Despite the imperfections of our criminal law, however, it is my view that our system of justice is predicated upon praiseworthy rules and principles that for the most part, ought to be lauded rather than criticized. Though the system is not perfect, it exists to protect all Canadians -- both law abiding and yes, law breaker. Historically speaking, our system of justice is founded on principles such as those discussed by Thomas Paine in his classic work, Common Sense and the Rights of Man.
Our forefathers understood government is a necessary evil, existing in a limited form only to prevent free society from descending into anarchy. Our founding fathers understood that more government equals less freedom. To curtail State power, Canada's criminal justice system has historically attempted to limit government power. It is for this reason that I defend our criminal justice system against those who think such as Larry Law who commented on a worthy article written in today's Calgary Herald by Jason Van Rassel:
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/March+unites+murder+victims+families/1967438/story.html
On behalf of all participants in our criminal justice system, I am sure it would not be misplaced for me to extend our sympathies to all victim's of crime and their families and friends.
In a rather vitriolic tone, Larry Law wrote the following:
Until we resolve the incompetence, corruptness and dishonesty within our Canadian Justice System, which is run by the lawyers and judges, without accountability, our society will witness an increasing amount of injustice to the victims. I speak to all victims of criminal and civil crimes, which endure the incompetence, dishonesty and corruption of our lawyers and judges. I can state unequivocally, that if Canadians are forced to endure this type of mediocre justice over too long a period of time - expect vigilantism to take care of the problem, which would be a sad state of affairs for our Canadian society. The media has a influential roll in not allowing vigilantism to run our justice system, if they do the research required to expose the criminals in our society.
I take great exception to the blanket label referencing lawyers and judges as "incompetent", "corrupt" and "dishonest". I take great exception to the blanket claim that Canadians must endure mediocre justice.
With this, I do not claim that our criminal justice system has never been mediocre, or less. After all, it is a human system, and human beings by nature are perfectly capable of being mediocre or worse. But human beings are capable of being stellar, and that is what many judges and lawyers aspire to be.
What I glean from Larry Law, and others like him, is that whenever an accused is found "not guilty" it is because lawyers and judges are either incompetent, dishonest or corrupt. What I glean from him is that lawyers and judges are essentially inherently evil folk, who wish our society to be plagued by miscreants and near-do-wells.
This is simply not true.
When I look upon most of the judges and lawyers operating within our system of justice, I see people who are concerned about our civilization - who are concerned about victims of crime -- who want our streets to be safe -- who want the guilty to be punished and the innocent to be free. I look at many of these people, and I see great courage applying praiseworthy principles, with such valour that they understand the axioms underlying our system of justice mean more to our way of life as Canadians than simply detaining, convicting, locking-up and throwing away the key just because some lobbyist or law enforcement official says so. They understand that accusing a person is not synonymous with the person actually doing the misdeed. They understand that people have been wrongly convicted in this country. They understand that Canadian justice has locked up innocent men and women for things they did not do. They understand that punishment must be reasonable and fair -- and most of all, must fit the crime. When punishing, they understand that criminal justice cannot turn back the clock and must acknowledge the offender is also a human being, not an animal.
With this in mind, I say it takes great courage to be truly just.
Think about it. To appease the irrational Larry Law, how easy would it be for every prosecutor to pursue every accused, no matter how weak the case and every time to seek the highest sentence available. How is that fair, reasonable or just? To appease the irrational Larry Law, how easy would it be for every judge to convict every accused and sentence every accused to the highest sentence available. In the minds of the Larry Law's of the world, such persons would be competent, honest and incorrupt. But is that really what they are? In my mind it is the opposite. Prosecutors and jurists that convict for the sake of conviction are the antithesis of what it means to be just.
This is why I say, in criminal justice, it takes greater courage and conviction to be truly just than to be unreasonably harsh.
With respect to criminal defence lawyers, the Larry Laws of the world are part of a class of citizen that would ask every honest, practicing defence lawyer, "how do you defend people like that"? To this I answer, the competent, honest and incorrupt defence lawyer does so because "...if posterity judges a free society by how it treats its individual members, it should be of considerable consolation to us all that our system does not require an accused to stand alone".
When we talk about victims, if our criminal justice system was to operate in the manner desired by Larry Law, it would risk creating a new class of victim -- and in my mind, that is precisely what our system of justice must assiduously work to prevent.
David G. Chow
Calgary Criminal Defence Lawyer
www.calgarydefence.com
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