CANADA'S ABSURD NOTION OF JUSTICE TRIUMPHS AGAIN

While violent criminals are welcomed and nourished, an upstanding citizen is
banished on a stale charge.

THE shackles on Allen Richardson emphasized his fragility, as did the
flanking, beefy bailiffs who escorted him to a New York state prison to
serve the remainder of a 28-year-old sentence.

Originally, when I wrote about Mr. Richardson, I called him the latter day
Jean Valjean. Richardson was wanted in the U.S. for escaping a four-year
sentence for selling a small amount of hallucinogen to an undercover law
enforcement agent almost three decades ago. Then 19, Richardson bolted to
Canada after being told he would be returning to the infamous Attica where
43 people had just died in a riot. An exemplary member of the community ever
since, Richardson has worked for a UBC-affiliated research facility for
almost 20 years.

When the story broke, I noted with irony that it was not the Americans who
had issued an extradition order, rather, it was the Canadian immigration
authorities that piped up, whining righteously that those with a criminal
record were not welcome in Canada. Since when? I was under the impression
that Canada had extensive, if unofficial, welcoming schemes for criminals,
and that, once they availed themselves of Canadian benefits, these prized
individuals were well positioned to launch successful careers throughout the
commonwealth of NAFTA. For every one terrorist caught at the U.S. border,
there must be many Canadian success stories who make it across.

Back last year, there was at least one specimen known to me, Jose Mauricio
Jimenez, who had been welcomed into Canada under the criminal reunification
and recruitment tacit agreement, in spite -- or maybe because -- of
concealing a series of convictions in the U.S. Clearly Jimenez had what it
took, and was able to exhibit the kind of moxie Richardson couldn't muster,
and, as it turns out, Canadian authorities are looking for: once in Canada,
Jimenez was convicted of assault with a weapon. Was he deported? Are you
kidding, not with AIDS he wasn't. Go Jimenez!

Even my plumping can't make Richardson look good in the face of such stiff
competition. An absolute wimp, Richardson is non-welfare dependent, an
upstanding member of the community, and a tender partner to his ailing wife,
Amalia. The man never stood a chance.

Why, on the same page updating the Richardsons' recent travails, loomed the
story of another shining recruit to whom Richardson could not hold a candle.
With her less than supple mind, Supreme Justice Le'Heurex-Dube averted a
huge loss to Canadian society. A Dube ruling enabled an equally cerebral
lower-court judge to keep a rapist, who had been declared a danger to the
public, from deportation. Now that's a close call. The judge concluded it
would be devastating for the Canadian wife and children to do without the
rapist's tender ministrations.

No, I applaud the justice system. I applaud Immigration Canada for ordering
Richardson to leave the country. Good riddance: Canada does not need the
kind of riff raff who, for all his years in Canada, has failed to slurp at
Jane Stewart's trough. What's more, I will go so far as to hail the foreign
affairs minister for having the fortitude to intervene on behalf of those
exported Canadian arch-criminals, Christine Lamont and David Spencer, but
still having the gumption to remain silent in the Richardson affair.

Dear me, all these accolades and I almost forgot the magnanimous Justice
Connell of Rochester, N.Y., whose stellar logic led him to make Richardson
an example for aspiring future "papillons." I'm sending a message that
escaping prison will not be tolerated, he said. Three cheers for the Justice
for knowing when to discard hundreds of testimonials and when to discount a
life well lived.

Okay, I'm cool. Allen Richardson was never rehabilitated, because Allen
Richardson was never a criminal. Just because government legislation decrees
that consenting adults may not voluntarily choose to use or exchange certain
substances -- does not make government right or give it the moral (as
opposed legal) authority to aggress against the people it condemns for such
activity. Allen Richardson did not hurt or coerce anyone. If it is the
health of the population at large that Richardson allegedly imperilled, then
government ought to criminalize tobacco, alcohol, bungee jumping, fatty
foods, and my own nemesis, the chocolate dealer. The laws of the land can
and often do diverge from the principles of justice. The facts of the law,
however, should never make a discussion about justice moot.

Call it reason, call it Natural Law, or, for all I care, call it the law
that dare not speak its name, but a justice system that fails to be informed
by its principles is an ass.

Ilana Mercer is a North Vancouver-based writer. The piece originally
appeared in The Calgary Herald.