Ontario Court Justice Walter Brain-Dead Gonet

   Obviously, the title I used gives you an idea of what I'm about to say, but stick with me, if you have a minute. The news was just published yesterday about the case he was trying of two youths charged with wilfully inciting hatred against an identifiable group. Last year, the two of them had gone on a vandalism spree in which they did $20,000.00 damage to gravestones and benches at a Jewish cemetery, painted swastikas on a synagogue, broke stained glass windows, and sprayed profanities on Jewish property, and some schools.
   The general reaction at the time was one of solidarity with the Jewish community expressed by the Christian and Muslim associations of Toronto and Canada. Toronto's Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, in a letter to Rabbi Martin Berman, chair of the Toronto Board of Rabbis, said "If one person can be targeted because of who he or she is, anyone could be targeted." He has that exactly right, but it's a fact that so many ignore while they sit back in complacent comfort and watch what's happening to "them". The "us" and "them" mentality is so colossally stupid precisely because there is no hard and fast delineation of the two groups.The one could find itself suddenly made into the other, at any time, just as Ambrozic pointed out.
   Gonet is one of those who has forgotten this all-important fact. He found the youths guilty of mischief. That's right, mischief. That's all. Gonet says that the Crown failed to prove motivation of prejudice or hate, and that, in fact, the youths just wanted to get themselves on TV. Gonet does say, however, that the TV did show "... damage and pain and anguish" experienced by the Jewish community. Since that comment seemed to me to be a non-sequitur with the concept of mischief, I went to my omnipresent dictionary to check out the word and found that it is defined as: an action that causes annoyance, irritation, or harm, often unintentionally.
   To go to the cemetery to visit the grave of a loved one and find the stone has been vandalized is not to experience annoyance. Imagine what you would feel if you had such an experience. There's a good chance that one of the thoughts to cross your mind would be wanting the opportunity to visit a little "frontier style" justice on the vandal. People don't feel that way over a little annoyance. The two vicious little thugs did not target only Jewish property, it is true. One of the schools on which they painted swastikas was a Catholic high school. Even so, the message they left was one directed specifically against Jews. The swastika was accompanied by the slogan "revenge 4 Nazis". There was nothing unintentional about their actions. They set out repeatedly to target an identifiable group. They are hatemongers, and our courts should have no mercy for them.
   Still, in defense of the judge, there is one last possibility to explore before condemning his decision completely. There is the likelihood that the man is of limited intelligence, one of those who can not envision anything unless he actually experiences it first. I think that people like that should be given the help they need to really understand "pain and anguish". Since they have no problem with it when it is visited on "them", they need to become "them". To extend this help to Gonet, it would be necessary first to find out what particular religious affiliation he claims. If he is a christian, for instance, I can suggest the perfect solution. It would take a time when he is away from his home long enough for a few "youths" like those who just stood in his court, to arm themselves with a can or two of spray paint and make a call. Attack on the basis of something that would outrage the person is what this is all about, so let me take just a moment to remind you of the New Testament references to the apostle John as the "one whom Jesus loved" and then we'll be all ready to watch the fun. Excuse me, I meant the "mischief".
   One of the youths (sounds so innocent, doesn't it) could tackle Gonet's front door. We'd need one there who was a master with spraypainting so that he could fit it all in neat and still legible on a small space. One braver one could climb the roof and spray paint it there. One could tackle the driveway with a can of white paint so it would contrast nicely with the black asphalt. Another one could spray it all across his front lawn, and maybe even one of them could make a little side trip to spray it across the gravestone of someone from his family. Slogans using profanity to name Jesus as a homosexual might be just the thing for Mr Justice Gonet to come home to. Then he could experience what it is like to be one of "them". He could understand a little better the indignity and shock of having such a senseless affront directed at you.He might even want to revisit those sentences he meted out and tack on another decade or two.
   How the hell do we get such idiots sitting in our courts?