A couple of months ago I asked in this space: When will the Liberal Party have their Willie Horton moment?
It came for exiting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday with more electoral pain in the wings for the rest of his party.
Horton is the convicted Massachusetts killer who committed a slew of violent crimes while out on a weekend furlough for the murder. He did not return to prison as scheduled.
His criminal antics effectively torpedoed Gov. Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign amid an exploding homicide rate that turned urban centres into killing zones, fuelled by the crack epidemic.
In this country, the mess left by the Liberals on the criminal justice file will not be an easy clean-up in aisle three.
After one particular outrage several years ago, a criminal lawyer friend of mine said the ethos of the Liberals, their court-appointed accomplices, and the system was thus: Always rehab, always bail, always easy, always politics.
Any casual look at a police blotter from a Monday in March will tell the tale of shockingly easy bail. Again and again and again.
And Canadians have noticed the laxity of the crime file. Here are a couple of tidbits I culled from the weekend:
ITEM 1: A 16-year-old Halifax boy named Ahmad Maher Al Marrach was stabbed to death last April at a local mall. On Friday, two of the culprits copped to manslaughter.
One was a 14-year-old girl and the other a 17-year-old boy and they claim they knew nothing about the planned attack. Two more teens — ages 17 and 15 — are charged with second-degree murder. Death was allegedly fuelled by a girl.
Video images taken from the teen vixen’s phone show the boy being battered.
The girl chimed in: “Those are nice shoes (the victim’s runners). Get his shoes.” When things went south for one of the attackers, she added before kicking Al Marrach in the head: “Get the f*** off my man!”
And then her “man” allegedly plunged the knife into the victim’s chest. Time in kiddie prison? At best months.
ITEM 2: Someone in the system thought allowing repeat sex offender Taylor Dueck to work with young equestrians was a smashing good idea. The predictable happened.
He pleaded guilty on Dec. 30 to the sexual assault of a person under 16 for an incident that took place in the bathroom of a Kelowna, B.C. equestrian facility on Feb. 9, 2024. He was sentenced to two years less a day but with time served, well … 240 more days in the slammer and a three-year probation order.
The uber creep also pleaded guilty to breach of probation, which as we know, doesn’t mean much.
Dueck had been under court-ordered supervision by a subcontractor from Community Living BC. The supervisor sat in a car while the sexual assault unfolded.
There are so many other recent examples that adding them here would make this a book instead of a column.
During the past nine years of Trudeau, crime has increased, particularly violent crimes like homicide, sexual assault and others. Toss in a bushel of quality-of-life crimes and you get the drift.
With each new outrage, the feds would shrug and maybe, just maybe, pay lip service to the public’s concerns. Most of all they ignored us with a “we know best” wink.
Now, Trudeau is on his way out and my advice for the next Liberal leader would be to veer sharply right on the crime file unless they plan to end up like poor Mike Dukakis.
And that’s Nowheresville.
@HunterTOSun