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BLACK-SHEEP COMMENTARIES by VICTIMS SEEK JUSTICE VIA NET July 25, 2007 VICTIMS of crime are coalescing in a grassroots campaign to restore law and order in Canada. Victims understand instinctively that criminal justice exists to protect society and, by virtue of their personal experiences at the hands of criminals, they know that too often it is being manipulated by liberal ideologues embedded in Parliament, the judiciary, our penitentiaries and the parole system. The seemingly endless transformation of victims of violence into sacrifices on the altar of restoration and rehabilitation is a perverse and pernicious breach of our most precious constitutional convention: that of a deemed social contract from which springs our criminal law and the absolute duty of both the legislative and judicial branches of government to enforce it. Today, victims of crime have challenged the platitudes of apologists for criminals and their ideology that rehabilitation and restoration of convicts must have paramountcy over public safety. When victims of crime join together in a quest for justice, they are a true grassroots movement engaged in democracy at its purest, echoing all the way back to Magna Carta – the absolute right of free people to rise up and demand that their government produce and maintain law and order. We are increasingly unprotected against intrusion by criminals. Unless the Criminal Code of Canada is enforced to the fullest extent, the Rule of Law will become a humbug, vigilantism a reality, and we will be a people shackled with fear of violence and property crime. How will a grassroots movement of ordinary people bring pressure to bear on our leaders and judges? The answer is: the Internet. By tenacious and imaginative use of websites, blogs and the immediacy of email, ordinary people now have a medium without borders and constraints that links them together in a common cause. To understand how the internet is a perfect medium for grassroots rebellion go get yourself a copy of Joe Trippi’s book, “ The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet and the Overthrow of Everything.” The best example I know of is in the inspirational work of Families Against Crime & Trauma (FACT) at www.familiesagainstcrime.org. It is the creation of Sandra Martins-Toner, whose son was brutally murdered on July 2, 2005. With husband David Toner and whirlwind friend Nina Rivet, Sandra is on the go every day helping other victims and enlisting the participation of ordinary people across Canada in a campaign for real justice. Working just as relentlessly as FACT are Doug and Corinne De Patie of Burnaby and Reverend Donald Schiemann of Stony Plain, Alta. Both families were victimized by the murder of an upstanding son. Here are a few words from David Toner: “For far too long, average citizens have had their rights subverted by a system that panders to the criminal minority in society. Instead of fulfilling the basic function of government, namely to ensure peace, order and good government the Canadian justice system allows communities to deteriorate and offenders to be treated as unfortunate victims of their circumstances. The true cost of crime is seen in all aspects of our daily lives now. We don’t allow our children too venture out, even to walk to school alone. Our houses are barred and shuttered like forts, wired to remote alarm companies, our cars immobilized and similarly alarmed. As honest, hard-working Canadians try going about our lives, we are increasingly living in fear. It’s time to end that fear and take back the life that we deserve – the life that our Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees us: the right to life, liberty and security of the person.” The emasculation of Canada’s criminal justice and penitentiary systems can be traced as far back as Oct.7, 1971, when then solicitor general Jean-Pierre Goyer spoke to the House of Commons to explain reforms to the Penitentiary Service. With remarkable clarity and complete disdain for the expectations of Canadians, Goyer said: “For too long a time now, our punishment oriented society has cultivated the state of mind that demands that offenders, whatever their age and whatever the offence be placed behind bars. … Consequently we have decided from now on to stress the rehabilitation of individuals rather than protection of society. … We have therefore endeavoured to liberalize the system. … This new policy will probably involve some risk …” Goyer’s speech manifested constitutional malfeasance on the part of the federal government. It was an abdication of the paramount non-partisan duty of all members of our House of Commons to protect their fellow citizens against violence and property crime. In the result Canada’s once vibrant society and culture has been burdened by too many it’s-all-about-me narcissists, and a burgeoning criminal element, mainly sociopaths and psychopaths, who have thrived on the ideologies of restorative justice and make-believe rehabilitation. Most Canadians still embrace a strong sense of what is “done” and “not done,” proper and improper, and, above all, “right” and “not right.” We have social bonds based upon morality and unwritten rules of conduct that enable us to be a humane and caring culture. We have been a civil society that engenders and requires self-discipline and accountability for one’s conduct. Those among us who commit criminal acts are entitled to be presumed innocent and tried, fairly, within the protections of the Charter of Rights; no more, no less. Yet the bedrock and enduring purpose of the criminal law and our mythical social contract remains the same. It is to protect society – not to change the unchangeable. Martin Luther King said: “Laws may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” We must not falter; come along the Internet with victims of crime in their quest for justice. Wallace G Craig - wallace-gilby-craig@realjustice.ca – NSNews – July 25, 2007 |
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