Ontario’s top court has sent a message to trial judges that when men set out to kill their intimate partners, rehabilitating them is secondary to punishing them and deterring others.
Mr. Cunningham, who was 26 when he stabbed his former girlfriend in 2019, had arranged for an alibi with a friend before the attack. After knifing the pregnant woman, he robbed her and kicked her to see if she was dead. The victim survived by playing dead but lost the baby. “He failed to give effect to the primary sentencing principles of denunciation and deterrence in a domestic context.”
She added: “If we are ever to communicate an unequivocal message denouncing misogynist violence, judges must also row in the same direction.” “Mr. Cunningham,” Justice Goldstein wrote, “is an example of why judges find sentencing so challenging: he committed a horrible crime, a crime that must be denounced, and yet he is a young man who has obvious potential for rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.
What about ALL cases of violence? Why only 'domestic' cases? Can any jurist articulate a rational legal argument where deterrence and prevention can be secondary to rehabilitation in any context outside of self-defence? Our judiciary has completely run amok.
' Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein said a life sentence would have a “crushing” impact on Mr. Cunningham’s chance at rehabilitation' This is why we have a legal system and not a justice system.