2003 - Canadian Crime In Review

Get over it: Canada's as violent as the U.S.

Ok, so I admit I have a bias for Quebec crime, but just to show I can be fair and balanced, I will leave off any mention of arsonist-cum-murderer Angelo Colalillo, M.D. impersonator-cum-murderer Richard Bouillon, knife enthusiast Guy Croteau (say, doesn't Croteau mean "cut" in French? Ironic, eh? ), object of police fabricated evidenceHugo Bernier, or good-old-fashioned serial killer William Fyfe. Oh and contrary to Court TV, the trial of the new millennium has nothing to do with a kiddie diddler named Michael: it's all about a little Angel named Mom.

So here are my top ten stories from 2003 demonstrating the violence and corruption of the great white north:

1. Newfoundland's Ouchie

A former chief justice of the Supreme Court is asked to investigate why so many wrongful-murder convictions have occurred in Newfoundland. Asked to probe the cases of Gregory Parsons, Ronald Dalton and Randy Druken, former chief justice Antonio Lamer stated there may be a "systematic failure of the system or, maybe it was just three individual boo-boos."

2. Deep Throat Probes the Prairie

Saskatoon hit the big time when the Washington Post reported the plight of Darrell Night, a 37-year-old member of the Cree Nation who was driven to the outskirts of town and left for dead in the freezing cold by two members of the Saskatoon police force. "Get the fuck out of here, you fucking Indian"; that's how officers left Night, who managed to survive the three mile walk back to the city. The force is now under investigation since several frozen aboriginal bodies have turned up in the area where police left Night.

3. Human Remains Discovered in Dartmouth Quarry

In August, RCMP confirmed that human remains were found in a rock quarry outside Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Investigators were at a loss to say who the remains belonged to; was it a 15-year-old boy missing since 1995? A former Hells Angels member missing since 1999? My guess is it's one of the countless young women that have gone missing from the Halifax area - in the past 15 years many turned up in wooded areas, while others have disappeared without a trace.

4. Vince Bevan? Is anybody home?

It is a tragedy that graduate student Ardeth Wood went missing from downtown Ottawa in the summer of 2003 only to turn up dead along a riverside biking path. But the real story here is how Ottawa chief of police, Vince Bevan still can't solve this crime. You remember Bevan - he's the one who let Karla Homolka plea bargain her way out of a life sentence. How someone can blow the Paul Bernardo case then get PROMOTED to chief of police is beyond me. 

The scuttlebutt around the Nation's Capital is that police were aware of a serial rapist operating along the biking paths of the Ottawa river long before Ardeth Wood disappeared. Now the case is stone cold and Bevan isn't talking.

5. Toronto The Very Bad

10-year-old Holly Jones disappears from her downtown neighborhood. Later pieces of her body are found floating in luggage along the shores of Lake Ontario. Police arrest 35-year-old Michael Briere, a software developer who lives near Holly's home. These things aren't supposed to happen in Toronto.

6. Cecilia Zhang - "Parents may breathe a little easier"

So said police in the wake of the abduction of the nine-year-old child, confident that Zhang was part of a ransom plot and not abducted by a sexual predator. Shaken by the murder of Holly Jones, authorities didn't want Toronto to break into total panic. It's been over two months now and police still can't find Cecilia.

7. Ridgway vs Pickton - Can We Get A Recount?

On December 18th, Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway is sentenced to life in prison after confessing to the murders of 48 women over the past two decades. The murders set a record for serial killings in America, but Ridgway may have a rival - up the road in British Columbia, pig farmer Robert Pickton is charged with seven additional murders, bringing his total charges to 22. Pickton is reputed to be Canada's worst serial killer, possibly responsible for the murders of over 60 prostitutes from downtown Vancouver.

8. Edmonton's Missing Women

Not to be outdone by their neighbors in Vancouver, Edmonton has its own missing women. A task force from the Western province has been handed 123 cases to investigate in relation to the unsolved murders of 20 area prostitutes. 

9. Etiquette 101:
If you throw a party, don't forget to invite the guests!

In November, Justice Canada hosts a victims of crime conference. Dubbed, Lessons Learned from Victims of Crime the event was unique on two accounts:

1. It was the first of its kind in Canada.

2. The DOG neglected to invite victims.

Left to explain the gaff of the Ministry, then Deputy Justice Minister Richard Mosley was given a deus ex machina when outgoing Prime Minister, Jean Chretien swiftly promoted him to the Supreme Court. Talk about your exit strategies. Let's hope future conferences will be more inclusive.

10. Nutcase Watch

December 31, 2003 - Only 553 days left until Karla Homolka is released from prison.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2003

THE MONTREAL MASSACRE 
DECEMBER 6, 1989 

NINE MORE LESSONS TO LEARN: 

1. After 21 months, the excavation of the Robert Picton farm - a project the Globe and Mail so sensitively dubbed the "Pig Dig" - ended in British Columbia last month. Charged with 15 counts of first-degree murder, Picton may be responsible for the deaths of over 60 women.

2. An Edmonton task force has been handed 123 cases to investigate in relation to the murders of 20 area prostitutes.

3. In Iqaluit, Mark King Jeffrey faces a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Jennifer Naglingiq, 13, whose body was found during the first few minutes after midnight on Dec. 6, 2002.

4. The University of Saskatchewan decides to use a December 6th memorial to call attention to a sexual assault that occured on university grounds. A spokesman for the university women's centre alleges campus security is ignoring other incidents of violence on campus.

5. A 14-year-old girl from Candiac, Quebec is sexually assaulted, beaten and left for dead on the South shore of Montreal. Her two teenage assailants ask her how she would prefer to die; strangled, beaten or drowned.

6. Four months since the murder of Ardeth Wood and Ottawa Chief of Police Vince Bevan still is no closer to solving this crime.

7. Justice delayed in Quebec as the Hugo Bernier trial is postponed for another month. Bernier is charged with the 2001 murder of Julie Boisvenu in downtown Sherbrooke.

8. Since his arrest in February of 2002, Guy Croteau is still awaiting his pre-trial hearing in the 1987 murder of Sophie Landry. The 14-year-old Laundry was stabbed over 170 times and dumped in a cornfield in St-Roch l'Achigan, Quebec.

9. In Nova Scotia, Gregory Plamondon is sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping and slashing the face of his ex-girlfriend. He could be released from prison in two years. Plamondon, who acted as his own lawyer during the trial, cross-examined, and further traumatized the victim for 6 1/2 hours.