The pardon system in Canada is something of an unknown to me. Frankly i probably know more about the American system of Presidential pardons than i do about the Canadian system.
Today's news that convicted pedophile Graham James was pardoned three years ago is illuminating.
According to the Canadian Press
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ex-coach-graham-james-pardoned-for-sex-abuse-that-rocked-nhl/article1522464/
the parole board "does not generally take into account the nature of the crime"
This is surprising to say the least. Why doesn't the seriousness of a crime matter when seeking a pardon?
Apparently the 2006-7 year saw 14,581 applications for pardon. (7672 were for lesser offences and the other 7076 were for indictable offences) of which only 103 were declined. Even assuming that all of the denied applications were for serious offences, this implies a 98.5% success rate amongst those seeking a pardon.
The mind boggles. Sheldon Kennedy and Theo Fleury are two of Graham James's victims. They need to live with their pain for the rest of their lives.
How is it that the criminal who betrayed their trust, and abused his position of authority to sexually abuse them as kids, is able to effectively clean his record of these crimes? How is it that convicted criminals can have such a high success rate at obtaining a whitewash of their records?
It is bad enough that he was sentenced to only 3 and a half years for his crimes. That he is now walking free with a pardon behind him is offensive to the core. What am i missing here?
Random musings by a guy named Chuck.
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