04.11.2013 06:40 AM

Anonymous responds (updated)

Sent along by a few readers.  It’s impossible to determine if it’s authentic, of course, which isn’t surprising – they’re anonymous, after all.

 

UPDATE: Chronicle-Herald story here. We look forward to Messr. Gardner and Selley’s stirring denunciation of the mob-like vigilantism of, say, Crimestoppers.  (Oh, and to Selley: it isn’t just a case of bullying, you fatuous imbecile.  It’s a case of rape.)

10 Comments

  1. Lance says:

    It is sad beyond belief that in order to see these rapists brought to justice (let alone their NAMES brought out into the open), it is necessary to resort to exposure like this. Even worse; is that it s necessary to SHANE the powers that be to do something other than NOTHING. Conservative or Liberal, left or right, this is something anyone can support.

  2. Michael Behiels says:

    Great response by Anonymous! Fair and measured.

    Let’s all hope that the NDP Attorney General of Nova Scotia and the incompetent RCMP respond properly before this matter gets out of hand. Vigilantes will do more damaged to the integrity and legitimacy of Nova Scotia’s already badly tarnished justice system.

    Thanks again for pushing the cause very hard! Where are the so-called tough on crimes folks in Ottawa doing! Nothing it appears.

    Canadians need to learn how to be smart on crime.

  3. Jemery says:

    Funny thing is that every now and then I will take a stroll around some of the most common conservative blogs and I did not see ONE story regarding this issue. Liblogs is slammed with bloggers writing bout this one. You know yourself Warren how the right winged conservatives are when it come to tough on crime in Canada? Their attitude is hang em all no trial or anything. Yet they must be blind to this issue cause there’s not a peep out of them. I guess they must be more worried about the keystone pipeline or something????

  4. Jemery says:

    Funny thing is that every now and then I will take a stroll around some of the most common conservative blogs and I did not see ONE story regarding this issue. Liblogs is slammed with bloggers writing bout this one. You know yourself Warren how the right winged conservatives are when it come to tough on crime in Canada? Their attitude is hang all offenders no trial or anything. Yet they must be blind to this issue cause there’s not a peep out of them. I guess they must be more worried about the keystone pipeline or something????

  5. Peter says:

    You can twist and turn and play on the undertstandable and very human emotions of the week, but when all is said and done, you are backing lynch-mobs.

    • Tim says:

      Lynch mobs are what happens when justice is denied Peter. But I don’t see WK leading one any time soon. You really should read some of the related parts on this matter on this website, you are just so wrong.

      • Peter says:

        Actually, I spent a fair amount of time ysterday here and elsewhere trying to educate myself about what happened that night and what the investigation showed, and I’m no better informed than I was before. I learned nothing about what the evidence showed, what the parties and witnesses said or why the police and Crown concluded what they did. But I did come across many people absolutely convinced a rape occurred based on the statement of an anguished, mourning parent, who seemed to believe if they just repeated it often enough they would give the charge increasing substance. And many of those seemed to believe that concerns about criminal procedure, the rights of an accused and the rule of law could be casually dismissed with the accusation one is “soft” on rape or cares nothing for the victim. (BTW, there is no crime in the Code called rape. It’s called sexual assault and covers a much broader range of behaviour than what we normally mean by rape.)

        If people were demanding a review of the investgation, an accounting or the transfer to another police force, I’d be with them. If they were calling for some kind of legal or social accounting for the pics and bullying, I’d be with them too. But a “damn the consequences” calling for anonymous and therefore completely unaccountable vigilantes to “out” what I assume are juveniles to force the bringing of unsubstantiated charges of sexual assault in order to put them through the wringer and demonstrate our visceral disgust and satisfy our bloodlust? Count me out.

  6. Michael S says:

    So now officials are embarrassed and afraid they finally do something? Why does it take someone’s death for this to happen?

  7. Menno Gervas says:

    Yes, Selley’s piece was shite – society tends to hold teens to a lower standard than adults; that is, what in the adult world would be assault, harassment, extortion, etc is neatly diluted down to “bullying” and guardians promptly wash their hands and retreat into their blissful world of denial. So, technically, precisely, this is a case of alleged multiple rapes AND a case of multiple alleged harassment, slander, assault, and/or extortion etc (not bullying). C- and F for two of Canada’s premier pundits. Sign of the times I guess.

    What I haven’t heard any discussion on a) why the cellphone companies don’t have policies to terminate service in the event of illegal activities b) teen binge drinking generally and specifically who provided the alcohol – whoever this person(s) is liable c) no critique at all of the facebook – for an enterprise apparently backed by the CIA, it seems woefully lame in actually catching crime. There should be a record of every piece of data relating to this case – every character, word, image – have they been subpoenaed?

    Maybe the sad conclusion to all this is that the adult population is just too timid, stupid, venal, apathetic, corrupt, generally spaced out etc. to be of any real help. Let’s be brutally honest: a half dozen news cycles from here this will all be forgotten. By then we’ll take another sweet hit of delusional fantasy at the cult of personality (yah JT! yah Harper! yah Mulcair!) and retreat into the passive world of facebook etc. and wait for Utopia while the world falls apart.

    Canada. No country for the law-abiding and civilized.

  8. CDB says:

    “It is sad beyond belief that in order to see these rapists brought to justice (let alone their NAMES brought out into the open), it is necessary to resort to exposure like this. Even worse; is that it s necessary to SHANE the powers that be to do something other than NOTHING. Conservative or Liberal, left or right, this is something anyone can support.”

    Their names can’t be brought out into the open because it’s illegal. The police are not allowed to provide these reports due to privacy concerns along with provisions of the YCJA.

    People don’t really recognize what the police are for, or that matter the Courts. Criminals get away with most crimes, this is due to a large number of protections we afford them in Common Law and to a far greater extent the Charter of Rights along with the YCJA in this matter. We might be outraged, however that is the unfortunate problem with living in a country with the rule of law in place.

    If you were to read the full story, it’s near certain that the full story is far more complex and depressing than what the media is telling you. The media does not want to tell you the entire truth, they want sensational stories that get coverage and will leave out inconvenient facts.

    “Let’s all hope that the NDP Attorney General of Nova Scotia and the incompetent RCMP respond properly before this matter gets out of hand. Vigilantes will do more damaged to the integrity and legitimacy of Nova Scotia’s already badly tarnished justice system.

    Thanks again for pushing the cause very hard! Where are the so-called tough on crimes folks in Ottawa doing! Nothing it appears.

    Canadians need to learn how to be smart on crime.”

    I’m not sure what knowledge you have of the RCMP investigation, I’d imagine you’re base of information comes from watching network television where every criminal is charged in a one hour time slot.

    Would you suggest that the RCMP charge everyone who has had an allegation made against them without any kind of investigation being done?

    If the RCMP did lay charges and the Judge and Courts found it to be malicious prosecution, couldn’t that result in civil action as well:

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2002/06/18/popowich020618.html

    “Funny thing is that every now and then I will take a stroll around some of the most common conservative blogs and I did not see ONE story regarding this issue. Liblogs is slammed with bloggers writing bout this one. You know yourself Warren how the right winged conservatives are when it come to tough on crime in Canada? Their attitude is hang em all no trial or anything. Yet they must be blind to this issue cause there’s not a peep out of them. I guess they must be more worried about the keystone pipeline or something????”

    So what you’re saying is you only want a Criminal Justice system that punishes people when it involves a sensational media story. Which really shouldn’t matter, the law should be applied equally to everyone regardless of media coverage.

    This is an odd comment to make. You’re saying that only Liberals are concerned, but Liberals are the architects of the YCJA which make it extremely difficult to prosecute young offenders and provides a large amount of protection for them from the police. Even when it comes to the question of why the police didn’t “interrogate” them, the answer comes from the YCJA. The police cannot arbitrarily arrest someone without reasonable grounds and even during any questioning a parent/lawyer must be present which makes it very difficult to get any kind of a confession.

    “There should be a record of every piece of data relating to this case – every character, word, image – have they been subpoenaed?”

    This is extremely ignorant, a subpoena is only issued for trials. No charge went ahead because the Crown Prosecutor said that charges couldn’t be laid.

    From what I understand, people here want our Justice system to be built around emotional hysteria and sentimentalism. It shouldn’t, the only concern of the Justice system should be obtain all of the relevant information and if enough evidence is obtained to show a crime has been committed to put those people in front of the Courts where they can either plead guilty or fight the charges.

    The Justice system has never been intended to create some kind of utopian society where we can magically erase all human suffering just because a few people uttered meaningless slogans and engaged in clickactivism.

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