Col. Russell Williams redux

The baying of the prurient masses can be heard throughout the country’s media. While not in any way condoning what he did, I must wonder if justice has been better served by releasing the gory details of his crimes. After all, the man did plead guilty to all the charges. I think the result is unnecessary sensationalism by playing to the lascivious impulses of society.

Yes, we recoil from the horror of his deeds, and we justifiably condemn his crimes; but churning his deeds in the media will not bring back the two murdered women, nor make us any safer from such deranged people. This man is insane. Perhaps not in the traditional way, but insane nevertheless. There can be no other explanation for someone carrying on the way he did. He was truly a split personality –a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality if there ever was one. It also seems that one of them wanted to be caught –perhaps one with a residual conscience. We will probably never know. “Depraved”, yes. “Evil incarnate”? No. When the brain malfunctions, anything is possible, and we should all be on guard for “the evil that lurks in the hearts of man.”

An American in Italy, guilty of murder –The Star, Saturday Dec.5th

Amanda Knox, in a drug, alcohol and deviant sex frenzy, took an active part in the killing of her roommate Meredith Kercher. Only the killer’s identity was ever in question, and is now, beyond reasonable doubt, established.

I find it incongruous that the American media, in unison, are excoriating the Italian court, police and society in general, while defending and excusing the accused and now convicted killer. Little is heard about the victim and her family, and their pain caused by this evil trio.


I cannot but think how this story would have played out if the “shoe was on the other foot”; if an Italian citizen had murdered an American girl. The press would no doubt be then extolling the fairness and impartiality of the American justice system, after which they would find her guilty and sentence her to death.

“Police dragnet oversteps” –Star Editorial Monday Nov.16th

This conundrum could be called a Hobson’s choice: do I let the police in, or do I stand on my Charter rights and refuse. If I do refuse, surely I will give the police no choice but to get a warrant, since my refusal could indicate that I have something to hide. I don’t envy the police who have to make such individual decisions.

I empathise with the police force faced with this dilemma, but I do question the efficacy of going through everyone’s garbage. If anything were to be found, it would surely be gone after all the publicity. Perhaps what we are dealing with here is theatre: the appearance of “leaving no stone unturned”. Why else would you turn police into expensive garbage collectors?

We should not abridge citizens rights unless in the most dire circumstances. Once done, we are on a slippery slope –it will become routine, and eventually substitute for real detective work.

“Why Roman Polanski belongs in prison” –Maclean’s editorial, vs “Reflex lock-Polanski up rants are shocking” –Barbara Amiel.

Your editorial is logical, fair and thoughtful. “ If you do the crime, you do the time”, even if you walk on water.

Not so much Barbara Amiel. I am not surprised that she would defend the bourgeoisie, regardless of faults, but her logic and reasoning does not stand up to scrutiny. She worries about the terror he would have of being sent back to an American prison –which I can readily understand considering her husband horrific experience in the Florida prison he now inhabit. Why, next they might take away his computer and e-mail privileges!

“The definition of childhood depends on the culture” she says. Yes, it does. Childhood brides are common in some third world countries, but last time I looked, America is not a third world country and they have laws against older men having sex with thirteen-year olds, even if consensual, and this was certainly not. Polanski confessed as much.

One can sympathise with his sad experience of having his wife, Sharon Tate, killed by a bunch of crazies, and his mother’s demise at the hands of the Nazis; but that does not give him a licence to rape. If anything, it should have made him more empathetic and caring, and not inclined to drug and rape a thirteen year old defenceless child, and then running away from the law.

In Ms Amiel’s world, one would only jail the stupid, poor and powerless. The elites would dance to a different tune. Her apologetics are about par with Whoopi Goldberg’s. Except that Amiel’s English is more refined –though Whoopi is better looking.

Accountant gets 5 years for bilking winemaker –Star, Aug 25/09

Christine Papakyrioku has a problem. Not just that she is going to jail, but that she is addicted to gambling. Her addiction made her steal more than 7.4 million from her employer where she was employed in a position of some trust; namely as an accountant. Addiction, as we all now know, is a serious affliction that must invoke pity and empathy from everyone. It’s not really her fault, since her employer “failed to examine her accounting practices closely” so as to prevent her from stealing millions. Her venality is really venial –she just could not help herself.

It is also the provinces fault, and Niagara Falls Casinos, for not preventing her from acting on her base impulses and reprobate desires –so she is suing them. Clearly, she is a VICTIM.
In today’s society, it is not “cool” to take responsibility for your actions and to say you are sorry. Surely, we are all victims of something or other, and the fault lies elsewhere, outside our control. Guilt and contrition are obsolete terms, and culprits should be handled with extreme unction, lest they suffer permanent emotional scars.

My question is this: with all these victims loose in our society, who is to be the victimizers?

Death penalty arguments

“Death-row cases deserve aid: Poll” Star April 4^th/09

While I am not a proponent of the death penalty, I do question the need and appropriateness of the Canadian Government’s further involvement in the Ronald Smith case. This man decided to kill someone in Montana, a foreign country, and he has faced justice in the jurisdiction where he committed the crime. Montana is not some banana-republic without human rights or democracy. As we expect the US to respect our sovereignty and laws, so we must abide by theirs. Beyond ensuring that Mr. Smith receives proper legal representation, we should not –nor do we have the right to –interfere in another country’s legal affairs. No one compelled Ronald Smith to commit murder in Montana.

We should also remember that in the seventies, for almost ten years, the US did not have the death penalty (found unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in its then present form), but Canada did (though no one were executed from Dec.1962 (Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas, hanged back to back at Don Jail in Toronto), until its abolition in 1976.

Sometimes I think we Canadians act a bit like “the mouse that roared” vis-à-vis the US. It might be better to mute our criticism and save the ammunition for the really important and deserving cases.

CRAVEN BUS PASSENGERS

“The silence of the Canadian lambs” –Mark Steyn, Maclean’s March 23^rd.

Mark Steyn’s column makes a trenchant and sobering point regarding Canadian “manhood”, and I must rethink my earlier animadversion of his “gunslinger” writing. I have wondered why there were no real criticisms of the passive –dare I say cowardly – behaviour displayed by the passengers; either by the court, the press nor even the victim’s family. There is a rather important difference between this incident and the one depicted in Politechnique. Marc Lepine had a gun –a semi-automatic rifle –rather more lethal than the knife used by Vincent Li. You can fight a knife up close, but not a bullet from a rifle shooter several feet away. Yes, New York City also comes to mind, where a whole neighbourhood ignored the screams of a woman being stabbed to death. Yet, even there, the situation was not as immediate, near or as easily evaluated by the neighbours. The bus passengers knew exactly what was happening, but chose to run away. Unfortunately for Tim McLean, there was no Liviu Librescu or a Lee Gordon Brown to take charge; rather than a “let’s roll!” it was “let’s run!”

I don’t know how many “men” there were out of the three dozen passengers on the bus, and the bus driver, but I find the impuissance of the passengers difficult to comprehend. The sheep mentality of the bus crowd running for the exit while a madman was steadily butchering Tim McLean does not reflect positively on anyone there; and that includes the stalwart RCMP constables who spent 4.5 hours navel-gazing and watching the butchery and cannibalism proceeding inside the bus. It’s hard to square this behaviour with the no-nonsense, proactive action taken by their brothers in arms at the Vancouver airport when a crazed and confused immigrant did nothing worse than swing a stapler over his head.

I sincerely hope that the timidity of the Greyhound passengers is not a reflection of a society where pacifism has gone mad –where “mind your own business” has become a mantra for all –but I am at a loss to understand the craven behaviour of Tim McLean’s fellow passengers on that fateful journey on the Greyhound bus.

McGuinty eyes race - Star, Nov.15th

Re.Steps in the right direction - Nov. 15

Finally, some sensible ideas on youth crime from a politician. Making racial statistics taboo might have seemed like a non-discriminating policy at the time, but all it really does is blindfold police and authorities, making it harder to zero in on the real issues and problem areas. Only when these problems are freely acknowledged by the authorities, as well as the affected parties, can something be effectively done, both through policing efforts and preventive social programs. It won't make it easy, but it will be a step in the right direction.

Sigmund Roseth, Mississauga