Please note: RCMP/ Courts - Enough is Enough

It is not very often that I write about a specific story more than once, I have never written about a story a third time.

In mid-February, 2015, I wrote a blog about two young, somewhat disabled young adults from Victoria who had been manipulated into creating a pressure-cooker bomb. At that point, I suggested that the RCMP had, in their enthusiasm to get on the anti-terrorist bandwagon, gone far beyond what is ethical or appropriate.

On July 30, 2016, I reported that B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce said that the police had entrapped the couple and their charges were stayed.

The Crown appealed that decision.Yesterday, BC’s Appeal Court ruled that the charges against the couple should be stayed because of entrapment and abuse of process. That decision can, of course, be appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada.

I get that terrorism is a serious concern; I understand that some people whether they be the police or work within the criminal justice system may be passionate about their jobs. I also understand that some people do not like being told that they were wrong. But it seems to me that those people need to accept that the courts have decided their actions were at the very least: “over the top”. They need to accept that it is time to move on.

The cost of the initial investigation/sting operation was a million dollars. I suspect that the amount of money it has cost the taxpayers to take this case through three levels of the courts may never be publically known. And for what? One of the reasons why people are charged, taken to court and if convicted - sentenced is the belief that such actions will act as a deterrent for other people who are considering a similar crime. Anyone who believes that a terrorist or a suicide bomber would consider the possibility of jail time before committing such an act lives in a profoundly different reality than I do.

By pursuing this couple so vigorously for over four years, our criminal justice system has done nothing to prevent a committed terrorist from committing acts that are destructive to our communities. If anything that blind pursuit may have further entrenched the concept that the power of the police and court system only exist to persecute the weak or the disenfranchised.
If, on the other hand, that money had been used to investigate just a few of the thousands of Canadians who hide millions of dollars of income from the government during income tax time and if the criminal court system had pursued those individuals with half of the vigour that they have shown pursuing this couple, then not only would have I received some value for my tax money spent, but other tax avoiders might be scared and pay what they owe.