Found this article interesting showing just how screwed up our justice system really is.


THROUGH BIFOCALS

Moments before a trial was set to begin last month, a Vancouver
court stayed charges that had been pending for fifteen months
against two young men who had allegedly beaten a middle-aged man
unconscious and fractured his ankle. He has had to undergo multiple
surgeries and is unable to work.

Staying charges usually means perpetrators never face trial.Yet
Canada's laws are intended to protect the public and deter criminals.
In this case the victim, Russell Young, had been notified by letter
that he was to attend court September 26, on the Fifth Floor. He
arrived early, checked the trial list posted outside the designated
courtroom, found his case listed there, and confidently sat down in
the gallery to await a call to testify.


But no one notified Young the venue of his trial had been changed at
the last minute from the Fifth to the Third Floor.
He waited two hours. Other cases were dealt with, but never his.
Meanwhile, in a courtroom two floors down, because Young was absent
the court went on to other business while prosecutors scrambled to
locate him.


They paged him; he was sitting in a soundproof courtroom, he didn't
hear the call. They phoned him, but sheriffs in the lobby were
holding his camera phone; recording devices are not allowed in court.
No one took the initiative to visit the original courtroom to look
for him, a searching technique apparently too primitive for use in
today's modern justice system.Since Young -- the key witness -- was
not present to testify, the Crown prosecutor asked that the charges
against his alleged attackers be stayed.


B.C. trials have been stayed on many flimsy excuses: the arresting
Mountie was fishing the Kalum River; the key witness slept in,
confused the date, or blew a tire on the way to the courthouse. And
on and on. Having served as a Crown prosecutor for 14 years, Elliott Poll
should have suspected justice to be derailed by something as witless
as this unannounced change of venue. Courts already have a list of
weak excuses used to stay proceedings: Whoever changed the venue
should have taken responsibility for notifying all affected parties,
particularly the crown's key witness.


Contacted October 3, a media spokesperson for Crown counsel at the
BC Attorney General's office said the stay was under review.The case
had to be assessed, what occurred that day looked into, and a fair
and appropriate decision made under the circumstances.
To nudge the BC Attorney General's office to reschedule Young's
trial, members of FACT weighed in. FACT (Families Against Crime and
Trauma) organized this summer to monitor courts and sentences to
ensure justice for victims.

Several of FACT's organizers suffered the loss of a family member to random violence and lived to see perpetrators given ittybitty sentences that deter no one.
FACT aims to bring equality to our laws, to protect the rights of
the public instead of coddling criminals. Latest word from Crown counsel is that a new hearing has been set for Young's case November 29, 2006.


One would like to think a new trial would have been scheduled
without public pressure. But would it? If FACT and other Young
supporters had not called for a rescheduling of the trial, his two
alleged attackers might well have gone scot free to boast of their
sadistic tactics to other sick minds. FACT now has a website http://www.familiesagainstcrime.org. Reach them at familiesagainstcrime@yahoo.ca.