21 posts tagged “canada”
I'm just slightly to the east of downtown Ottawa, right in line with Parliament Hill. The Snowbirds do a flypast or two every Canada Day. They just completed one and it went RIGHT ABOVE MY FREAKING BUILDING - reeeeaalllyy low. I mean my building is only three stories high and it seemed like I could reach right up and touch them, for pete's sake.
Here's one link - you can follow the rest once you get there.
for first canadian charged under anti-terrorism act
Baby beluga born at Vancouver Aquarium. Story and video here.
Steven Colbert tries to license the Hockey Night in Canada theme song.
Jeff Healey died today.
Last year, I posted some links to stories about deaths of Canadians vacationing in Mexico. There have been more since then. As a matter of fact, I believe there have been two more just since the beginning of 2008. I don't like the fact that my sister and her family are going to Mexico in a couple of weeks for a vacation. At least they aren't going to one of the more popular areas, which seems to be where the trouble is happening.
Tonight, again on W-5, there was as story concerning Mexico. This time it's about a Canadian woman who has been wrongfully imprisoned there for two years. There is a condensed version of the broadcast here, but I encourage you, especially if you are Canadian, to watch the two-part broadcast. The links are on the same page, just to the right of the top of the story.
The government needs to be held accountable.
I posted a few days ago about Robert Pickton being found guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. His sentencing hearing was yesterday. As many had guessed (well, those who knew even the slightest about the law, anyway - see my previous post for details on how little people seem to know about the law in their own country, even though they spout off as though they themselves wrote the rules), he was given the maximum sentence allowable before he is eligible for parole. He will not be able to apply for twenty-five years. This is of some consolation to the victims' families who were upset when he was not found guilty of first-degree murder. There is still debate about whether or not he will go to trial for the other charges against him.
I didn't get a chance to find out if there was an option to serve the sentences consecutively or not, but I assume by the mention of them being served concurrently that it was a possibility. Even if hell did freeze over and he did manage to get paroled at the earliest possible date, he would be 83 by then. Count me among those who think he'll never see the outside of a prison cell again.
On the bus this morning, I spied a headline in one of the local newspapers that read "No Parole for Pickton". I can only hope that this was clarified in the story because it would certainly be a shame if a journalist was among those who didn't understand that there is no such thing as never being allowed to apply for parole.
So endeth the update of arbed, because you asked for it.
So, Robert Pickton has been found guilty. In the back of our minds, we knew that would be the outcome, but when the jury came back several times for questions and clarifications, doubt started to creep in. The judge at one point even had to revise his instructions to them because he had erred on one point.
The case is one of unfathomable deeds and actions. There is also the aside to the main story about how the police should have acted sooner on the missing women. At this point, I'm not commenting on any of that because the police were not on trial, the murderer was. Making the two stories into one is a mistake. Pickton was caught and he was put on trial for six of the murders. There are twenty more for which the legal system has to decide about whether or not to try him. If you do not know anything about this story that has been prominent in Canadian news for several years now, check out some of the history here and here. There are more links in the sidebars of those pages. CNN has a quick story about the verdict as well.
My problem, as with most stories I read or hear about, is with those who jump in and suddenly act as judge, jury, lawyer, policeman, and executioner all in one. The comments to the CTV.ca story about the verdict got me going. Luckily, a few calmer, and more intelligent, heads have put in their own two cents, but I doubt very much that the jumpers will read, believe, or care about those comments.
A few examples:
The problem in Canada is that "life" doesn't mean "life" ... The maximum he will serve is 25 years.
Wrong - a second-degree conviction carries a life sentence with no chance of parole for a minimum of 10 years, up to a maximum of 25 years, to be decided at the sentencing hearing. Some other comments are saying he will only get ten years, again, not knowing this point of the law, or just not paying attention to the story about which they are griping. There is no guarantee that anyone will get parole after ten years. That simply means he cannot even apply until ten years have passed. And even after 25 years, there is still no guarantee. Prisoners must go before the parole board each and every time they apply for parole and they can most definitely be declined. And if declared a dangerous offender, Pickton's in jail for the rest of his life, no matter what. In the end, what it boils down to is that it's a LIFE sentence.
No doubt some readers here will advance that this is a good argument for the return of the death penalty but if we, the people, sanction killing every killer, then every one of us become mass murderers just like them! It's great revenge but hardly representative of a society of thinking people which we pretend we are.
This comment bugs me simply for the reason that the death penalty has never even been mentioned, since it is not used here in Canada. Go to an appropriate forum to air your political beliefs.
Something seems a little weird about giving out 6 second-degree murder convictions to the same person. I mean getting angry at someone and killing them can be a slip up for some people. But 6 times? if not more?
He had to at least know he was going to kill the 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6...etc.
It's already been well-established that the shovels Pickton used were sharper than he is. There are many finer points to the difference between first- and second-degree murder than premeditation. And besides, it's not like he was found not guilty, right? He's still going to jail, and he will almost assuredly be there for the rest of his life. Shouldn't we just be happy for that? I know I can't possibly put myself into the shoes of the victims' families, but again, isn't guilt what we were hoping for? I can't even imagine being responsible for the kinds of decisions the jury had to make. Don't forget, they've been deliberating for a week and a half on all of this. Life isn't like television, folks.
I'm really concerned that this doesn't send a tough enough message to criminals in Canada, this ruling should be appealed. The judge's instructions were too much of a burden on the jury. So what if there wasn't a witness who saw him actually do it, there were dead remains all over the place!
It scares me that this commenter was allowed to live past birth.
...As for Pickton the charges should not have been reduced as the act was unspeakable. So the first voice of justice we hear is a reduction in the charges...
Many acts are unspeakable, but I'm afraid that emotion can have no place in the decision about charges and verdicts. Also, as one commenter pointed out, perhaps the jury settled on second-degree because it was more appeal-proof. Again, he was not acquitted, just found guilty of slightly different charges. This is all part of the system. If these possibilities didn't exist, we might be left with a simple guilty or not guilty. Where would we be then?
Okay, that's it. There should be some sort of test to pass before someone is allowed to leave comments online.
