I Got a Question?

November 22nd, 2009 Thomasso

Like the old saying goes,” there’s no such thing as a dumb question, only a dumb answer,” and it rang oh so loudly last Wednesday when I was attending a Criminology seminar on youth crime in the Fraser Valley. This has been gnawing at me for the last three days, so I’m finally going to put it out in the open so I can analyse more closely, and perhaps let anyone else weigh in on it?

It happened when a young mother stopped a presenter in the middle of his presentation on community responsibilities and she started to ask a very basic question. The woman was polite and very straight forward and to the point. She asked why law enforcement authorities enforce different standards of enforcement on different people, and why the police seem to show no standard of treating everyone the same.  The presenter told her that her question had no relevance to his presentation. This really shocked me, and I thought why a professional would allow such a question to go unanswered, especially in a public forum. Later, when I asked him why he said what he said, he replied saying that all the presenters were under time restraints. That being said, the Q & A period ran well over 45 minutes.

I did talk to the woman myself, and she seemed untouched by all of this. I tried to answer her question, but she seemed to draw a blank face and told me that she already knew the answers to her questions, but wanted the officials to say it. She herself is someone who has had run-ins with the law from her past and said that if places like the City of Surrey, BC want to clean up Gangs, then they really need to focus on giving kids something to do that they find interesting, like sports, mechanics and various other activities. She then laughed and said, “Do everything opposite that Gordon Campbell is doing… .”

I remember in grade school when I asked a question to my Grade five teacher, why we had to eat our lunches in the classroom instead of outside, she told me to go to the detention room for the rest of the day. Now that I look back, that person should of had her teaching certificate revoked and promptly fired for such a display of arrogance. Talking out of line, as she put it when talking to my parents was far from the truth of what really happened. But as justice would have it, back in 2001 I discovered that she did in fact lost her job as a teacher and is currently defending herself from litigation of an assault charge that took place in 1982 with one of her former students. In Canada we have a problem with corporal punishment in our schools – hitting someone is an assault no matter who you are.  Again I say, “there is no such thing a dumb questions, but only a dumb answer.” And added to that, “what comes around, goes around.”

You can see I love colloquialisms and adages.

So remember that when someone asks you a question, no matter how absurd you think it is, you should at least take the moral high ground and answer it to the best of your ability. Even saying “I don’t know,” is a good thing to do if you can’t answer it.

Posted in Criminology, Diatribe, General, Law, Social Justice | Comments Off

Such a Foolish Waste of Life Taken Around Someone Else’s Personal Pleasure

September 19th, 2009 Thomasso

Warning: this post contains graphic and disturbing language.

It was about 6:00pm back on Thursday, September 17, 2009, that I was going to my evening class. I was nervous and excited all at the some time because this was the first week of the new semester, and I was anticipating a hard and gruelling course, especially because it is a third year science class. I was driving from HY10, heading up on 128 Street towards 72 Avenue in Surrey, where the Kwantlen Polytechnic University Campus is located. Along 128 Street there was water-main construction taking place, so the road was full of obstacles and uneven surfaces that made driving on it very slow going.

With the road full of construction, traffic was continuously backed up, but it came to a complete standstill just before the turn off into the campus parking lot before 72 Avenue. I could see flashing and strobing lights ahead, and the sounds of several sirens racing towards the intersection of 128 Street and 72 Avenue.  As I got closer, just before I was going to turn left I saw a green garbage can with its contents strewn across the road. Then I saw the tipped-over bench by the bus stop and clumps of freshly dug up grass and soil spread along the edge of the road, and then what looked like a suitcase full of clothes laying in the middle of the road. But tucked back up into some bushes and trees was the front of the dark coloured sports car pointing towards the road. The vehicle had somehow made a 180 degree turn when it slid off the road.

I pulled into the campus parking lot and parked when I saw a friend of mine who was walking from the scene of the accident less than 30 metres away, so I asked him what he saw.  He said that he saw a man whose legs were completely severed from his body, and lots of blood. He described how he could see the bone of one of the legs and stated how still the man was as he laid on the ground. My friend was in shock from seeing this.

As for the young person who was in the car, my friend said “we were going to make sure the guy in the car was not going to run from the accident,” His car would not start, but he stayed inside it anyway.

I went to my class which started at 7:00pm, and everyone was talking about the accident. It was a few minutes later before it was known that what had happened was due to a street race, and one of drivers lost control and hit a man at the bus stop. One of the students in my class said she gave her statement to police because she saw the whole accident take place, and told of a yellow car that was racing along side the dark blue car just before it had sped out of control.

I am outraged as is everyone else I had talked to about this. I have had a day to think about what I had seen, and I have come to the conclusion that I am outraged about it. When I heard about it on the news the next day at work, I could not believe that it was in fact a street race, and that a elderly man sitting at a bus stop is hanging onto his life a result of it. What a stupid waste.

This is no doubt a selfless act of someone who at the expense of innocent bystanders was willing to endanger those around him for his personal enjoyment and adrenalin rush. In this light I see the vehicle as a weapon, and when misused like this it has the potential to kill because the user has taken it means beyond what its intended uses are. If the vehicle was being used under normal circumstance, such as normal speeds and driving operations, then this light would be different.

The worry is that our laws may not give the driver, if found guilty, what the public would consider proper sentencing and punishment for his crimes. Because a man maybe killed, he is reportedly clinging to life in the hospital at the time of this writing, then nothing less than a charge of (vehicular) manslaughter must be given. As it stands now, a charge of attempted manslaughter maybe the direction the Crown should move on this, either way a life sentence. I will be paying close attention to this to see what the RCMP are going to charge the driver with, and how the judge will rule on this when sentencing takes place. I think the public gaze will be very critical about this as the wheels of justice start to turn.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, General, Law, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

The Telephone Cops for the Internet

September 14th, 2009 Thomasso

Yesterday I had a conversation with a very good friend of mine about the new set of Internet laws that the Canadian government is poised to set into reading this Fall in Ottawa, (Investigative Powers for the 21st Century (IP21C) Act). I think for the average Canadian, most would react the same way as my friend did, in outrage that Big brother is about to be given another set of tools that will erode our privacy even further, but not really giving thought as to what the actual ramifications would be. But I like to think that both sides of the coin should be represented, but that can be hard to do when only one side does not want to listen. So, I’m going to post about.

Today I watched an online presentation that was offered by the department of Criminology from Boston University, the centre of North American Criminology, where I saw some opinions of the many governments who are finding the World Wide Web a network of security issues that they would like to control. The web has become a huge security issue for most countries. Among most criminal violations, crimes committed on the Internet are almost never caught. Police are powerless with this new technology, and rightfully so as most countries’ laws have not caught up to it. Especially when the net knows no borders.

Talking about my friend’s ideas. This is what I like to call the American contradiction, when the same person claims that they want privacy, and want to be protected from the boogie man at the some time. It is like paying no taxes, and having one of the largest military budgets on Earth: There is give and take, but you can’t talk from both sides of your mouth. Like my friend, he says that no one should have the right to peek into what people are doing on the Internet without common legal tools such as warrants and seizures of equipment, done through a court order, issued by a judge. The problem for police is the speed and stealth of which criminals work at when committing internet crimes. A clever computer geek can reasonably hide their tracks over the internet, but if police could tap into all ISPs and monitor all networks, then catching criminals would be several times easer.

Am I supporting the new piece of legislation that is about to be read in Parliament? In some respects, yes. I see a need by government to adopt a more realistic set of tools to deal with Internet crimes. Sure, But this with where me and my friend agree on—should this be a blanket law that would allow the police to truly become big brother, and through monitoring, watch every move that its citizens are doing every second of every day? Then I have to draw the line and say not 100 percent of the time. I still believe that “just cause” should be a major of the equation. So I’m going to do some more research on this topic and see what I can come up with. In the mean time, here are some links to read:

The Western Standard – Government of Canada moves to monitor Internet users.

Canada proposes new powers to police Internet.

No Appologies – Harper Conservatives expantion of Police Powers Conserns Freedom Advocates.

Posted in Criminal Law, Criminology, General, Law, Social Justice | Comments Off

How Difficult it is to Change Things without Changing them into Things you don’t Want

June 13th, 2009 Thomasso

Yesterday a co-worker had some thoughts on what he would like changed in terms of improvements to many of the social and political problems that he sees in Canada today.

The first area of change he wanted was a massive reform of the government, literally reducing the bureaucratic/administration portion of government down to a skeleton, and only allowing them a wage of one dollar per year as their paid salary from the tax payer. Politicians, the elected officials would also received the same pay structure of one dollar per annum. Also on the “to go” list would be offices such as the Privy Counsel, the Senate, most advisory offices; areas where only a handful of people are needed. Research and advisory offices would be hired on a need-be bases.

Next to get changed is a judiciary, where, not only would the structure and principles of law are revamped, but so to are the courts in terms of localities and functions they would serve. The rule of law would have some additional points added to it, and so to would the type of legal system to, in other words, what I think he is after is a change from the common law and a move towards the Civil Code style of law we see in France today. Courts essentially would mainly reside at a municipal level, and there would only be one court of appeal, or super court, the supreme court which would be located probably in Ottawa.

Taxation would take on a new changes, for example, anyone who wishes to donate money to their organization of choice would no longer receive a tax right-off, e.g., churches, NGOs, and taxes would remain localized, so only your tax money would stay in your community, and only a portion of it would go federally.

What is interesting is that most people feel that improvements are needed in government, however, to make changes and then try to formulate how those changes will affect the country as a whole, we then start to see how problematic it is. There is no way that we can please everyone who sees imperfections in our governmental system, but we all have special interests that we would like to see. We get into problems of conflict when what I would like to see as the ideal government in Canada varies extremely from yours.

But there is a deeper problem that I see now after talking to my co-worker which I never really gave that much thought about before, and that is one should really try and fully understand what the political processes are, and how the structure of our three main levels of government work before we can fully qualify serious changes to it. Then once we are armed with the knowledge of all these things, then we should hopefully see the dynamics and shifts of each idea proposed on a theoretical bases, in other words, seeing the causes and effects in an abstract view.

In  my understanding of Canadian politics and jurisprudence, among all of its processes and structure, I feel it needs to stay the way it is now. But take in mind that we are contently in a state of flux, and changes, although small and minute, are always talking place. Each time we elect an government, and new markets open and old ones close, change is inevitable on a whole. However, without going through these exercises of playing around with these ideas we would never learn and understand what it is that we have now to and hopefully appreciate the rights and freedoms we enjoy.

Posted in Criminal Law, General, Law, Law and Order, Social economics, Social Justice | Comments Off

A Short talk on Transnational Organized Crime

June 10th, 2009 Thomasso

For the last six weeks during my summer classes one particular class has stood out so far form the others for me. This class is a special topics course on Transnational Organized Crime that focuses on many of the different facets of organized crime groups and their activities on a global scale. Our topic of discussion for the next couple of weeks, including our last class, is on human trafficking.

We have several readings that cover a wide verity of points on human trafficking, including human smuggling and various types and forms of illegal immigration. It was not until I started into the readings that I soon realized just how vast this topic really is. The reading only give a glimpse of what is actually happening because of the underground nature of these illegal activities so only cases that are met with some form of police or governmental intervention are capture into statistical data that can be documented. The rest is based on field research data that is qualitatively gathered and documented through peer review articles.

In the last class we were given some printed readings to be taken home and studied, one of which is called, “Human Trafficking: The Facts,” Written for United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, through the “Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking.” This article is written a story format where three stories are told about some individuals and a group of people, taken from three different countries where they are exploited in various ways. Although each story ends with the rescue of some of the victims, justice for the exploiters is somewhat ambiguous or extremely lacking. I urge you to take the time to read this document if you can because it says a lot about global conditions that do not get printed on the headlines of our daily media sources. In fact, this sort of crime seems to me to be rarely talked about in Canadian media unless it involves a dramatic investigation by police or some huge sting operation from multiple international police forces that touch our border.

Some of the types of human trafficking are: sex slaves, prostitution, forced labour, child trafficking, domestic trafficking, and so on.

To read the PDF version of the article, please go here: http://www.unodc.org/blueheart/en/campaign-tools.html, and click on the English version of the “Testimonials” for the stats and the three stories that I’ve  read.

Posted in Criminology, General, Law, Law and Order, Photographs, Social Justice | 1 Comment »

Reading Writing and Wondering: all at the same time!

May 27th, 2009 Thomasso

I have a few minutes before I call it a night. My homework quota just got increased because of an oversight—a small chapter just got turning into a big chapter resulting in four more hours of extra reading. What happened was the prof started to give us the homework assignment last week, and we ran over our allotted three hour time period for that class, so everyone started leaving the class she was telling us what was needed for next weeks class. She forgot to mention that we needed some extra reading that she was posting on the class website too. Some force, perhaps my subconscious, or academic intuition told me to check the web site one more time. Sure enough there was a new file sitting in the page titled with next weeks topic on it.

When I went to print it off, it was 33 pages of legalese in point 9 font. I thought to myself, “There goes the night…. Damn!”

I have not finished reading all of my texts yet. I guess this will be a case of reading right up until class. The only good that become of this is that the readings will be very fresh in my mind and my recall will be at its best. Other then that, sleep deprivation and sore eyes follow close behind.

At least I get to focus on one of my favourite topics which is tort law.  As a criminologist, tort law takes on a different light when dealing with normative laws. I actually found a good argument in the textbook that talks about the argument of no-fault liability versus tort law. I automatically jumped to the conclusion of labour law and the WCB (In British Columbia) where in a growing frequency of cases where insurance that is given out for negligence is far to low in proportion to the damages that was caused. When I compare these two, I can see why keeping tort law is beneficial rather than having no-fault insurance. Perhaps Canada needs a further Right leaning government to achieve this? I think that is a great discussion topic.

Posted in Criminology, General, Homework and deadlines, Law, Law and Order, University classes | Comments Off

Yes, It’s my Friday: Finally.

February 8th, 2009 Thomasso

Because of the weird scheduling at work, today is my Friday, and I get Monday off, which makes this the end of the week for me. It has been a trying week because of the “special” projects that needed to done at work, and on top of that my own personal pet project, that took a lot out of me. I’m tiered, but I still feel good as everyone around me seems to be getting some sort of flu-bug. It’s awful knowing that I’m next….

Anyway, my personal special project involved a friend who was faced with the Landlord vrs Tenant dispute. In her case, she was the tenant or occupant who rented from a landlord who was not the friendliest guy in the world. As we went to court, this guy managed to prove just how low a person can go when telling fibs and doctoring evidence. The dispute was a claim against the occupant regarding damage to the dwelling after the termination of the agreement. In other words, he refused to give up the damage deposit.

What saved her “bacon” was that she followed the Safe Renter’s Guide, which regrettably I cannot find a link to it at this time, but it is a great document for both Renters and Landlords in British Columbia. She took lots of photos and signed an appraisal document, with the wife of the Landlord, before she moved in. The guide suggests that a walk-through be done before the Rental Agreement is signed. It should be noted that back during the housing shortage, many agreements were done informally and because of this today many of those disputes are going through arbitration, there is a long waiting list to get your case in. With her photo album and documents she walked into arbitration and went through the proceedings just as we rehearsed.

How did the proceedings go? In short, the Landlord was unbelievable and “stupid” for lack of a better word. He actually took “white-out” and covered key words on his copies of the documents. I saw one of the Arbitrators as looking positive, or understanding, during the Landlord’s explanation as to why his document looked so different from the Tenant’s. Fortunately that quickly changed when it was our turn for questioning.

I know this is cheep advice, but don’t give up if you are getting ripped off in a Residential Tenancy dispute. Keep trying. Make your case and stand by it, even when it looks like the most bizarre is taking place and the system seems like it is going to buy it—keep trying. She only talked for one eighth of the time during the whole two hour hearing, meaning that more fact than fiction is the way to go. Keep all of your records—everything–even photos. And if one party does not give you your documents, then keep hounding them for it. Never talk to them, always write letters! Verbal agreements are the stuff of Hollywood because Canada seems to be taking a different direction in these types of agreements now a days.

So from pencil-pusher to steel construction worker, my week took me all over the endless duties that I need to perform in my employment. I spent part of the last two days working on shelving for our warehouse. That is always a treat to do because it takes us so long, and none of us are any good at it. Picture two guys in clown suites with pipped circus music playing as they try to erect a steel “Conex” structure with no instructions and correct tools. Yes, that’s how I felt—foolish. ..but somebody’s gotta do it, right.

Posted in Bitching about work, General, Law | Comments Off

Man in the White Van

September 4th, 2008 Thomasso

It was 1:00pm on Tuesday when my friend invited the plumber in to fix his washing machine. The Plumber showed up on time and finished the job within a satisfactory period of time, but what he didn’t expect was the mess that was left behind from his labour and a machine that was worse than before.

When he phoned me to come over and have a look, I remember thinking that this must something insignificant, like a small pile of wire trimmings, or insulation and bits of tape.  Anyway, I agreed to come over and see this for myself.

We walked down into the basement and then he led me over to the laundry room. I looked inside the room and on the floor were several rolls of wire, most in one metre lengths, several rags with oil and grease stains on them, and a puddle of rust and water covering half of the room’s floor.

His wife had tried the machine with a load of laundry and the machine did not perform as it did before it had broke. The noise that came from the machine made me run over and turn it off—it was a squealing sound from the belt, even though the machine seemed to be going through the wash cycle normally as it was intended.

He had phone the company that he hired and made a complaint. The person on the phone said that they would talk to their technician and see if they can resolve the “situation.” The agreement was that the company would phone them back later the next day to try and sort everything out. So my friend waited, and there was no call from them, so he called back the next day after. He was talking to a new person this time, someone who seemed less a where of their business’s activities, and she passed the message onto someone else—who would call my friend back as soon as possible.

Today, they hired another plumber from a different company to come and fix the washing machine. The plumber came over and looked at the machine and then gave them the estimate of cost. He said that the motor was damaged and that it needed to be repaired at once. My friend asked the plumber if he noticed anything else wrong with the belt, as they described the sounds it made. He said that the belt was OK, and that it seemed to be band-new.

This time, they checked to see if the machine worked before the plumber left and made sure that room was free of any debris from the work. The machine seemed to be in good running condition, and the room was cleaned. So they thanked him and he went on his way.

The previous plumber has not been heard from—yet. My friend is considering going to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to complain. Then they are considering some form of legal action because the machine was never fixed and about the state of the room after this guy left it. They are not holding their breath because they know how hard it can be to get their money back from a dispute in British Columbia. The best they can do is warn people and tell everyone to check with the BBB first before they commit to having anything done by a contractor in BC. And of course, it is not my intention to post names when a legal action is taking place—this is just a FYI for you all.

Posted in Events, General, Law | Comments Off

Happy, Yet Sad Day in our State of Justice Today

August 28th, 2007 Thomasso

Today is a momentous , yet dark day in Canadian justice as the aquittal of Steven Truscott who was charged with the murder in the death of Lynne Harper 48 years ago, where he was the youngest Canadian ever put on death row, will now be a free man. When I was a freshmen criminologist, I remembered studying the case and wondered how the Crown could uphold their case against Mr. Truscott, with blunder after blunder, while evidence piled up around him proving that he was not the killer. With shawdy police work, eye whiteness testimony based on fabricated evidence, I wondered why a stay of preceding, or an out right acquittal was never done during the early stages of his conviction by the Crown? Watching the television program The Fifth Estate by the CBC, made me suspicious that with just a reporter, armed with a nose for searching out possibilities, came up with so much new evidence and documentation, while the Ontario Police had empty pockets to show for it, yet they stuck to their ever weakening list of evidence.

The scary “fact,” and I do mean “fact,” is that the wheels of justice turn slowly; 48 years later the wheel has come full circle for Mr. Truscott. My hat goes off to the present day Ontirio Governemnt, the Attorney general, and the Jurors who showed great strength in issuing the acquittal with the unanimous decision today. The flip-side to the case is that now the murder of Lynne Harper may very well be an Cold Case as almost 50 years have pasted. This must be a very sore wound to have reopen again for her family.

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Humor Under Pressure: It’s a Good Thing

January 29th, 2007 Thomasso

I have sort of a side job that involves preparing and serving court documents to customers who are delinquent in their payments. This is work that no one wants because of its low-end costs, high overhead and small return. These jobs are left to the amateur because, well, it is Small Claims Court, and it should be kept simple and low cost–thus as the name implies. But for those who are not in the know, or who are terrified by the Court system, an helping hand is sometimes a good thing–but is can get expensive. So I’m doing some clerical work for the next few days to help a friend out.

As I was filing my Statement of Claims at the Registry this morning when something funny happened, but, well it was sort of tragic, but in the end I would classify it under “funny.” You are familiar with the term, “throw the book at him, ” when cops and other law enforcement officials are enforcing the law, and they want to charge that person with an offense? That actually happened, although there was no charge, nor an offense being committed, but the book did fly! I was standing in the line-up in front of the wicket; I was next in cue when something hit me in my leg and bounced off, and landed in front of me. It was a book, a Steno-pad with a thick elastic band wrapped around it. Moments later, a large man, dressed in a brown uniform, a sheriff, trotted over to me, his implements flapping around is belt, and the look of embarrassment on his face. Everyone in the court gallery was quite, speechless, you could hear a pin drop. “Oh m—I am sorry about that sir!” The sheriff said.

I laughed and replied, “No problem, I guess that one sort of got away on you, eh?”

“I didn’t mean to throw it…” He said, “I shouldn’t talk with my hands.”

I replied back, “I now know what is feels like to have the book thrown at me.” Everyone laughed.

Posted in General, Law, Social Justice | Comments Off