Ex-MD’s sentence slap on the wrist

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/09/2009 (5874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dr. Ross Brown has been sentenced to 45 days in jail for possessing 5,000 images of explicit child pornography.

Let’s do the math, shall we?

The former pillar of society will spend one hour behind bars for every four-and-half images of kids as young as two being tied up, raped and forced into bestiality.

Just one hour to erase four-and-a-half photos of the sexual torture of children? A lifetime can’t erase the damage done to those kids. They have been sexually, physically and emotionally abused. They will never be whole again.

Forty-five days.

We are, I suppose, giving him bonus points for not manufacturing the porn. He merely obtained the images along with 30 videos of child sexual abuse.

The creation of child pornography would have no purpose if there was no market. It doesn’t matter whether or not Ross Brown held the camera. He helped feed the demand for the sexual degradation of children.

Forty-five days.

In court Wednesday, Brown read from a prepared statement.

“I’ll be carrying this burden of shame for the rest of my life,” he told the judge. “I want to express my deep remorse and regret for what I did. I truly appreciate and acknowledge how wrong my actions are.”

His lawyer told court “the last three years have been the worst of his very productive life.”

Tell that to a baby who was used as a sex object and to children whose images of abuse will forever float around on the Internet, accessed by those who can somehow justify their fetish. He owned them all.

Forty-five days.

I think we’re supposed to give Ross Brown sympathy because he was, other than the kiddy porn thing, a respected community leader. He is a former president of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was the vice-president for clinical care in the department of radiology at St. Boniface General Hospital.

As reporter Mike McIntyre pointed out in his coverage of the trial, Brown was able to present letters of support from family members and high-profile friends. Cal Murphy, the former coach of the Blue Bombers, wrote the following:

“We feel that Ross has been completely shamed and humiliated by the publicity surrounding this event and that he is totally remorseful for his actions.”

With all respect to Coach Cal, Ross Brown wouldn’t have been “shamed and humiliated” if he hadn’t committed an appalling crime in the first place. Just because he was a Bomber booster doesn’t make him immune to punishment.

And let’s take another gander at that punishment, shall we?

As a first-time child pornography offender, Brown faced a minimum of 15 days behind bars. That was tripled. He will also perform 120 hours of community service upon his release. He’ll get ongoing sex offender counselling and won’t be able to have unsupervised contact with children.

Presumably that includes the 72-year-old’s own three grandchildren.

How can we justify a feeble slap on the wrist for such a crime? Do we really value children so little that a man who carefully collects pornographic images of children nearly skates on the charges?

That’s the other part of this pathetic story. Manitoba Justice was forced to strike a plea bargain with Brown because of delays in bringing his case to trial. There was a strong chance Brown wouldn’t have served a single day because it could be argued that his rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated because of those delays.

Manitoba Progressive Conservative Justice critic Kelvin Goertzen is calling on Justice Minister Dave Chomiak to provide details of the long trial delays. I’d love to hear them.

At the end of the day, none of this will matter a tinker’s damn to the victims, none of whom have ever met Ross Brown. They will only know that he is one of the faceless predators who gave others reason to violate them over and over and over again.

Forty-five days.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca