A primer for police

Hit man case reveals abused spouse’s desperation

The Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in the case of a Nova Scotia woman who tried to hire a hit man to kill her abusive husband is one of the more nuanced the court has delivered recently. It is full of “yes, buts,” which, at first glance, seem rather astounding given the gravity of the crime, but which require careful parsing to be understood.

Bottom line is, of course, that if you try to put out a contract on an abusive spouse’s life, you will face jail time. Except that Nicole Ryan isn’t going to prison — the justices set her free, after elaborating on all the mitigating circumstances in the case.

Two lower courts had already acquitted Ryan, in concluding that after a lengthy history of abuse, she acted under duress when she offered a hit man — who turned out to be an undercover RCMP officer — $25,000 to kill her husband, Michael. Now, the Supreme Court has thrown out those acquittals, but has still set Ryan free. Ryan’s argument of being under duress is only valid, the court ruled, when a crime is committed because of a threat that is specific.

Instead, the justices said that the abuse Ryan suffered and the long period spent in court proceedings had “taken an enormous toll on her.”

The abuse was horrific and included incidents of Michael holding a gun to his wife’s head, limiting her contact with family, and even threatening to bury her and their child on land adjacent to their home. Another time, she said Michael shoved her into a wall and put his hands around her neck after they’d argued about Pierre Trudeau.

Perhaps the most salient point in the ruling was the justices’ observation of how “disquieting” it was that police pounced on Nicole Ryan so quickly in the hit man case, but didn’t respond to her frequent cries for help. While suffering the abuse, she made nine calls to the RCMP, 11 to a victim’s services agency and one to 911. This should certainly be a teachable moment for police services across Canada. In cases where a woman has been killed after years of domestic violence, it often comes out in court that her calls to police were not taken seriously, her concerns were dismissed, or that there was a definite slowness to their response time or attentiveness.

In Nicole Ryan’s case, her frustration with the police’s seeming inability and reluctance to act with alacrity led her to attempt desperate measures. She should have gone to a woman’s shelter and sought help to leave the province.

She has indeed been through hell, and clearly, the Supreme Court justices reacted to that fact with admirable compassion. Still, no one suffering in an abusive relationship should have to get to the point where he or she is seriously considering such measures as hiring a hit man.

As Nicole Ryan begins to put her ordeal behind her, let police forces across the land contemplate the sober lessons her case provides.