Sentence Fell Flat: One Man's Opinion
By Ben Meisner
The idea of justice equal to all took a slap in the face yesterday when two crooks who had bilked the CIBC of over a million bucks received a 24 month less a day conditional sentence.
Oh yes they will need to pack along their cell phones just in case the guy from the parole board calls, but that’s about the extent of the sentence they both received.
While other charges were never brought against Doug Walls and Mike Millard in the collapse of Fred Walls and Son’s back in 1998, they should have been.
Receiving what can only be described as slap on the wrist leaves the people of this area crying out for justice. It also leaves one wondering is there a law for the rich and a law for the rest of the people in this society?
That question today is well founded.
To the north of the Pine Pass, former Mayor Steve Thorlakson must head off to jail on the weekends for not paying his income tax. To the south in Vancouver you can steal a million bucks and you don’t serve a day.
To add to that I recall back in the late 90’s of the people hiding their vehicles fearful that they were about to be repossessed because the payments had not been made, and yet they had receipts showing that they had. Well as it turned out many of these trucks had never been registered to the rightful owner. What happened to all of this? Why weren’t there charges? Some owners went for a year or more without using the vehicle that they had purchased for fear of it being grabbed by the finance company.
What about the employees of the company, those who gave their all? No sir, justice is crying out to be served this fine morning, and the term if you’re rich and famous rings in their ears.
A sentence has been handed out to two crooks which will be the envy of every fly by nighter in the country. The system should be ashamed of itself.
I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.
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Posted by: giterdun on March 9 2007 8:18 AM
Quote from a real news source "The Prince George Citizen today"
In making the ruling, Dohm noted extensive letters of support for both men and the fact they did not receive any personal gain from the fraud.
The two men were engaged in a cheque-kiting scheme in a failed attempt to save the Fred Walls and Son Ford dealership.
The scheme cost CIBC about $1.5 million and also left many of the 70 employees out of pocket in terms of severance.
One of them was Mike Walch, a 22-year employee at the dealership which went bankrupt in 1998.
Walch said the sentence Dohm handed down was about what he expected and added he's since put the episode behind him.
"I believe a lot of the things he was doing was to try and keep the business afloat and keep the people employed," he said. "In a lot of respects, you almost got to say thanks for trying, sort of thing."