COLUMN: Think Again – Prioritize victims, not offenders

When someone has been convicted of a violent crime, whose interests should take priority—those of the victim or those of the offender?

Like most Canadians, you probably said the victim is more important. Sadly, it seems that in our justice system the offender often comes first. That is why many Canadians have lost confidence in our justice system.

For example, suppose a man sexually assaults two women several months apart. He is bigger and stronger than they are. During the assaults, he chokes one woman almost into unconsciousness and forces the other to perform oral sex on him. Most people would agree that this offender deserves to spend many years behind bars for committing such heinous crimes.

Sadly, that’s not what happened in the case of Omogbolahan Jegede, a 25-year-old former university football player. Jegede was recently convicted of sexually assaulting two women in their residences at St. Francis University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Despite the obvious trauma these two women experienced, the judge saw fit to sentence Jegede to only two years in prison.

To make matters worse, Jegede will be out of jail much sooner than that, since it’s common for criminals to be released on parole partway through their sentence. Lest you think that’s unlikely in this case, the judge explicitly stated that Jegede would be a “really good candidate” for early parole.

The judge gave such a lenient sentence because he relied heavily on the findings of Jegede’s Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA) report. These reports were introduced by the Trudeau government in 2021 and are intended to help judges take the race of the offender into account before pronouncing a sentence. Jegede’s IRCA report wasn’t quite a get out of jail free card, but it certainly will help him get out of jail a whole lot sooner than he otherwise would.

In this case, the IRCA report noted that Jegede, who was born in Nigeria, felt intense pressure at the time he committed his crimes and lacked culturally appropriate supports while living in a predominantly white university town. Thus, while Jegede’s crimes were heinous, it was apparently more important to take his race into account.

This ruling was a travesty of justice because it runs roughshod over the rights of his two victims. When a woman is sexually assaulted, it doesn’t matter to her what race the man who attacked her happens to be. What matters is that sexual assault is a horrible crime and must always be denounced in the strongest possible terms.

In other words, the needs of the victim must always come before the needs of the offender. These women did not do anything to deserve what happened to them, and they have a right to see their attacker sentenced to a lengthy jail term. They certainly shouldn’t have to worry about running into him at the grocery store or in any other public place in less than two years.

Another problem with IRCA reports is they create a multi-tier justice system where sentences are differentiated based on an offender’s race. This is a surefire way to erode confidence in our justice system.

This doesn’t mean that judges shouldn’t take aggravating and mitigating factors into account when pronouncing a sentence. Of course, there’s different levels of culpability based on a wide range of factors. However, the recent addition of IRCA reports tipped the scales too far in the direction of the rights of the offender rather than the needs of the victim.

Our justice system must always prioritize victims, not offenders. That’s the only way to restore confidence in it.

Michael Zwaagstra is a teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.