What a tragedy. In 2017 a young Iraqi Canadian who aspired to be a doctor was shot in the abdomen and later died after he had tried to assist an elderly man.
The shooter was charged with murder and later acquitted by a jury on the basis of self defence. Even to an experienced lawyer such as myself this seemed odd but then again I wasn’t at the trial. Often what gets reported in the newspapers is only part of the story and seems unfair because not all the facts are known.
Then to make matters worse the two paramedics that attended the victim didn’t believe that he was seriously hurt and took him to a psychiatric facility instead of a trauma hospital. The young man died shortly after arriving at the psychiatric facility.
The two paramedics were charged criminally with failing to provide the necessities of life and convicted but given a very light sentence – 18 months conditional – which means they will likely never see the inside of a jail. The paramedics appealed but the Ontario Court of Appeal has recently denied their appeal.
The evidence at trial of the paramedics was that if the paramedics had taken the victim to a trauma hospital there is a very good chance that the young man would have survived.
The family of the victim alleged that the paramedics were racist and that explained their poor behavior. The inference from such a statement was that the paramedics intentionally mistreated the victim. There was no evidence at trial that the paramedics intentionally mistreated the victim or were were intentionally negligent. The evidence at trial was that the paramedics honestly believed that the victim was not seriously hurt. That may be true, but it equally possible that they had an unconscious bias. Who knows. In this country it is not a criminal offence to be a racist or biased. What counts are your actions not your thoughts.
But what really bothers me about this decision is that once the court decided that the behavior of the paramedics was criminal why was such a light sentence imposed? The evidence was that this young man probably died due to their negligence. And they get eighteen months of non-custodial sentence?