4 days ago
Thursday's letters: Sentence for LRT killer a head-scratcher
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Maybe it's just me. But does anyone else suffer from episodes of serious head scratching when reading about yet another curious court ruling?
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The most recent curious ruling is from Justice Kent Teskey who sentenced killer Jamal Wheeler to an egregiously minimal sentence for killing a man at a transit station. A violent repeat offender, on bail (of course) and apparently under 'house arrest,' with a decade-long history of assaulting transit users and carrying concealed weapons and he's sentenced to seven years. I mean, huh? But the judge did venture so far as to remind the killer that killing transit users causes people to feel unsafe. No, I'm not making this up.
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Smith has no mandate for fringe ideas
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Danielle Smith is using taxpayer money to run a propaganda tour — called the Alberta Next panel — masquerading as public consultation. It's not; it's a staged, pre-scripted push for fringe ideas: a provincial police force, an Alberta pension plan, and now, a constitutional rewrite. She didn't campaign on this. She has no mandate. And she's stacking rooms with separatists to manufacture support.
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Smith couldn't sell Albertans on pulling out of the CPP. Now she wants to reopen the Constitution — something no leader has dared touch in 30 years — just to stay relevant and pick a fight with Ottawa. It's reckless. It's transparent. And it's dangerous. This isn't about fixing Canada. It's about breaking it. And the person stoking that fire is a premier who floats Alberta leaving Confederation entirely.
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Danielle Smith shouldn't be allowed anywhere near the Constitution. Not now. Not ever.
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It is amazing to me that with so much going on in Alberta and the rest of the world that cartoonist Malcolm Mayes chose to focus on the departure of the former leader of the NDP. (Very old news). Jagmeet Singh did the honourable thing, as party leader, after the loss of his seat in the House of Commons. Unlike another leader, who also lost his seat, he resigned, as expected.
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As to having a pension, I think every person, regardless of party affiliation, who serves in House of Commons or provincial or municipal governing bodies deserves a pension after leaving office as part of compensation for service given. It is not easy to represent voters and be in the public eye, especially today when public service is so disrespected. Mayes is adding to this disrespect.
