GUELPH -- Two Steven Truscott backers want Canada's new justice minister to know extensive public support exists for the man's conviction to be overturned -- and quickly. The call from Mary and Jeff Yanchus for public pressure to be put on Justice Minister Irwin Cotler comes at a key time.

The new minister is expected to get a judge's report on the case by the end of this month, said James Lockyer, a lawyer with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

A response from Cotler could follow in February or March.

Public pressure could affect the minister's reaction to a review of the case by former Quebec Court of Appeal judge Fred Kaufman, said Lockyer.

"It's a highly political process," Lockyer said yesterday.

Steven Truscott, who has lived in Guelph under an assumed name for more than three decades, has consistently maintained his innocence since June 1959, after the body of Lynne Harper, 12, was found in a bush near the Clinton air force base where she and Truscott lived.

Two years ago this month, the justice minister of the day -- Martin Cauchon -- announced Kaufman would review the Truscott case, in response to a request by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

The review can lead to Cotler ordering a new trial, issuing a pardon or even referring the case back to the courts.

Jeff Yanchus said he and his wife are putting the word out to fellow supporters of the Truscott cause to lobby for a quick response from the minister, as well as a quick legal remedy.

"We want people to know it's not finished," Yanchus said. "A new minister has been appointed and we want Cotler to know Steven has a lot of supporters."

A referral to the courts could take months or years to conclude, while a new trial -- with no evidence from the Crown -- would lead to a quick not guilty verdict and finally a cleared name for Truscott.

Yanchus said it would be nice to see Truscott exonerated while he and relatives, like his elderly mother, are alive to witness it.

"Steven isn't getting any younger," he noted.

Truscott turns 59 this month.

All but 14 years of his life have been spent under the dark cloud of a murder conviction.

Truscott was observed giving Harper a ride on his bicycle the day she was last seen alive in June 1959.

He maintains he dropped her at the side of a road between Clinton and Seaforth and saw her get into a car, but authorities didn't believe him.

Truscott was charged with murder, found guilty by a jury based on circumstantial evidence and sentenced to hang.

The sentence was commuted to life in prison and he was paroled in 1969 .

Truscott has lived in Guelph since 1970, raising three children with his wife Marlene, who said yesterday the wait for a decision from the justice minister is weighing heavily on her family.

"It's very hard. I don't think people realize how hard it is," she said.

It's only continually incoming letters and e-mail from supporters that keeps the Truscotts' faith in the process alive, she said.