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May 29, 2005

No, killing people is the real crime

Still loosely on the subject of statistics, here's Ruth Gagnon of the Elizabeth Fry Society quoted in this morning's National Post on the topic of Karla Homolka:

There is no risk. [Homolka] is not a sexual predator. There is no danger. I am convinced of that.

No risk! Why, why, why must these outrageously partisan organizations and their representatives constantly be edified in the press? Ruth Gagnon is not, so far as I know, a psychiatrist. She claims no professional credentials anywhere that I can locate. As far as I see, she is simply someone who draws a paycheque from an organization that on one hand claims inoffensively to "promote public awareness and understanding of the needs of women in conflict with the law and the need for change in the criminal justice system as it affects women," and on the other produces posters like this one (incredibly obnoxious punch line: "women don't belong in cages... prisons are the real crime").

The Elizabeth Fry Society's goal is to get women — all women — out of prison. Thus, no one needed to get on the phone to Ruth Gagnon to find out her position on Ms Homolka, because her position was a foregone conclusion, and as such irrelevant. The prospect of Homolka strutting down Monkland Avenue amongst the children of NDG is frightening enough without someone like Gagnon assuring us, against all logic and in pursuit only of her own goals, that she poses no danger.

Posted by Chris Selley at May 29, 2005 05:15 PM