Winnipeg Sun: - Mother's wrath awaits
Winnipeg Sun: - Mother's wrath awaits


April 23, 2008

Mother's wrath awaits

By Robert Marshall

A mother's love makes a formidable opponent.

That's what Ottawa's opposition parties will face should they decide not to support Bill C-393. Inspired by murder victim, Andy Moffitt, the Bill received second reading in the House of Commons last week. Andy's mom Paulette, flanked by her family, has been fighting for it for 10 years -- about the time it took to settle two world wars.

It was Christmas in 1998 when Paulette and her family received the news that Andy, an Ottawa engineering student, had been murdered.

Wrong place, wrong time

Stabbed to death as he tried to quell a disturbance in a local establishment after a junkie drug dealer named Henry Danninger, armed with a knife, went on the prowl looking to even a score. Andy was completely innocent. The wrong place. The wrong time.

A legal circus followed that fateful encounter and became the inspiration for Ontario Conservative MP Gord Brown to join Paulette in her attempt to correct the wrongs that define justice today.

The junkie wiped out an innocent life. He was arrested. He got bail. He breached his bail and committed further criminal acts. He got re-arrested. He was convicted and sentenced.

Now the rub. He got credit for being on bail.

He got credit for the time served after he was re-arrested. He even got double credit for days he spent on bail committing a new set of criminal acts.

When the junkie cashed in all his credits, he was left to serve slightly more than three years of a nine-year sentence. And he's been out for ages.

According to Brown, the Bill would "create mandatory consequences for the crimes of deliberately and criminally carrying a concealed knife and killing an unarmed person with that knife."

And it would take dead aim at parole and the lunacy of the automatic 2-for-1 credits that this junkie-killer received.

The Bill would give direction to sentencing courts that persons who are denied bail "due to their past criminal record or for breaching bail are not entitled to discounts off their sentences."

Left leaners don't believe Canadians are entitled to clear justice, pretending instead that the issues are too complex for the average Joe.

Such elitists remove their heads from their proverbial rear ends only long enough to prattle on about the first two lines of the latest stat report that says overall crime is down.

Ignore the facts

They then re-insert their heads failing to read on about real increases in serious violent crime. Not wanting to talk about crimes like assaults with weapons -- such as knives.

They wave off data that shows the rate of that crime is up 35% over the last decade and stands at the highest point since the charge was introduced 25 years ago. Opposition chairs are full of those who ignore the facts.

Their flaccid philosophy ignores common sense. Some even deny a crime problem suggesting that it's only the media and police that whip up the frenzy for self-serving purposes.

Justice is broken and quite frankly who isn't sick of the politics and those who are too dim to recognize the issues?

Enough is enough.

For any Canadian worth his salt it's time to draw a line in the sand and stand up to the likes of Henry Danninger.

Will the Opposition have the chutzpa to say no to Bill C-393?

If so, whom will they send to face Paulette, a diminutive lady with short red hair and a cause so just?




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