STIFFER SENTENCES WOULDN'T STOP ACTIONS OF MADMAN

It is understandable that a crime as vile as last week's shooting of
four Mounties in northern Alberta would spark calls for tougher justice.

And while Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan's call to judges to
impose tougher sentences on people who run marijuana grow operations
is laudable, we should be careful in connecting that issue too closely
with this crime.

James Roszko, 46, a convicted child molester, known cop-hater and
community pariah, shot four Mounties dead in a large Quonset hut on
his farm Thursday morning.

The officers had been staking out his property near Mayerthorpe while
investigating stolen car parts and a small marijuana grow operation.

Police say the constables - Anthony Gordon, 28, Leo Johnston, 32,
Brock Myrol, 29, and Peter Schiemann, 25 - were ambushed by Roszko,
who was carrying a semi-automatic, assault-style rifle. Roszko was
wounded in the attack and soon after killed himself.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, McLellan warned judges to take
marijuana laws seriously and said they will be held to account if jail
terms are not imposed on those who run grow operations.

Legislation before a Commons committee demands that judges who do not
impose jail terms for aggravated drug offences explain their decisions
in writing.

Both the minister's warning and the proposed legislative measure are
welcome news. As can be seen in Recorder and Times reporter Derek
Abma's story in Saturday's edition, recent sentences in local cases
involving marijuana grow operations have been far from achieving
deterrent value.

Brockville Police Chief Barry King said it would be better if there
were minimum sentences designated for grow operators.

"The last grow op that we had in the Brockville area, the person got a
conditional discharge," King said. "That does not send any kind of a
message when they're making upwards of $600,000 to $1 million a year
and they're involved in an organized crime trade."

As King has repeatedly noted in presentations to city leaders, grow
houses are often booby-trapped locations, posing dangers not only to
the police officers investigating them, but passers-by as well.

We would applaud stiffer sentences for these operations. But we
harbour no illusion that such measures would have prevented the
tragedy of Mayerthorpe.

By all accounts, Roszko was a very dangerous individual with an
explosive hatred of the authorities. It's a toxic mixture that likely
would have boiled over in a tragic act one way or another. The
presence of a small grow operation in this instance seems almost
incidental to what became a far more vicious crime.

Stiffer sentences for grow operators would be a welcome move in and of
itself, but ridding the world of deranged individuals requires far
more complicated action.