F.J. "Jack" Ramsay (born August 23, 1937) is a former

Reform Party of Canada The Reform Party of Canada (french: Parti réformiste du Canada) was a right-wing populist and conservative federal political party in Canada that existed under that name from 1987 to 2000. Reform was founded as a Western Canada-based protes ...

member of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

and former

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

officer. He was later convicted for indecent assault for actions during his time as an officer.

Western Canada Concept

Ramsay took over the leadership of the

Western Canada Concept The Western Canada Concept was a Western Canada, Western Canadian federal political party founded in 1980 to promote the separation of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, and the Yukon and Northwest Territories ...

, a party that advocated the separation of western Canada to form an independent nation, at the end of 1982. He acted as its leader until 1987, the year he joined the Reform Party. In April 1982, the party's executive drew up a Statement of Independence which committed any future WCC government to "prepare for independence in a peaceful and democratic manner". While the WCC under Ramsay's leadership had a brief period when it pursued a Triple E Senate as an alternative to outright independence, in late 1986 Ramsay declared the WCC would revert to its Western separatist goals. Only two years after making this renewed commitment to Western separatism as WCC leader, he joined the new Reform Party.

Reform Party

Ramsay first ran as a Reform candidate in the staunchly conservative riding of

Crowfoot Crowfoot (1830 – 25 April 1890) or Isapo-Muxika ( bla, Issapóómahksika, italics=yes; syllabics: ) was a chief of the Siksika First Nation. His parents, (Packs a Knife) and (Attacked Towards Home), were Kainai. He was five years old when ...

in the 1988 election. He did surprisingly well in the riding, coming in second to Progressive Conservative Arnold Malone by 7,685 votes, which at that time had been the narrowest margin of victory by any winner in the history of the riding. It was also the best showing of any Reform Party candidate. Malone retired before the 1993 federal election, and Ramsay ran again for the Reform Party. This time he won a resounding victory, owing partly to the collapse of the Tories throughout western Canada. He finished some 17,000 votes ahead of his nearest opponent. He was re-elected in the 1997 election. He served as the party's Justice Critic from 1996 until 1998, and as Citizenship and Immigration Critic from 1998 until 2000.

Criminal charges

On November 24, 1999, Ramsay was convicted of attempted

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...

of a 14-year-old

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

girl, committed while he was an RCMP officer in Pelican Narrows 30 years previously. While questioning the girl as a crime victim, he had asked her to physically demonstrate her understanding of the concept of sexual intercourse. He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment."Jack Ramsay won't resign seat"

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, November 25, 1999. The Reform Party voted to remove him from caucus the following morning, although he refused to resign his seat in the House of Commons on the grounds that he had not yet been sentenced and continued to protest his innocence of the crime. He subsequently appealed the conviction, and a new trial was ordered due to errors in the judge's instructions to the jury. His removal from the Reform Party caucus was also suspended pending the outcome of the appeal. He continued to sit as a member of the Reform Party, and its successor the

Canadian Alliance The Canadian Alliance (french: Alliance canadienne), formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance (french: Alliance réformiste-conservatrice canadienne), was a centre-right to right-wing federal political party in Canada that existed u ...

, until April 5, 2000, when he faced new criminal allegations related to a separate incident in which Ramsay was alleged to have confined a 15-year-old girl and made threats of a sexual nature. He then sat as an "Independent Canadian Alliance" member from April 6, 2000 until June 27, 2000, at which point his membership in the party was terminated. He sat as an independent Member of Parliament until that Parliament was dissolved. Ramsay's trial on the unlawful confinement charges began in May 2000. He was acquitted on these charges two days later. Ramsay ran in the 2000 federal election as an independent candidate, but was overwhelmingly defeated by Canadian Alliance candidate

Kevin Sorenson Kevin A. Sorenson (born November 3, 1958) is a Canadian politician who represented the riding of Battle River-Crowfoot (known as Crowfoot from 2000 to 2015) in the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 to 2019, first as a member of the Canad ...

. In the retrial on the original charges, Ramsay pleaded guilty in October 2001 to a lesser charge of indecent assault, and was sentenced to one year's probation and community service. He subsequently sued the RCMP, the

Attorney General of Saskatchewan The Executive Council of Saskatchewan (informally and more commonly, the Cabinet of Saskatchewan) is the cabinet of that Canadian province. Almost always made up of members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, the Cabinet is similar in s ...

and the

Attorney General of Canada The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

for malicious prosecution."Former Reform MP sues RCMP, Crown"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', May 27, 2002.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsay, Jack 1937 births Living people Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Reform Party of Canada MPs Canadian Alliance MPs 20th-century Canadian politicians Independent MPs in the Canadian House of Commons Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers People convicted of indecent assault People from Biggar, Saskatchewan Canadian people of Scottish descent Western Canada Concept politicians Canadian politicians convicted of crimes Western Canadian separatists