In what’s becoming a disgusting and disturbing pattern across Canada, it’s once again the law-abiding citizen that is being charged, not the criminal. Ontario police and Crown prosecutors appear to have an incredible bias against anyone actually defending themselves, their loved ones or their property.
This is just the latest in a long line of legal obscenities to grace the front pages of newspapers across Canada.
This time it’s a 28-year-old man who was walking his girlfriend home when they discovered someone had broken into her home. Believing his girlfriend’s mother was inside, the boyfriend searched the home to see if she was all right and happened upon the home invader instead.
What ensued is enough to strike terror into anyone faced with similar circumstances, and I’m NOT talking about the fight that left the home invader stabbed and in hospital. HE got what he deserved.
I’m talking about the the fact that this man has now been charged with aggravated assault.
“The man was charged because it is alleged the stabbing was excessive,” said Toronto Police Constable Tonyo Vella. “It is alleged that he stabbed the man a number of times. He’s fortunate to be alive.”
And moronic cops and prosecutors who feel safe making that judgment call the next morning really ought to be ashamed of themselves.
You’d think they would have learned that we “mere citizens” have the ancient and common-law right to defend ourselves, our loved ones and our homes whether the police like it or not.
Seems they learned nothing from the abusive prosecution of Toronto shop owner David Chen or the more recent case of Ian Thomson who used a handgun to defend himself against three men trying to kill him by burning his house down with him inside it.
Chen’s case actually went to trial, where he was finally exonerated, and Ian Thomson’s charge of careless use of a firearm (WHAT???) was finally dropped, but not before a hefty legal was racked up. They still won’t let go of the unsafe storage charge though, as absurd as that is.
If the Ontario (in)Justice system can’t come to its senses and drop this case before it racks up another needless legal bill for taxpayers and this young man alike, then I pray to God that it is tried before a jury that hands the prosecution their butts on a platter.
The only downside to that scenario is it will cost this man dearly, both in time and money to defend himself against charges that should never have been brought in the first place.
Lest we forget, this is not just an Ontario problem.
Crown Prosecutor Paul Hawkins, while dropping charges left and right against actual rapists, arsonists and various other criminals, flatly refused to drop charges against Lawrence Manzer, whose only “crime” was standing on his front porch with an unloaded shotgun while his neighbor apprehended three drunken young offenders.
All that saved Lawrence Manzer from almost certain jail time was the fact that Crown Prosector Paul Hawkins and/or the New Brunswick RCMP screwed up the case, and it was tossed out on a technicality.
David Chen wasn’t so lucky.
But even the lawyer for David Chen doesn’t get it right. He’s quoted on the National Post as saying:
“But that has to be balanced. You don’t have a right to just attack someone because they broke into your house. This is not the U.S.A. where your home is your castle and you have carte blanche once an intruder is inside your house.”
If our homes are not inviolate; if our homes are not our castles, then we are nothing more than slaves, living there as long as the criminal element (or the government) decrees.
Castle Doctrine, as it’s called in the United States, came about precisely because of cases of malicious and abusive prosecutions like David Chen, Ian Thomson, Lawrence Manzer and now this young man in Toronto.
Regardless of whether we are inside our home when it is invaded by criminals or not, we have the right to defend our home against those criminals. That goes double when someone’s mother is thought to still be inside that home.
Claiming the man was “excessive” in his defense of his loved ones and himself as Toronto Police Services Constable Tonyo Vella has done simply shows us how out of touch with reality the Toronto Police Services has become.
Those same police will not enter the home until it is deemed safe for the officers. Those inside the home could be murdered while police stand outside and it wouldn’t change a thing.
Officer Safety is the catch-phrase used any time there is even a hint of danger. Nothing gets done unless all the police constables can be guaranteed safe passage, good citizens be damned.
“To Protect And Serve” used to be motto of police forces across North America. Remember that?
I miss those days.
don b says
They wiil do everything they can to destroy this guy , our court system is completely self serving.
Christopher di Armani says
While I fervently hope and pray that you are wrong Don, recent history doesn’t leave me feeling very optimistic.