Behaviour Unlike A Citizen
Sunday, June 14, 2009 04:48 AM
By:
Justice Wallace Craig ( retired)
Persistent good citizenship is as important as robust enforcement of criminal law.
Citizenship is a privileged status that embodies individual liberty as the right of all Canadians; a right entwined with responsibility to others, and a duty to abide by the law.
In 1867, Britain created the Dominion of Canada, but chose to leave us with the citizenship status of British subjects.
During the Second World War, Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen fought with great valour and distinction. Many were killed in combat, their sacrifice still marked by the endless rows of white crosses in military graveyards far from home.
It is extremely important to remember June 6, 1944; a grim day for Canadians soldiers who stormed ashore on a Normandy beach designated Juno. They overcame fierce resistance and established a beachhead and then defended it against a counterattack by the 12th SS Panzer Division. In just six short days over 1,000 Canadians died in battle and more than 1,700 were injured.
In his epilogue to Holding Juno, author Mark Zuehlke said that “The Canada we live in today exists because of the sacrifice of these young men who marched to a call to fight in foreign lands against fascism. They gave their all.”
Immediately after the War, Canada’s House of Commons enacted the Canadian Citizenship Act creating a distinct legal citizenship for Canadians. I will always believe that Canadian citizenship had its genesis on Juno Beach.
Today, 65 years later, there is a growing disdain among Canadians to hew to the straight and narrow. In this context consider the counterfeited citizenship of convicted grow-op gardener Judy Ann Craig, of North Vancouver.
As owner of a well kept, attractively gardened bungalow, Craig carried on a double life from 1998 to 2003. She presented a public persona of good citizenship but in private she shrugged off moral and ethical restraints and turned to the criminal business of producing and selling marijuana. The grow-op was secretly embedded in her home.
North Vancouver’s Judge Judy Gedye accepted Craig’s guilty plea, chose not to order forfeiture of her home, imposed a 12-month conditional jail sentence, and a fine of $100.000.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal set aside the fine and ordered forfeiture. On May 29, the Supreme Court of Canada clarified the law on forfeiture by declaring that a trial judge has discretion to order full or partial forfeiture, then it reversed the forfeiture order of the Court of Appeal and washed its hands of the case saying “(we) would not at this stage interfere either with (Judge Gedye’s) decision not to order forfeiture or with the decision of the Court of appeal to set aside the fine.”
Regina v. Craig, 2009 SCC 23, contains a terse summary of the facts:
“Ms. Craig was arrested, together with two other individuals, after police observed them removing plants and paraphernalia from the residence and attempting to conceal them on city property. The basement level and portions of the main floor … were devoted to marihuana cultivation. Her operation included three growing rooms and one drying room, as well as industrial lighting, ventilation and irrigation systems.
“At the time of her arrest, police seized 186 marihuana plants (including clones), packaging, scales, various other materials, and a container with one pound of marihuana packaged for wholesale distribution. They also seized cash, additional pre-packaged marihuana, and “score sheets” documenting marihuana sales from her car. According to a police officer with expertise in marihuana sales, the value of the plants was $87,500 and the value of the marihuana seized from her was $15,000.”
Here’s a little insight into Craig’s version of citizenship, gleaned from Janice Tibbetts’s May 30 report in the Vancouver Sun: “Craig testified in court she started growing marijuana to help pull her out of an emotional slump after her divorce, saying ‘I needed a challenge to kick-start me out of this state.’ ”
Tibbetts also reported an observation by Justice Catherine Ryan of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, that Craig, a university graduate and former real estate agent, had ample resources to pursue a legitimate career.
Justice Ryan’s observation portrays Craig as a person who ought to have struggled through a tough patch in life rather than swallowing the lure of quick and easy money producing marijuana.
In my opinion, Judy Ann Craig, a Jekyll and Hyde citizen, and covert criminal, day in and day out for five years, should have been punished with a deterrent jail sentence; one that would send a message to all other counterfeit citizens masking their criminal activity.
But decide for yourself whether Craig’s abuse of the privilege of citizenship was an aggravating factor that ought to have lead to a real jail sentence.
And decide for yourself whether the sacrifice of those young men, who fought and died for us 65 years ago, is being sullied by too many Judy-Ann-Craig Canadians.
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Posted by: downnotout on June 14 2009 6:41 AM