Wil's Rant

Looks like the woman who was murdered after calling police and receiving no help has a bit of history with them. According to the reports she had previously called the police about abuse she was receiving from her spouse. Once police had arrived she swore that she would not testify against him in court, so he wasn't charged. I still think the R.C.M.P. made a serious error in the case, but this new information makes it easier to understand why they might not have been in such a hurry to respond this time. Domestics are generally regarded as the most dangerous thing cops ever have to deal with. Makes it a serious bummer when after having responded to such a call they don't receive co-operation from the woman involved. On the other hand, we can't really blame the woman either because even if she had pursued legal avenues, this would not have slowed the guy down in the least if he wanted to return to punish her. Many woman in Canada who have been brave and sought charges against their assailants have later been assaulted or murdered by same. This is often time despite restraining orders, moving, changing phone numbers, etc. The laws in Canada do not have the necessary teeth to protect women in these circumstances. Essentially, in this country, you have to die before the guy has a chance to get even five years. Many times they serve less than this.

So what's the solution. One approach might be to consider softening the civil rights of men accused of such abuse thereby allowing police to move swiftly and effectively to protect the woman's safety. Of course that brings up the question of false allegations made against a man, I'm sure there are enough of these to make this a problem. It would seem that any laws enacted to protect women from abuse must also deal just as severely with anyone bringing false accusations against another for whatever reasons. In other words, if a guy is accused of threatening, or more importantly assaulting, a woman, police must be able to arrest and detain the man until such time as a judge can look into the matter and decide if further detention is in order.