Native Justice for Christopher PAUCHAY?

For the sake of the children?

One year ago today - January 29 2008 - Western Canadians were shocked to hear about a 25 year-old native father Christopher PAUCHAY, who was found half-dead from hypothermia in a snowbank only a few meters from a friends home. After a late night drinking binge, he had foolishly decided to walk the short distance to his home into a -50C blizzard clothed in nothing more than a light golf-type jacket. Alone, he may have done us a favour, but he had with him his 2 young daughters - 1yr old Santana and 3 yr old Kaydance - dressed only in diapers and Tshirts - also woefully inadequate for the circumstances. By the time he recovered enough to be understood 8 hours later, a frantic search for the girls found them both dead of exposure - again only meters from his home. His common-law wife and the girls mother, Tracey JIMMY was elsewhere drinking heavily that night with friends.

PAUCHAY plead guilty to criminal negligence causing death and before Xmas was released under bail conditions into this small, remote community of Yellow Quill 250km east of Saskatoon SK. He was re-arrested and charged with breech of these bail conditions on two occasions being Dec 16 and Jan 8 - hardly surprising in such a small place addled with substance abuse problems - of consuming alcohol and being in the presence of alcohol being consumed.

However instead of receiving his sentence from the Judge, he requested a "native sentencing circle", a recent "innovation" for addressing the epidemic of crime that has been growing among the aboriginal communities. A circle may consist of upto 40 people. This one will have at least 22 - 5 family members, 4 community, 1 probation officer, 1 mental health officer, 2 members of the bands justice committee, 1 RCMP, 2 others for each of the victims, at least 2 elders and 2 facilitators. The mother has elected not to attend.

If there is Hell on earth, this man will know it. Only he can live it. Meanwhile it takes an army of enablers to tell us that he alone was responsible. No one tried to stop him? No one thought that Mum should be called about the circumstances? In these communities 2 or more extended family's usually share the same home. Drinking to such excess with children around struck no-one as dangerous? No one stopped drinking when he was on bail?

It seems to me that there is lot's of blame to go around. How is it that our current Family Law system erects such huge barriers to fathers who desperately want to parent their children and then often criminalizes them for this behaviour. While at the same time, heap resources on communities that are dysfunctional to the point of criminality and enable them to make deadly decisions for their kids.

Our Courts are failing us all.

Nova Scotia mother charged in daughters murder

A shocking and heinous crime to be sure, but we must wait for the verdict and perhaps some of the truth about Karissa BOUDREAU's terrible death - hopefully to be revealed in court.

As such horrific cases of child murder appear these days there seem to be two sure things which happen. First, both parents (or more often than not the boyfriends and/or step-father) are always Prime Suspects #1 and second, law enforcement agencies appear to accept laying these seriously earth-shattering charges as the first step in breaking a case, regardless of the implications or repercussions on the terribly distressed and grieving families.

Yet such charges against a mother seems to have dredged up an enormous store of contempt and vitriol from the community, one of whom was quoted as saying "stuff like this happens in the big city, not in tiny Bridgewater" (a town of 8,000). Who are these people kidding? In my opinion it is more likely to happen in such a smug, insular and smothering small-town environment than in larger urban area's where many more opportunities exist for anonymity and self-deceptive behaviour.

Add this revelation to the other two recent, shocking multiple-family murders (Joshua LALL in Calgary AB on May 28, 2008 and Dwayne SCHOENBORN in Merritt BC on April 6, 2008) has silenced most parents.

In the case of Joshua LALL, he was extolled as a the "perfect" father who "cracked" for some unknown reason and reputedly (although these quotes are vaguely attributed to "unknown") began to "hear voices in his head" which would indicate some untofor unrecognized severe mental illness. The characterization of Dwayne SCHOENBORN was similar but less glowing as his ex-common-law spouse had left him with their children to "start a new life" six months prior to his sudden appearance. After strangling his three young children, he fled and was found a short distance away in a distressed and greatly weakened state - reportedly showing signs he had attempted but failed at suicide.

Then there is the multiple family murder-suicide of Santbir BRAR an Ottawa Transit garage supervisor who murdered his wife Amarjeet and their two university aged daughters, Manmeet and Dildeep before committing suicide in November 2007. Again, close neighbors expressed disbelief that such a "calm, cool and logical" father could commit such a heinous crime. Perhaps because many of this Indo-Canadian/immigrant family's relatives still lived in India or because it kept a less public profile and was less close to neighbors, this murder ceased to nag public opinion soon after it was first reported.

Men figure prominently as perpetrators in all but the first case, except that Karissa's mother - Ms. Penny Boudreau - has been prohibited from communicating with her boyfriend, a Vernon MACUMBER.

Who is more delusional, these broken parents who have (or are claimed to have) wreaked death on their children or those "happy-faced" individuals who ignore, dissemble and deny that "some problems" exist in close family members and loved ones but do nothing to help? sad Transfer to Personal Qwest