Orion Hutchinson was a young man with a bright future ahead of him. That is, until he was killed by RCMP Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson. On Friday the disgraced RCMP corporal was finally convicted of a charge of obstruction of justice. He has never been charged with the death of Orion Hutchinson.
Robinson, who has graced the pages of this website many times for his atrocious behaviour in both the Robert Dziekanski and Orion Hutchinson killings, may now finally be stripped of his lucrative paid holiday.
Much to my disgust and the disgust of many others across Canada, RCMP Corporal Benjamin Monty Robinson has been paid his full salary since being suspended from active duty over three years ago. That’s three years of vacation paid for by you and me, all because the RCMP is too cowardly to get rid of awful cops like Robinson.
Robinson left the scene of the accident that cost Orion Hutchinson his life without even bothering to check to see if the young man was alive. It was far more important to him to run home with his kids and down a couple of shots of vodka than see if the man he had struck was alive.
That total disregard for human life is one of the reasons I’ve been so outspoken about this case. There is absolutely NO PLACE in the RCMP for men so grossly lacking in character and moral fibre as Monty Robinson.
We “mere citizens” depend on police to do the right thing, not run from the scene of their crimes like common criminals.
Yes, we all make mistakes. But anyone with even the slightest sense of humanity and compassion would, at the very least, check to see if the man laying in the middle of the intersection was alive.
Not Monty Robinson. His only thought was of how to get away with drinking, driving and killing a man.
“This was a serious situation that resulted in a fatality. A veteran off-duty police officer acting reasonably would not have behaved as Robinson did. This was not a simple error of judgment, mistake, or inadvertence,” Madam Justice Janice Dillon said.
I’m gratified to see Justice Dillon making this point so clearly. Let me be clear about something here. While Robinson made a big issue during this trial about how his drinking had increased after the Dziekanski killing, his problems were present long before that fateful day. Had the RCMP dealt with Robinson and his cronies properly in that case, it is very likely Orion Hutchinson would be alive today.
Robinson lied from the very beginning, and kept lying all the way through the investigation and through his trial. He claimed he only had two drinks at the party until he was confronted with his lies by a waitress at the party he was attending prior to killing Hutchinson. Only after being found out did he finally admit he had five drinks, not two.
He said he drank the two shots of vodka at home to “calm his nerves“, yet testimony came out in his trial that he had attended a course where he learned how to escape a drunk-driving charge: by drinking more immediately following the accident. This act makes it impossible to determine what his blood-alcohol level was at the time of the accident.
Thankfully, like with the rest of his testimony, the judge wasn’t buying into his lies.
“Robinson’s act of drinking the vodka was, I conclude, willfully designed to set up the defence that he had learned during his police training.”
This is not, of course, the first time RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson has lied in court. He’s done that many times before, and if he follows with his pattern he will lie in court again. He, along with the three other RCMP members who killed Robert Dziekanski, still faces a charge of perjury in the Dziekanski case.
The one positive thing coming out of this trial is that the RCMP is finally going to attempt to remove Robinson from the RCMP payroll. This is, in my opinion, something that is many years overdue.
“Everyone, including a police officer, is entitled to due process. Cpl. Robinson has had his trial and the court has convicted him,” RCMP. Assistant Commissioner Norm Lipinski said. “To be found guilty of obstructing justice is a very serious matter for a police officer.”
The RCMP will, he said, finally seek the dismissal of RCMP Corporal Monty Robinson.
It’s about bloody time.
While this conviction is a far cry from justice in the death of Orion Hutchinson case, at least Orion’s parents were able to hear the word they’ve waited for since hearing their son had been killed by an RCMP corporal:
GUILTY.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Hutchinson family. I also pray that Madam Justice Janice Dillon will see it fitting to sentence Monty Robinson to the maximum allowable for this crime, ten years in prison.
Excellent article Christopher…..
Regards, Don Laird
Edson, Alberta, Canada
Thanks, Don.
I’ve written a lot of articles about a lot of bad cops, but Monty Robinson is at the top of my personal “Disgust List.” This guy will do anything to avoid responsibility for his actions. Thankfully the judge in this case didn’t buy any of it, and I hope that’s reflected in her sentencing of Robinson.
chris,
if there is 1 thing i detest above all others from government employees, it is them protecting themselves from what they wont protect you/us from.
HOWEVER, part of the problem in cases like this particular one is the CRIMINAL aspect of the underlying charge that follows an accident that results in injuries or death.
that is, THE FACT that a drunk driver causing injury or death will face HUGE CRIMINAL penalties for what is still fundamentally an ACCIDENT.
while it is willful to drink and drive, the RESULTING injury or death is still not willful, but when we make the RESULTS of a minor infraction(the drunk driving) “murder charges”; then we actually ENCOURAGE people to act IRRATIONALLY IN A PANIC, as nobody wants to be convicted of a serious crime for a minor infraction that ACCIDENTALLY causes disastrous results…probably not even you or i !!
so by pretending to be “tough on crime”; we actually end up encouraging crime in the worst possible circumstances; that is, in circumstances where the worst results(such as death) could often be avoided by prompt help such as rescue or medical attention; and this canadian case is but one more perfect example.
if the worst penalty that this cop could have gotten was a drunk driving citation and say a $500.00 fine and 50 hours of community service, it is far more likely that he would have stopped at the scene to render assistance to the victim of his ACCIDENT.
and this is not true in his case alone, but in many cases all over north america when people panic from the threat of huge prison sentences for injuries or deaths that they never intended to happen in any way.
and lets be honest, being drunk doesnt actually CAUSE an accident, it only makes them more likely. otherwise, every time somebody drove drunk they would cause an accident; and obviously this isnt true. in fact, only a small percentage, even of drunk driving occurrences, cause accidents, and even fewer of those cause injury, and still fewer of those cause death.
so the likelihood of this whole problem of fear of “criminal guilt” causing panic and the fleeing of the scene of an accident, which then causes worse injuries or death; is of course made worse when an average person has his or her faculties diminished due to the influence of alcohol or drugs.
after all, THE LAST THING that anyone should do to someone who is “under the influence” is to make astronomical threats to them, and this goes without saying for obvious reasons; yet this is EXACTLY what “super-harsh” criminal penalties do in cases such as this one; and MORE deaths, not fewer, is the result of these “do-gooder” “feel-good” type laws that are emotionally satisfying to the dreamer, but are illogical to the honest thinker… not to mention that the record of historical fact regarding these types of cases bears out this hypothesis.
a virtually identical case just “went down”(literally) in florida where a very rich drunk civilian drove into another vehicle with his bentley and knocked that other vehicle off a bridge and into the water below.
the young man driving the other car drowned in his vehicle, when he could easily have been rescued by the guy driving the bentley, who instead panicked, since he was drunk, and “drive off” in order to try and save himself from huge criminal penalties.
the drunk civilian in florida did exactly as this police officer in canada did, and for the same VERY OBVIOUS reason; yet we still keep pushing for “tougher” laws which will exacerbate the problem even further.
it seems that with this problem, and as with most other of our problems in the western world, that proper logic applied to underlying facts, instead of base emotion being thrown at random results, would help solve a preponderance of our problems in short order… just sayin’ !!
have a good weekend !!
Hello, I just happened to stumble across this, when trying to find a date for the perjury trial.
Thank you very much for your words, which strongly echo our outrage. We are staggered that this person continues to be on a paid vacation of sorts, while we have had to struggle and work to survive in the midst of indescribable grief and trauma.
It’s nice to hear well-articulated support and also your kind expressions of sympathy,
Sincerely,
Judith and Daria Hutchinson
Why do we keep yapping about nthe performance of individuals in the RCMP? Surely by now some of us have to come to the realization the personall selection process for these people is lacking! It’s either due to the interest of the proper people and the goal of filling the ranks or it’s the process itself. Surely we’ve seen enough of this to demand our MP’s raise the standards rquired! My goodness; we’ve heard of the incompetents in CICS to the point where we KNOW there is something terribly wrong with the selection system. Perhaps instead of focusing on robophones we could add other things such as this where out politicians are sadly lacking. Who runs this country? Is it the people we vote in to protect our rights or is the people we send to the public trough who, after feeding for awhile, decide in their own minds how we should be treated even if it’s against everything we voted them in for!