Now doesn't that just take the cake for being among one of the worst decisions ever made in Canadian history. It sits right up there with Vince Lee - the man who cut the head off of a fellow Greyhound passenger as he slept and then was apprehended as he was feasting on the head. The killers fate? About two years of psychiatric evaluation and then freedom, with a few conditions of course. Please...
Last week's news headline is just as bad. In 2009 an apparently mentally disturbed Quebec cardiologist - Guy Turcotte - decided he couldn't handle the depression after splitting with his wife. His solution? To stab his two young children (47 times) to death. Oliver was just five and little Anne-Sophie three. How sad.
Divorce and separation has happened to a lot of us. It's a pathetic statistic but in fact, more than 50 per cent of all marriages end in divorce these days. But we learn to cope. We move on. In what society should killing your children in the aftermath ever be accepted let alone swept under the carpet?
Apparently in Canada. Turcotte was just released from his mental facility - with a few conditions of course - we wouldn't want to forget those. He must live at an approved location and he must not have any contact with his ex-wife who incidentally, still feels threatened by her former partner. Can you blame her? Understand-ably she's opposing the ruling.
"If this doesn't change, there'll continue to be injustices like this," she states. "We can have a discussion about the value of life, about the value of physical integrity, but unfortunately, the penalties that are given in the courts lead me to believe that there's no great value to a human life." Here, here.
His review board was told by doctors Turcotte shows no signs of mental illness. He sees a psychologist once a week for an hour and the only medication he's taking is for hair loss. Wow.
Imagine Turcotte's wife and family members looking on as they did last week when Turcotte spoke out at his hearing. "I walk everywhere in the city," he said, "I'm in the crowds..."
Oliver and Anne-Sophie will never walk the streets again and nor will their mother comfortably.
This represents a system that is in need of extreme overhaul. It's scary, it's sad and it's disheartening... C'mon Canada, get with the program!
