Vancouver riot police are taunted by a man on a downtown street in Vancouver late June 14 following the Vancouver Canucks' loss to the New York Rangers in the Stanley Cup final.Jeff Vinnick
Compare the case of Karanvir Singh Saran, 18, of Surrey, B.C., with that of Charlie Heron, 18, of Roehampton, England.
Mr. Saran was arrested after being overheard to brag about having some swimsuits looted during the Vancouver riots, and pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property. The Crown asked that he be ordered to do community service. A judge instead gave him an absolute discharge. No criminal record. No penalty at all.
Mr. Heron admitted paying $80 for clothes worth five times that much, stolen during the London riots. Usually, that crime would have landed him a fine or conditional discharge – meaning that if he met a judge's conditions for a period of time he could clear his record. Instead, he was ordered to remain in custody while awaiting a probable jail sentence.
"At this time, anyone who buys stolen goods of this nature, from well-publicized rioting and stealing from shops is very much in the same position as the person who stole the goods," District Judge Elizabeth Roscoe told him.
Oh, for a Judge Roscoe in Canada. Bad enough that, five months after the June 15 riots in Vancouver, just one person has been charged, in this case by the Surrey RCMP. Then that one person is let off the hook – no judicial consequences.
(Missing the point, Vancouver police chief Jim Chu said the problem was that the case had been rushed to court. He's wrong. The charge was appropriate for a man who had bragged of possessing stolen goods.)
It is not that Canadians expect or want the harsh punishments handed out in England, such as a 23-year-old sentenced to six months in jail for stealing a $6 case of bottled water. It would be foolish to rain down criminal records on the heads of all participants, regardless of age, motivation, crime or background.
But accepting goods stolen during a riot makes one a participant, even if indirectly, in said riot. A riot is made up of big and small crimes by a seemingly anonymous mass of people. When the illusion of anonymity falls away, the individual needs to be held accountable.