When I was in public he was always right there, if I talked to a friend he had to be there with his input. I couldn't go anywhere without him … it was always 'do as I say or else.'"

 

The statement of facts also acknowledged that "due to the history of abuse, concern for her children, depression and a learned helplessness, she felt she could not leave."

It is not clear why a guilty plea of manslaughter was entered, nor why her defence lawyer worked in tandem with the Crown to produce such an extraordinarily disproportionate sentence even as they discussed -- but then dismissed -- the availability of a defence based on "battered woman syndrome."

 

A Draconian Sentence
Elizabeth Sheehy (whose book Defending Battered Women on Trial is an indispensable resource) pointed out in an Edmonton Journal interview that 18 years is among the longest of any manslaughter sentence imposed on an abused woman, and the majority of women in the cases she has studied received two years or less and sometimes a suspended sentence or house arrest. (A much smaller number received a federal sentence, the longest of which was 10 years).

 

Helen's son Wesley gave a post-sentencing interview in which he detailed the many ways his mother tried to navigate the terror of living with her abusive spouse.

 

"Nothing worked," he said. "And I believe at the end, when it happened, I believe that my mother was -- I could tell she wasn't mom no more. She was empty, she was blank. At times, you'd look at her and you'd swear her eyes were hollow."

 

Wesley says he was also beaten by his father, and that it was always like walking on eggshells, having to account for everything he did. His father always kept a gun close at hand, ruling by threat and intimidation.

 

Setting Things Back 40 Years
He also says his mom tried to leave when he was 16, and he remembers her coming out of the bedroom after telling her husband it was over. When she emerged, he said, "she had tears in her eyes and all she said was 'I can't go, he says he'll find me and he'll kill me.'"

 

Jenny Wright, an expert panelist with the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, writes: “In decades of anti-violence work, I have not witnessed such a punitive sentence as the sentence against Ms. Naslund… I am profoundly and deeply alarmed at the continuous and prevalent pattern of criminalizing the survivors of gender-based violence, which perpetuates the abuse and does not serve the public interest. In fact, such a cruel and disproportionate sentence against Ms. Naslund erases 40 years of vital advocacy – culturally and systemically – to educate society about what gender-based violence is and its devastating impact on victims, families, communities and society as a whole.”

 

While Helen has launched an appeal of her sentence, she still has a difficult road ahead as the case winds its way through the courts and she remains behind bars. Your support in the week leading up to Mother’s Day and going forward will play a critical role both to lift Helen’s spirits and to stop this dangerous precedent from being used against other survivors.

 

MOTHER’S DAY FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN

Over the past few years, there’s been a reclamation of Mother’s Day from a saccharine Hallmark moment to a call to action responding to the fact that women (many of whom are parents and most of whom are racialized) represent the fastest growing sector of the prison population in Canada.

 

According to Policy4Women, “82 percent of women in prison are jailed as a result of behaviour related to attempts to cope with poverty, histories of abuse, and addiction and mental health issues that commonly arise from these experiences. In every province and territory, social assistance payments are so inadequate that women end up criminalized for doing what they must to support themselves and their children….87 percent of all women in federal prisons in Canada have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse….If a woman uses force to protect herself or others – especially if a weapon is involved – she will commonly face the full, often disproportionate, weight of the law.”

(More at: https://www.criaw-icref.ca/images/userfiles/files/P4W_BN_IncarcerationRacializedWomen_Accessible.pdf)

 

Since 1991, when the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women, Creating Choices, produced a report on rising numbers of women in prison, the number of women sentenced to federal jails – especially racialized women – has risen 200%. (more at https://www.policyalternatives.ca/.../decriminalizing-race)

 

Additional articles:

https://rabble.ca/columnists/2020/11/draconian-sentence-abuse-survivor-reveals-courts-disconnection-reality

 

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/crime/she-wasnt-mom-no-more-son-of-women-sentenced-to-18-years-for-killing-abusive-husband-describes-lifetime-of-mistreatment

 

To get involved, contact Women Who Choose to Live at tasc@web.ca