Richard Bain’s attack was an attack on democracy, a rejection of the social agreement to choose political leadership by discussion, not force
When terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette was sentenced last month for his murder rampage at a Quebec mosque, the trial judge’s painstaking analysis of the appropriate parole period attracted a great deal of discussion in Canada’s English-language media. In principle, the sentence for murder in Canada is always life. In practice the severity of the penalty will depend on when the murderer becomes eligible for parole and what the parole board makes of his character when that time comes.
Perhaps the only meaningful difference between Bain and Bissonnette was that Richard Bain’s semi-automatic rifle jammed. Policemen who escaped being fired upon attributed this to kindly intervention by God, and so did Bain in later psychiatric interviews. Bain was able to kill only one person, a stagehand working at the theatre where Marois was giving a victory speech. Like Bissonnette, Bain left a long record of delusional harangues about an imagined group of conspiratorial predators.
And if that was a close shave, maybe no one wants to talk about the poor handling of the sentencing phase of Bain’s trial, either. It was a surprise to everyone in the courtroom when the jury returned its second-degree murder verdict. Psychiatrists who had examined Bain disagreed on whether Bain was in a criminally responsible frame of mind at the time of the shooting.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Colby Cosh: More Alberta NDP campaign stunts and Kenney KonspiraciesAlberta’s finance minister, Joe Ceci, not only made a major disclosure about the business of his own department, but did so in a deranged attack on Kenney
Read more »
Colby Cosh: On the verge of Opening Day, a consumer advisory for baseball history buffsThis year marks the centennial of the crooked World Series, or perhaps I should say ‘the crooked World Series we know about’
Read more »
Colby Cosh: More Alberta NDP campaign stunts and Kenney KonspiraciesAlberta’s finance minister, Joe Ceci, not only made a major disclosure about the business of his own department, but did so in a deranged attack on Kenney
Read more »
Colby Cosh: On the verge of Opening Day, a consumer advisory for baseball history buffsThis year marks the centennial of the crooked World Series, or perhaps I should say ‘the crooked World Series we know about’
Read more »
Canada doesn’t label GMO foods even though 88% of us say we should'More than 80% of GMOs are engineered to resist herbicides and this has drastically increased herbicide use. Canada’s own food regulator’s report says nearly one-third of Canadian food now tests positive for glyphosate herbicide residues.' | cbcdocs
Read more »
Video shows the Pope really doesn’t like it when people kiss his papal ringThe Pope pried his hand from those who tried to kiss his ring after Monday mass
Read more »