Justice Denied

The other day I was driving back to Surrey from Abbotsford and I saw a huge sign at the side of the freeway that brought a smile to my face. Instantly I knew who put it there and it wasn’t me. There’s an activist from Aldergrove who is big on signs and T-shirts. He made the big recall Wally Oppal sign on a flatdeck and showed up at several local rallies with signs that said Judges are the Problem. He even made several T-shirts about judicial failures in BC including his 100% Contempt for BC Judges.

This particular activist got involved with a local group striving for judicial reform. That group is passionate about correcting the problem and is striving to be politically correct in it’s approach. Once in a while he gets frustrated and goes off on his own and makes a new sign. I applaud his work. They started off with property theft. A huge theft spree in their community was committed by one or two people and they all knew who it was. The judges kept giving him a slap on the wrist and letting him reoffend. Jamie Pool I believe was his name.

It’s not hard to see and understand their frustration. The VPD put out a video about chronic offenders. How the more crimes they commit the less jail time they serve. Kind of the direct opposite of what one would normally expect. The situation is so bad that the VPS came up with a 30 strikes and you’re out as opposed to the three strikes program in the States. As it stands the situation is pathetic. They came out with the recall Wally Oppal sign because he said everything was fine with the BC Judicial System. Not.

I heard him speak at the public safety rally in Port Moody where the public expressed their concerns about a rash of gang shootings in their neighborhood. His position was that judges are the problem. The panel kind of gave him the rolly eyes to which he responded these people commit crime and the judge keep letting them go, how is that not the judges problem?

Some people rationalize the situation and claim it’s not the judge’s fault it’s the laws that need to change and those laws are federal. Yet Ontario has the same laws that we do and they don’t have the same problem with judicial dysfunction. Clearly he does have a valid point. Many of the judges in BC are horrible and we have no mechanism in place to get rid of bad judges. Peter Leask is a prime example. I heard “they” didn’t let him do criminal cases any more. Then “they” are admitting there was a problem with his ridiculous decisions.

Right now the biggest judicial failure in BC is the Jamie Kehoe case. The police have the suspect and they have witnesses. We even have a body that he did murder by slitting his throat with a knife. Yet the police let him go because the crown thought there was a chance they might not get a conviction. Not proceeding with that trial is the most evil and criminally negligent act in the history of this province. There simply is no excuse for that. Just like if they don’t proceed with charges against the man who got out of his car and stabbed Kyle Yellowbird. God help them if they don’t proceed with charges in that case. That innocent blood will be on their hands.

It means Canada is a place where justice is denied and our friend is quite right. Every unjust sentence, or in this case every unjust failure to proceed with charges, bullies the victim. Losing a child is a horrible thing to experience. Denying justice prevents the healing process. The Laura Szendrei murder was a horrible tragedy. It would have been equally outrageous if the crown didn’t proceed with charges in her murder. Even then we had a suspect who showed no remorse for the murder and had a high likelihood of reoffending.

The ridiculous consequences in Canada for violent crime like murder and rape is a separate issue. We can’t even get the crown to proceed with charges so the accused murderers can get a slap on the wrist. Instead the crown gives the families of the victim and public safety a slap in the face. That diminishes all of us. Letting Katherine Quin free after her documented involvement in orchestrating the murder of Matthew Martins was another human tragedy. That's why Wally Oppal was fired as AG and why he should not have presided at the missing woman inquiry. He couldn't see the forest through the trees. Either that or he deliberately hid it. Which again re instills our friend's claim that the Revolving doors makes judges accomplices. Just as it does when crown fails to proceed with charges because they think they might not succeed.