Cassie, Tashina, the Montreal Massacre and the Government’s Empty Promises

Nov. 9, 2016 – The killer who ended two lives pleads guilty to one 2^nd degree murder charge, and arson. He will receive a minimum of ten years in jail before becoming eligible to re-enter society. In jail, he will be able to further his education, choose from a variety of video games to play in his free time, and will likely be given a job for which he is paid a small wage. He will be able to call his parents to say goodnight or good morning.

Molly on the other hand – our daughter who was one of the victims his gruesome crime – should be almost two years old now. She would likely be able to say good morning and goodnight too. But none of that will be – because of his choice.

And as we realized at the onset of his arrest, he will never be charged for taking her life – the life of our daughter Molly.

The second degree murder plea was for his crime against Cassie. The “arson with disregard for human life” was, I assume, because there may have been other people in the duplex that could have been killed.  Otherwise it would likely have dropped off as the other original charges did – break and enter, arson causing property damage, possession of incendiary material for arson, and indecent interference with a dead body. Apparently, these charges become “redundant” and at most will be considered “aggravating factors” of the murder itself.

What seasoned detectives have said “was the most disturbing crime scene they’ve seen in their careers,” becomes – a man killed a woman and set fire to her house. Just another way our justice system minimizes and betrays the reality of violent crimes to its victims while offering every leniency and immunity to the criminal.

The guilty party will be sentenced at the end of January.

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Nov. 21, 2016 – A man being sentenced in the Toronto area for murdering his pregnant girlfriend was allowed to walk out of court a free man.

Tashina General was 21 years old and four months pregnant with a boy she had named Tucker. She was strangled and her body was hidden for months before it was found. Now, less than 10 years after the crime was committed, their killer, at least in the eyes of the Canadian “Justice” System, has served his time.

Mitigating factors were that he was rising Six Nations lacrosse star, was a first-time offender with no prior criminal record; he was “young” and, “took responsibility for his actions” by pleading guilty and avoiding a second trial.

Less than a decade of his life in jail, yet Tashina General and baby Tucker are gone forever.

I guess the judge was a lacrosse fan.

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The government at the Federal level – the ones who have the power to do something about this – refuse to see a problem.

Earlier this year the Minister of Justice, Jody Wilson-Raybould, sent a written response to Cassie’s mother saying, “I would like to assure you that existing criminal laws prohibit all forms of violence against women, including pregnant women. Case law shows that abusing a pregnant woman in committing an offence is considered and aggravating factor for sentencing purposes and is punished severely.”

It is not difficult to see that in reality the opposite is true.

It is not difficult to see that “justice” is not her foremost concern.

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Nowhere in the criminal code does it say that a judge has to take a woman’s pregnancy into account during sentencing. It is just something that judges do sometimes. The families won’t know until a sentence is handed down, and like in the case of Tashina General and baby Tucker, it seems the fact that the killer “was a rising lacrosse star” was more of a factor than her choice to carry her child to term.

Case law in fact shows that these crimes against women are NOT punished severely. Why then would the Justice Minister make this false claim?

If the length of a sentence is a sort of measure of a society’s condemnation of a particular crime, it cannot be said with any true conviction that Canadian law takes violence against women seriously – let alone crimes against women who have chosen to have a baby.

You can light up parliament with purple lights one day a year, you can pay for ads that proclaim  the prime minister and his government take gender based violence ‘seriously’ – but it is all just for show. The truth exists on the ground. The truth exists in case law and sentencing. The truth exists in their action, not just words.

Why not shine a light on that?

Talk is cheap.  I have very much come to resent their showmanship and their false advertising.

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But I suppose some people think families like ours should consider themselves lucky. In a way those people are right. After all, murderers are literally being set free in Canada because of court delays. They are being given a free pass as if the crime they are accused of is a parking infringement and a technicality got them out of traffic court.

But murdering another human being is not a traffic violation.

Because of the threat of this failure in our Justice System – I wonder how many first degree charges turn into second degree or manslaughter just because crown attorneys that want to secure any kind of conviction. How often is the truth of a crime allowed to be depreciated to the point that a conviction no longer represents reality of the offence? How many ‘depreciations’ does it take before it is safe to say that in Canada, the crime of murder is not being taken seriously, let alone when it is committed against pregnant women”?

I try to imagine what the families are going through. I can relate to their inner battle, knowing that in what they thought was a civilized country, there will not be justice for the murder of someone they loved – and that it is expected of them to find a way to simply live without it.

This deprivation is not an example of first world civility. This seems more like examples of a third world country in which the ones in power do not care beyond their own comfort and position.  “Give them rations, and when those rations run out, let them starve.”

The Canadian Justice System continues to put innocent victims of crime in terrible positions.

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Dec. 6, 2016 – Today is the 27^th anniversary of massacre at the Montreal school, Polytechnique. A gunman entered the school ranting about ‘feminism ruining his life’ and shot 28 people before taking his own life. Fourteen women were murdered.

Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and some of his female cabinet ministers laid flowers at the Centennial Flame in Ottawa. He said the statistics relating to violence against girls and women are unacceptable and he encouraged a conversation about how to end gender-based violence – yet it was his government last October that voted against having a conversation about justice for the murdered pregnant women of Canada.

Commemoration is important but it is not enough.

Showmanship is not enough.