Family Values

Federal prosecutor Celine Harrington feels that 38-year-old Terry Phillips is due a prison sentence of between 2-1/2 to three years as a social penalty matching his second conviction of dealing crack cocaine.  He was, in fact, on probation from his first conviction, for which he served six months, when he was apprehended for selling an undercover police officer crack cocaine.

Trouble is, Terry Phillips has two children, one a teen-age boy who is autistic, and the other a little three-year-old girl.  A happy, smiling child by all accounts.  At least that's the way she looked, wearing her Mickey Mouse T-shirt, holding on to her Daddy's hand, as he took her along to one of the five drug deals he was engaged in.

Presumably, the task of looking after the child fell to him, that day.  And matters of necessity taking precedence what option had he as a good and caring father other than to take the child along with him, so he could keep a keen and protective eye on her?  As it happened, he also brought the little girl to his sentencing hearing, where the judge felt her presence inappropriate and the mother whisked her away.

His lawyer argued forcefully for the "caring and thoughtful" family man that Terry Phillips so obviously represents.  "A period of incarceration will have a negative impact on this man, his family and the community as a whole", said the accused's lawyer.  And without a doubt it most certainly will have all of that.

He is a changed man, committed to becoming a "positive person".  He pledged to Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny that he is determined to make a better life for his family.  Which gave the prosecuting attorney the opportunity to interject that this was the same "song and dance" that was brought out the last time around, with the previous crack-dealing episode.

"He brings his three-year-old toddler with him ... despite the violence associated with drug dealing.  An innocent three-year-old girl holding her dad's hand to do a drug deal.  Are those the actions of a good father?"  The evidence is there, the moment captured on police surveillance photographs.

"Are those the actions of a good father?" was the closing argument of the federal prosecutor.  Depends.  Squeezed in tight below that news article was another, of four family members, father, mother, son and daughter, all accused by the RCMP of exporting cocaine to Australia, Russia, India, the U.S. and a few European countries.

There are 62 charges in all, levelled against the family.  So it's hard to say; the above might be an instance of grooming the next generation.  And it might simply be a befuddled father whose values have been horribly compromised, and who really, truly intends to turn himself around and devote himself to being a good father to his two children.

Who really knows?