He'd Also Like A Pony

So this guy, Christopher Pauchay, drank himself incoherent one night and decided to go visit his sister. Not that unusual a story so far, at least in my hometown.

The first complication is that there was a snowstorm going on, and the temperature was around minus 50 degrees Celsius with the windchill. For those of you more accustomed to the Fahrenheit scale, that converts to "incredibly freaking cold."

Still, his sister's place was nearby, and surely he could coast that far without even feeling the cold with that much alcohol in his system.

Then comes the second complication: Chris was watching the kids that night.


This is about to get really awful. You are warned.


Having been left in charge of his two daughters (aged 15 months and a little over three years, respectively), he at least knew better than to leave them home alone. So, he did what I'm sure every parent has done at one time or another: he picked them up, one in each arm, dressed only in diapers and t-shirts, and carried them out into a blizzard in the middle of the night.

In his drunken stupor, he didn't get far. He was found the next morning, frostbitten and probably still feeling the booze, on a neighbour's front step. His daughters weren't with him, and it was several more hours before he told anyone that he had brought them outside. Of course, they were found frozen to death in the snow.

At this point, the story is sickening and tragic. What came afterward compounds the outrage.

The guy was charged, as well he should have been. To his credit, he entered a guilty plea. However, before the a real judge decided on his sentence, he got to have a "sentencing circle". I've written about these mockeries of the criminal justice system before.

Let's look at some highlights from that process:

Pauchay's lawyer, Ron Piche, (asked) for a conditional sentence.

A "conditional sentence" means no jail time. Probation and community service, maybe a little house arrest. Why stop there? Why not nominate him for the Order of Canada? The precedent of giving it to child-killers has already been set.

The mother of the two girls, Tracey Jimmy...told the circle she believes Pauchay is a good man. Ms. Jimmy said she knew when she met Pauchay that he would be the father of her children.

But not for long.

She cried as she talked about how her third child -- the one she was pregnant with at the time of Kaydance and Santana's deaths -- was taken away after an incident eight months ago that resulted in assault charges and a restraining order against Pauchay.

This doesn't sound like he's learned much about parenting. Hopefully this child gets far, far away before Daddy comes back to leave her somewhere to die.

The group (of sentencing circle participants) recommended Pauchay take drug and alcohol treatment and assist elders with cultural and spiritual activities. None of the recommendations involves sending him to jail.

The punchline to all this hand-wringing is that the guy already has what you could call a history with the law. He is, as they say, "known to the police" in his area. To the tune of over 50 (yes, fifty, ten times five) criminal convictions.

I don't even understand how someone can ever be out of prison with that kind of record. Sure, even the best of us invariably winds up with a handful of convictions on our rap sheet, but when you're at two score and ten, it's time for society to send you to the showers.

Oh, wait. He was walking (or, more accurately, staggering) around free for the same reason that he got a "sentencing circle", instead of a judge immediately bringing the hammer down - the colour of his skin:

The Criminal Code also dictates that a judge should take into account the special circumstances of aboriginal offenders, regardless of whether they partake in sentencing circles.

I've written about this before, but it bears repeating until it changes: the Canadian government assumes that Aboriginals cannot be held responsible for their actions. Our legislators think that they aren't as civilized, aren't as smart, and just aren't as capable of understanding right and wrong as us white folks. I didn't think anyone would ever seriously compliment someone else by saying, "That's mighty white of you!", but considering things like this, it wouldn't surprise me coming from a Canadian Member of Parliament.

The bigotry of low expectations (there's nothing "soft" about it) kept this man out of prison, and his two children are dead because of it. All the "progressives" who think that they're being enlightened and generous (and how condescending is that?) by having legal exemptions carved out for minorities have the blood of those girls on their hands.

Now for the final insult to the memory of those two girls. Their Daddy just got his sentence for killing them.

Three years. Three stinking, lousy years.

That's less than the lifetime of his oldest daughter. Far too short in both cases.


Enough rambling. Here's a picture of the two children this S.O.B. killed. Man, was I ever tempted to write out that abbreviation.