The public's memory is at best short-term; it's a statement I've heard many times with regard to scandalized politicians seeking re-election. Unfortunately, the statement is as true as it often is nauseating. Society doesn't necessarily "forgive and forget", but it definitely and inexcusably, "forgets".
Lately, I've begun to wonder whether the public has any memory at all. How can Karla Homolka be allowed to raise children and freely walk our streets? Back in 1995, many Canadians were pointing to Homolka and Paul Bernardo as justifications for bringing back the death penalty.
Their victims were 14 and 15 year old schoolgirls, who were sexually abused and tortured, before being strangled to death. In equally twisted circumstances, with video camera humming, Homolka murdered her own sister with Bernardo's help.
The case prompted the Canadian Police Association to call for the return of capital punishment. The death penalty was eliminated from the Criminal Code in 1976, although it remained part of the National Defence Act for such crimes as desertion, cowardice in the face of the enemy, violent mutiny, unlawful surrender and spying for the enemy. It was finally removed from the Act in 1997.
In exceptional cases, with the ultimate choice belonging to the victim's family, capital punishment should be brought back. Weak-kneed, self-righteous bleeding hearts, preaching about the moral evolution of civilization, will, ultimately, prevent capital punishment from coming back. If it were to be brought back, Colonel Russell Williams should be shoved to the front of the line.
As far as I'm concerned, it's precisely to underscore the sanctity of life that it should be reinstated.
Whether it's drunk drivers being convicted for their twelth consecutive offence, drunk former airline pilots fatally running down pedestrians, a daycare molester being released back into the community, a deranged immigrant beheading a young bus passenger, a murderous pig farmer, or teenagers beating a minister and his wife to death as they sleep, justice in Canada is a joke.
It's enough that bullies, who routinely withhold basic respect for fellow citizens and their property, are allowed to live among us, but it revolts and infuriates me that overtly grotesque monsters are permitted to do the same.
The colonel won't meet justice in the courtroom, but perhaps he'll meet it in jail.
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