REGINA - The publisher of a book by convicted wife killer Colin Thatcher is questioning whether a proposed new law will stop the writer from collecting money on the work.
Saskatchewan introduced legislation this week to stop criminals from keeping the money if they sell their crime stories. The act would allow the government to seize profits and forward them to victims of the crime in question or to a victims' support fund.
But publisher Jack David of ECW Press says it doesn't look like the Thatcher book would be covered for several reasons.
"One was the phrase recollection and retelling. Is he recollecting the crime or is he recollecting the trial and the incarceration? I think it is the latter," David said Thursday.
"There is a larger issue called expression of thoughts or feelings about the crime and I'm not sure that would hold up under the Charter."
The Saskatchewan government plans to pass the legislation next week.
Like similar acts in Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Alberta, the Saskatchewan legislation addresses the "recounting" of a crime by criminals for financial exploitation.
The Saskatchewan legislation also borrows from the Alberta law to include the phrase "expression of thoughts or feelings" about the crime -- and it's that wording officials hope will cover the Thatcher book when it hits shelves in September.
In the book, Thatcher, a former provincial cabinet minister, asserts his innocence in the murder of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson.
Wilson was bludgeoned and shot to death in the garage of her Regina home across the street from the Saskatchewan legislature in 1983. Thatcher was convicted of first-degree murder a year later and spent 22 years behind bars.
David has said the book, entitled "Final Appeal: Anatomy of a Frame," contains evidence uncovered by Thatcher's private investigator that puts some witness testimony into dispute.
It describes the trial and Thatcher's time behind bars, but not the gruesome slaying.
David noted Thursday that the legislation is also retroactive to June 2007 -- saying it's obvious the government wants to seize the undisclosed advance sum that Thatcher has already been paid for the book.
Thatcher signed the book contract in 2008.
David said he didn't know if there would be a challenge to the legislation, either by the publishing company or by Thatcher. But he suggested money wasn't reason Thatcher penned the memoir.
"He's concerned, as any author is, about getting payment for his work. But he is not an author who's living off the proceeds of his writing, so my sense is that money is not the key issue here," said David.
"The key issue is for him to tell his story, that's essentially what it is, and make sure it gets public."
