Canada, like some U.S. states, (e.g. Maryland) does not have a statute of limitations on felonies, so child abusers can be prosecuted whenever the evidence comes forward. As far as I can see, the statute of limitations is for the benefit of the administration of the courts. It is difficult to process very old cases and they would tend to tie up the administration of justice. Some people (including canon lawyers) seem to think that if you’ve gotten away with a serious crime for a certain period, in natural justice you should not be prosecuted. I am not sure if they intend to use that defense at the Last Assizes.

Canada is a less violent land than the U.S.  The U.S. is the land of liberty, Canada of good government. My temperament leans to the latter. We lived in Montréal for several years, and it was refreshing to be able to walk all over the city – although there was some drug related crime.

Because it is less violent, Canada needs to use incarceration less than we do to protect the public. It costs c. $60,000 a year to imprison someone, and the drain on public finances is creating a strain. I do not think drug offenders should be locked up, but I suspect that many if not most of the imprisoned drug offenders financed their habits by violent crime. It was easier to nail them on a drug offense than a violent crime.

But Canada has been too influenced by European models and (like Holland and Denmark) has shown laxity in pursuing child pornographers and tends to thinks that pedophiles can be rehabilitated and put back into the community rather than imprisoned. With some very young pedophiles perhaps, but most pedophiles and pederasts are sociopaths who can manipulate the system to get what they want and cannot be trusted except in prison or electronic monitoring.

Unfortunately not all crime can be prevented; attempts to prevent any and all cases of molestation would entail a Big Brother monitoring of the population, and a total loss of the private sphere.

It is odd that people have a greater horror of sexual abuse of children than of homicide. I am not saying they shouldn’t, but I wonder why.

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