Own up and bring our sanity back
By John Mohan

There is an incident recorded in the Scriptures that makes me laugh and wince at the same time.

As the story goes, Moses, the great deliverer of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage has been on Mount Sinai for 40 days receiving the Ten Commandments from God. He left his brother Aaron in charge of the people during his absence.

But the people grew tired of waiting and their impatience eventually escalated into a near riot. They demanded their second-in-charge make gods to lead them.

Decisively, Aaron told the people to bring all their gold earrings to him, which he melted and fashioned into a golden calf. The people enthusiastically adopted the man-made creation as their delivering god and threw a party in its honour. Both God and Moses heard the commotion and Moses soon descended back down the mountain to confront Aaron and the people. (This is where the story becomes tragic and hilarious at the same time.) When Moses asked his brother what happened, Aaron says all he did was collect the gold and threw it into the fire and somehow a golden calf came out. It's a preposterous claim where Aaron has taken no real responsibility for his actions or the outcome.

Things haven't changed much.

We're still a society that avoids assessing or taking responsibility for our actions.

Last July Vince Weiguang Li of Edmonton brutally murdered a sleeping Tim McLean on a Winnipeg-bound Greyhound bus. Justice John Scurfield ruled Li not criminally responsible, citing mentally ill people should not be convicted when they don't know what they did was wrong. They need to be treated.

While there may be a degree of truth to the verdict, Li had been previously diagnosed as schizophrenic and stopped taking prescribed medication of his own volition, which would inevitably put himself and others at risk. Fifteen months ago Yellow Quill (Saskatchewan) First Nation member, an inebriated Christopher Pauchay took his two underdressed toddlers outside in a severe winter storm with fatal consequences as both girls were later found dead from hypothermia.

Although already a reputed heavy drinker and no claim he had been physically forced against his will to drink that night, Pauchay's community and wife rallied around him asking the courts to spare him of jail time, asserting incarceration would be no benefit. (However, Judge Barry Morgan handed down a 34-month sentence to Pauchay for criminal negligence causing death.)

A just society should consider circumstances and intent when determining sentencing. But what is too often overlooked in cases like these is justice for the victims. To deem someone not criminally responsible or absolve them of consequences because they were drunk or not treating their mental illness devalues both their crime and the people wronged.

Valuing and ensuring justice for victims may do far more to restore sanity to our communities than deflected responsibility or a lenient sentence could.

--John Mohan is the CEO of Siloam Mission.

Originally printed in the Winnipeg Sun, Wednesday, April 15, 2009.
Reprinted with the permission of Sun Media Corporation.