The following three stories - each tragic in its own way - point to a telling problem in Quebec and Canada. Notably, the leniency in sentencing for criminals. Drunk driving and investor fraud have been making the news lately and both benefit from a lax societal and legal attitude.
-A man convicted 19 times of driving drunk got 20 years (with a chance for parole in seven) for killing a 40 year-old mother in a wheel chair. It was interesting to note that news services on the radio were reporting the killers name in the intro but not the victims. The victim is always the last to be remembered. It's a rather pitiful sentence and it's time the government amends the "dangerous offender" clause and expands it to drunk drivers. We must get tough on this.
Although I won't be holding my breath. There seems to be a severe cultural angle to this.
The victim's name was: Anee Khudaverdian
-Disgraced fraudulent investor Earl Jones is said to be offering "little or no cooperation" in the police investigation of his Ponzi scheme. Asshole.
-Another a-hole who was convicted of defrauding investors in 2007, Vincent Lacroix, is looking to avoid a criminal trial "Double Jeopardy."
Like drunk drivers, fraudulent behavior must be dealt severely. Time for some bad ass conservative criminal sentences.
Charron got a life sentence and the judge said he was incorrigible. He can't apply for a review before 7 years and the review commission is under no obligation to grant him any kind of parole. In this case parole is NOT automatic. He could very well remain in jail for the rest of his life if deemed still likely to reoffend.
ReplyDeleteLacroix was denied a stay of procedures yesterday and is likely to be denied the request to be heard today. He is liable to 14 years in prison for each of 182 charges and the sentences can be cumulative. If convicted he may never come out of jail either.
Jones has not yet been judged...so he is presumed innocent until proven guilty...although he is already convicted in the public opinion.
So let's not get carried away by our conservative ideology, shall we?
I should have said Roger Walsh, not Charron. Sorry for the slip-up.
ReplyDeletePaul, the laws are lax.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows it. Lawyers and judges know it. That jerk off should have been in prison YEARS AGO and even now Judge Mercier could only go so far - he should be a DANGEROUS OFFENDER.
It TOOK 19 OFFENSES for this guy to get thrown in jail.
Moreover, if you were in the financial business like I was, you'd know that WAY TOO MANY of them get weak slaps on the wrist.
Lacroix is the exception. WE HAVE TO MAKE EXAMPLES OF THEM.
The laws and the enforcement of them don't discourage this kind of behaviour.
I agree. They're getting their just desserts but this doesn't mean we shouldn't do more because, in my view, we DO.