QUESTIONS LINGER AFTER GUILTY PLEA
Was this the week in which Regina lost its innocence? A strangely unfulfilled feeling lingers in the wake of the surprise guilty pleas by Clayton Bo Eichler, facing charges in a Regina court this week for the murders of two young women. His guilty plea was a surprise, for he had been expected to plead not guilty, and thus subject the families of the women to two weeks of gruelling testimony.
Yes, a killer has been sent to prison. But the lives of two young women have been taken. The remains of one were recovered — leading, incidentally, to the apprehension of Eichler. But those of the other victim have not been found, denying her family the meagre comfort of closure.
Whether there are other victims of this killer is an unanswered question; a senior Crown prosecutor said “I’m not going to comment on any other investigations.”
How the victims fell into the killer’s clutches is irrelevant; nobody has the right to take the lives of others.
To the non-indigenous community, this is a forceful reminder — yet another — that the public pressure that led to the recently launched National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is well-founded. We can only hope that Canada is moving toward a new future in which economic desperation does not put human beings — of any background — into the path of a killer.
As well, police investigations must be wellstaffed and efficient, and the public must offer to investigators tips and observations that help them to arrest and charge killers of any type. In the Eichler case, the arrest came about through good basic police work: the hockey bag so callously used to carry the remains of one victim was traced through a retailer, taking police to Eichler. This led to a search of his home and more evidence. Life is more complicated than a Hollywood movie: the police need information.
That brings us to another point. Police services are, in the words of Regina’s retired chief Troy Hagen, “evidence-based organizations” that need strong, verifiable information in order to make an arrest. But one is left wondering if police were a little too cautious about conceding the possibility of a serial killer and warning citizens to take appropriate precautions. Still, it says much that the mother of victim Richele Bear took pains to thank the police and courts for their work, and the news media, too, for keeping the case in the public eye.
Eichler’s sentence of life in prison with the ability to seek — repeat, seek — parole only after serving 20 years seems absurdly light to many of us, but a closer look helps understand it.
The death penalty is gone, removed in a practical sense since the early 1960s and legally by Parliament in the mid-1970s, replaced by life sentences. The possibility of seeking parole after 20 or 25 years, depending on the crime, emerged not from foolish liberal generosity, but from a moral compromise designed to encourage long-serving prisoners to behave in jail. This clause was put in place after a series of horrible attacks and hostage-takings involving penitentiary guards in the 1970s. Behave — or you’ll lose the possibility of parole, and face life, literally, in prison. Guards deserve protection too.
There is no good outcome to a case like this. But there are many lessons that, we hope, will save others.
How the victims fell into the killer’s clutches is irrelevant; nobody has the right to take the lives of others.