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3 comment(s)

Where was the justice?

To The Editor:

Was there justice in the court for the mother and father who were killed by the man who drank and drove and killed those two kids' parents? No!

Five years in jail?

This man drank and drove and killed two people! And he only gets five years in jail? He probably won't serve all that time.

What's wrong with this system?

And he only loses his licence after that for five years? How about forever?

This man got behind the wheel and killed two people while being intoxicated.

If any defence team tries to say that he was not in his right state of mind when he did this, OK, he wasn't. But nobody forced this man to drive; he took it upon himself to drive drunk and he left two kids without their parents!

I'm sure it weighs heavily on his conscience, as it would anybody.

I know if I were in his situation I would say send me to jail for life, I deserve it for killing two innocent people.

Five years really is a joke and there is no justice there for the families left behind to deal with the loss of their loved ones.

So in five years, probably less, this man will be out, walking around, living life; life that was taken from two innocent people and changed those families' lives forever.

Any human being who kills another human being has to face that reality in their mind every day. It is probably torture and it should be.

He will be haunted by the fact that he took those innocent people's lives for the rest of his life.

But five years? For killing two people? People get more time for assault charges or robbery!

My heart goes out to the families affected by this decision.

It may bring some closure, but I'm sure they are still having a hard time grasping the decision, as I am too.

Arron Pelletier,

Fredericton

(Via e-mail)

Will we see reforms through?

To The Editor:

The New Brunswick government has acted with great enthusiasm to enact the recommendations of their consultant's report on education.

Noting that, I am holding my breath with anticipation for enthusiastic implementation of Ombudsman Bernard Richard's progressive ideas. I am referring his recent report, "Connecting the Dots."

Mental illness is a health problem, yet it is too often treated as a corrections problem, the patient winding up in jail.

Mr. Richard is wisely pointing us in a different direction.

Do we have the courage and will to see these reforms through?

Bob Pert,

Shediac

(Via e-mail)

Hold on now. . . just a minute!

To The Editor:

The interesting aspect to this letter is the fact that I have written it while being on hold at Service New Brunswick.

I called the main phone number for Service New Brunswick and had a reasonable wait time and was greeted by a polite customer service representative. This representative asked me to call another number to have my automobile specific questions answered. I did so and I have been on hold for so long that I have opened my e-mail program after already being on hold for 10 minutes and have composed this letter . . . and I'm still on hold.

This is a ridiculous amount of time to be on hold to ask a question.

Why doesn't Service New Brunswick hire some more New Brunswickers that need a decent job, so that consumers can have a question addressed in a reasonable amount of time?

After 28 minutes on hold my questions have been answered. What a relief!

Don Coleman,

Hillsborough

(Via e-mail)

It's time to rethink mission

To The Editor:

On March 25 the Canadian Press reported that the Canadian military has been cleared to fire GPS-guided Excalibur artillery shells in Afghanistan. These shells cost $150,000 each!

Each time the military fires one of these shells, they spend more than I paid altogether for my house and two slightly-used cars.

With a mounting death toll on all sides, decreased security, and insufficient and inefficient development aid, I think it is high time we stop and completely rethink how we approach this mission.

Rob Moir,

Clifton Royal

(Via Canadaeast.com)

Government abuses trust

To The Editor:

For many years New Brunswickers have faithfully collected, sorted and delivered millions upon millions of recyclable items to redemption centres throughout the province in the belief their efforts and monetary deposits would be used to fund worthwhile environment related projects through the Environmental Trust Fund.

Until recently those efforts and that faith were well placed, then suddenly (in the March 2008 Budget) their faith was discreetly destroyed. The provincial government will now remove millions of dollars from the Environmental Trust Fund to address expenditures in the under-funded Department of Environment.

This is another example of a very good program, working effectively and creating funds to be used for outstanding projects, being misused by government officials for other than its intended purchase. Government managers could not stand by and see all those dollars in the Environmental Trust Fund and not put them to use to correct their financial mismanagement of a departmental budget.

It is totally unacceptable to tell children, schools, organizations and families their efforts in recycling will be of tremendous benefit to the environment, their health and improve the world (although very true), then use all those accumulated dollars to support a provincial budget.

Should there be more than expected funds in the Environmental Trust Fund they should be used to support more cleanup projects, create more tree planting programs for communities, cleanup illegal dumps sites or provide funding for small silviculture projects for private landowners. There are many more projects where those surplus dollars could be properly used rather than to help a government balance a budget.

Again a government, a political party, abuses our "Trust".

W.G. Macx MacNichol,

Dorchester