Too Civilized?


My articles have been few and far between lately… busy time.

I had written a draft of a column immediately following the discovery of the body of Tori Stafford, a follow-up to my last column (end of May—where does the time go?). I thought I should complete the column, perhaps as a way of getting things rolling again.

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Too Civilized?

Reporters at the time of the discovery of Tori’s body described the situation accurately as one of intense but mixed feelings for the family. I don’t think anyone in the situation of a missing person, particularly a child, abandons all hope until a body is finally found. Despite indications that the child is likely dead, as with a person lost at sea somehow a sliver of hope remains that the impossible happened and somewhere, somehow, the person is alive. Could Victoria be somewhere else– perhaps transferred, sold, whatever, to another person or family, and the indications of her being killed only a story to divert attention? Unlikely, but an anguished family clings to this faint hope. When a body is found and confirmed to be the missing child, that hope, however unreasonable, is extinguished.

The only positive, if one can twist the mind in that direction is, as Tori’s aunt described it, “at least we won’t be spending the rest of our lives watching for her, scanning every crowd, looking in every car that passes.”

The normal mind cannot understand this crime. Though we recoil even at something like this happening to an eighteen year old girl, we can get a notion, however disagreeable, that there are people self-obsessed and cruel enough to do that. We have great difficulty moving the scene to an eight year old little girl.

I must admit to being something of a “hawk” (frankly like probably the majority of Canadians) on these crimes. While we have to protect the innocent in our legal system, and take all possible moves to make sure we have the right person, once the court is satisfied that the guilty one has been convicted, we resort to punishment that from all indications seldom satisfies the average Canadian. Our sentences are short compared to that of many countries, and the prison conditions good. Seldom do those guilty of horrific crimes enter the normal prison population, since they would not be safe there. The main suffering they “endure” is the lack of freedom. Meals are good, TV is entertaining, and access to library facilities and some recreation is the usual way of life for the despised murderer.

Many of these people are considered sociopaths. A sociopath does not see the world as the rest of us do. They march to a different drummer, and in many cases even the trial fails to instill any conviction that they have done wrong. They have made a mistake, certainly, but the mistake has nothing to do with sexually abusing eight-year olds, killing them, and hiding their remains in the woods. The mistake is only getting caught by the stupid and inferior police, and tried in the sham courts of a society that is interfering with and attempting to thwart their plans.

I recall the Paul Bernardo trial, and the normal, predictable remarks of the judge on sentencing. There was the usual condemning of his crimes, but I doubt it even scratched the surface of his ego. I doubt anything could, but were I the judge, I would probably have tried to break through by mentioning that what I would like to do on sentencing would be to turn him loose out the courthouse door. While that might bring a brief smile of pleasure to Bernardo’s face, I would hope he would soon grasp that the hatred of society was such that when turned loose among his fellow citizens, they would tear him to pieces.

We’ve become quite “civilized” in Canada, falling over ourselves not to infringe on the rights of people, certainly including those accused, but even those convicted of crimes. After several high profile situations with wrongfully convicted people like Donald Marshall, David Milgaard, Clayton Johnson (who now lives up the road from me), and Stephen Truscott (whose story was constantly being revisited most of my life), our system extends every courtesy to those convicted. I know it’s a difficult situation. We allow our courts to process the accused, and then we second-guess the whole system in case it’s made a terrible mistake. Can’t help but do that when it has made mistakes in the past.

However, we on occasional run into people who are not just tried and found guilty, but whose guilt appears to be solid, frequently due to a clear confession or by irrefutable evidence, such as the Paul Bernardo videotapes. We lock these people away at a taxpayer cost of about $100,000 a year, and in many cases offer them a lifestyle that has been reported as exceeding that of Canada’s “working poor”. Then we allow people like Clifford Olson, a serial child killer, way too much access to the media and to writing whomever he likes, so that his name is continually popping up over the years. It’s these excesses of our liberal (small “L”) system that bother me.

I recall watching a movie some years ago, called “Citizen X”, based at least loosely on the arrest of a Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who had murdered over fifty people, most of them young women and children. Prior to his discovery, the Soviets had been reluctant to admit that serial killers even existed in their nation. They believed it was a western phenomenon, particularly American.

In the movie, a dogged police officer followed clues that inexorably led to a well-know person with connections to the Communist Party, and the detective’s efforts were constantly blocked. The detective, however, was finally supported by an army Colonel, played by Donald Sutherland in the film—you can easily imagine him in the uniform.

In the final minutes of the movie, the guilty man is questioned by a psychiatrist, and breaks down and tearfully admits his guilt, confirming it with information. The detective and the army Colonel escort the guilty man outside the police station, where the Colonel places a gun against the back of the guilty man’s head and without emotion pulls the trigger. End of the matter.

Dramatic and drastic, and an eternity away from the process of justice in the Canadian legal system. Certainly not a practice that we would like to bring into vogue, but when we think of people like Olson, Bernardo, and the now accused killer of little Tori, it’s not hard for the best of us to feel some leaning in that direction. There is a satisfaction there that is definitely lacking in the “due process”.

However drastic a measure, I have little doubt that it’s far more dignity than he gave to Tori in the hours before her death.

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