Banished to Canada

This one has me scratching my head. What's wrong with serving time for doing a crime?
Barring this, erm...teacher from entering the States might be a quick fix, but what lessons do border-crossing Canadians learn from this?

Toronto Star story

Legal experts on both sides of the border are scratching their heads after a U.S. judge told a Buffalo teacher convicted of having sex with a 15-year-old girl he could avoid a one-year jail sentence by accepting a three-year exile to Canada.

I vote extradition and a jail term.

Edited to add this clarification from the same story...

The baffling case involves Malcolm Watson, a 35-year-old U.S. citizen who lives in Fort Erie, Ont., with his Canadian wife and three children, but who had been commuting to teach at the Buffalo Seminary, a private all-girls school in the Buffalo area.

[edit on 23-10-2006 by masqua]

So 3 years north of the border is equivalent to 1 year in an American prison?

Are we all doing hard time up here?

I'm not even sure how to comment on this one. I would love to hear the reasoning behind the judges decision. This man obviously has a problem and the intentions of the judge appear to be, "Let's make it their problem".

I am sure his teaching license would be revoked completely, but how does he possibly avoid a jail term with this conviction?

The judge is a moron. He's already living in Canada, how can he be exilled here?

That's funny, but nuts.

I bet this will show up on The O'Reilly Factor, stories like this are red meat to him.

I used to cross the border regularly, mostly for biz and mostly by air and over time I have come to the conclusion that cross-border travel is without biz merit and makes me less inclined to recruit from within the US.

The notion that this "judge" equates a year of American incarceration with 3 years of freedom in Canada indicates just how much the US takes Canada for granted and the relative esteem as neighbours in which we are so contemptuously and dissmissively held.

Oh my, Arar's extraordinary rendition? Proxy-torture the innocent and reward the offender? Yeah, that's sounds about "right" for "The New American Century". Did you hear that? An echo? The voice of America?. The voice of reason? The sound of one-hand-clapping...

Victor K.

43'

He had sex with a minor.

In New York state the age of consent for male-female sex is 17.

How is this not rape, child molestation? The alternative of extradition given by the judge was a year in prison. I'm under the impression this carries a stiffer punishment than 1 year.

Watson, a popular English teacher at the prep school, which has 174 girls in Grades 9 to 12, pleaded guilty to having sex with a 15-year-old female student in a parked car.

The Buffalo News reported that Watson was fired from his job in April, after being suspended a month earlier for ignoring a previous warning to stay away from the student.

I don't see this being the last of this case. The legality of the extradition has to be in question. Would Canada's immigration laws even accept him back?

This is absolutely insane.

Can the US ban a US citizen from entering the US? Do we have to let him back into Canada? Why isn't he going to jail?

This guy isn't even Canadian and he doesn't hold citizenship in this country. What are we, some kind of dumping ground for perverts when the US doesn't feel like putting a child abuser in jail?

I'd say we should jail him when he returns, but I don't see why Canada should pay the freight for the incarceration of a US citizen who committed a crime on US soil. Send him back to the US and let them deal with him, like they should have in the first place.

Looks like Canada has become the new Botany Bay for the U.S. Judiciary.

This whole story seems odd to me. I thought exile was forbidden in the U.S.

Ah well, strange times indeed...

Yeah, that's definately weird.

Regardless of his 'crime', how in the world does three years
exile, which technically is'nt exile if it's onyl for a set amount
of time, to Canada a punishment?

I mean Canada is better than we are in next to every way,
it's really more of a reward than a punishment.

Aside from the extradition, how is the punishment for this crime only one year behind bars in an American prison?

The girl was 15, the intercourse was in the backseat of a car. She is not capable of consenting to the sex, so wouldn't that indicate rape?

I am confused on so many levels with this case.

[edit on 23-10-2006 by chissler]

Originally posted by chissler
The girl was 15, the intercourse was in the backseat of a car. She is not capable of consenting to the sex, so wouldn't that indicate rape?

I am confused on so many levels with this case.

Me too, chissler. Age of consent in NYS is 17 and 14 in Canada. My guess is that Harper will use this case to raise the age of consent here, as he has already promised. This is at least one thing I agree with him on.

It's all very confusing. I was listening to the story on CBC Radio and they said he was kissing the girl in his car when he was caught.

What the truth of the matter is might take some time to get out. One thing for sure, though, is that this story is getting bigger all the time. National news and in all the national newspapers.

No doubt the American media are going to jump all over this as well.

Yeah the story is without a doubt picking up steam. I've heard it mentioned on the national news already this evening, and also on another station for a brief moment.

Your thread was the first I've heard of it, but it is certainly not the last.

Posted by masqua
Age of consent in NYS is 17 and 14 in Canada. My guess is that Harper will use this case to raise the age of consent here, as he has already promised. This is at least one thing I agree with him on.

I've had my disagreements with Harper on many things, but this is one peice of legislation I would fully support. 14 is too young to legally consent to sexual intercourse. This isn't to say it happens but the law should be used to protect their rights.

WTFFFFFF?

If you don't want to go to jail you go to canada????
what did they think canada isssss?? a jail or sumthin????
that's just playin stuuuupidddd!

or is that government likes to sent criminals to other coutries?

I know china always send its unwanted people to the US, and these ppl start to spread BS to biase americans and eventually making them to hate china and misread china.

I hope canada doesn't become like that!
No wounder canadians often say the US sucks......

PS. I'm just being a litte emotional here, on offence.

[edit on 10/23/2006 by warset]

Dalton McGuinty is comparable to a ghost...rarely seen and rarely heard, but apparantly this story has him swooping through our media, howling like a banshee.

OK...that's a bit harsh...but it is close to Halloween

In this Globe and Mail item he's calling foul on the judges' sentence...

Toronto — Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty wants Ottawa to fight a decision by a U.S. judge to sentence a convicted sex offender to probation in Canada

-snip-

Mr. McGuinty calls it a bad precedent and wants Mr. Watson, 35, to serve his time in the U.S.

He says he doesn't want Ontario to become a dumping ground for American sex offenders.

[edit on 24-10-2006 by masqua]

A Canadian politician making a stand? Wow this Harper Effect is trickling down through the different levels of government isn't it.

Good to see McGuinty make this stand though.

I would hope to see the judge be put in front of the cameras to defend his decision and allow the public to understand why he came to this. Dumping this man onto Ontario and Canada, in my opinion, opens him up to criticism and the responsibility of defending his actions.

Originally posted by chissler
A Canadian politician making a stand? Wow this Harper Effect is trickling down through the different levels of government isn't it.

Good to see McGuinty make this stand though.

You've got to understand McGuinty, he came in with a lot of promises a couple of years ago and got torn apart for not delivering. Since then he's basically gone "turtle". No news is good news. This is a good prop for him, he can't lose for his stance.

I would hope to see the judge be put in front of the cameras to defend his decision and allow the public to understand why he came to this. Dumping this man onto Ontario and Canada, in my opinion, opens him up to criticism and the responsibility of defending his actions.

From what I've read, there are plenty of Americans that are questioning this tools actions as well. You may just get your wish.

Originally posted by intrepid

From what I've read, there are plenty of Americans that are questioning this tools actions as well. You may just get your wish.

I'm American and this is absolutely insane. This creep belongs in a jail cell, an American jail cell! To send them to Canada is nothing less than an invitation to prey on the young once again. It's beyond belief

I keep hearing that he has been charged with having sex with a minor.

But is that the crime itself? Is it not rape or molestation? I'm struggling with finding an answer to this question. Rape certainly comes with a punishment far worse than 1 year behind bars, so how is sex with a minor any different?

It doesn't seem that he was charged with any kind of statutory rape.

Under the agreement accepted Monday by a Cheektowaga County court, Watson pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child and sexual abuse in the third degree - charges that carry a maximum penalty of one year and 90 days jail, respectively.

-snip-

Initial media reports from the U.S. that said Watson was convicted of having sex with the girl were incorrect, Clark added.

"He was never charged with intercourse. He never pleaded to intercourse. He never admitted to intercourse and she never claimed intercourse."

cnews.canoe.ca...

Send him back and make him do his time.

I'm sure the people of St. Catharines don't like the idea of having this fellow living in their community. They've had enough tragedies involving teen girls to last a lifetime.

Considering the fact that I am an American who happened to have voluntarily moved to Canada I'm now wondering whether I moved to Canada because of some sort of guilt complex?

I had never considered the fact that I voluntarily EXHILED myself! Yep, I must have done something so hidious when I lived in the states that I "blacked" it out of my consciousness. I guess that the guilt kept building up and I, subconsciously, decided to move to the prison state of CANADA.

Yeah, it is torturous to live in the Great White North....I guess I'll go visit my cottage on Lake Huron to try to cope. Oh the sheer hell of it all.

Someday, when I feel that I have atoned for my "crimes", maybe I'll feel cleansed of my guilt complex and I can return, at long last, to my hometown -- Detroit, Michigan.

Hmmmmmmm, on second thought, I think that I should exile myself to live in Canada forever.