Justice?

While sitting in the lounge at Toronto's Pearson airport this week I was killing some time reading the only newspaper in this country worth spending some time with: The National Post.  And there on page A11 with the slug "Justice" was this story: "Judge banishes teenage car thief from Winnipeg in unique sentence."

Some little piece of human excrement, described as a serial car thief, who cannot be named here because of the $%$$!! stupid YCJA, will be sent away from Winnipeg to spend a term of probation in Yorkton, Sask.  The time is to be spent with "family" according to the court.  I'll just bet the good burghers of that town are overjoyed at that prospect.  Sales of steering wheel locks ought to go up overnight at the local Canadian Tire store.

Everyone associated with the decision is unsure if there will be any effect on the young darling who cannot seem to get through a day without stealing a car.  But he isn't likely a disappointment to his family.  His family has a collective 180 convictions for auto theft among them.  That's convictions, not charges or even police interventions in theft auto files.  Convictions.

Now, I don't know about you, but I suspect this is all going to be a waste of time, money and people's efforts who have to try and manage this file in the probation office.  I also suspect, and I will give odds, that this waste of good oxygen is going to be arrested in the first 30 days behind the wheel of a stolen car.  I will even allow you to hedge your bet by my stating that the arrest will result from a high-speed chase with police.

And that's really the problem here – this little piece of crap, masquerading as a human being, is not being made responsible for his actions.  That's offensive to the rest of society and not just the people of Yorkton, Saskatchewan who are about to experience a crime wave courtesy of the Manitoba courts.

The courts simply cannot or will not get their heads around one of the basic principles of sentencing stipulated in the Criminal Code of Canada which is that protection of the public must be a consideration when pronouncing sentence upon a convicted person. 

So, let me ask the question:  How are the citizens of Yorkton, Saskatchewan being protected by the courts in a sentence where a prolific car thief is given probation and sent to a town in which he does not live, to stay with a family who seem to think auto theft is the family trade?

It's all a mystery to me.  Our justice system, were it actually that, should put this little piece of crap in prison for a very long time.  Because, in doing that, they would actually protect the good people of Yorkton, Saskatchewan.

And while they were at it, they could send the other members of his family along with him. 

Or, as some would say, just shoot the lot and put them out of society's misery.

Leo Knight

primetimecrime@gmail.com

 

The eyes have it

Yesterday's announcement by the BC Crown Counsel's office that there would be no criminal charges laid in the tasering of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanskie should come as no surprise to anyone with the ability to think and analyze what they were able to see with their own eyes in a little over a minute of very available video, broadcast widely on news stations in Canada and on the internet. 

I said at the time that the RCMP members who responded to a violent and apparently emotionally and mentally unstable man at Vancouver International Airport did exactly as they were trained to do and now the Crown Counsel has backed up those members. 

That Dziekanskie died is sad indeed to those that knew and cared for him.  Albeit, the information that has come to light in the intervening time seems to indicate that there were precious few of those. 

No indeed, the bloodlust whipped up by the media seems to have been all about their own particular ideology which in general is to play "gotcha" journalism and, in specific, is to attack the actions of the police.

But despite the attempts of the assembled media hounds baying for the blood of the RCMP members in this case, the Crown has made the correct decision and the police officers involved have been vindicated in the actions they took on that fateful night.

But, let's be very clear, every media outlet in this country all but called this an execution of an innocent man at the hands of the police. 

And they were wrong, at every level.

 
The Mounties responded well after Customs and Immigration (now CBSA) dropped the ball, as did airport security, letting an agitated man stew for a dozen hours in a secure area not knowing where to go, what to do, or indeed, how to help himself.

 
He was plainly visible on their security cameras.  They had to see him, time and time again for 12 hours.  And yet they did nothing until the behaviour of the nicotine and alcohol-deprived addict became so egregious the police were called.

 
And, as yet, no one from those organizations has said word one about why they failed in their jobs, preferring to let four young members of the RCMP dangle on the end of a rope not of their creation. And for some strange reason, they have been given a big wide pass by what passes for mainstream journalism in these strange times as the fourth estate aggressively attacks those whose job is to protect us.

The police officers who attended knew they were dealing with an irrational man in an agitated state.  They approached him carefully using hand signals to try and calm him.  When the man escalated his behaviour they engaged him physically and used a Taser - exactly as they were trained to do.

 
Complain all you want about the training, the Canadian Border Services Agency, airport security or the media frenzy, but the four members of the RCMP who attended and dealt with Dziekanskie did absolutely nothing wrong and all of the media attempts to appoint them as the bad guys in this movie are shameful.  

The videotape tells the truth. The media would have you not believe your eyes and instead believe their whipped up frenzy and bloodlust for the police. 

"Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?" seemed to be the line of thinking.

The RCMP may be a lot of things and have a lot to answer to the Canadian public as depicted in Paul Palango's masterful work: Dispersing the Fog, but those four members, all since scattered hither and yon by the Force, did their job on that night.

 
And, as near as I can see, the mainstream media didn't do theirs that night or on any day or night since on this file.

Leo Knight

primetimecrime@gmail.com

The last Rae Day

As much as he tried to be conciliatory and magnanimous, the angst on the face of Bob Rae as he reluctantly let go of his passionate, all-consuming ambition to be the Prime Minister of Canada was all too evident.  And, so too must have been the angst in the boardroom of Power Corp, where Rae's brother, John, is part of the ruling class, oops, sorry, senior management.

But wait, Michael Ignatieff is still part of the ruling elite "entitled to their entitlements" class of the Liberal Party of Canada isn't he?  Well, that's a little hard to say.  He's been absent from Canada for much of his adult life.  On the surface he seems more centrist than the former NDP Premier of Ontario could ever claim to be.  And whatever ties to Power Corp. he may have, it seems to be only a friendship to the Raes.  Well, so far.

What is clear is that, with the notable exception of Stephen Harper, every Prime Minister in office longer than the time to have a cup of coffee in the past three decades, owes his allegiance to Power Corp.  Then, add the likes of Maurice Strong (he of the UN Oil for Food scandal) and Paul Volker (former chair of he US Fed and current Barack Obama advisor) to the mix and their influence – dare I say dominance - over North American government is complete for the last 40 years.

And there's the rub isn't it?  There is no ability to control Stephen Harper is there?  Oh sure, Brian Mulroney, another Power Corp. alumni, was an adviser in the early days, but that too failed.  So how to continue the run?  Obviously Harper has to go.   

But how?  He was just elected a few weeks earlier.  Albeit to a minority government as the Libs were reduced to their lowest vote tally in living memory.  In the last minority Parliament, Lib leader Stephane Dion supported the Harper government against all of his pet causes in a twisting, hypocritical, mind-numbingly theatrical performance to avoid an election, all the while saying he was against what Harper was doing.  It's a wonder his dog, Kyoto, didn't bite him.

No problem apparently though after the next election forced by Harper.  The Libs did exactly what they said they would never do and crawled into bed with the NDP and the separatist Bloc.  Well, as threesomes go, I doubt there has been another dripping with more sleaze and hypocrisy than that one.  Or as Mulroney once mused, "There's no whore like an old whore."  And I suppose he is an authority on that subject.

What puzzles me is the concept that Rae, and by extension his supporters, or more accurately, string pullers, tried to peddle that the Governor General had an obvious choice to make if they, the combined opposition, simply said they had no confidence in the sitting government and she should appoint them as the government. 

It not only defies logic, and law and tradition, but speaks to the unadulterated ego and sense of entitlement possessed by the Liberal Party of Canada.  That Jack and Gilles jumped on the train is really of no import.  Neither will ever get close to the Prime Minister's office in any way, shape or form save and except as an invited visitor.  Canadians, as apathetic as they can be in their "I'm all right Jack" existence, would never be so stupid as to let them close to the levers of power.  So Layton signed on to his only shot and is still trying to milk out the dry udder of that cow while Duceppe is still sniggering at the door those idiots opened for him and the separatists.

And at the end of the last Rae-Day, the worst Premier Ontario has ever seen will not have the opportunity to become the worst Prime Minister Canada has ever seen.   His brother, John Rae, who ran the campaigns of Jean Chretien and is a central, dominating part of the power brokers of Power Corp. will not have a direct pipeline into the Prime Minister's office. 

Or will he?

Leo Knight

primetimecrime@gmail.com

The world according to the CBC

 

I should know better.  But I watched the CBC National news tonight.  I know, I know, but there really wasn't much else on. 

For the first time since, uh, I don't know when, I screamed at my television. 

The CBC ran a piece of journalistic tripe about the war in Afghanistan with the marking of the 100^th Canadian soldier killed in action in that troubled part of the world.  The absolute bias was prevalent in the piece.  They found two families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and a peace activist who has written a book to present an anti-war point of view that had not a hint of balance or, dare I say, common sense.

Without disparaging the families of the brave men who died in the service of this country, I couldn't help but get angry at the mother of one soldier who said she was okay with her son being a peacekeeper but didn't want him shooting at someone.   Honestly, she said that.

And then the intellectually-challenged man married to her criticized the mission we are on in some weird attempt to say Canada has done its bit for NATO and we should leave without addressing the job that is not yet done against the Taliban and the forces of evil who are trying to destroy our very way of life.

Now, I grieve along with every other Canadian for the death of every man and woman who is killed in the line of duty in the service of this country.  But, it is disingenuous to the extreme to suggest that if we simply bail on Afghanistan life will be alright.  The harsh reality for all the group huggers is that we, the West, have got to engage in a shooting war with the forces of Islam who are trying to eliminate our way of life.  There is no other way to look at the so-called War on Terror.  And best that war be conducted in a place far away from our shores.

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It's been awhile since I have posted and for those who have written wondering why, suffice to say it has been an extremely busy period for me given that, in addition to my day job and other writing projects, I advise two CFL clubs on matters of security and November was the playoff season.  One of the clubs I work with won the Grey Cup and it was a pure joy to bear witness, at close quarters, to their victory. 

To those of you who enjoy my musings I pledge I will be more forthcoming in the next while.  To those that hate what I say, I will try to say more than ever. 

Leo Knight

primetimecrime@gmail.com