By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
I am not a lawyer, nor have I had any legal training, other than many several hours upon hours of sitting in court rooms observing the legal process in action.
There is an advantage to being a regular court room observer, in that various aspects of the law are explained from time to time, particularly when a person is being sentenced for a crime, or their lawyer is applying for their client's release from custody in a show-cause hearing, or during a trial when case law is presented to the judge by either side to help convince him/her of the aspects of his or her case.
It's not a replacement for legal training by any means, but for a lay person who wants to understand the law better, it's certainly instructive.
That being said, there is a matter I feel I have to comment on, if for no other reason than I am a parent with small children who sometimes fears for their safety in that wide world out there.
There was a recent case in B.C. Supreme Court that I'm sure you've heard of by now, if you pay attention to the national news at all, whereby a man accused of possession of child pornography was acquitted of that charge because the judge felt such a charge violated the man's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Now, understand me when I say I mean no disrespect for judges or justices, as I'm sure they are all well-versed in the nuances and meanings of the law, but this particular judge has lost perhaps the most important thing a judge needs to be effective: his moral conscience. Without a moral compass, the application of the law in its strictest, spirit-of-the-letter sense can have real harmful effects, and this is one of them.
Perhaps an argument can be made that the law was poorly written in the first place, and this may force the writing of a stronger child pornography law if this case reaches the Supreme Court of Canada. If this happens, then I could say that some good has come of this case after all; if the result is otherwise, then I would have to say that Canadian society just sank into the muck and filth that pervades a pornographer's world, and it is not a place I wish to be.
If rewriting of the law is not what was intended, then maybe this judge should be removed from the bench. How can he say in all good conscience, as he did in his ruling, that there is no proof that child pornography has any effect on rapes and murders of children, or on pedophiles who prey on children to satisfy their craven desires?
What's even more outrageous is this judgment has given this pervert the platform to proclaim such idiocy as that there is nothing wrong with pictures of naked children, that they are not victims of abuse.
The mere fact that these children are portrayed nude is an abuse and a violation of their person, not to mention exploitation of persons who are unable to defend themselves. To perpetrate this filth is to say that this is all right, and this ruling all but says that it's all right to violate children and their privacy. I'm sorry, but the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not give anyone the right to violate a person, abuse them or exploit them.
When I wrote this, the B.C. government announced its appeal of this ruling a few days before, as the ruling became law in that province until such time as the appeal was launched. As I said from the start, I am not a lawyer, and I'm not going to pretend I can understand the huge volumes of law with all of their cases and the intricate fine points of differences of how laws are applied.
I suppose this is an indication that life just isn't that simple anymore; it used to be that the justice system could be counted upon to uphold the law, and uphold decency for the good of the citizens of Canada. Allowing someone to hide his perverted interests behind a so-called right doesn't sound like the kind of justice that should prevail in this great country of Canada.
I'm hopeful that some justices with more common sense are going to have a look at this case and overturn this outrageous ruling, for the sake of innocent children in British Columbia, and also for the sake of my children and all children across Canada.
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