So, if I understand Michael Nguyen’s text correctly that The newspaper published yesterday about a woman who was convicted of extreme neglect of her children…
You can leave your three young children to their own devices.
Don’t worry about it.
Do not feed them.
Leave them unsupervised for days.
Do not give them any sign of affection.
Force them to eat their feces.
Force them to live in unsanitary conditions.
Give your babies soft drinks.
Lock your children in their room with a bucket so they can do their business.
Beat them.
Throw them down a two-story bed.
Make them sleep in a dog kennel.
All this, for years.
And all you’re going to receive as a sentence is two years less a day… TO BE SERVED AT HOME??????
The sense of priorities
And after that, we will be told that crimes committed against children are the most terrible crimes that can be committed, and patati et patata.
Text of Quebec Journal which dates from April 2014:
“Those responsible for acts of cruelty against calves in Pont-Rouge could serve up to five years in penitentiary if an ongoing criminal investigation demonstrates their guilt.”
Five years.
For violence against CALVES.
Text from Radio-Canada which dates from June 2022:
“In British Columbia, anyone who commits an offense under the provincial animal cruelty law is subject to a two-year prison sentence.”
No two years less a day to serve at home. Two years to serve in prison.
Text of Sun which dates from August 2022:
“More than 162,000 people have signed a petition to demand an exemplary sentence for a man who deliberately drove his car over two young moose in Sept-Îles.”
Looking forward to seeing the petition demanding an exemplary sentence for this woman who treated her children like animals.
No, sorry: WORSE than animals!
What is the message we send to society when we impose such a lenient sentence for such a serious crime?
I feel like I’ve already written this column a dozen times.
And that I’m going to rewrite it ten more times.
Last March, a woman from Quebec was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud of nearly $1.8 million committed at the CPE where she worked.
She had not beaten children.
She didn’t force her children to eat their feces.
She hadn’t endangered the lives of small, vulnerable human beings, no.
She stole money.
Sentence: three years!
To be served in prison! Behind bars!
Message: defrauding your employer is more serious than abusing children for years.
Spread the word.
That’s what we call having a sense of priorities.
Blank slate
Sometimes I dream of starting all over again from the beginning.
Let us review from A to Z the way we determine sentences.
So that the seriousness of the sentences (finally) reflects the seriousness of the crimes.