(Response: Your comment speaks more eloquently than I ever could about the realities of the current “injustice” system Why do they think they are helping? Certainly not the perpetrator, who clearly needs a lot of long-term help that he just might get if locked up for a decent period; certainly not all his vicitims; and not society, which is simply n longer effectively protected. The current system, in too many cases, serves aslmost no one ..but the legal system …esp the judges and lawyers who profit enormously from the revolving doors they spin every day. h.o.)

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Rules+cloak+some+most+serious+criminal+cases/2525515/story.html

The Vancouver Sun published one article out of the first day’s reports, and nothing further. It’s important reading and should have been reproduced across the province. The last of the series is being published in tomorrow’s paper.

Also, Les Leyne, the political columnist for the T-C editorial page had an excellent column today which he begins by saying the three journalists who produced the investigative series wondered if the public would care. Here’s the link to Les Leyne’s column:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Secrecy+threat+basic+justice+principle/2531921/story.html

I’d be interested in knowing what you think of the whole series Harvey – the journalism and things the articles reveal. Maybe you’d consider doing an article on the subject yourself?

(Response: Yes the rules make it difficult to get info … and far too often reporters just cover court like Hansard, doing very little in depth research on their own .. part of the do more with less reality of covering news. As far as doing my own series ..I did that in 2004 with my series Contempt For Court and won a Webster Award for it. As far as doing another one… now that I’m retired, my time now is devoted to enjoying recreation places/activities in the Lower Mainland I never could while working, travelling …. and blogging h.o

Isn’t there something meaningful we, as a society, can do except build more jails?

Your last comment on the origin/background of judges is dead on!

Dan

(Response: Exactly! I often wonder if the reason so many judges coddle criminals is because they feel indebted to them! Most BC judges were defence counsel (not prosecutors) before becoming judges and made very handsome livings defending their “clients”. How many judges own westside million-dollar-plus homes or Whistler homes paid for by the proceeeds of defending criminals! They also, I believe, may have become quite insensitive to the gravity of all kinds of crimes committed, after spending so much time dealing with so many criminals. h.o.)

Meaningful investigative journalism lives and dies by the ability of reporters to get information. Yet, apart from wondering why Gordon Campbell hadn’t bothered to appoint an acting PC which left the office unable to act, the media has been virtually silent. The lack of any serious, sustained attention by the media to this subject is so disturbing. Our society is being hollowed out before our very eyes.

Regarding our “rights” to information, I would like to recommend this article that came out three weeks ago in the Kamloops Daily News (but not picked up at all by the majors).

http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20100106/KAMLOOPS0101/301069970/court-order-bans-secret-video-forever

The article states how the Interior Health Authority was able to obtain a permanent ban on a video showing care facility staff abusing an elderly man. This ban is so draconian that no one is allowed to even describe the contents of the video! The man’s family was so harassed, and intimidated (by taxpayer funded lawyers) that they have left the province.

The reason given by the Health Authority for seeking the permanent ban was to protect staff privacy. Seriously. Apparently staff privacy trumps the safety and rights of an elderly person in care. Police, the Ministry of Health, Attorney-General, and the courts all looked the other way. A crime (supposedly of such a horrendous nature that no one should see it, or even have it described) was allowed to be committed.

This is the future we can look forward to in BC if we all just throw up our hands and say “Not my responsibility.” We in BC are doomed to become, and perhaps already are, a society of monsters, where police and health “care” facility staff abuse innocent parties with impunity, using their powers to engage in (literally) unspeakably awful acts.

But hey, let’s party on like there’s no tomorrow – and that’s just what we’ll get (if we’re lucky). If we’re unlucky we’ll be locked in a facility with staff who have their own ideas of partying.

(Response: The commissioner’s decision to take a high-ranking deputy minister’s position was his to make … and for whatever reason he decided to take it. I am much more concerned with the ethics and maybe the politics of offering it to him to hiring him at this critical time. Whatever was at work, I believe it sure set back the privacy commissioner’s work and reduced my respect for the office. Maybe there should be a law that prohibits the Privacy Commissioner (and other high level watchdogs) from being employed by the government for one year after they leave their office? h.o.)

“In the first Campbell term one of the first things Campbell did was close down 25 courthouses and 9 prisons, all this to save money, because as you know that in 2001 Campbell gave high end earners and big business $2 billion dollars in tax cuts, so what was the result of those cuts?”

I seem to remember orders to judges to cut back on incarceration. Are we blaming judges when we really should be blaming Campbell and crew?