Harsh penalties needed for police evaders

Our town was saddened last week when we received news that a former local school principal and his wife had died in a tragic and senseless accident.

The accident which killed Trevor Nordholm, 49, and his wife Verne, 44, happened at a major Saskatoon intersection when their car was broadsided by a stolen car whose teenaged driver, involved in a high speed chase with police, ran a red light.

The incident has prompted calls from many sources for strict rules on when police can engage in high speed chases and for stiffer penalties for people who fail to stop for police.

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When he spoke at last week’s Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association winter workshop, Saskatchewan’s justice minister John Nilson was asked why he doesn’t ban high speed chases, especially those through urban areas.

He said that he is reluctant to do this, noting that not all chases end tragically and some have the opposite result. He cited a chase in Ontario that ended with the release of a kidnapped boy.

A day earlier, the Saskatchewan Party issued a news release calling for stiffer penalties, including jail time, for drivers “who take police on dangerous, high-speed chases.”

The Saskatchewan Party is calling for legislation requiring a minimum jail sentence of three months and a maximum of two years less a day for people failing to stop for police. The driver would also lose his licence.

The Saskatchewan Party is also supporting a call by the Canadian Police Association to make failure to stop for police a Criminal Code offence. A Private Members Bill to this effect has been introduced in Parliament.

Nilson said the government will be reviewing the penalties and will look at the Saskatchewan Party suggestion.

Higher penalties will not stop people from trying to evade police, but they will ensure that those who do will be put out of circulation for a time in a place where they will not be a danger.

It is time for our legislators to recognize that the public is tired of playing the innocent victim and to heed the call from those who are seeking harsher sentences for those who evade police.

Once such legislation is in place, as we hope it will be soon, judges must be encouraged to use it to its fullest.

Innocent victims such as the Nordholms must be protected and, when people were killed as they were, the offenders must feel the censure of society through application of the full weight of the law.