Tuesday, May 11, 2010 12:06 PM
Gloria Galloway
Under new legislation unveiled by Mr. Toews on Tuesday, pardons will no longer be called pardons, they will be called “record suspensions.” Criminals will not be permitted to apply for a pardon if they have committed three serious offences or crimes against minors.
The amount of time between a criminal’s release from prison and the day they can apply for a pardon has been significantly increased. Some people will have to wait as long as 10 years. And the onus is now on the applicants to prove they have been rehabilitated.
Accompanying Mr. Toews at the news conference announcing the proposed reforms was former National Hockey League player Sheldon Kennedy.
Mr. Kennedy, of course, was the victim of his former hockey coach, Graham James. Mr. James was convicted in 1997 of sexually assaulting Mr. Kennedy and another unnamed player when the boys were teenage players with the Swift Current Broncos of Canada's Western Hockey League.
“It’s not about Sheldon Kennedy being a victim,” he said. “It’s about solutions.”
It was reported early last month that Mr. James was issued a pardon by the National Parole Board in 2007, a revelation that both startled and infuriated Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The Prime Minister met with Mr. Kennedy before the news conference in his office – an indication of the personal interest he is taking this matter. Mr. Harper was particularly upset that Karla Homolka, who was convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of three Ontario schoolgirls, would have been eligible for a pardon later this year.
Commentary by the Ottawa Mens Centre
Vic Towes has acted with deliberate a very nasty
dishonourable act that will never be forgotten by every other politician in
Canada.
Vic Towes has just pulled the ultimate double cross a politician can pull. No
doubt, Vic Towes was acting under explicit instructions from Mr. Harper.
It is Vic Towes lack of courage to stand up to Harper on those instructions that
has resulted in Vic Towes causing irreparable harm to his own long term
reputation. He now can no longer be trusted.
Harper waited until the last possible parliamentary opportunity to allow any
discussion with the other parties regarding a pardon for Karla Homolka.”
Vic Towes knew that the Liberals had agreed to split the bill to enable a legal
remedy to forever prevent Karla Homolka from receiving party.
Vic Towes had agreed to a face to face meeting with the Liberal MP, the Liberal
public safety critic Mark Holland finalize an agreement to split the bill.
Just minutes before Vic Towes and Mark Holland were to meet, Vic Towes goes to a
press conference and publicly insults Mark Holland and the opposition parties by
alleging that Mark Holland and the opposition supported a pardon for Karla
Homolka.
Vic Toews will go down in Canadian Political History as having pulled off one
the most disgustingly dishonest political stunts ever.
It is tragic that Vic Toews has decided to carry out such a spectacular double
cross, and make such false and defamatory remarks against another politician
when it was very very obvious that all political parties were on the same track
when it came to dealing with a pardon, for the queen of mass murder, Karla
Homolka.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
The conservatives have a simple minded, conveniently simple minded zealot
doctrine that defies logic, common sense that avoids any educated informed
opinion and excludes valuable resources such as the views of experienced
criminal judges, criminal lawyers, prison officials, probation officers and
sociologists in general.
There are however people with convictions that cannot be pardoned, under any
circumstances due to their underlying personality disorders, and the number one
person who should NEVER be pardoned is Karla Homolka.
The conservatives, IF, they really genuinely cared about "reform" to the justice
system, "to protect Canadians" would do the Judiciary what they have done to the
RCMP, bring in a real authority.
We have in Ontario, an underbelly of the Judiciary who routinely flagrantly
abuse their power. They issue LIFE TIME orders that are worse than a criminal
conviction, these orders cannot be pardoned, they result in thousands of
innocent men, fathers, being incarcerated for nothing more that going to court
and asking a judge, for an order to protect their child's right to a
relationship with both parents.
GET THIS. In Ontario Justice Denis Power, and Allan Sheffield, to name just two
sickening examples, issue LIFE TIME restraining orders without ANY evidence to
support such an order. They then issue other orders to prevent those orders from
ANY VARIATION or cancellation.
Take Justice Denis Power, he said a JUDGE issuing criminal charges against a
mother for assaulting the father, was, wait for it, "evidence of harassment by
the father", THAT, resulted in a life time restraining order from the City of
KINGSTON, FOREVER, yes, were the worst criminals live, and despite the fact that
the mother moved to another city where she promptly obtained an similar "get out
of town order".
The conservatives need to recognize that the worst criminals are not necessarily
those with criminal convictions.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
.
Vic Towes is "The Law and Order Representative of the Conservative Party"
If you search the background of Vic Towes,there are some very clear indicators,
that don't come up on the first search, that most people don't know about, that
show he has a long history for treacherous behaviour.
It is a classic example how some of the most treacherous characters can gain
absolute power while all the while using their charismatic ability to win
friends and influence people to gain the very pinacles of power.
Unfortunately, the less charismatic but more honest politicians like Igy can
appear to be a wet blanket by comparison.
What is most treacherous, is Harper's promises prior to becoming a prime
minister of how he was going to "clean up ethics" on parliament hill. It was a
promise that we all wanted to hear and like fools most Canadians chose to
believe what they wanted to hear.
Harper's failure to disclose documents, and this latest uncalled for defamation
of the opposition parties will be another nail in their political coffins.
The question is why would they be so stupid as to make such errors? The answer
very obviously is they believe the bigger the lie the easier it is to believe
and that they believe they can keep giving Canadians false information.
Harper and Towes seem to forget that you can't fool everyone all the time and
its for that reason, another sizable chunk of the electorate will not vote for
Harper and or Towes in the next election.
It will be very interesting to see just how many votes Towes loses. Hopefully
his own electorate will send him the message he needs to recieve.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com
Harper is playing a very treacherous nasty game to defame the opposition as
supporters of the very worst convicted criminals in society.
The fact is, all political parties have a common loathing of the most serious
offenders, a loathing of the current pardon system that needs changes.
The problem is, the Conservatives want to make the process draconian which will
do NOTHING to reduce crime or protect society. The conservative agenda will only
turn those who commit minor offenses into unemployables with little other
alternatives than crime to earn an income.
It's that insidious stupid approach of the conservatives that defies logic, and
is contrary to the professional opinions of all of Canada's expert resources.
Harper has chosen a very treacherous and dishonest way of creating division in
Canada when in reality, all the political parties had very little disagreement
in the most substantive concerns that should have been an easy collaborative
effort.
www.OttawaMensCentre.com