A punishment that fits the crime

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/11/2023 (647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Less than 48 hours ago in a supermarket parking lot, I bumped into someone I have known for more than 30 years.

In Manitoba, that’s not unusual. Most of us are blessed to have friends who have seen our ups and downs and become part of our extended family.

The person I met has had many ups. But I doubt that he would be miffed with me if I were to tell you that the worst day of his life had far more impact on him than the compilation of all the successful moments in his life’s highlight reel.

And by now you may be accurately discerning that my old friend belongs to the club nobody wants membership in — the “I buried my child” club.

Many Manitobans know someone who is a member. You may be one of them.

If you’re not, you might mistakenly think you know how it feels. I am here to tell you that you don’t know what it’s like to walk in those boots, unless you’re wearing them.

My friend implored me to publicly discuss a point of view that appeared in this newspaper on Monday of this week.

It was offered by another member of the “club,” Karen Reimer, who wrote a column about the death of her daughter at the hands of a drunk driver and about the death of justice, because of what Reimer thinks is too light a sentence for the man that killed her daughter.

My good friend who motivated me to write these words agreed with the grieving mother.

Karen Reimer’s daughter’s name was Jordyn.

The 24-year-old woman was a designated driver at two in the morning on May 1 last year, when the car she was in was struck at high speed by 30-year-old Tyler Scott Goodman.

Eight days ago, on Nov. 22, Free Press courts reporter Dean Pritchard wrote “Court heard Tyler Goodman drank nine or 10 beers at Joe’s Pandora Inn on Bond Street and ignored pleas he not get behind the wheel of his mother’s pickup truck.”

And by now you know almost everything you need to know about this story, except for three important facts of criminality. The killer tried to cover up the crime. He left the scene of his crime.

When the investigation took place, he lied to police and was backed up by his mother, who was eventually convicted of obstruction of justice.

He pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg court of law and received a seven-year sentence, which makes him eligible for parole in 28 months.

I don’t have to be Jordyn Reimer’s mother to tell you that being incarcerated for, potentially, roughly two years for killing someone with a gun would be unheard of.

But when the lethal weapon is a car or truck, this helium-light sentence becomes far too common in a country that we think of as uncommonly good.

And here’s a dreadful thought, by the way. The sentence would likely have been even lighter had the killer not tried to cover up the crime.

I am not a member of the “club.”

But I don’t have to be to offer this message to those in government and the legal system.

I want the federal and provincial ministers of justice, and every single justice behind every bench including the Supreme Court to read this column and all the columns that relate to what is wrongfully called an accident on May 1, 2022 in Winnipeg.

When an adult kills nearly two six packs of beer, and then proceeds to kill a human being, he should be incarcerated for 15 years before being eligible for parole.

And he should never be allowed to drive again. Pull that licence for life.

It is a pittance of justice for someone who has taken a life. And once again I implore the legal system to stop referring to such barbarism as an accident.

A person who is severely impaired while operating a truck isn’t getting involved in an accident. They’re in the fast lane to manslaughter. To a victim, it makes no difference whether the weapon is a car or a gun.

To be brutally honest, if you end up at the business end of a shotgun, you are likely to suffer substantially less pain than if you are in a car that’s just been struck by a truck.

Rest in peace, Jordyn Reimer.

Charles Adler is a longtime political commenter and podcaster.

charles@charlesadler.com