Castanet

^^^^

Still waiting for great ideas!

Jail on mars . Send criminals to populate the stars .one way trip

Well first of all, when someone commits a violent crime and the government proposes mandatory minimums for various offences there's usually an overwhelming uproar with respect to people's rights. As we have seen over and over again the families and victims themselves are often forgotten with respect to the penalty. The courts have often struck down mandatory sentences.

We as Canadians enjoy the protection of the Charter and it does not discriminate between law abiding and law breaking citizens. That's what the courts say and in all due respect, Canada says as a majority. Those are facts.

Now you, as Canadians, if you really want to have the law changed, then have to change it. Call your MP's. Create change.

When you regularly read these forums we hear over and over how "rights are stamped on by government" yet when someone horrible like this benefits from "the way it is" then we're angry.

This is a HUGE example of how bad things have gotten. Those of you that scream about how she gets out of jail is horrible when the real issue isn't that. Its the fact that she got the sentence she did, the sentence she ultimately served.

I am not in any way supporting this reality. I'm just stating that things MUST change but you also have to understand that to do that means opening up the Charter and what are YOU comfortable in giving up because if you change the law for the bad guys then the law abiding citizens get the same treatment.

Good reply, thank you. Thought you'd forgotten about this thread.

Your last sentence needs clarification I think. Good, law abiding citizens do not commit these horrific crimes and therefore should have nothing to quibble about IF laws were changed to reflect punishment truly in keeping with the crime.

Catsumi I totally agree, however, you can't change the law for some people and not others. The Charter doesn't work like that. It protects ALL Canadians and in this circumstance, that's a huge problem.

Laws made by government are often upheld or shut down because of the Charter.

I don't believe I suggested that we have dual laws so don't understand where that came from.

Not that long ago here in the land of Nod, when someone was convicted of murder they were sentenced to time in the old jailhouse. Not the short time as of now, but life sentences which meant just that, LIFE. Before that, there was capital punishment.

For committing crimes against a fellow citizen(s) the convicted were jailed, lost their right to vote, right to roam free, right to marital bliss. However, law'n order was turned upside down by the father of our present PM who, in 1980, pushed the Charter upon us giving criminals more rights than the law abiding victims. If in doubt, peruse these threads in castanet or any newspaper to see how happy we are about the fallout. It appears that you also are not happy with the situation.

There seems to be no way of thumping it into the thick heads of government leaders that Canadians are outraged from sea to shining sea, with this travesty of Injustice we see paraded before us daily.

Short of total anarchy and starting all over from scratch, have you suggestions on how to effect change? There have been numerous groups that came together after heartbreaking loss and then ill treatment at the hands of judiciary, to plea for change. They failed to make a dent.

Before the Charter there was only one incident of terrorism that I can recall and that was the FLQ fiasco in Quebec. PET set the War Measures Act loose on all of us across Canada for 1 - 2 (?) years. Later one of these terrorists was returned to Canada with a hug waiting. This was distasteful for everyone then, but now we have ISIS and 16,000 unfit for citizenship living in Canada. I believe the chickens have come home to roost.

On the bright side, the light side, the Ottawa parliament buildings were quickly overhauled (to the tune of millions $$) to protect the inhabitants from attacks. The unfortunate citizenry just has to take its chances.