Why Doesn’t The Federal Government Understand That Dangerous Criminals Must Be Kept In Prison?

Our justice system has become completely detached from reality, and innocent Canadians are paying the price.

You know things are bad when the most basic kind of common-sense needs to be explained to our government.

After all, you would think an idea like “dangerous criminals should be kept in prison” would be something we wouldn’t even need to talk about. It should be the baseline, the bare-minimum of what we expect from our justice system.

Everything else we debate and discuss about ‘justice’ and ‘rehabilitation’ should be in addition to a strong consensus that dangerous offenders should be kept locked up.

But no, that is apparently too much to ask of our federal government.

Innocent Canadians pay the price when the justice system is weak

On July 7th, 2023, Karolina Huebner-Makurat was shot and killed outside a daycare.

The man charged in her killing is Damian Hudson, a man with a lengthy criminal history.

In a recent Toronto Sun column, Brian Lilley detailed some of that history:

“Hudson, 28 at the time, beat an attempted murder charge in 2019 involving an eerily similar street fight and was currently on bail for yet more charges following alleged assaults in 2021 – just two years after he was sentenced to a further 15 months in prison and two years probation for the vicious Scarborough stabbing that left a man near death.

Court documents show Hudson has been convicted of defying his probation orders at least 16 times; they also show he’s been diagnosed with PTSD after he was shot five times in 2015 by unknown assailants.”

This isn’t somebody who fell on hard times and made one mistake, this is someone who has repeatedly broken the law and demonstrated that he is a danger to others. And yet, rather than seek to protect the public from danger, the justice system sought to protect Hudson from accountability.

After he was convicted of stabbing a man and leaving him disabled for life, justice Lawrence Feldman went easy on Hudson, giving him “another chance”:

“He says he is open to therapy. He asks for another chance,” Feldman wrote.

“I acknowledge his effort to better himself and grapple with his demons. I believe he has the potential to reform with professional help and family support.”

Hudson was sentenced to “three-and-a-half years less 27 months of pre-trial credit.”

Thus, Hudson got yet another chance.

But you know who doesn’t get a second chance?

Karolina Huebner-Makurat.

She was just walking outside of a daycare when she was shot and killed.

She doesn’t get to seek help or family support. It’s her family who needs support now, as they deal with their tragic loss.

And none of this needed to happen.

Hudson simply could have been kept in prison.

The system could have recognized the obvious – that dangerous repeat offenders can’t be given endless chances and must face accountability.

The system could have recognized that a truly ‘compassionate’ justice system must think first and foremost about protecting innocent law-abiding people.

Criminals are elevated, law-abiding Canadians are punished

This week brought another example of how disgracefully skewed the justice system is.

Winnipeg Police put out a notice to the public, warning them that a man with a “history of violent and sexual offences” was being released. They noted that “all children are at risk, particularly females”:

“Community Notification: MERCREDI was released from the Headingley Correctional Centre, on Jul 12/23,He has a history of violent and sexual offences. MERCREDI is still considered high risk to re-offend in a sexual manner. All children are at risk, particularly females.”

If police have to warn the public that all children are at risk by someone being released, it’s obvious that person shouldn’t have been released.

Again, it’s maddening that we even need to discuss this, as it is so basic and fundamental.

But this is where we are as a country.

Year after year our justice system has been skewed to the point where it largely functions as a machine for letting dangerous people back onto the streets as quickly as possible. Then, whenever people pushback, we are given a litany of reasons why it’s ‘not possible’ to have tougher sentences.

Notwithstanding Clause

Canadians are clearly getting fed up with our weak justice system. The question now is what can be done about it?

The answer – which I will discuss more in future articles – is that the Notwithstanding Clause may become the biggest friend of those who want to toughen our laws. Since the courts repeatedly interpret the law in a way that ends up striking down tough-on-crime legislation, any future Conservative government will likely need to resort to the repeated use of the Notwithstanding Clause in order to reform the justice system.

Such a showdown could very well be a turning point, as it will put the legal establishment and soft-on-crime politicians on the defensive – as they should be given the absolute failure of the current system.

Spencer Fernando

Photo – YouTube

***

The damage being done by the Liberal Government and Bill C-18 makes it more important than ever for Canadians to support independent media. If you value my writing, you can make a contribution through PayPal or directly through Stripe below:

PayPal



[simpay id=”28904″]