The Cons, the Media, and Mob Justice

Well more evidence today about how the Cons are turning Canada into a coarser country.

Because the frenzied overreaction to the Graham James story, and the way the Con zombie Vic Toews came stumbling out of the darkness of the PMO to try to ride hump it like a burro, says a lot about the country we are becoming.

A country full of demagogues and dummies.

First of all why would the Canadian Press call the PMO, and allow Dimitri Soudas to blow smoke through his partisan pie hole?

"The prime minister has asked for explanation on how the National Parole Board can pardon someone who committed such horrific crimes that remain shocking to all Canadians," said Dimitri Soudas.

The ruling, he said, was made "without our government's consent or knowledge."

Hype the story like it was the most important story in the country. And provide a platform for Vic Toews and Stephen Harper to play fascist sherriff and SuperCon Crime Fighter.

Mr. Toews said he is working under orders of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who called him Friday after being informed by The Canadian Press of Mr. James’s 2007 pardon.

“The Prime Minister doesn’t call me every day, and he doesn’t call me on Good Friday because he has nothing else to do. He is very concerned about this issue,” Mr. Toews said.

When pardons are a necessary part of the rehabilitation process, and pedophiles like Graham James are redflagged so they can't work with kids again.

In the case of someone convicted of serious sex offences, the criminal record is kept apart from others, but the name is flagged in the CPIC system. According to the parole board, that means details of the person's conviction would be discovered by a check that takes place if they apply to work with children, the disabled or other vulnerable people.

And all of this ignorance, and outrage just plays in to the hands of Harper and his Cons who are trying to whip up fears about crime, in a country where the crime rate is falling.

So they can play it for crass political advantage...












So they can jail more Canadians, build more prisons, and turn us into a barbed wire nation like Amerika.

It's depressing enough to see the media whipping up the ignorant rabble with their hysterical reporting. But what I found even more depressing was the sight of two progressive MPs on the Evan Solomon gong show going along with this mob mentality. And not having the courage to point out the larger truth.

That in this country our justice system is based on rehabilitation not revenge. And to surrender reason to the howl of the mob would be to turn our justice system into a fascist farce, or a criminal popularity contest.

And our country into a jungle.

Oh well. You know I never thought that I'd ever find myself in a rowing boat with Colby Cosh.

Since we have a system of routine, assembly-line pardons for offenders like James, what more can we expect that those given such pardons will do no harm? Has James done some? A radio personality in my city was heard to growl that someone at the Parole Board “ought to be fired”. For what? Accurately foreseeing that James was no longer a danger to the public?

Rowing against the current.

But justice makes strange boat fellows eh?

Mob justice will lead inevitably to a Stephen Harper majority.

And the truth will set us free...