Latest news with #criminaljustice
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Jamie Sarkonak: Supreme Court puts gangster youth before public safety
Article content The court went on to add that this should be a nuanced inquiry that doesn't involve stereotyping or racial discounts — even though that's exactly what's going on here. The racial dimension is most helpful to the groups who are most abundant in the youth gang population: Black youth (25 per cent of underage gangsters, according to the most recent data, found in a 2002 Public Safety report), followed by First Nations (21 per cent). Article content Altogether, this decision is most helpful for Canada's most brazenly dangerous, out-of-control youth: the ones who have already been inducted into gang life, whose parents are absent or even supportive of their actions, who live to glorify violence and who are unlikely to be rehabilitated. The ones who swarm, stab and shoot others in public, with no regard for human life, and the ones who brag online about killing harmless elderly ladies on the way home from the grocery store. Article content It's also an additional incentive for gangs to recruit minors into their ranks — something they already do to minimize legal risk, and are sure to do more now that adult sentencing has likely been relegated to history. Article content Article content Altogether, the killer of Shahnaz Pestonji is exactly the kind of person that the majority of the Supreme Court set out to protect from facing the deserved consequences. The boy is Black, 14 and likely of a rough and disadvantaged background given his actions. Based on his actions, he appears to be lacking in sophistication and revelling somewhat in bravado, having appeared to have to participated in an interview — while on the run from police — to tell his side of the story: 'She didn't give me the keys so I yoked her,' explained the subject, adding that he 'wasn't even scared.' Article content The interviewee expressed regret in killing the woman ('Fam … that was an idiot thing. Cause, I can't lie, after I think about it, she didn't deserve it … Low key I would not have done that stuff.'), but overall, it was clear he was on a completely different moral plane than the average Canadian. Article content
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Rosamund Pike is riveting in theatre's spin on Adolescence
Boasting the triumphant return of Rosamund Pike to the stage after 15 screen-dominated years away, Inter Alia is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Prima Facie from Australian lawyer-turned-playwright Suzie Miller. That phenomenal one-woman play about sexual assault, consent and the failings of the criminal justice system was an award-winning tour de force for Jodie Comer in the West End in 2022 and then on Broadway. Inter Alia has a lot in common with its agenda-setting predecessor: aside from its title being another Latin legal term and Justin Martin directing again, the play revisits the emotive subject of sexual offences and how the law works, only this time involving teenagers. It grips, too, and is gut-wrenching, but in comparison feels sketchier. Comer played a top-flight barrister whose confidence in herself and the law takes a battering following a sexual assault that finds her experiencing the legal system from the other side. Here, Pike plays Jessica, a high-powered Crown Court judge whose desire to see better treatment and outcomes for female sexual assault victims runs up against the mother of all agonised upsets on the home-front, when her own 18-year-old son stands accused of rape following a boozy party. Once again, the piece calls for a transfixing, shape-shifting performance from its star, and the hurtling 105-minute action showcases Pike's theatrical bravura. She can hold a stage as vast as the Lyttelton with immaculate assurance. But where Prima Facie was a full-on monologue, here we also see the characters closest to Jessica – her husband Michael (Jamie Glover), a successful, competitive silk himself, and shy, troubled son Harry (Jasper Talbot). That enlargement of scope is a mixed blessing. Where the comparable Netflix hit Adolescence got under the skin of 'toxic masculinity', what comes across here is a palpable sense of maternal helplessness but also a lack of insight into what's really going on with her child. When we first see Pike's heroine, she rises up on a platform in wig and gowns, with a mic in hand, striking the attitude of a rock star, the swaggering, tongue-in-cheek touch augmented by accompaniment on guitar and drums (a skulking Glover and Talbot). That poise – evidence of her courtroom command – comes under pressure from her multi-tasking requirements as a mother. Diving in and out of different clothes, Pike is coolly efficient, wryly confiding and forever pulled in different directions (Miriam Buether's set conjuring legal realm, affluent kitchen and darker hinterlands). Her hurried lifestyle – with darting evocations of Harry's childhood too as she broods over past parenting – can seem entertainingly frenetic but the overload has had a cost; the online world has become Harry's surrogate shaping influence. Glover and Talbot bring a brusque reticence and contrasting despair to their roles but the script positions them almost as peripheral. As more information is revealed, our sympathies shift – and that takes in Jessica herself; caught between knowing how the legal system works, how it should work, and her own protective instincts as a mother. She's sent into a freefall, anguish and self-recrimination memorably etched on Pike's face. I suspect a lot of parents will identify with the scenario: the peril of complacency, the dread of catastrophe. And if the evening stirs debate about how one generation guides the next, how men should behave and how the culture can foster respect, safety and justice for women, it's all to the good. Whether it will have the same impact of Prima Facie is open to question. Until Sept 13. Tickets:
Globe and Mail
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Globe and Mail
Hockey Canada, NHL could clear or sanction players after sexual-assault verdict
On Thursday, the five former Canadian world junior hockey players charged with sexual assault after a 2018 celebratory gala in London, Ont., will learn their fates at the hands of the criminal justice system. But that won't be the final word: Both the National Hockey League and Hockey Canada still have matters to resolve with the men. Each organization conducted its own parallel investigation into the allegations, but when police laid charges in February, 2024, the league and national sport organization held off making any final determination until the end of the trial. Now that those processes may finally continue – barring any appeal in the case – some or all of the players could be excluded from the highest levels of professional hockey, or barred from ever playing for Canada again. If the probes don't find the players breached the league's or Hockey Canada's rules, though, the men may not face any serious professional consequences at all. The case has brought scrutiny to how sports organizations in Canada should proceed when athletes allegedly engage in behaviour that is not only inappropriate, but potentially criminal. It has also offered the public a rare glimpse into how the country's safe sport regime makes decisions, the mechanics of which are normally shrouded in secrecy. What to know about the Hockey Canada trial ahead of the verdict The Hockey Canada sexual-assault trial is nearly over. We're answering your questions after the verdict Shortly after the alleged incident in June, 2018, Hockey Canada hired lawyer Danielle Robitaille for an independent investigation into whether the players had contravened its code of conduct. She conducted a raft of interviews, including with four of the five players who were ultimately charged, and filed a report with the organization in the fall of 2022. In November, 2023, Hockey Canada announced that an independent adjudicative panel held a hearing on the matter and rendered a decision, but an appeal had been filed. No other information was released, including what the panel had decided. Hockey Canada commissioned a new arm's-length panel to hear the appeal. Ten months later, in September, 2024, the organization announced that panel had granted a motion to adjourn the proceedings until the criminal trial was over. The five accused are not the only ones directly affected by the pause. Hockey Canada suspended the entire 2018 world junior team when the incident came to light in June, 2022 – preventing them from playing, coaching, officiating, or volunteering with any programs overseen by the organization. The players remain in limbo until the conclusion of the independent appeal process. Experts say when a matter could be subject to a criminal investigation, sports organizations should hold off on their own inquiry until after the police probe. 'You don't want to taint the criminal matter,' said Hilary Findlay, a retired associate professor of sports management at Brock University, and a founding partner of the consulting firm Sport Law. Independent investigators 'could inappropriately question people. Somebody could make a false accusation that could have repercussions,' she said, adding that any number of things could happen that might bleed into the criminal investigation. In a ruling last fall on a pretrial motion, Justice Bruce Thomas noted that Ms. Robitaille had, in fact, suspended her investigation in late July, 2018, and then resumed it after police determined that there weren't sufficient grounds to continue their probe, in February, 2019. She then shut down her inquiry again in September, 2020, after failing to secure an interview with the complainant. But in July, 2022, both the London Police Service and Ms. Robitaille reopened their investigations after a public outcry. Hockey Canada threatened a lifetime ban on any player who didn't speak to Ms. Robitaille. Justice Thomas noted she was aware that the information she gathered could be shared with police. Ms. Robitaille's findings did end up spilling into public view during the trial. However, much of the evidence and material she uncovered in her 2022 interviews with three of the players – including an admission by Dillon Dubé that he had slapped the complainant on her naked buttock – was ultimately ruled inadmissible because they were obtained under threat of the lifetime ban by Hockey Canada. While that threat was unusual, Canada's safe sport regime has other sanctions at its disposal to compel participation. Signy Arnason, the executive director of safe sport for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, or CCES, noted that those accused of breaching a code of conduct 'can choose to not participate' in a probe. 'But that doesn't stop anything.' If those individuals are found guilty, they do not have the right to an appeal. The NHL also launched its own investigation that concluded in 2023, but the results were not made public. Though the league's commissioner, Gary Bettman, denounced the alleged behaviour – calling the claims 'disgusting, horrific, and unacceptable' in an interview with The Globe and Mail in April – the league said it won't discuss its investigation or potential consequences while the matter is before the courts. In April, the CCES took over responsibility for administering the safe sport file, outlined in the Universal Code of Conduct to Prevent and Address Maltreatment in Sport, or UCCMS, for federally funded national sport organizations such as Hockey Canada. The accused players may face sanctions under the UCCMS, regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial. 'The standard of proof, and what you need to show culpability, differs between the two processes,' said Ms. Findlay. A criminal conviction requires evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. The threshold for proof in the Canadian safe sport regime, on the other hand, is lower. The regime abides by what is known as a 'balance of probabilities,' meaning an investigator only has to be at least 51 per cent certain that the alleged behaviour occurred. Hockey Canada verdict could break new ground on sexual consent Gary Bettman won't say if Hockey Canada players on trial for sexual assault could return to NHL if acquitted Both the probes commissioned by NHL and Hockey Canada have unfolded behind a heavy curtain of secrecy. Investigations into behaviour that occurs under the auspices of national sport organizations are not released to the public. Only serious sanctions, such as a temporary or permanent suspension, are announced. Ms. Arnason stressed it is imperative for investigations like these to remain secret. National sport organizations, and the people who work for them, can make or break athletes' careers, which creates a disincentive to report maltreatment if people fear being identified as a complainant or whistleblower. 'People want to remain, in many instances, confidential,' she said. Taylor McKee, the director of the Centre for Sport Capacity at Brock University, broadly agrees, though he argued that the public deserves more transparency than the system currently offers. He outlined a potential scenario in which a coach is alleged to have violated what is known in sports as the one-on-one protocol, which ensures adults aren't left alone with minors. The coach may admit to breaking the rule, but that would not normally be disclosed outside the independent probe, since it is not subject to serious sanction. However, it would be in the public interest to disclose the coach's admission, regardless of its implications as per the code. 'If they can find statements of fact that are agreed upon, even by the accused,' it's in the interest of the Canadian hockey establishment to make those public, Mr. McKee said.
CBS News
18 hours ago
- CBS News
Two people accused of breaking Detroit's 36th District Court building window with slingshot
Two people who were accused of vandalizing the Guardian Building in Detroit are also charged with vandalizing the city's 36th District Court, according to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Ramzu Yunus, 49, of Highland Park, Michigan, and Angela Tajuan Williams, 57, of Waldorf, Maryland, were arraigned in the same courthouse on Wednesday that they were accused of vandalizing. The duo was charged with malicious destruction of a building between $1,000 and $20,000. Additionally, Yunus was charged with possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of felony firearm. They each received $100,000 personal bond. Prosecutors say at about 4:30 a.m. on July 19, the duo allegedly used slingshots to break a window of the courthouse in the 4200 block of Madison Street. No one was injured. Police arrested Yunus and Williams later that day at Madison Street near Witherell Street during a traffic stop. During the arrest, police spotted Yunus wearing an empty holster on his hip and uncovered a handgun with ammunition and a slingshot with metal pellets inside the vehicle. Their next court hearing is on July 29. "The alleged actions of these defendants were a direct attack on various buildings that are utilized on a daily basis in the criminal justice system in Wayne County. These actions certainly will not be tolerated," said Prosecutor Kym Worthy in a statement. In a separate incident, prosecutors allege that Yunus and Williams used a slingshot that same day to break a glass revolving door at the Guardian Building. Yunus was charged with malicious destruction of a building, possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, carrying a concealed weapon and two counts of felony firearm in that case. Williams was charged with malicious destruction of a building. The prosecutor's office says it is investigating alleged vandalism incidents that happened at two other buildings in Detroit.
ABC News
18 hours ago
- ABC News
Idaho court sentences Bryan Kohberger to life without parole for 2022 student murders, but motive remains a mystery
The former criminal justice doctoral student convicted in the 2022 stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students has been sentenced to life in prison, but his motives for the killings remain a mystery. Bryan Kohberger, 30, received four consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole or appeal under a deal with prosecutors sparing him the death penalty in return for pleading guilty earlier this month to four counts of first-degree murder. Friends and relatives of the four students murdered in their rental home delivered powerful statements of love, anguish and condemnation in front of Kohberger. "This world was a better place with her in it," Scott Laramie, the stepfather of Madison Mogen, told the court. "Karen and I are ordinary people, but we lived extraordinary lives because we had Maddie." The father of Kaylee Goncalves taunted Kohberger for leaving his DNA on a knife sheath left near Mogen's body and getting caught despite being a graduate student in criminology at nearby Washington State University at the time. "You were that careless, that foolish, that stupid," Steve Goncalves said. "Master's degree? You're a joke." Judge Steven Hippler ordered Kohberger to serve four life sentences without parole for four counts of first-degree murder in the brutal stabbing deaths of Mogen, Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin early on November 13, 2022. He was also given a 10-year sentence for burglary and a total of $US270,000 ($409,000) in fines and civil penalties. He has waived his right to appeal. Kohberger broke into the students' home through a kitchen sliding door and brutally stabbed the four friends. It remains unclear why he did it. When given an opportunity to speak on Wednesday, local time, he told the judge: "I respectfully decline." Those were the only words he uttered during the two and a half hours of proceedings in Idaho's Fourth District Court in Boise, the state capital. The judge acknowledged that the motive may never be known. "I share the desire expressed by others to understand the why," Judge Hippler said. "But upon reflection, it seems to me, and this is just my own opinion, that by continuing to focus on why, we continue to give Mr Kohberger relevance, we give him agency, and we give him power." Even if legally empowered to compel Kohberger to give a statement in court, the judge asked: "How could anyone ever be assured that what he speaks is the truth?" Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson told the court before the sentencing that Kohberger would be led away in his orange jumpsuit with his wrists and ankles shackled, and that the prison door would close behind him forever. "That is the closure we seek," he said. Dylan Mortenson, a roommate who told police of seeing a strange man with bushy eyebrows and a ski mask in the home that night, sobbed as she described how Kohberger "took the light they carried into each room". "He is a hollow vessel, something less than human," Ms Mortenson said. Alivea Goncalves's voice did not waver as she asked Kohberger questions, including what her sister's last words were. She drew applause after belittling Kohberger, who remained expressionless. "You didn't win, you just exposed yourself as the coward you are," Ms Goncalves said. Kohberger's mother and sister sat in the gallery near the defence table, quietly weeping at times as the other parents described their grief. Xana Kernodle's aunt, Kim Kernodle, said she forgave Kohberger and asked him to call her from prison, hoping he would answer her lingering questions about the killings. "Bryan, I'm here today to tell you I have forgiven you, because I no longer could live with that hate in my heart," she said. "Any time you want to talk and tell me what happened, get my number. I'm here. No judgement." AP/Reuters
