The "I VOTED FOR CHANGE" McGoonites Will Try To Shift Blame...

...to Harper, to society, etc. but in this case the judicial system is provincial.

McGuinty skates around tragedy

Justice system failed woman hit by fleeing van

By Joe Warmington, Toronto Sun

Sara Attayee won’t be joining Premier Dalton McGuinty and his family any time soon for a skate on the Rideau Canal or for a tasty Beavertail.
The 26-year-old Toronto woman is dead.
Her sister, Addela, 45, her niece Mariam, 18, sister-in-law Fahemah, 38, and family pal Nadia Nadia, 34, would have loved to be there too.
They are in hospital.
But go for your skate, Dalton, these grieving people in wheelchairs would just slow you down, anyway.
Of course, it doesn’t change the fact that the province you purport to run must shamefully accept its share of responsibility for the weak justice system that contributed to this.
This horrible tale happened Monday in Scarborough when a van — allegedly fleeing police from a stolen property scene — was travelling 100 km/h and slammed into a Honda Civic at Pharmacy and Lawrence — killing Attayee and sending the rest to hospital.
And guess who allegedly was driving the getaway van?
Yes, it was none other than Robert Clifford Smith, two days out of jail, and allegedly out breaking into homes again. It seems the rehabilitation is not going well.
“Dangerous” is how Det. Christopher Higgins described Smith on March 20, 2008, after he was allegedly actively trying to engage police officers in vehicle pursuits of him.
Higgins told reporter Bryn Weese “the sad thing is he was arrested Jan. 21, he’s got over 100 criminal convictions and the judge let him out the next day on bail.”
Sun crime reporting legend Rob Lamberti was telling me at one time the man known for “burglaries, dangerous driving, failing to comply with court-release orders, having cocaine to sell, possessing coke and marijuana, plus obstructing police was wanted by six Toronto Police divisions, and Halton and York police.”
And yet they kept setting him free.
Poor Sara would never have known their paths would cross.
Now Smith has 57 new criminal charges against him, on top of more than 100 previous convictions.
Sara will still be dead. But have a nice skate, Dalton.
“We are suffering,” her brother, Islamuddin Attayee, said Friday.
We all know her death will be glossed over. In fact, it’s seemingly only a matter of time before Smith is out on bail because that appears to be what happens every time Smith goes before the courts.
“It’s sick,” said Joe Wamback, founder of the Canadian Crime Victim Foundation. “We had this creep in custody and could have protected society.”
He’s right. We knew who he was and what he was capable of. But this is a case of catch-and-release justice in Ontario. Will anyone be held accountable for this disgraceful death?
Of course, there is no special investigation into what judge seemingly allowed Smith to leave jail when he did. Instead there is a Special Investigations Unit probe into Toronto Police’s pursuit of the notorious career criminal’s escape from his latest alleged robbery.
Former crown prosecutor and victim’s advocate Scott Newark summed it up best:
“So a guy with 100-plus convictions gets seven months in July 2009 for more drugs, break and enters, breaching court orders, dangerous driving, gets out of jail, (allegedly) does more break and enters, (allegedly) steals another car, drives while disqualified, flees from police and (allegedly) crashes into a car killing one woman and injuring four others and we’re investigating the police for chasing him?
“Only in Dalton McGuinty’s Ontario.”
And just try to find out what judge let him out, or even a proper list of his convictions. A day in court trying to dig this out would have made communists in pre-1991 Moscow blush. This tape was bright red.
My feeling is instead of having the SIU investigate the police, who do their jobs, they should be investigating the crowns and judges who in this specific case may not have.
There should also be an investigation into why there is no progressive sentencing for repeat offenders or electronic monitoring for when they get out of jail. There should be a public record of charges available and a record of which decisions each judge makes so we can keep track of who is good and who is no good.
Of course Sara will still be dead either way and once again Dalton will skate.
joe.warmington@sunmedia.ca