People slipping through cracks
Dear editor: I share Mel Gauthier’s outrage and sadness regarding the death of two children on Christmas day of all days (Daily Courier, Jan. 2). However our opinions divide very sharply over his “solution” by reinstating the death penalty.
Some years back after a murder-suicide tragedy, we read several letters to the editor voicing a similar demand. The fact that the perpetrator then committed suicide after killing his family seems to have escaped them since it seemed fairly obvious that he chose to execute himself. Where was the fear of hanging to a possibly deranged person bent on suicide?
I don’t want to belabour everyone with a long shopping list of objections to capital punishment; they’ve been well rehashed by countless people over the years. Just ask the people who’ve been wrongly accused of murder and later released how they feel. But that’s another story.
However, the real issue relating to these tragedies is the fact that a lot of people who are in big trouble emotionally seem to be slipping through the cracks. I’m not trying to lay blame, nor am I second guessing the judge who allowed this man access rights to his children. She is probably doing no end of that herself. However, society has to find a way to avoid these tragedies; a solution that is, admittedly, far easier stated than accomplished.
Gauthier’s accusation of Canadians being too spineless to re-institute hanging is unfair in the extreme. For one thing, Canada has joined many other nations, including European countries and several U.S. states, to name only a few, in abolishing capital punishment. As for spending 20 years in prison, he should have had the opportunity I once had of working for a few hours at a maximum security prison (not as an inmate).
It only took that long for me to realize the crushing ardour of spending a day in the place, let alone years. Ask anyone who has spent time in prison: it’s no holiday.
Finally, one other thing: Gauthier’s letters of demand to the provincial Attorney General were misdirected, since he or she has no jurisdiction over the Criminal Code. He should maybe direct his letters to the feds. Roderick MacIntosh Peachland