Regina City Police Story - 1968

- Written in 2015 by Bob Koroluk

A dark time in history of the Regina Police Service… January 1968 to June 18, 1968

This is a true story, which took place between January 1968 and December 1968, involving…

Regina Police Service Superintendent Joseph Juno

Regina Police Service Chief of Police Arthur Cookson

Regina Police Service Sergeant Daniel Magee

Regina citizen Terry Monuik

Regina citizen Sidney Smith

                           Terry Monuik, 1968                            Terry Monuik, 2015                            

In late January, 1968, a Regina citizen, Sidney Smith was at the Regina City Police Station at 1770 Halifax Street.  He had an encounter with Regina City Police Superintendent Joseph Juno.   He later alleged that Juno had assaulted him.  He eventually was interviewed by Regina City Police Chief Arthur Cookson.   At the end of the interview Smith agreed that he did not wish to take any action against Juno and would be satisfied to leave the matter in Cookson’s hands to deal with.    Cookson later dealt with the situation by calling Juno in before him and verbally admonished him.   Case closed!

On March 5, 1968, a Regina citizen, Terry Monuik was driving his “Silverwood Dairy” milk truck and came close to striking a pedestrian in the area of the Regina Police Station.  The pedestrian happened to be Superintendent Joseph Juno.     As a result of the near collision, Juno grabbed Monuik by the arm and proceeded to shake him.   To this day, Monuik still claims that Juno punched him in the solar plexus, hurting him quit badly.  

Juno ordered a patrol officer to arrest Monuik.  He shouted “Arrest him.  Arrest him.  If this little bastard gives you any trouble throw him in jail for the night.  In the end Monuik was charged with failing to yield the right of way to a pedestrian and released with a ticket.

On March 14, 1968, Monuik attended to the Regina Police Station and spoke with Sergeant Daniel Magee.   After hearing the account of what had happened on March 5^th, Magee informed Monuik that he could appear before a Magistrate to lay a charge of assault against Juno.    Monuik swore an information the same day, charging Juno with Assault.

On May 1, 1968, two Regina Police Officers, Detective Nicurity and Constable Atwood, observed Monuik in a parked car on 600 block Albert Street, in Regina.  When the car started to pull away, they stopped the car and the occupants, Monuik and Joseph Acoose were taken to the Regina Police Station.  Monuik was interviewed vigorously by Detective W. Dejong and another detective.   Monuik was threatened that he could be charged with a variety of charges (Breaking and Enter, Attempted Break and Enter, Vagrancy and possession of burglary tools.    Monuik was kept at Police Headquarters for 5 hours and released after supplying a statement.   The purpose of that statement was to implicate Sergeant Magee in the laying of the information against Juno.  

On May 3, 1968, Sergeant Magee was paraded before Chief Cookson and advised of two charges against him, for counselling Terry Monuik and Sidney Smith to lay a charge of assault against Superintendent Juno.  In doing so, he brought discredit to the reputation of the force.  Chief Cookson gave Magee 3 days to retire to avoid these charges.   Because of Magee’s thirty-eight years of service with the force,   Cookson thought it a “fair and reasonable course” to give Magee an opportunity to resign rather than to face disciplinary proceedings.   Magee refused to resign, and as a result the two disciplinary charges were laid against Magee.

On May 27, 1968, Superintendent Joseph Juno was found guilty of assault on.    As his penalty he was ordered to work eight days, without pay, days which he normally would be off duty.

On May 31, 1968, the Regina Board of Police Commissioners made statements that Juno will not be dismissed.

Following the disciplinary charges being laid against him, Sergeant Magee had made a filing to the Court of Queen’s Bench, applying for an order of prohibition to prohibit Chief Cookson from taking any further steps or proceedings against him.   On June 18, 1968, the Court of Queen’s Bench for Saskatchewan ruled that “there is a real likelihood of bias on the part of Cookson and consequently he (Cookson) should be prohibited from sitting in judgement of Magee”.

On Dec. 12, 1968, Sergeant Magee was advised of that he will be paraded before his Inspector, N. Collins, and charged under the Discipline Code of the Rules and Regulations of the Regina City Police, for arranging an interview with Terry Monuik in regards to laying of Criminal Charges against Superintendent Juno.

On Dec 12, 1968, Magee wrote a memo to Inspector Collins, denying the charges.  He then wrote another memo to Inspector Collins stating that he will not hand an explanation personally to the Chief of Police as requested and in compliance with section 256 of the Rules and Regulations of the Regina City Police Force.    Cookson was prohibited from sitting in judgement of Magee according to a prior Court of Queen’s Bench decision.  The Board of Police Commissioners eventually ruled and ordered Magee to be docked 6 days pay for violations of the Discipline Code of the Regina City Police Force.

This story was published in the OCTOBER, 1968 Edition of Maclean’s Magazine.

Terry Monuik left Regina in 1969 (because of police harassment), saying he is going to leave town as soon as his car is paid off, which he did.

Today, Monuik tells us that in 1968, a 230 pound man came from Prince Albert for the purpose of giving him a beating.   The man caught Monuik one evening as he was leaving a house party and beat Monuik, sending him to the hospital with a ruptured spleen.    The RCMP later find the suspect in Prince Albert and arrested him for the assault.  The suspect appeared in court in Regina and was fined $500.00.  Monuik knows of no reason a large man he has never met would come from Prince Albert to beat him up, other than retribution for having Juno charged with assault.    Monuik was working for SIlverwood Dairy at the time but was fired after the beating because he ended up in hospital for 3 days and was unable to work for some time.    When Monuik recovered from the beating, he began work with Co-op Dairy as a milk driver, but was fired soon after because all the company milk trucks were being stopped and drivers charged with various traffic violations.    Monuik could not get a job in Regina because of the publicity over his charging Juno, no one wanted to hire him.  

It is anticipated that some of the harassment was brought on by Monuik’s behaviour.  He drove a souped-up car (1963 Dodge with a powerful 318 engine), had history of drinking and driving, hit and run and drag racing.  He associated with some of Regina’s notorious characters.   One of those associates was Joseph Norman Acoose, who in 1972 at the age of 24, was murdered in a downtown hotel (the Rose), by his cousin for getting her pregnant.  

August 27, 1970, Sergeant Daniel Magee retired from the Regina Police after 40 years service.

Chief Cookson retired on December 31, 1971 and Superintendent Juno retired in 1972.

47 years after fleeing Regina, Terry Monuik returned to Regina on October 13, 2015 and met Regina Police members and former Regina Police Lawyer.

                                                          Above photo taken at Tony Roma’s, October 13, 2015.

                 Neil Robertson, Q.C., S/Sgt. Bob Koroluk, Terry Monuik, Deputy Chief Dean Rae