samkorn's blog

No matter how appalling it may seem, Edward Hakim's defence lawyer is only employing good legal strategy by appealing his client's 18-month jail sentence to the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Past judgements have often shown that when it comes right down to sentencing, Quebec's wimpy judges seem to have more compassion with convicted criminals than they do with the victims of criminal acts.

With such week-kneed judges routinely handing criminals free "get-out-of- jail" passes, I would not at all be surprised if Hakim has his already-lenient sentence, for effectively destroying Patricia Jolicoeur's life, reduced to time to be served in the community.

I'm sure that Patricia's father would not need much convincing to agree that the expression, "the law is an ass", could very well apply to Quebec's Justice System.

It seems that perhaps Myriam Bedard, former Olympic Gold medallist and now recently convicted of child abduction, may NOT have been so far off when she claimed that she was a victim of "bureaucratic terrorism" or governmental persecution in Canada for becoming a whistleblower and testifying before the Gomery commission into the sponsorship scandal. ("Former Olympian Myriam Bedard gets Conditional Discharge", Montreal Gazette, Oct.10,2007)

Chief Montreal Crown Prosecutor Marie-Andree Trudeau and Crown Prosecutor Cynthia Gyenizse, despite an excellent chance at conviction and a jail sentence upon going to trial given outstanding jurisprudence, instead offered my ex-wife a "two year in the community" sweetheart plea-bargain deal when she returned to Montreal 18 years after kidnapping our daughter just before I was awarded sole custody, and brainwashing her against me. ("Woman Sentenced for 1989 Kidnapping", Montreal Gazette, June 30, 2007)

Quebec Sessions Court Judge Claude Parent, who presided at the sentencing hearing on June 29, 2007 in Montreal, made sure that Esther Ruehmling Eichmann did NOT have to surrender her passport, post any kind of bond, can serve her "sentence" in Germany or anywhere else for that matter, and can come and go as she pleases.

Yet in Myriam Bedard's case, Crown Prosecutors in Quebec City originally sought a prison sentence for her having visited the United States with her daughter for two or three months in 2006. Although receiving a conditional discharge, Bedard HAD to surrender her passport which limits her to travel only within Canada.

Was Myriam Bedard offered any kind of plea-bargain before going to trial and, if so, what exactly were the conditions?

If not, then WHY NOT??