Security, Law and Order: The Rot Starts at the Top and Oozes Down
My Commentary:
The stories of increasing violence are occurring with disturbing regularity. Several posts demonstrate this but the rot starts at the top; consequently, one must ask a few questions.
There is the whole situation of increasing crime, violence, drug-dealing, gang activity, underfunded and undermanned police departments. There is Pierre Elliot Trudeau's and his then-Justice Minister, Jean Chretien's Charter of Rights and Freedoms ( but not Responsibilities ) which protects the rights of criminals over the taxpaying public and provides them with taxpayer-funded lawyers. There is something very amiss here. Our country is not as safe as it used to be nor could be -- before the rights of the worst among us usurped those of Canada's best. It is time to re-visit this ridiculous situation.
All of this this is part of what has been happening in the case of the investigation into visa problems in Hong Kong and the entry to Canada of some unsavoury characters. I have learned that there was no whistle blower law when RCMP Cpl. Read felt compelled to come forward after his recommendations regarding corruption with visas went nowhere. Rather than fix the problem, it seems to have been more important to charge him instead, to keep the public in the dark, so to speak.
When there is a dedicated competent officer who gets canned for doing his job, society ends with a justice system in which all the advantages go to the crooks and terrorists. An environment has been created in Canada where the crooks and terrorists feel safe because, even if they are ever charged, which is a long shot, as they proceed through the justice system, the odds are in their favour -- that only the absolute minimum will ever happen to them. Meanwhile one can assume that the good guys get buried under a paper avalanche and the bad guys walk. Why? This could not have happened overnight; it must have been developing for years.
The question is, to whose advantage?
Is there any connection between the fact that the government has apparently underfunded the RCMP and CSIS over the past several years and the fact that money was (probably) diverted to the bloated gun registry and the fact that major criminal organizations are doing about a billion dollars in business in Canada? I have been told that there are about 8,000 - 10,000 major criminals operating quite freely in Canada -- so today's arrest of 100 or so won't make a dent. It appears that nobody sees anything; nobody hears anything and cabinet ministers claim all is well. For example, look at PM Martin's response to the American allegations that our security is inadequate: "Canada's border security is tops ". Look at Minister Robillard's avalanche of paper to counter American claims that Canada is a telemarketing fraud haven. (See articles below.)
If the RCMP do not have sufficient resources to carry out their mandate, who benefits? Would this not negatively affect investigation of the sponsorship scandal -- to say nothing of investigating security concerns (delineated in the March 1 post)? Certainly, this seems like the perfect setup if one needs an opportunity for shady bookeeping. One wouldn't want an effective RCMP contingent available for investigations, now, would one? Since CSIS and the RCMP appear to have been seriously understaffed in the investigative sections, how many years will it take to carry out these investigations, should anyone authorize them?
Again, to whose benefit has this been allowed to happen? Or is it simply wooly-thinking leftists appointed to positions where they could allow the worst to enter Canada -- or play at reading in rights to the advantage of the worst -- going down a road that their naivete did not allow them to see was, actually, for a country, a slippery slope to insecurity and chaos?
EDMONTON - Federal prosecutors have finally abandoned two massive gang trials which cost $36 million over nearly five years but never made it before a jury.
Justice and police officials said Friday they were not prepared for the staggering amount of paperwork that had to be disclosed to about 40 defendants in the related cases, the largest in Alberta's history.
Over the years, charges against some of the accused were stayed. Others pleaded guilty to reduced charges. All the accused were originally to be tried together but in 2001 the charges were split into two trials to speed things up.
Even so, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Doreen Sulyma tossed out charges against 11 accused last September in her trial because it had not taken place within a reasonable amount of time, a requirement under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This is ridiculous! The bigger the crime/criminal group, the more time it takes/ the more police officers / investigations / paperwork, et cetera are involved. Obviously, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was not meant to aid and abet the largest criminal groups -- or was it? The answer for criminals appears to be obvious, organize into ever larger criminal gangs and you cannot be held to account in the same way as a solitary criminal can. It appears that, compliments of Pierre Trudeau and his aide Jean Chretien, we have set up the perfect court system -- time limits that, while allowing Canada to be a haven for criminal activity, help triads, biker gangs and all the other criminal groupings possible -- by limiting the manpower and time available to properly prosecute. Our police services obviously need more manpower. NJC
On Friday the Crown formally dropped its appeal of Sulyma's decision and stayed all charges against the eight accused in the second trial, putting an end to the entire case.
"It is not in the public's interest to pursue this matter further," Wes Smart, director of federal prosecutions, said at a press conference.
Au contraire, it is in the public's interest! Simply put more manpower on it and give more time. Common sense should prevail. Whose rights are more important? The rights of these gangs or the security of all law-abiding Canadians?
[. . . . ] Rod Knecht, RCMP chief superintendent at Edmonton's K Division, said investigators involved in such complex cases must now take case management training.
Prosecutors will also be more organized and prepared when it comes to the disclosure of documents, right from the start of big cases, said Don Beardall, anti-organized crime co-ordinator for the Department of Justice.
[. . . . ] clarifying what core information should be given to the defence.
[. . . . ] In recent years huge trials, meant to test new legislation that makes it illegal for anyone to be part of a gang, have collapsed in Winnipeg and Montreal. A judge in the Winnipeg case of the Manitoba Warriors gang recommended trials should not exceed eight accused.
[. . . . ] One of the biggest obstacles in the case would have been finding a jury to sit for one to two years and follow the complexities of the trial, . . . . but it got bogged down with more than 200 pre-trial motions, the bulk of them dealing with disclosure of evidence.
[. . . . ] He said he's most concerned with the accused who spent six months to two years in custody at the Edmonton Remand Centre before getting bail. They currently have an application before the courts protesting the harsh living conditions in the centre, which has been described as the worst corrections facility in the country.
The case's $36-million tab includes police, prosecution and court costs, but the bulk went to fees for defence lawyers. A judge ordered the federal government to pay them $150 an hour for up to 70 hours a week to work on the case. Over five years, it added up to $23.7 million.
[. . . . ] - Oct. 20, 2000: With 11 people still unable to hire legal help, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Mel Binder orders the federal government to pay lawyers $150 an hour for up to 70 hours a week to work on the case.
A judge who is a lawyer is setting the rate of pay? It smells! Why not let young lawyers hone their skills on the defendants -- at a much lesser rate? Ordinary citizens have to hire their own or do without, don't they, in their own legal dealings. Why should taxpayers have to pay for this? I am sure someone from the legal community can give many good reasons but it makes the ordinary bloke absolutely livid that he must pay for his own legal counsel while criminal (I must say alleged here.) gangs get free legal defense.
Do link to read the gang trial chronology, the case, the price tag, the evidence -- and more. NJC
See No Evil, Hear No Evil -- Paul Martin Wilfully Blind
Prime Minister Paul Martin on Thursday rejected a U.S. state department allegation that East Asian crime gangs are using Vancouver to smuggle people into North America because of Canada's "lax" immigration laws.
[. . . . ] Martin said the U.S. recognizes that Canada has already taken important steps to tighten its borders. [What? Please detail. NJC]
[. . . . ] In its annual report on global human rights practices, the U.S. equivalent of Canada's foreign affairs department warned that Canada has become a major transit point and destination for human trafficking.
"Vancouver and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups that traffic in persons, including trafficking in prostitution," . . .
"East Asian crime groups targeted the country, and Vancouver in particular, because of lax immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants, and the proximity to the U.S. border."
The U.S. report follows an internal RCMP report last year that said illegal immigration to Canada is "rapidly growing," and human smuggling operations run by so-called "snakeheads" made an annual profit of $9.5 billion.
Martin said he doesn't think either Vancouver or Toronto are hubs for international smuggling.
Where has he been? Under a banana leaf? Frolicking in the Barbados? NJC
". . . I don't think singling out Vancouver or Toronto is appropriate."
Paul Martin is deliberately missing the point and turning away from the issue which is NOT criticism of Toronto or Vancouver -- but he is giving the media their direction on how to spin it. NJC, ever the cynic
[. . . . ] Martin also said Canada will play a role in resolving the crisis in Haiti despite warnings that Canada's military is stretched too thin to provide any meaningful assistance.
The military, another underfunded group, asked to do the impossible again. NJC
[. . . .] Asked about Canada's stance on China's human rights violations, Martin said he raised human rights issues with China's premier as recently as last year, but suggested that international trade will, in the end, improve human rights.
Well, I'm so delighted he mentioned this to China's premier -- who has always been so receptive to foreign appeals on human rights -- has he not? And the moon is made of green cheese! NJC
*** Gunplay on city streets is almost a daily occurence in Vancouver, with more and more guns being seized by police. Now, a special team is being formed to fight the frightening trend as fears grow that more innocent bystanders could be caught in the crossfire. *** [emphasis is mine -- NJC]
Police are alarmed about a big increase in guns on our streets and worry the public are increasingly at risk. Late 2003 and early '04 have seen an "alarming" and "significant spike" in the amount of gun play on our streets, says Insp. Kash Heed, a 25-year-veteran of the Vancouver Police Department and the commanding officer of the city's southeast sector, where a string of shootings in recent weeks has left the public rattled and justifiably concerned about criminal crossfire, which exits today's high-calibre, semi-automatic handguns at three rounds per second.
[. . . . ] "We have seen a proliferation in the number of firearms being carried and used by any manner of the criminal element," [. . . . ]
These weapons, typically compact, semi-automatic handguns created for a singular purpose and designed to exude machismo and menace, arrive on our streets almost exclusively from the U.S. Nine out of 10 of the Lower Mainland's crime guns come from the States, six of those from Washington state, where a citizen with a valid driver's licence can legally buy 600 guns a year, if so inclined, and resell them without paperwork.
"It is driven by the drug trade," says Victoria police Insp. Bill Carver, western operations manager of the National Weapons Enforcement Team, which assists front-line police in tracking crime guns and removing them from our streets.
"The marijuana goes down, the cocaine and the guns come back," he says. "That's the reality."
The black-market guns are bought with dope, or with $300 to $900 in cash, depending on the "desirability" of the weapon. Typically, they cross the border in "ones, twos or threes," says Carver.
[. . . . ] "No matter what we do, or the American officials do, the transportation of these goods seems to make it across."
The fact our streets are being increasingly flooded with illegal, U.S. sidearms is disturbing enough. But police are also gravely concerned with the type of weapons finding their way into the Lower Mainland.
"We used to see the sawed-off shotguns, the sawed-off rifles," says Carver. "But what we're seeing now are the high-quality, high-calibre, semi-automatic handguns with high-capacity magazines, and the submachine guns. They're status guns used to enhance and protect criminal empires and criminal activity."
The 9-mm Glock [. . . ] Tek-9, the Sigs, the Smith & Wessons, the Berettas, . . . shoot a lot of bullets in a really short amount of time."
Additionally, these weapons are falling into the hands of younger and younger criminals, immature young men who will brandish and fire a handgun at the slightest provocation.
"Relatively minor arguments immediately escalate from a verbal conflict, past the physical conflict, right into the use of firearms," says Carver. . . . it's as much about drug turf and trade as it is about the so-called "gangsta" image.
Canada's Pseudo Queen Needs to Learn to--in the Vernacular--"Dance with the one that brung ya"
Reporting directly to Parliament and Public Accounts--or other--Committees appears to be a good idea, had I not read that, in actual fact, the Governor General has been sending her secretary to the Public Accounts Committee to explain and defend the royal jelly's expenditures on behalf of her subjects -- subjects so stooped under the burden of taxes to support Queen Adrienne, the Liberal scamsters and assorted hangers on -- that they have not yet awakened to the royal snub -- or "crust", if you will.
Note again that Canada's royal personage has not, herself, come before Parliament; our GG "chooses never to stoop" rather as the Duke in My Last Duchess -- although I hear she will "receive" at her palace, should Parliamentarians bend to her royal will. Perhaps she will stamp her feet.
Obviously, she believes her own press. Does she not understand that the tradition of treating her as a queen depends upon her acting as befits the representative of our Queen -- and that this treatment accrues to the position, not to the personage? As it is, GG Adrienne could diminish the position of GG if she claims to be "above politics" as she reminded us not long ago -- if this continues.
It is obvious that those who take their ceremonial positions too seriously need direction -- perhaps to be reminded that they are really responsible to the people who pay them. Please make discreet mention of this to her when next you attend her at Court. NJC
The Court's Finest, Justice Andre Denis; Now, Reinstate Francois Beaudoin as Pres. of the BDC
I understand Jean Carle is still at the BDC; does he know where the bodies are buried -- or what? Francois Beaudoin is a man to be admired, as is Justice Denis. NJC
In what kind of country can a man see his reputation and his career destroyed by the concerted actions of state officials, the state police, prominent lawyers and a renowned legal-accounting firm, for the simple reason that he had refused to cave in to a request for patronage from the prime minister?
Fortunately, Canada isn't yet a police state. It still has an independent judiciary. Three weeks ago, Quebec Superior Court Justice Andr? Denis cleared the name of Fran?ois Beaudoin, the former president of the Business Development Bank of Canada, and severely blamed his tormentors -- namely Jean Carle, a vice-president of the BDC and former director of operations of Jean Chr?tien's office, and Michel Vennat, whom Prime Minister Paul Martin suspended [dismissed, since this was written, NJC] without pay last week from his job as president of the bank.
[. . . . Some] of the country's most powerful people ganged up on a man whose only crime had been to uphold the professional standards of a state-owned bank. It certainly represents the worst abuse of power that happened under Mr. Chr?tien's reign.
It all started in 1996 and 1997, with then-prime minister Chr?tien's repeated request for a loan to the Auberge Grand-M?re, owned by a constituent and former associate of Mr. Chr?tien. When the owner of the Grand-Mere requested additional money in 1999, after missing payments on the original loan, Mr. Beaudoin did not oblige.
Soon, Mr. Vennat and Mr. Carle were appointed to the board of the BDC and the war began, intensifying when the story of the Grand-Mere loan broke out in the media. Mr. Beaudoin was pushed into resigning (Mr. Vennat then stepped into his job as CEO).
The bank refused to honour Mr. Beaudoin's contract and he was left with no severance pay and no pension. Eventually, he was accused of having defrauded the bank and after the affair reached the court, his name was dragged in the mud for months.
[. . . .] Judge Denis completely vindicated Mr. Beaudoin, who was, he wrote, "the victim of a ferocious and vicious vendetta" and he dismissed Mr. Vennat's testimony as not credible. Mr. Vennat will have a tough time today when he tries to justify his actions.
Congratulations and a tip the hat to one of the court's finest, Justice Andre Denis. Now, I want to see Francois Beaudoin, the former president of the Business Development Bank of Canada, reinstated as President. A fitting ending to a man whom taxpayers must admire and reward for sticking to his principles. It would be poetic justice. NJC
