The majority of Canadians believe the police are there to protect them.  It’s a lie promoted incessantly by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and other political organizations that want a monopoly on the use of force in Canada.

What’s the first thing you hear from police spokes-ninnies when someone has the audacity to defend themselves against a violent criminal?

“You should let the police handle that.”

Yeah.

Tell that to Loretta Lavalley.

Oops… you can’t.  She’s dead.

The 9-1-1 operator she called just as she was about to be brutally raped and murdered listened to the entire brutal assault go down… powerless to do anything about it.

Christopher Hurd broke into Loretta Lavalley’s apartment late on November 29th, 2008, then repeatedly raped her before strangling her to death while her hands were tied behind her back.

Somehow Loretta managed to get her cell phone and dial 9-1-1 just before being attacked, but it didn’t help her.  It didn’t help her at all.

The 9-1-1 operator tried for 18 minutes to get an answer from Loretta as she was being raped.  All she heard was the woman’s screams and her begging for her life.

Because it was a cell phone, police had to trace the call to find out where she was.

They finally arrived after 14 minutes… just in time to hear her very last screams as she was strangled unconscious by Christopher Hurd.

The attack was so brutal that despite her own fighting spirit and the efforts of police and paramedics, she died 17 hours later in hospital.

Hurd was, of course, drunk and high when he raped and killed Loretta… facts the defense will use to say he had no intention of murdering the young woman.

Really… who cares?

The fact is that he DID kill her.  AFTER brutally and repeatedly raping her with her hands tied behind her back.

Being drunk is no excuse. If he’s sober enough to “get it up” and rape a woman repeatedly, he’s sober enough to pay the price for his actions.

Not intending to kill her is also no excuse.

He did murder her in the commission of his other crimes… and he must be held accountable for every single one of those actions.

Period.

Thankfully, Christopher Hurd was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Loretta Lavalley.

It took jurors just one day to return the verdict, and for that I am grateful.

To quote the Brampton Guardian story,

The verdict means jurors believe Hurd, of Brampton, was not too drunk or drugged to form the intent to kill Loretta Lavalley, 36, after he broke into her ground floor apartment around midnight Nov. 30, 2008.

Personally, I fail to comprehend why being too drunk is an excuse for anyone committing such a heinous crime as this.

Drunk or not, people form intents and make decisions.  Hurd’s intentions and decisions happened to be disgusting and horrific and cost Loretta Lavalley her life.

Of course he should be held accountable for them.

He’ll have the next 25 years to life behind bars to think about his actions… and perhaps some “prison justice” will be meted out to this rapist and murderer in whatever prison he ends up at.

Loretta had time to grab her cell phone and dial 9-1-1.

Personally, I’d rather have seen her grab a Colt 1911 and put a bunch of holes in her attacker… at least then the correct person would be dead.

But self-defense isn’t a “Canadian value” is it?

It should be.

 

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Loretta isn’t the first Canadian woman to die while waiting for 9-1-1 to save her.  Katey Montague has done an excellent video on other Canadian cases where 9-1-1 has actually cost the lives of two Manitoba sisters when the 9-1-1 operator didn’t feel like taking them seriously, not even after their 5th call.

The sisters were found dead after the 9-1-1 operator finally felt a tinge of concern and tried calling the sisters back.  Their murderer answered the phone.  She finally sent a patrol car to the dead sisters’ home.  A little late though, don’t you think?

Watch Katey’s video for some uncomfortable Canadian perspectives on Dial 9-1-1 and Die.