2 weeks Ago
, Reading this news story brought back painful memories of the ordeal my then teenage niece endured at the hands of our Canadian justice system. Her mother had taken her to a hospital seeking help in dealing with vicious bullying at school and online. For the crime of telling a hospital counsellor that she wanted to hurt the bullies, she was erroneously charged with uttering a threat, denied bail, jailed for two weeks, strip searched and placed under house arrest for nine months before being exonerated by a judge who apologized to her.
So, it boggles my mind to read that a girl who took part in the swarming and murder of a man was given more consideration and better treatment than a girl who simply sought help in dealing with bullying. The judge indirectly said Kenneth Lee’s life was not important when he sentenced one of the young women who participated in a murder of a homeless man to probation and a supervision program. She was strip searched in custody.
So what? She was incarcerated awaiting her trial for 15 months. So what? She helped end someone’s life. So much information was presented in court.
Now it seems she will, literally, get away with murder. Because she was subjected to repeated inhumane strip searches and she apologized, she is spared further jail time. What about the inhumane treatment of the victim? Was she considering the inhumane treatment she and the others inflicted on Kenneth Lee on the night in question? Did she consider how her criminal actions led to the death of a vulnerable human being? Sorry, but the punishment does not fit the crime.
The now-convicted girl spent 243 days (eight months) in custody and now has 15 months of probation for a crime spree that began with the illegal consumption of alcohol and marijuana followed by “feral” behaviour including altercations on public transit that culminated in the the girl facing sentencing for chasing, hitting, grabbing, kicking and spitting on homeless man Kenneth Lee before she hit him repeatedly with vice grips. But she wrote an apology letter so, in the eyes of the court, no harm, no foul, I guess. The judge said the concept of “general deterrence,” imposing penalties to deter other people from committing the same offence, has no place in the sentencing of youths.
We certainly wouldn’t want that. No one will consider this and think they won’t face consequences. The girl’s lawyer said “the judge also made a point of saying this was not something that was deliberate” and yet we are told she jumped on a planter and pummelled Kenneth Lee with a pair of vice grips.
Accidentally jumped up perhaps? Forgot she was carrying vice grips? Didn’t realize pummelling people might hurt them? The definition of deliberate that’s being used here is unrecognizable. It’s no wonder that many citizens have begun to lose faith in the legal system. Perhaps we need to follow the evolving American model and start charging parents for the heinous crimes of their underage children? , Kudos to columnist Martin Regg Cohn for presenting the facts on unemployment in Ontario and the truth about the creation of jobs by the current Conservatives.
Premier Doug Ford blows his horn about his ability to create jobs so loud and so strong, one would simply accept those numbers and believe him! But a 7.1 per cent unemployment rate in Ontario is atrocious. Considering one leader in the U.
S. has made his attempt to become president on numbers that are totally inaccurate, one must ask what is it about former businessmen throwing out numbers and not being concerned about their accuracy? Is that just an acceptable part of business? There should be a requirement in politics for all to be forthcoming with only honest numbers! It has always been my opinion that there is very little that comes out of Premier Doug Ford‘s mouth that adds up. I am trying to figure out whether it is spin doctors who have advised him to act like a folksy bumpkin or if he is genuinely unaware of things that are in conflict with his whimsical ideology-charged ideas of reality.
If there is one thing that I am sure of it is that our premier understands full well the undying adulation that a free hamburger and plate sticker can buy. , We punish human beings who break laws by placing them in small enclosures to restrict their freedom to move around, prevent association with fellow beings and limit choice in activities. Yet animals who are neither convicted, nor even accused of any crime, are sentenced them to life imprisonment with no chance of probation.
After much protest we, as a humane society, finally admitted that a circus was no place for animals. It is time we admitted that neither is a zoo. , As a retired occupational therapist with 40 years experience with people who have disabilities, I have to wonder if the province had at least one OT involved in the design and building of a $956-million provincial courthouse.
The occupational therapy profession coined the word “functional” before it was being used anywhere else. We are trained to observe function from all aspects of disability and occupational therapists are often involved in home modification for people with disablilites. Why not use their education and talents for buildings as well? I think of the washroom I was in not long ago in a new area of a hospital where I had to stand and reach up for the paper towels! Contractors are not versed in functional accessibility.
I have to wonder if they even had a visually challenged person on the committee who provided advice to the province on the project..
