The Rule of Law

The past week has raised two issues with regard to law enforcement in Canada.

In the first one we learned this week that Canada's Chief Constable admitted to perjuring himself under oath before a Parliamentary Committee and subsequently was forced to resign. As a Canadian I'm embarrassed. What kind of image are we presenting to the world?

As the week ended we learned that the Robert Picton trial has reached the jury selection phase for a projected year-long trial. The spectre of anyone being forced to put their life on hold for more than a year to listen daily to the kind of gruesome details this trial is likely to reveal to my way of thinking is more than anyone's civic duty should obligate them to do. Should there be some limits placed on the right of trial by jury in such cases. Long before this trial is completed more than a few jurors are going to wish that this accused had died in a hail of bullets resisting arrest. The rest of us can be thankful that we are safe from the possibility of being convicted to such servitude as this man's peers.