Recently I read an essay by my daughter in Grade 12, written with tongue firmly planted in cheek about the justice system, and about how it ought to be dismantled because it doesn't really work anyway.
She provided an apt quote from Will Rogers to the effect that if a government truly wants to hurt a criminal enterprise, what you do is legalize it and then tax it to death. Thus, she reasoned, we would be spared all the hundreds of millions of dollars annually spent on law enforcement and on the so-called "justice" system with our jails and prisons, judges and lawyers.
Keeping in mind she kept a sardonic, even sarcastic, tone to much of what she was saying, the shocking thing is that I almost agreed with her for real until the federal government (with cooperation of the Opposition for once!) actually changed the laws concerning pardons, to prevent the possibility that Karla Homolka could apply for a pardon.
The MPs of all parties did not relish the idea of going home for the summer to hear the proper outrage of Canadian citizens that we have such an inadequate justice system that would actually allow someone like Homolka to be pardoned for her incredibly evil crimes, which she committed with former husband Paul Bernardo.
I must say at this juncture, I am still saddened that we have such a poorly-run justice system that a woman who committed the heinous crimes she did was ever, ever allowed to see freedom outside prison walls in her lifetime.
I have said before, and I continue to maintain, the prosecutor who cut her that deal should be prosecuted for even thinking about giving her a light sentence for kidnapping and murdering young girls, including her own sister. I am ashamed that we have a justice system where plea bargaining replaces justice - you can be assured, justice was not done in that instance, and our parliamentarians have done nothing to address that crime against humanity.
At any rate, Parliament took a small, small step towards restoring some semblance of justice by making it impossible for those who commit horrifically violent or notorious crimes (like Homolka) to ever get a pardon.
As for Homolka, it is no small irony that she is reported to be studying law; can you imagine having someone who partnered in horrific kidnapping and murder crimes actually stand up in a court to represent someone accused of a crime?
I'm wondering if my daughter was really very far off the mark with her essay that wasn't supposed to be serious.
