New Britain herald., 1927-02-24
CANADIAN .USTICE

CANADIAN JUSTICE
 Mild d-mannered folk who believe in mollycoddling criminals regard less of the ferocity of their misdeeds have had another opportunity to find fault with British justice" as administered in Canada. In Chat ham, Ontario, a colored man was sentenced to be executed for attack ing and mistreating an S1-year- old woman.
 It was a fiendish crime, the kind that produces mob action in the South. It took the jury 15 minutes to find the man guilty, and the en- tire trial lasted only two hours. After the culprit had pleaded for "leniency' the judge had his say Among other things he said the fol- lowing:
 So serious is the crime that the criminal code provides that the death sentence may be imposed, or a life sentence, or a term of years, and to which may be added, whip ping
 There were three alternatives, therefore. The judge continued:
 What does the act mean, if it does not mean that it should be enforced. I have never heard Of a more extreme case than the one you have been found guilty Of. I cannot imagine one. l fully appreci- ate the severity of the sentence ] am about to pass, and that I will be criticized for it. But my only discharge of my duty as I see it."
 Then the judge selected one of the three alternatives given him by the law. AS usual under British
  Jurisprudence, he selected the most severe. He sentenced the man to be hanged by the neck until dead. 'and may God have mercy on your soul"
 American penologists who believe in reforming crooks, in finding them merely mentally deranged and not really responsible for their &C., tions, who think they are entitled to a good time while incarcerated, who believe In pardons, paroles and plenty of them, and who cannot see why society has the right to protect itself with the means at hand, ~can join in the criticism of the stern old judge. But crooks are not fill ing the trains en route to Canada in the expectation of having a nice easy time there. The judges over the international line, like their col leagues in England, invariably hand them the heaviest sentence the law allows.
 If there is objection to capital punishment, of course, the law is to be censured, not the judge. If the most severe penalty had been life Imprisonment the judge would have meted 1t out without compunc- tion. In fact, he took care to state that he was giving the limit under the law without regard to it's na- ture. He didn't pass the law; he only administered it. It is in this matter of administering the law that the British system shines.
 ''The fact that you are colored man has not influenced me in the least" said the judge. Had you been a white man, l would pass the same sentence.'
 Perhaps needless 10 add. there is no chance in the world for a suc- cessful appeal. If the man had a million dollars to spend on it he couldn't evade his sentence.
 All the newspapers in Canada ap- parently highly approve of the se- we're sentence. All the newspapers in Michigan, close at hand. hold up their editorial hands aghast. To which one Canadian replied:
 If Michigan would deal with her criminal problems as vigorously and as fearlessly as they are handled in Ontario, the almost absolute disre- gard for law and order which now prevails across the river would soon be a thing of the past"
 It may be mentioned fin closing" that Detroit has one of the heaviest crime records in the country, while "across the river" in Ontario serious crime is low. The reason for this disparity is quite obvious.