18 ~- Sunday, December 21, 1997 — North Shore News No COMMON SENSE in judicial system A.D. (Andy) Danyliu Contributing Columnist SIFTING through recent news headlines, I discovered that com- mon sense has become very uncommon these days. Nothing makes less sense to me than the way our so- called justice system serves injustice. Pedophiles’ rights to pri- vacy outweigh children’s rights to live normal lives, is the message our highest provincial court has just seat to the media and police. Instead of finding some way to protect our children from pornographers and pedophiles, our injustice sys- tem chose to censure the - CBC and police for their col- laboration in bringing to “justice” a man who pleaded guilty to the heinous crimes with which he was charged. Worst of all, the appeal court decided to make the evidence police had obtained through their search warrant illegal on the grounds that the pedophile’s rights to pri- vacy had been unconstitu- tionally dealt with by police. I would be the first to argue that a man’s home is his castle, but when that cas- Ue is being used to harm chil- dren it should lose its legal sanctity. The superior court was right to censure police “Ciearly punish- ment is abhor- rent to the cus- todians of our legal system.” searches accompanied by the media, but it makes no sense to me that che remedy to this “lesser” wrong be served by the renioval of the evidence needed to convict 2 man who has already plead guilty to a much greater wrong. I'm afraid oar justice sys- tem has been replaced by a criminal system which is heavily biased in favor of the criminal upon whose exis- tence all in the system teed. ‘The fault dear Brutus lies not in the stars, but with our- selves and the justice system we've perverted, | would has- ten to add. Lest I be mistaken for a born again Doug Collins, let me hasten to add I do nor advocate trial by the media or poiice raids with camera-peo- ple in tow. However what seem to me to be reasonable stan- dards are not what our justice system is administering. The public is continually placed at risk as more and more safeguards are put into place by our protectors of individual rights, and the more repugnant the individ- ual, the more zealously are these rights defended. It seems time for our leg- istative leaders to empower themselves by removing the handcuffs being placed on their wrists by the custodians of our justice system. For these custodians have created a legal system where justice is no longer the para- mount issue. Lawyers will tell you that due process is all that matters. Guilt they will argue is not what is right or what is wrong but rather what the learned participants to the legal process construe it to mean, And that, dear readers, is why so many guilty are left uncensored, let alone pun- ished. Clearly punishment is abhorrent to the custodians of our legal system. One need only read the News column that summarizes the various sentences imposed upon transgressors of the law to realize that punishment is no longer an clement of com- mon sense within our judicial system. We need to rethink how we plan to minimize crime and lawlessness before we lapse back into anarchy. Since punishment no longer fits any crime and rehabilitation scems in many cases impossi- ble to attain perhaps its time for common sense to be brought back inte fashion. Anyone have any ideas? — Andy Danylin isa for- ater West Vancouver conncil- lor. The North Share News req- ularly allocates space for read er input on ao wide range of community issues in the form of. quest columns. If you have a column please send it c/o The Editor, North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale Arve. North Vanconver, V7M 2H 4 or vie e-mail to tren- shaw@direct.ca. Submissions sist be typewritten and should be approximately 500 words. 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