Re Populist Thuggery, March
Wasn’t the title of your editorial somewhat hyperbolic for a (presumably objective) discussion on whether or not society could more effectiviely match punishment and any given crime?
I too am a practicing Presbyterian, but my view of Christian forgiveness tells me that criminals (ergo sinners) need to supplicate for God’s forgiveness rather than that of the increasingly atheistic society in which they/we live. Perhaps if I were a better quality of Christian I might be able to forgive and forget, making it convenient and comfortable for the perpetrator by separating his criminal act from its victim, for example in the case of a child, raped and beaten to death by a miscreant, a person I fear you might view as being totally forgivable. But I can’t think that way, because I regard the innocent victim’s interests as being paramount in such events. Nor do I have any inclination to apologize for this view, which I believe to be based on reasonable, humane logic.
Surely you agree that there are unspeakable crimes that are so horrendous as to be unforgivable in the eyes of the sane majority? The literal view of universal forgiveness that you espouse in you editorial, if practiced wholeheartedly, might negate culpability in all criminals, making Canada an object of ridicule throughout the world and making it a promising haven for international criminals. Thugs might be flocking here by the thousand.
Frankly, your attempt to provide statistics so as to bolster the case for lesser sentences and less incarceration appears to be a very large, very red and very redundant herring. The statistical incidence of any form of crime has nothing whatsoever to do with the severity of it as an antisocial act against innocent members of society. In case it might not have occurred to you yet, on rare occasions psychopathic monsters are born into this world — humans with no sense of the true value of God’s greatest gift, viz. human life, and some of those will go on to rape, abuse, torture and kill innocent people. Whether or not those perpetrators are sane or insane, they pose the same threat to society, and society needs to be protected from them. I’m willing to go out on a limb and suggest that the law-abiding, peace-loving majority in this country would much prefer to see such psychopathic murderers humanely incarcerated for the rest of their natural lives rather than being given a Christian blessing, a prayer-book and then sent on their way.
In the same way that the statistical occurrence of a particular crime is unrelated to it’s significance, recidivism figures are also irrelevant in any discussion on crime and punishment. Crimes are considered, and criminals are tried and sentenced on an individual basis, and references to such statistics have no place in the trial or sentencing of a transgressor.
I’m afraid that you are singing from an entirely wrong hymnal here; it’s been my observation that most Canadians, including my numerous Presbyterian friends, want sentences for heinous crimes increased not decreased. If Canada has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, we should be glad of it, as it means that the courts, for all their numerous faults, are protecting us from our social enemies in a relatively effective way. Religion, its practice and the personal beliefs that go with it are critically important in their way, but jurisprudence represents an entirely different sphere of life altogether.
