Going Easy on Indigenous Offenders

"I've been in and out of this courtroom since I was twelve years old and it's not a good thing. I don't want to see my children having to be put through this circle of relapse and my recidivism."

"I've learned to calm my anger a little bit. I've learned to continue to work on myself a little bit spiritually. I've learned to look at where I come from and the person I'm supposed to be spiritually."

"And sometimes it's hard understanding what was done to my people and what continues to be done to our people as a whole."

Troy Wolfe, 34, habitual criminal, London, Ontario

"...You've given impassioned speeches to this court before. Judges in this court have heard from you before and ... nothing has happened."

"And so, I ask you this: what were you accomplishing when you drove two people with sledge hammers to Gordons Gold, allowed them to smash the [show]cases, take half-a-million-dollars' worth of jewellery and then escape?"

"What were  you accomplishing for you and your people at that point? What deep-rooted concerns were you dealing with?'

"That's an issue simply of greed. You didn't care who you hurt. You didn't care what happened to them. You wanted the money."

"You've been in what I would describe as a cyclical period of recidivism and reoffending. Every time you get out, you commit another offence."

Justice Bruce Thomas, regional senior justice, Superior Court, London Courtrooom

This 'from the heart' appeal from an Indigenous man who at age 34 had amassed a long list of law-breaking as a familiar figure to the local police force and to the justices serving the community has gone rather stale. The words and the purported passion behind them can no longer serve the purpose intended for them, since the speaker has time and again returned to his life of crime and the little speech, well rehearsed, is no longer of any interest as a screen for criminal activities. The real screen needless to say, is his aboriginal background; as such not much is expected of him. The invocation of 'his people's' travail has been trivialized to serve his purpose.

Those of aboriginal background never fail to remind authorities of that fact. In law and in practise it draws out sympathy. First Nations people in Canada have lived for hundreds of years under a\the oppressive condition of colonialism. Much like indigenous people all around the world. Life in Canada for indigenous people can be what they make of it; for too many, personal motivation is absent while for others it is a spur to a future where they intend to prosper. Mr. Wolfe is not one of the latter.

He spoke of having experienced a brutal childhood, lived in an atmosphere of addiction and alcoholism, the pall that residential schools are held to have cast over his community, the trauma involved in intergenerational relations; above all what he spoke of as the "racial genocide" of his people and "this DNA that we're born with". He informed the court that he has changed. While in prison he developed a curriculum for the assistance of Indigenous inmates to counteract the absent programming in a number of prisons he was committed to.

He was "at a good place in my life. I just wish you guys don't look at me as like a lost cause". Judge Thomas heard him out, then responded complimenting his articulate defense, saying "you put forward a firm understanding of the plight of Indigenous people and the issues of reconciliation that need to be before the court". However, said the judge further, he was glossing over his lack of commitment to what he has said was his changed outlook on life.

This charge and sentencing came in relation to a violent daytime robbery in 2019 when he drove two masked thugs to a jewellery store in northwest London. Equipped with sledge hammers, the thugs smashed show cases while a traumatized staff looked on as the two men finally left with the looted jewellery. In July Wolfe admitted to being the man behind the car's steering wheel, itself stolen at gunpoint. He drove those men to the store and acted as their lookout. The spoils were transferred to a van parked close by where they then drove to Oneida Nation of the Thames.

On the way, a police officer happened to recognize the van as one he associated with Wolfe, and he followed behind. All three men were arrested a short while later as they were wading into the Thames River. But for an earring back and a ring none of the looted valuables was ever recovered. A joint sentencing submission from the Crown and the defence for a seven year sentence found favour with Justice Thomas. Wolfe had already served 67 months awaiting trial in pre-sentencing custody. He now has 15 months left to serve in prison.

Justice Thomas ordered Wolfe to pay $162,500 within the following five years as restitution. One of the two men who snatched the jewellery was also ordered to pay a similar penalty. At age 34, said the judge, Wolfe should focus on doing whatever he can "to stay outside of the penitentiary, to stay outside the reformatory and be with your family and accomplish something". He was reminded of his children who were in the courtroom; it is his responsibility to change. 

 

"If you come back before this court, it only gets worse. So make that decision yourself, do what you have to do. It's not easy. At some point, you have to say 'It's on me now. I've got to do this for my family'."

Jonathan Juha, The London Free Press

Return of the Dread Poliomyelitis

"Based on earlier polio outbreaks, New Yorkers should know that for every one case of paralytic polio observed, there may be hundreds of other people infected."

"Coupled with the latest waste water findings, the department is treating the single case of polio as just the tip of the iceberg of much greater potential spread."

New York State Health Commissioner Mary Bassett

 

"Many of you may be too young to remember polio, but when I was growing up, this disease struck fear in families, including my own."

The fact that it is still around decades after the vaccine was created shows you just how relentless it is."

"Do the right thing for your child and the greater good of your community and have your child vaccinated now."

New York County Executive Ed Day

Children in iron lungs receive treatment for polio at the King George Hospital in Winnipeg in 1953. The Beaver

 

There was an old saying "When it rains it pours" and that seems appropriate at a time when a zoonotic virus that originated in China two-and-a-half years ago speedily swept virulently across the globe, infecting hundreds of millions of people, hospitalizing tens of millions, killing millions. Viruses have always been with us; science is aware of viruses having swept through human communities in the ancient past. And at this critical time when the international community of medical science still doesn't know how the SARS-CoV-2 virus will ultimately play out along comes an old viral enemy, one thought to have been vanquished decades ago.

 

An old commercial for a brand of salt used to turn that old adage around with "When it rains it pours" and that too applies in that we're beginning to come around to the idea that there is an endless supply in nature, of viruses and they will continue to surface, no matter how industriously medical science seeks to find cures beyond preventive vaccines. Now, just as the COVID pandemic has become in our minds, endemic, a virus we will have to live with in its many recurring forms, New York and London have discovered a polio resurgence.

 

Many people infected with polio don’t show any symptoms. Some become temporarily paralyzed; for others, it’s permanent. In 1952, the polio epidemic reached a peak in U.S.: almost 58,000 reported cases and more than 3,000 deaths.

Back in the 1940s and '50s, poliomyelitis surged through global communities, killing children and leaving many others in a condition of permanent paralysis, while countless others suffered no lasting ill effects. Now, suddenly, on July 21 the first polio case in 40 years surfaced with a resident of Rockland County became paralyzed and diagnosed a month later. He was a young, unvaccinated adult. According to the New York State Department of Health the case might have originated outside the United States.

The NYSDOH two weeks on. announced the discovery of the polio virus in waste water samples from Orange and Rockland Counties. In the United Kingdom in June, a rare "national incident" was declared after traces of the contagious virus were discovered in London sewage. 115 polio viruses from 19 sewage samples had been identified by the U.K Health Security Agency in London.

Polio is spread mostly through contamination by fecal matter. No cure exists for it, but vaccination brought the pathogen that killed and paralyzed thousands of children worldwide annually, close to eliminating the disease. Largely eradicated in most countries of the world, polio is still endemic to two countries; Pakistan and Afghanistan. Both countries are affected by a type which has the potential risk of international spread.

This undated photo shows an iron lung. Used to help weakened polio patients breathe, the machine was displayed as part of a Mayo Clinic exhibit. Courtesy Mayo Clinic Health System

Bad Experiences

"We've had very bad experiences with police in the past, especially my son."
"He wanted to be a lifeguard. It doesn’t make any sense."
"It's just painful for a parent who doesn't have answers to all these questions."
Sultan Sultan, Calgary

Canadian Press   The Special Investigations Unit has identified the man who drowned in the Rideau River on June 24 as Muhab Sultanaly Sultan, left, wanted for the murder of Jeremy Cook.

The questions? They are indeed awkward. And of course it is unfortunate that a young man was shot dead, but Mr. Sultan does not believe his son, wanted on a Canada-wide warrant as the murderer, could possibly have been guilty of such a deed. Yes, there were past brushes with the law. And Muhab Sultanaly Sultan, son of Sultan Sultan had been imprisoned for crimes committed, twice while still a teenager. Little wonder his family had bad experiences with police in the past.

And perhaps the same could be said for the family of Jeremy Cook, an 18-year-old college student from Brampton, studying in London, Ontario who had lost his cellphone, and used a special software application to track the phone. The app in fact tracked the cellphone to a vehicle in a parking lot at 5:00 a.m. and when Jeremy Cook had the effrontery to confront three young men in the car, 23-year-old Muhab Sultanaly Sultan among them, demanding the return of his cellphone, he was shot dead for his efforts.

And, as the situation had it, Muhab Sultanaly Sultan was the shooter. A search was launched for the young man in the wake of the shockingly nasty death of Jeremy Cook. And where did Muhab Sultanaly Sultan turn up? Why in Ottawa, that's where. He was the driver of a car who steered his vehicle directly toward two Ottawa Police Service officers bicycling on the beat in downtown Ottawa, injuring one of the officers.

Other police officers gave chase to the vehicle whose driver fled into a wooded area, and the search continued; the driver who was Mr. Sultan himself later seen attempting to swim across the Rideau River. Two police officers entered the water and saw the man "showing signs of distress", as he slipped under the surface of the water when the police drew close. Sultan Sultan, father of Muhab Sultan suspects skulduggery; his son, he stated, was an excellent swimmer.

Ottawa police pulled a body from the Rideau River Saturday morning, believed to be that of a London murder suspect. Ottawa Citizen

Of course the fact that the family was known to police for actions that drew their attention is incidental to the situation. Clashes with law and order, and authorities on the part of the family denote little, according to Mr. Sultan, skeptical about the official line that his son was wanted as the prime suspect in the murder of Jeremy Cook who had grasped the driver's door of the car he had confronted, only to be shot, his body abandoned behind a strip mall.

Members of the Ottawa Police Underwater Search and Recovery Unit work towards recovering the body of a man in the Rideau River in Ottawa. (Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/Postmedia Network)

A police marine dive team searching a section of the river recovered the body of a man, as yet unidentified after a report from a member of the public of having seen a body in the Rideau River, three days after the man was last seen, drowning. Police had contacted the father to provide dental records for identification. And indeed the body was verified to be that of the wanted man, Muhab Sultanaly Sultan.

Whose days, young as he was, of defiance against law and order concluding with the murder of a younger man, are certainly over. He will now no longer present as a problem to authorities, and it can be hoped that neither will the rest of his family. After needless tragedy that saw the end of two young lives and all related to the possession of a relatively innocuous piece of electronic equipment.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-London Police Service     Jeremy Cook, shown in an undated handout photo, was shot by three assailants who fled in a vehicle. Investigators are working to find those responsible for the death of the 18-year-old who was fatally shot as he was trying to find his lost cellphone.