The Editor,
I am appalled at the sentence given to exRCMP Cpl. Benjamin (Monty) Robinson by Justice Janice Dillon. Justice in this province is perverted.
A few months curfew! Are you kidding us? Does anyone, anywhere, think this is an appropriate punishment?
"Monty's grounded, everyone!" Two people have died thanks to his ineptitude: Robert Dziekanski died after he was Tasered at YVR. Robinson was the lead officer in that situation. Another innocent life was ended after an apparent drunk driving incident.
Robinson was then convicted of obstructing justice, in trying to evade - not avoid - but evade responsibility for his crime, in his off-duty hours.
These are crimes. He was a cop. He's still awaiting trial on perjury charges related to the Dziekanski death at the airport.
This was an RCMP officer, who has been on full pay for the last four years, but suspended from duty. Sounds like a long vacation to me, paid by us, the taxpayer.
And Justice Dillon has made a fundamental mistake in accepting Robinson's aboriginal heritage as a mitigating factor in sentencing - hence her wrist smack.
He was raised in an affluent Okanagan band, as reported by Ian Mulgrew of the Vancouver Sun.
He didn't have a rough life, but since he's aboriginal, he gets a pass on going to jail?
That's not going to wash with the majority of people in this province.
Monty was good enough for the RCMP to consider him an exemplary officer up until the dung hit the fan. Then, they gave him a four-year, all-expenses-paid holiday from working for a living.
Do our esteemed justices ever need to complete a competency test? Common sense is supposed be innate, right?
How do we know that our judges are mentally competent to perform their duties given some recent sentences?
Geoffrey Filtness Richmond
