Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver, B.C. (Postmedia News) – B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon’s refusal to jail disgraced former RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson is a travesty.
In a decision that triggered immediate controversy Friday, Justice Dillon said his aboriginal heritage meant Robinson didn’t have to go to prison for obstructing justice after the fatal Oct. 2008 collision with a young motorcyclist.
She sentenced him to one month’s house arrest, another 11 months with a 9 p.m. curfew and told him to pay a $1,000 victim surcharge fee.
Oh, she also ordered him to write an apology to the family of Orion Hutchinson, the 21-year-old from Tsawwassen who lay dead or dying while Robinson, already buzzing on five beers, nipped home to drop off the kids and down a couple of vodka shooters.
It was an insult, and as they left the New Westminster courtroom, the family’s pain spilled onto the street.
“You’re not out for blood, you just want some kind of justice,” Judith Hutchinson fumed.
“Curfew? It’s basically like a kid being grounded. Any jail time would have been better . . . He got off so lightly.”
She said it was a slap in the face.
“I’m outraged,” she practically spat, adding the family doesn’t want Robinson’s condolences made “with an arm twisted behind his back.”
It was heartbreaking.
Twitter and radio call-in shows were quickly filled with condemnation from people who thought the judge was out of touch with community values, or worse.
We’re jailing young people for smashing windows during the Vancouver riot, yet Justice Dillon bends over backwards to give this ex-Mountie house arrest?
The maximum penalty for obstructing justice is 10 years behind bars and the federal Tories have us jailing harmless pot growers.
This was a police officer — a man sworn to uphold the law, a man intimate with the ways drunk drivers evade responsibility.
A man, as Justice Dillon said, who used his knowledge and experience to obfuscate and mask his culpability in a horrendous accident.
This is holding police officers to a higher standard?
These circumstances demanded a much more serious response from the bench. The Crown suggested at least three months in jail, which was probably about right.
Instead, Dillon gave us sophistry: He’s an alcoholic, aboriginal, first-time offender suffering from post-traumatic stress and, besides, putting a former police officer in jail means protective custody.
That didn’t wash.
He was a seasoned RCMP officer and if we can keep gangsters in solitary for months awaiting trial, it’s not much of a hardship for corrections to accommodate a single ex-cop for a month or so given our early release provisions.
Furthermore, her reasoning misconstrued Parliament’s intent when it amended the Criminal Code to provide more justice for first nations offenders.
Lawmakers weren’t out to give a racial discount on sentencing.
The restorative goals of that law should not apply here — Robinson, a member of the prosperous Osoyoos band, was not the victim of systemic racism or neglect. He was not disenfranchised, marginalized, impoverished, oppressed or disadvantaged.
Justice Dillon gave someone a break who didn’t deserve it.
Robinson discredited police officers at a time when they were under extreme scrutiny and he tarnished the iconic national force with his conduct.
The 42-year-old father of three was an RCMP corporal and he should have been treated like one, not given a get-out-of-jail-free pass because of a legal loophole.
Robinson did not acknowledge his guilt, apologize or show any remorse during the proceedings. It took until last week for him to do the right thing and resign as a Mountie.
In her judgment, Justice Dillon should have emphasized not his rehabilitation but rather deterrence, denunciation and the promotion of responsibility.
Her decision sends the wrong message to drunk drivers, to bent police officers and to those who think judges are too soft on crime.
Robinson still faces perjury charges over his testimony about the October 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski after he was repeatedly Tasered and subdued by Robinson and three other Mounties at the airport.
Walking away from court trailing reporters, his lawyer David Crossin offered: “Well, he’s prepared to take his medicine and he’s taking it.”
What a crock. Be home by 9 now, Monty!
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I think people like this are a very unique bread of people and it’s nice to see that the RCMP looks after bullies like this and they give them the option to just walk away.
My sympathies to the Hutchison family they deserved better. As a retired member that spent 25 years in the RCMP I had hoped for more from the justice system but the RCMP and the justice system seem to be in lock step. Both organizations have let the people of Canada down in this instance and it is easy to see why both are losing the respect of the public. I am glad I no longer have to work with the likes of the Monty Robinsons of the RCMP.
Can’t believe what I’m reading here.
JSC you hit the nail square on the head.
If the former Commissioner who lied got nothing and moved on to work for Interpole and a Corporal and Sergeant gets nothing for the wrong they have done then I guess that leaves the Constables holding the bag.
No wonder nothing changes in the RCMP.
The whole different rules for different people/ranks/gender/ethnic background etc….is wearing very thin on many employees.
R&W, the way things are, the way they are is because white males let it happen. At the voting booth, it isn’t made an issue, so none of the the political parties endorse having the same rules. All these former Reform Party members in the current government, who for years fought against the employment equity polices under the liberals, are now the ones making the rules more unfair, instead of less.
In respect to the organization, this was a long time coming. Nearly 20 years ago I remember a guy running for DSSR who promised to make the reduced hiring standards for many of the target groups, an officer safety issue. The problem is, on the inside there is no voice and very few ever speak up about it. There are a few reasons for this.
For years recruiters have tried to weed out anyone who would question such polices. Then then the training became demilitarized and corporatized. Members were now indoctrinated into a new cut throat culture where loyalty to each other is discouraged and are encouraged to defect on each other. The facilitators use such an environment to spy out anyone who disagrees with the policies and start pointing out a attrition pattern with many of those who can’t cut the mustard.
In the regular outfit, everyone is now conditioned that you just keep your mouth shut. For reasons of perceived reward, ego or revenge affected white males play the game and sell out others that question the policies. White shirts and especially aspiring white shirts love to make examples out of the “un-enlightened” and there is no better stick to beat someone with than a politically correct one. The new white shirts soon learn that embracing the double standards is the line you have to tow at the highest levels for their political masters and PC is the proper lingo to use the elitist Ottawa cocktail parties they will be attending.
Members nowadays know that they get less grief for attacking and harassing the individuals who benefit from the polices, than question the “elites” who made them. With all the allegations of sexism, there is going to be a purge of anyone who disagrees with the hypocrisy that goes on. But, there is an old saying, “A barking dog doesn’t bite”. In my experience the men who have attacked, mobbed, bullied, and harassed women the most, are the guys who purportedly embrace the preferential treatment. Yet, they are the first ones to dime out everyone else out who question’s the preferential treatment and use all the politically correct language. It’s the guys who openly talk about their frustration with the way things are, are the ones who have nothing to hide and get it out of their system.
The different rules and preferential treatment has permeated every corner of the outfit. “H” division had traditionally been closed to white male recruits from there, but this didn’t apply to minorities. I know a story about a division being closed, and a blue eyed and blond female played the race card because she had a touch of native in her bloodlines. Not only did the “impossible” happen for her, but she was quick to let staffing know she didn’t want to be sent to a “reserve’. What happened to you play the card, you get dealt the hand? Women and minorities routinely get free passes for offenses, that would get a white guy packing in Depot.
Good point about the laterals. For years women wouldn’t get sent to the hardship area’s because the outfit was too afraid they would quit. I am sure they are applying for and getting all the plumb places to live and if a white male wants to get promoted, they have to accept that they will be relegated to spending their career in the worst crap holes….
Perhaps we can have former Comm. Zaccardeli and D/Comm. Barb George come and join Monty for his month of house confinement, since they also slipped away from the pension fund scandal and Myher Arar debacle and lying to parliament. They could just call it a sleepover as a method of operational guidance provided in a timely manner.
OMG I am really disturbed at the outcome of this. What kind of message did the court just send out? Holy cow, will there be some “justice” when the perjury trial gets going? Obstruction of justice and perjury have to be the worst charges on a police officer.
No jail time for disgraced RCMP officer
Vivian Luk
Canadian Press via The StarPhoenix
July 28, 2012
A disgraced former RCMP corporal who first catapulted into the public eye after Robert Dziekanski’s Taser-related death in Vancouver is not getting jail time for an unrelated conviction stemming from a fatal crash.
Benjamin (Monty) Robinson was sentenced to a one-year conditional term on Friday for attempting to block the police investigation of the October 2008 collision that killed a 21-year-old motorcyclist.
It means the 42-year-old will serve only one month under house arrest.
“He’s prepared to take his medicine, and he’s taking it,” Robinson’s lawyer David Crossin said outside court after the sentence was delivered.
Robinson resigned from the RCMP last week on the same day a Crown lawyer asked for his imprisonment, ending years of frustration for B.C.’s top cop who had years earlier sought the man’s suspension.
But though a judge said the man’s misconduct “strikes at the heart of the justice system,” she handed down a sentence that was more lenient than the Crown had hoped.
Robinson made the choice to use his knowledge learned as a police officer to mislead investigators, Janice Dillon said in her decision.
“His conduct discredited the police at a time when police conduct generally was under public scrutiny,” she said. “He has diminished the reputation of the RCMP and his fellow officers.”
Robinson has been cited as an example of the bad apples the force has been unable to fire. B.C. has taken repeated hits for cases over recent years in which Mounties have been discredited or remain accused of wrongdoing.
The highest profile case was Dziekanski’s death in 2007, where the Polish immigrant was stunned repeatedly with a Taser after he picked up a stapler at Vancouver’s airport. Robinson was the senior of four officers at the scene.
He had initially faced internal discipline in connection with the motorcyclist’s death, including a code-of-conduct investigation, but his discharge means those actions have been halted.
Family members of victim Orion Hutchinson were not happy with the court decision.
“That sentence just felt like he’s being grounded,” his mother Judith Hutchinson said angrily outside the New Westminster courthouse. “It doesn’t feel like a sentence to me, it feels like that’s not enough.”
She told reporters she had hoped for harsher punishment, which she believed would better hold Robinson accountable.
The officer was also ordered to write a letter of sympathy to the Hutchinson family, but that made the woman scoff.
“That’s nothing, that’s less than nothing at this point,” she said.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/jail+time+disgraced+RCMP+officer/7004709/story.html