is there such a thing as 'under kill'????

I was watching the news at supper today and my favorite guy, Bob Layton, came on the news. Love this guy. He has a dead pan way of talking and he doesn't play to the higher crust crowd and talk about how mocha's are going up in price or the cost of SUVs mean that he has to sell his rolex to get one. This guy talks about the every day, mundane things that you will think about when you are driving to work and hear it on the news or see it on the street and scratch your head to think about. So, I was shocked when he mentioned that a 15 year old boy kills someone and gets one day in jail. I thought it had to be a mistake.

So, after work I went to my room and did a search and sure enough, this is what I found. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/print/CTVNews/20060622/teen_sentence_060622/20060622/?hub=Canada&subhub=PrintStory true to his word, a 15 year old beat a 22 year old Kurdish refugee from Iraq in 2001 because (I read in another article when I did more searching) the 22 year old 'looked at' the 15 years old sister 'wrong'. The 22 year old was working as a pizza delivery person. Of course, the justice Minister to Canada did mention that it wasn't the Supreme Court judges fault for upholding the sentence 7-0 because the law was read the right way in accordance to how it was written. Yet another case of badly written laws causing problems and injustice in our system. Now, the problem is, when will the Conservative gov't get off their butts and change that youth justice act so that harsher punishments will happen.

I am not talking about putting the kid away for life, I am not talking about beating him once a month for 20 years for him to learn, I am not even talking about capital punishment here for harsh punishment. All I am wondering about is the old saying "don't use a cannon to kill a mosquito". In the same aspect, 'dont take a pea shooter when you are hunting elephants'. A kid kills a man in such a horrible way, you don't slap his wrist and say "bad boy", you treat him like an adult. 25 years in jail, parole for good behavior maybe and, who knows, being in jail you could actually make sure he goes to school and maybe, just maybe, educate him so that he learns from this mistake.

Here is hoping that the Conservatives can change a Liberal law mistake and give us legistlation that is benefitial to all people and can give a serious punishment for a serious crime without stepping on the rights and humanity of the criminal. I know, I know..pipe dream, but we all have to have some dreams in life, dont we?