There is an Advisory Board for Judges?!

About a year ago, I wrote an article about the how judges were granting bail inappropriately. That is, letting dangerous repeat offenders out on bail. One of my suggestions was to create an independent judicial advisory board run by civilians to handle cases in which a judge made an inappropriate ruling. I feel a little embarrassed now because apparently this already exists. In fact, NDP MPP Peter Kormos wants one judge hauled in front of this panel. One of the biggest stories to break recently was the murder of Katelynn Sampson in Toronto. It has been called one of the most extreme cases of child abuse in the city's history. You can't help be feel sad for this poor child. Her mother is a drug addict, the father is nowhere to be seen, and her foster parents who are charged with the murder are well known violent criminals. The latter is what has one particular judge in hot water. Justice Debra Paulseth was the sitting judge in the custody case who handed Katelynn over to Donna Irving, the alleged killer. Despite a lengthly criminal record, the justice did not preform a background check or any sort of check to make sure the foster parents were suitable. The mother had been the one who suggested Irving, so she is not entirely off the hook. However, the judge confirming it without doing her job is the final nail in the coffin to our disgraced justice system.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. More often than not it takes a death for people to wake up to long festering problems like these. In the National Post a couple months ago was an article that noted how Native children were being put with unsiutable Native families in order to protect their culture. They were often repeatedly put into homes with known alcoholics who abused the children. Meanwhile, loving non-natives were clamoring to adopt these children but were not allowed to since its somehow considered a form of "cultural-genocide" by the courts. Of course, there are heaps more examples of similar issues.

If we actually have an institution that examines the rulings of judges, I think we need to start using it. The examples of justices abusing and neglecting their powers are staggaring. In my opinion, Justice Debra Paulseth should be made an example of. Of course, nothing has been proven in court yet but it is clear that a message needs to be sent. It should not take the death of a child before we start taking these issues seriously.