A number of years ago, I had the misfortune of being inside a Bank of Montreal branch when it was held up by three masked gunmen with sawed-off shotguns. The men ran into the branch and pointed a gun at customers forcing everyone down to the ground. Although it felt like an eternity, it took the thieves less than two minutes to jump over the counter and stuff wads of cash into a pillowcase.
To this day every second of that frightening experience remains as clear to me as though it happened just yesterday. In the end, I never did find out if the thieves were caught and charged with a crime, but I have my doubts.
Last June hundreds of business owners, store clerks and service workers went through a similar terrifying experience. It was the night of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and over 100,000 Canucks fans congregated downtown inside Mayor Gregor Robertson’s fan zone.
Soon after their beloved hockey team fell short of victory, tens of thousands of those same fans turned Vancouver into a virtual war zone. They looted stores, burned cars and even threw bricks at police officers as the world watched in horror at what was unfolding.
I can imagine how frightening it must have been for the London Drugs employees who locked themselves inside the store as a means of protecting themselves and merchandise. Just outside the drugstore hundreds of young men and women beat for hours on the front gates trying to break in.
These victims have now likely gone on with their lives, but I doubt they will soon forget the events of June 15, 2011.
This week the lengthy attempts to bring these rioters to justice took an unfortunate turn. A judge denied the public’s and media’s right to bring cameras inside the courtroom: we will not be able to see justice meted out to Ryan Dickinson this week, the first rioter to be sentenced.
It was argued that broadcasting these trials might negatively impact the rights of judges, lawyers and the alleged rioters themselves. Give me a break.
Considering the sloth-like nature of our judicial system, is it any wonder judges are afraid of letting the public inside to take a peek?
Our courts owe it to the people who were victimized last year to ensure that the perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law. They had a chance to demonstrate they were serious by allowing cameras into their courtrooms. Sadly, by denying this simple request, they’ve confirmed just how out of touch they are with the people they’re in charge of protecting.
- post by Daniel. This column first appeared in 24 Hours Vancouver on Thursday, Feb 16, 2012.
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Daniel said:
“Last June hundreds of business owners, store clerks and service workers went through a similar terrifying experience. It was the night of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs and over 100,000 Canucks fans congregated downtown inside Mayor Gregor Robertson’s fan zone.”
My question to you is this: why are Mayor Robertson, City manager Ballem, Deputy Johnston, Police Chief Chu and many other top ranked city officials that did not do their jobs (as a matter of fact they completely “organized” the game 7 Party) not hold accountable?
IMO they are as guilty as the ones they invited to drink/ smoke pot/ and misbehaved in the city of Vancouver. Period.
So?
We’ve had an election and the public already decided if there should be any accountability for our civic leaders. The answer is no. So move on.
Jimmy what kind of drink are you brewing in your little kitchen? The public? What? that 17% of the voting population that carried Vision clowns and mayor over the threshold? I hope for all of them to be named as defendants in a class action civil lawsuit brought by the real victims of this Robertson photo op exercise. it’s not over Jimmy, untill the fat lady sings! get it?
How will cameras in the courtroom help:
‘ensure that the perpetrators are punished to the full extent of the law.”?
Seems like a side-show waiting to happen rather than a way to improve the justice system.
I wonder if we would just see more plea bargains, which would in all likelihood ensure they were punished to the middle extent of the law. And now that one of the convicted rioters has had the benefit of a trial without cameras, isn’t it likely that any subsequent trials would be delayed as those charged make applications to be treated equally before the law and not subject to the experience of being an unwilling star in Riot TV: The Sequel. But as they say… I am not a lawyer.
Maybe cameras in court are a blessing in disguise for all of us taxpayers. The rioters will have the opportunity to say on live tv that Robertson invited them, Penny Ballem was barking orders at the police, and the police was watching them from a distance… only good things, CK.
Funny, as those that participated on the riot have already been ‘willing’ stars in Riot TV.
Their respective pictures are already plastered all over the web, print media, news channels. I hold no sympathy for them – they deserve every shining moment of notoriety.
My hope, if cameras were inside the court rooms, perhaps proper justice would be meted out rather than the slap on the wrist we read about way too often.
Like the author of the article, I was involved as witness to a crime. A few years ago, at the Granville skytrain station, two skinheads brutally beat a black panhandler. I and other bystander “intervened” and stopped the beating. I followed the skinheads up granville and flagged down a cop car, told the cops what happened and the officers immediately arrested the brutes. I filled out a written statement in the backseat of the cop car parked on the side of granville street. About 16 months later I received a summons to appear and testify in the assault case. No witness preparation whatsoever. I showed up, the prosecutor met me in the hall, showed me the statement and asked me to read it and prepare to testify that same day. To ensure a fair trial, of course the accused had copies of my written statement which had my name, address and phone number. There was no scheduled time for the trial that day, so I spent most of the day sitting in the hall with the accused and their lawyer. After wasting a full day off from work, i finally testified, was crossed and was done with the incident. i was never notified of the outcome; guilty or innocent. Having experienced that, seeing how slow the process is from arrest to trial and the experience of the proceedings, I think televising the trials serves a good purpose. That is to expose, the process to the public. A process that we pay for and one that is important to us and a process, because of the immense delay is coming under much scrutiny. The planning and policing of “Gregor’s Kegger” and subsequently “Robertson’s Riot” was shroud in secrecy and “in camera” meetings. Shedding light on the justice process would only serve to educate and inform the public about the process and it serious flaws. I would also hope that the costs of investigation and prosecution of the riot related crimes is tracked and shared with the tax payer. We deserve to know the full price paid to clean up the mess created by the boy Mayor’s Stanley Cup party (aka Gregor’s Kegger”)
Skippy:
As you’ve indicated, trials are a boring business. What would happen if we televised the Stanley Cup riot trials? In all likelihood there’d be a blip in viewership off the top and then everyone would realize how deadly dull the proceedings are. You’d have a tiny viewership from then on, and a big bill for taxpayers to foot for little or no benefit. For those who are interested, they can attend the trial, or pay attention in other ways. Much of the sentiment I read expressed on this topic smacks of a desire for vengeance rather than punishment or justice. If public shaming is what you want then it would be cheaper to bring back the stocks or public canings, but I think those choices might cleave a little too close to the truth of the matter for public taste. What you are asking for is to have Schadenfruede nicely sanitized and packaged for profit. I think as a nation we are better than that. At least I hope so.
And again Chris:
The individuals that chose to participate in the the Riot have already publicly embarrassed themselves, their families and their co-workers. Their pictures are well plastered thanks (gratefully) to the web. So how can having their trials, which might if nothing else, hold the feet to the fire of the justice system, be any worse?
What, shame them publicly? They’ve already managed that, and all by themselves.
The taxpayers paid a huge price for the damages done that night. The taxpayers were the ones cleaning up the mess the next day. The taxpayers are the ones having to live with the international disgrace that was unjustly placed on them that night because of the Mayor, the City Manager, the Police Chief and all the village idiots that participated and showed piss poor judgement.
The sad fact that Robertson got voted back in because of US money, union pandering, and all things supposedly ‘green’ is just another showing of piss poor judgement the rest have to pay for, and pay for, and pay for.
And on that topic, I see the Rize developers are offering to build a community ‘pool’ on Main St. as part in parcel of a bribe to build a 19+ storey condo unit. Funny, after Vision removed the pool and gave the neighborhood a skate park they didn’t want (but hey, have to pay for the skate boarder’s votes somehow, right Sarah B?)
What Vision takes away, their developer donating friends give back…with HUGE strings to the little people. I understand that Rize is just the start, there are two other towers waiting in the wings if this one gets the go ahead. And, I have no doubt – with Toderain now gone, they will.
Hmmm, let’s see what is next – maybe the new Solefood ‘Community’ Garden spaces that were just announced? Which developer do they help? Concord? Tax breaks for those in the 1%. And they talk about the Liberals and corporate tax breaks.
The Libs have zip on Vision.
Sorry, one more thing about the 3 ‘new’ Solefood community gardens. Robertson is touting these as the creation of ‘green’ jobs, and yet, we have to import migrant workers to harvest our local farms.
Freaking, knee slapping, laughable.
Green jobs, my ass.
I think you misinterpreted my comment. I don’t believe the benefit is public shaming but rather shedding light on the justice process so tax payers see how their dollars are spent. As I stated, experiencing the process firsthand was an eye opener and I think its important that light be shone on the process and judges and lawyers should not hide from public scrutiny. i did not suggest the process was boring. i used to watch the televised proceedings of the Supreme Court and watched the hearings of the commission which reviewed the killings of somali’s by canadian armed forces personnel. I found both interesting and educational. In this case, i do think its doubly important given the public nature of the offence and the cost to the public. Transparency is paramount for us to assess the effectiveness of public institutions including the legal aid the accused Robertson Rioters will receive.
I think that Daniel Fontaine has done a tremendous amount of good for Vancouver and B.C. over the years, and I have a lot of respect for his experience, his views, and his customary decency and fairness. But I am disappointed at his treatment of what he himself says is an important subject, and I object to his suggestion that judicial courage is lacking in the B.C. Courts, especially when under our system judges cannot respond to such critics. Please allow me to volunteer to do it for them, if only briefly.
Judge MacLean and others who were in Court that day said a great deal more than Daniel chooses to quote. Among other things it was noted in submissions to him by the lawyer representing all Crown Counsel that in recent years there has been an alarming tendency toward increasing violence to all people who work in our Courts, including Court clerks and prosecutors — the very people whom he presumably wants on the job to help dispense justice. Do we want them to hesitate when charging or prosecuting, because they know they are high and wide on TV again and again? Or do we want them to quit, as Crown Counsel often do, to become lawyers in private practice? It’s hard enough to retain good Crown Counsel on the uncompetitive salaries that they are paid.
To me, the most surprising part of his views is his apparent confidence that introducing TV cameras would have some kind of helpful effect on the trials and on justice itself, and (I infer) that it would encourage the stiffer punishment that he and I both want meted out to these rioters. I think the opposite would happen. If witnesses, whom he rightly says are already frightened, are told that they have to appear on TV, just watch those witnesses start walking away from a lot of these trials. They’ll be afraid of more vandalism at their stores, or of being attacked on the street or in the parking lot someday when they least expect it. Do you know how hard it is to get witnesses to show up, how often they chicken out, and how often they decide to move to Alberta or Ontario for a while, i.e. where a B.C. Judge’s arrest warrant can’t touch them for Failure To Appear? I have little doubt that the result would be, more failed or stayed Trials, more egg on the faces of the people who are trying to bring
rioters to justice.
But my oh my, what about fate of the trials themselves? If you want to see soaring costs and delays on a scale that would embarrass even the Mayor, then bring on the TV cameras. If an order were made for TV cameras, imagine the number of Appeals on all kinds of grounds, to the B.C. Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada, which would take 3-4 more years, cost the good old Vancouver taxpayers millions of dollars, and make that much more of a mockery of the soft treatment that these rioters have received at the hands of the Vancouver Police Force and Vision Vancouver. Good God, we want to get this process finished, not park it in Ottawa. I think that Daniel should be asked whether he wants the delays to continue; whether he wants trials stretched out, adjourned and delayed even more; or whether he is prepared to support the prosecutorial process now that it is finally underway. Given his knowledge of the extent of the damage the rioters did, I would have instead expected a criticism from him that 17 months in jail was only half of the sentence that should have been pronounced, the other half being an order for full restitution of damages suffered by innocent property owners — and let’s turn a deaf ear, please, to the usual flim-flam about how Ryan Dickinson is without funds and how he was underprivileged. And how about attacking the real problem in allof this — the decisions by VV and the VPD to try to compile perfect charges and run flawless trials (after the civic elections!), and mainly their refusal to bring Dickinson to Trial within a week, probably on fewer charges and probably resulting in a lesser sentence, but doing what they did in Britain, i.e. collaring these guys and trying and sentencing them so fast that it sent a real message, not the message that the Courts are now reduced to by the belated charges that were handed to them about 7 1/2 months too late.
@ James thank you for your very well thought out comment. Well said.
Maybe the next election will bring some justice to Vancouver City as well. Get rid of Vision, Robertson, Ballem, Sadhu and all the other parasites in office.
Hard but not impossible. Cameras or no cameras.