Canada’s criminal justice system: Hard to understand it, isn’t it?

In Québec, Mr. Acher Sabbah, a 61-year-old man was sentenced to house arrest for having sexually assaulted a 13-year-old runaway girl from a youth centre (https://tinyurl.com/kuyhtsy7). Of note, five years ago, as per the Sûreté du Québec—the provincial national police—Mr. Sabbah was “believed to have committed crimes between 2015 and 2019 in the regions of Lachute in the Laurentians, Beauharnois in Montérégie, and Laval on the North Shore of Montreal” (https://tinyurl.com/yefa6n75). From La Presse (https://tinyurl.com/kuyhtsy7), we learn that this same man “was acquitted last month of sexual crimes against a minor by Judge Simon Dolci. He was accused of acts that allegedly occurred in 2006“.

Let’s put this story aside for a few second to focus on another story that took place recently in Halifax. A woman, Ms. Tracey Kitch, former CEO of the IWK, was sentenced to 9 months in jail, and went there handcuffed by the police after her trial, for a financial fraud. The latter consisted of charging personal expenses to her corporate credit card. According to CTV News, “Kitch resigned in 2017 and was charged with fraud over $5,000 in 2018, following an internal investigation by the hospital. An audit found Kitch used her hospital credit card to pay for roughly $47,000 in personal expenses. That money was reimbursed. A conservative estimate of more than $30,000 was the evidence presented at trial, consisting of personal flight passes and taxi chits (https://tinyurl.com/3y242nfw).

While Bambi does not deny that a financial fraud in public service is a bad act, why does the Canadian criminal system punish stealing money from a children’s hospital, but is more forgiving with child sexual abusers? And what about the young victims? Don’t they deserve a victim-centred justice system in a protective society?