LAST SURVIVING MALE OF MASSACRED TRIBE DIES FROM COVID-19
The last male survivor of a brazilian Indigenous group has died from complications linked to COVID-19. Aruka Juma, aged between 86 and 90, was the last man of a tribe that once numbered 15,000. Massacres by people seeking to exploit their land meant that by 2002 only five were left — Juma, his three daughters and a grandchild. brazil’s Indigenous groups are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their isolation, communal life and poor health care. There have been almost 49,000 cases, 969 deaths and 162 tribes affected. In at least three regions, the virus was introduced by health workers who had inadequate protective equipment and testing facilities. More than 60 of Juma’s tribe were killed when rubber tappers and nut traders intruded on their land. His daughters married into another tribe.
Re: Drunk driving is Canada’s deadliest crime, Tristin Hopper, Feb. 12
While Tristin Hopper’s article reveals a troublesome trend in the application of appropriate justice with regard to deaths from drunk driving, one might argue that the entire Canadian judicial system has become infected with the same trends to leniency for all manner of violent crimes resulting in the deaths of victims. A sentence of “life imprisonment” is always accompanied by the puzzling oxymoronic addendum of “with no chance of parole for ‘x’ years.” When, if ever, and under what circumstances, is “life imprisonment” with no parole rendered as such in Canada? In the end might be the redundant question of when do the victims of these crimes receive parole from their eternal internment?
Mr. Hopper’s article should be but a preliminary start to a series that explores the why’s and wherefores of an existing judicial system that, rather than requiring reform, is instead failing to properly recognize the serious nature of deaths from violent crime, and seemingly lacks the will to apply appropriate and existing legal punishment. being that violent crime affects few people, can it be that there are insufficient electoral rewards for politicians to adequately provide for a proper judicial system that is timely and renders more than a temporary inconvenience for people prone to criminal violence, be it deliberate or from carelessness?
Ian Semple, Vancouver
It was so distressing and depressing to read about how drunk drivers in this country are dealt with so lightly. even repeat offenders seem to get kid-glove treatment. The victims and their families must feel abandoned by their elected officials and the courts.
Contrast this situation with those in Australia. An intoxicated driver recently went through a red light in Queensland and killed two people. He has been charged with murder.
Gerry Wood, Toronto