Is it just me, or is so-called Canadian justice screwed up?
The Crown is always crowing about how it wants to make an example of criminals and show how crime does not pay.
Yet, here are two prime examples: Adscam's Paul Coffin steals $1.5 million, gets to keep $500,000, and is slapped with a feather duster and given a two-year conditional sentence.
Yet, a few years ago, Manitoba farmer Andy McMechan was hauled into court in leg irons and sent to prison for shipping a few bushels of his own wheat into the U.S.A. and contravening the Canadian Wheat Board Act.
Guess who was an easterner and friend of the federal Liberal government and who was a nobody from the west?
Licia Corbella writes a good column about how there's a double standard in Canada. No wonder talk of separation grows in Alberta. Check it out!
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The Canadian justice system has it's problems. White collar crime has never been properly punished. However your running title " guilty until proven Liberal" is crass political bullshit. You take a couple of examples and present it in a light you and Licia Corbella want to promote. A more accurate title would be "guilty until proven Rich". To act like Liberals are the only corrupt politicians is typical of the Calgary Sun's grade 2 level writing. I too think that the People behind the Sponsorship scandal should be in leg irons and chains Especially Gallianio.
But to boil it down to a level of political pandering waters down the point that is Rich people get a better deal in the courts.
To furter illustrate my point I include a list of the last Conservative Governments criminals and their light sentences.
Pity poor Brian Mulroney. The Progressive Conservative prime minister lost an average of one cabinet minister to allegations of wrongdoing during each year of his 1984-1993 reign.
This 1985 fiasco brought down Brian Mulroney's minister of fisheries and oceans and robbed a New Brunswick town of its main employer. The story broke on CBC's The Fifth Estate on Sept. 17, 1985: Fisheries minister John Fraser had overturned an order from his own inspectors and ordered a million cans of StarKist tuna released for sale to the public. The inspectors had said the tuna, packed at the StarKist plant in St. Andrews, N.B., was so badly spoiled that it wasn't even fit to be turned into catfood. The plant's owners had lobbied Fraser to release the cans for sale, saying they might shut the plant if the tuna couldn't be sold.
When the story broke, Fraser said he had sent samples of the tuna to two independent labs for testing, but those labs later said they hadn't finished their tests by the time Fraser decided to release the shipment. Six days after the scandal erupted, Mulroney asked Fraser to resign. In a twist the opposition parties were quick to exploit, Fraser and Mulroney both initially said that Mulroney had known about the original decision to release the tuna. The two men later said the prime minister had not known until the affair became public.
Fraser eventually went on to a new job, becoming Speaker in the House of Commons
In 1986, Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion Sinclair Stevens stepped down because of conflict of interest allegations related to a $2.6-million loan to a Stevens family company. Stephens was fully pardoned by a federal judge in 1995 because The term " conflict of interest" wasn't defined in the codes of conduct applied to cabinet members during the 20 months that Stevens was minister of regional industrial expansion.
André Bissonnette, the minister of state for transport, resigned in 1987 while the RCMP investigated his alleged involvement in land speculation.
Roch La Salle, who served Mulroney in the public works, and supply and services portfolios, left cabinet the same year after being charged with demanding a bribe and accepting money from businesses looking for government favours. The charges were later dropped.
Conflict of interest allegations involving a personal loan felled Supply and Services Minister Michel Coté in 1988.
Bernard Valcourt stepped down in 1989 after pleading guilty to an impaired driving offence.
In 1990, current Quebec Premier Jean Charest had to leave his two posts as minister for fitness and amateur sport, and minister for youth after trying to talk to a judge about an ongoing case.
And, finally, in 1991, Housing Minister Alan Redway offered his resignation after being charged over joking about having a gun while boarding a flight at the Ottawa airport.No charges laid.
(Not a cabinet minister but equally embarrassing to the Conservatives was Quebec MP Michel Gravel, who in 1986 was charged with 50 counts of fraud and influence peddling. He later pleaded guilty to 15 charges, paid a $50,000 fine and served four months in jail.
What all these cases have in common with the Sponsorship, shawinigate AND Svend Robinson getting away with stealing a ring, is not the political stripes of the offenders. It is the fact that they were all wealthy, influencial, people who were treated differently than the average Joe.
Gee I wonder if there are any cases of average blue collar guys getting away with murder....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/stonechild/
SideNote...
Hey Doc,
I don't know if you still check your G-Mail account, but I sent you some Football picks. If you got the time and the will, just copy/paste my picks into a new "compose mail" and edit them to your picks! It' Fun! And I'm easy to beat!
Oh, I know the rich do get away with murder. OJ and other politicians are great examples. No doubt you don't have to be liberal to be a crook. Of course, from the book of politicians, allegations are just that. guilty until proven rich is a more proper title.
But I wanted to get a rise out of you guys and it worked.
Thanks
HA HA
Why you...cheeky monkey!
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