Tami Morrisroe urges Chretien to help before her father is killed

Friday 30 May 1997

Neal Hall, Sun Court Reporter Vancouver Sun

A former Richmond woman now in the witness protection program made another public appearance Thursday without police protection.

Tami Morrisroe appeared on the Canada AM television show in Toronto wearing a disguise -- baggy clothes, a red wig, baseball cap and sunglasses -- to explain why she has been on a six-year campaign to prove her father's innocence.

She also made a personal appeal for Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Liberal government to help her before her father Sid is killed in prison, where he is serving a life sentence for a Vancouver murder he says he didn't commit.

The same day, Morrisroe also did a phone interview on Vancouver radio station CKNW with host Bill Good.

Earlier this week, Morrisroe, 26, turned up at an all-candidates' meeting in Toronto to ask questions of Justice Minister Allan Rock in attempt to get her father released from prison.

For a woman in hiding, she has managed to maintain a national profile and has been granting several media interviews a day.

Morrisroe said Thursday her RCMP handlers are a little choked by what she is doing. "But I'm not doing it for the publicity or the money," she said. "I'm doing it for the love of my dad."

Officially, the RCMP can't comment about whether she is in the witness-protection program. "Despite what the public is seeing of Tami Morrisroe, we cannot confirm or deny she is in the program," said Vancouver RCMP Staff Sergeant Peter Montague.

Generally speaking, he said, there is no restriction on anyone in the program talking to the media. "But making public appearances would not be supported by the RCMP and would be self-defeating," he added. "The program is supposed to conceal and protect the identity of the witness."

Morrisroe said her media blitz, which began right after the federal election was called, was an attempt to turn up the heat on the Liberal government to release her father from prison.

"If he ends up getting killed, what are they going to say to me -- sorry?"

She said she's accomplished what she set out to do and is now going to take a break. "I'm tired and exhausted," she said. "I'm going to take a week and relax with my kids and family."

She said she began her most recent public campaign because she couldn't get anyone in the Liberal government to listen to her.

After the all-candidates' meeting in Toronto, Morrisroe met privately with Rock and agreed with his suggestion that she withdraw her father's application under Section 690 of the Criminal Code -- an application for "mercy of the Crown," which is intended to review wrongful convictions -- so that another application under Section 749 can be considered by Solicitor General Herb Gray. That application is for a respite from prison for safety reasons.

"I'll deal with my dad's innocence another day," she said. "Right now, I'm just concerned for his safety."

Sid Morrisroe is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Joe Philliponi, 71, who was shot in the office of his Penthouse nightclub in 1983.

Scott Forsyth was convicted of shooting Philliponi. Sid Morrisroe, now 63, was convicted of being involved in planning the murder. He has always maintained his innocence.

His daughter took up the cause six years ago and has been a tireless campaigner to have her father set free.

She said she infiltrated a Vancouver criminal organization, which allegedly has ties to the Cali cocaine cartel in Columbia, to find out for herself if her father had been framed.

She claims Salvatore Ciancio, 34, a former convict who served time with her father, told her he was distant relative of the Philliponi family and knew her father being set up for the murder.

After becoming an undercover police agent, Tami Morrisroe married Ciancio. She has alleged he told her he killed two dozen people and provided details about eight Vancouver contract killings.

Ciancio hasn't been charged with murder -- only six weapons offences -- and remains in custody because he could not raise $15,000 cash bail.

Ciancio's sister, Patricia Favretto, said Thursday Morrisroe is "lying É she's making all this up."

Last month, Sid Morrisroe was transferred for his own safety from the minimum-security Ferndale institution in Mission to a maximum security prison.

A May 28 federal corrections memo, obtained by The Vancouver Sun, says: "Mr. Morrisroe will remain classified a minimum security offender residing in higher security for his own protection."