BLACK HOLE

ARRESTS OF alleged dope growers or drug sellers certainly make for
good headlines if you are on the side of law and order. But once that
initial rush is over, the file too often falls into the huge black
hole of the criminal justice system. It can take months, sometimes
years, for a case to wind its way through the maze. Sometimes it never
does see the light of day.

That's what seems to have happened following the arrest two years ago
of a pair of men in the Horseshoe for growing marijuana and stealing
electricity from BC Hydro.

Information was sent by the police to federal prosecutors and charges
were subsequently approved.

But two weeks ago, a letter from a federal prosecutor sent to a judge
informed him proceedings were finished. Case closed. No
explanation.

Subsequent attempts to find out what happened have so far not met with
success. Did someone mess up? Did too much time pass between arrest to
charges to court dates?

Given the usually efficient bureaucratic brutality used by public
sector agencies against taxpayers, the real mystery here might be why
BC Hydro seemingly was content to let slide allegations of power theft.

In any event, the failure of this case to make it to trial so that the
allegations could be tested doesn't do a whole lot to inspire public
confidence. If something went wrong, we need to know what it was to
prevent it from happening again.