Juno News - July 25, 2025


Government claims crime has gone DOWN + injustice for Tamara Lich？


Episode Stats

Length

25 minutes

Words per Minute

179.63841

Word Count

4,660

Sentence Count

297

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Crime Report with Ron Chinzer. I'm Ron Chinzer, a former 20-year police veteran,
00:00:10.280 and today we're exposing what's really going on in Canada's justice system. We'll start with
00:00:15.320 Tamara Leach and Chris Barber, facing seven and eight years in prison for organizing a protest.
00:00:20.840 No violence, no weapons, just mischief. Meanwhile, violent criminals, child predators,
00:00:25.740 and repeat offenders are walking away with light sentences or none at all. We'll break down why
00:00:31.620 the government's claim that crime is down doesn't match what's actually happening on our streets
00:00:36.220 and why people are simply choosing not to report it anymore. We'll look at bail reform and what
00:00:42.040 happens when it's ignored, like in Project Night Trade, where suspects already on bail allegedly
00:00:47.880 committed brutal home invasions that left people shot and run over. We'll revisit the Jane Kriba case
00:00:53.800 and how one of our killers was released on full parole, despite a 76% chance of violent reoffending.
00:01:00.400 He's now charged with murder again. And finally, we'll cover how immigration status is being used
00:01:06.140 as a shield in court, where guilty pleas are paused not for fairness, but to avoid deportation.
00:01:12.060 Meanwhile, law-abiding Canadians get dragged through the system for protesting. If this feels
00:01:17.320 backwards, that's because it is. Visit www.judonews.com forward slash Ron to sign up and
00:01:23.600 save 20% off of your subscription. Your support allows us to keep telling stories that matter.
00:01:29.800 Now let's get to work. I want to talk about something that's been building for a while,
00:01:33.120 and honestly, it's hard to ignore. The Crown is asking for seven years in prison for Tamara Leach
00:01:38.220 and eight years for Chris Barber. Not for assault, not for weapons, not for trafficking,
00:01:42.540 and not for violence, but for mischief. What did they do? They helped organize the 2022 Freedom
00:01:48.700 Convoy protest in Ottawa. Now I'm not here to argue the politics of the convoy. What I am here to say
00:01:54.360 is that the way this case is being handled and what others are getting for far more serious crimes
00:01:59.660 should concern every Canadian, no matter what side you're on. Let's start with the facts.
00:02:04.760 Leach and Barber were found guilty in April of 2025. Leach was convicted of mischief and Barber was
00:02:10.280 convicted of mischief and counseling others to disobey a court order. All other charges,
00:02:14.820 intimidation, obstruction, they were tossed by the court. Why? Because there was no violence,
00:02:19.280 no threats, and no property damage. The protest was loud, frustrating, and disruptive, but it was
00:02:23.680 peaceful. Barber, who's from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, made videos encouraging people to stay in
00:02:29.020 Ottawa after police issued orders to leave. Leach issued, Leach from Medicine Hat, Alberta, was front and
00:02:35.320 center, organizing press conferences, helping with logistics, and being the public face of the
00:02:39.200 protest. Both of them encouraged protesters to remain even as injunctions were issued. And for
00:02:44.480 that, the Crown is trying to put them in prison longer than some people who have taken lives or
00:02:49.220 seriously harmed others. The defense says this is political, that the government is trying to make
00:02:54.600 an example out of them because they didn't back down. And that's where it gets really concerning.
00:02:59.500 Now here's some context for others and how they're being sentenced in this country. In Mississauga,
00:03:04.660 a 30-year-old man named Akash Kumar Kent arranged to meet a 15-year-old girl at a holiday in December
00:03:10.180 of 2023. The girl turned out to be an undercover officer. He showed up with $140 cash in hand,
00:03:15.820 ready to commit the crime. He was arrested on the spot, but on June 25, 2025, he walked away with a
00:03:21.240 conditional discharge. That means no jail time and no criminal record. He'll be under house arrest for
00:03:25.880 just three months, allowed to go shopping on Sundays, attend religious services, and go to work.
00:03:31.000 The judge said that one reason for leniency was that the criminal conviction might affect his
00:03:35.180 immigration status, including possible deportation or losing the chance to become a Canadian citizen.
00:03:40.600 That was taken into account. That's right. Protecting somebody's ability to stay in the
00:03:45.320 country was considered more important than the fact that he tried to pay for sex with a minor.
00:03:50.040 Then there's Burnaby, BC, a case from September 20th in 2021, where a 58-year-old man broke into his
00:03:56.020 ex-girlfriend's apartment when she didn't return his calls. He carried her out of
00:04:00.980 the room half naked and took her to his house where he sexually assaulted her multiple times
00:04:06.100 while she was unconscious. She suffered permanent brain damage. In May 2025, he was sentenced to five
00:04:12.380 years in prison. The judge called the act horrific, but five years is what he got. In Kelowna, a man
00:04:18.360 named Mark Keenan, 54, was caught with six images of child pornography and admitted to police he was
00:04:23.440 aroused by them. He was arrested in 2018 and pleaded guilty in 2025 to possession and distribution.
00:04:29.560 What was his sentence? House arrest. The judge said that his child porn collection was relatively
00:04:34.880 modest in size, and that was a factor not sending him to jail. Then we go to Edmonton, where a man
00:04:40.460 named Jamal Joshua Wheeler, 29, stabbed and killed a stranger, a father of seven, at the Belvedere
00:04:46.600 transit station in 2023. He was on bail at the time, breaching multiple corridors, including house arrest
00:04:51.740 and being banned from transit property. On July 14th, 2025, he was sentenced to seven years, but thanks to
00:04:59.000 enhance credit for time already served, he'll be out in four and a half. In Vancouver, a man named
00:05:03.580 Kenneth Solowin was convicted for a machete attack in the downtown east side that nearly decapitated
00:05:09.200 one of two people he slashed. He was sentenced on May 14th, 2025 to six years, but again, after time
00:05:15.680 served, he'll spend less than two years behind bars. So let me say this clearly. We have people sexually
00:05:21.580 assaulting unconscious victims, trafficking illegal material involving children, and literally killing
00:05:26.160 people, and they are serving shorter sentences or no jail at all, compared to what's being asked for two people
00:05:32.200 who organized a peaceful nonviolent protest. And let's not forget how all of this escalated. On February 14th,
00:05:39.080 2022, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, the first time in Canadian history. They gave them
00:05:46.580 sweeping powers, freezing bank accounts, banning public assemblies, and threatening financial ruin for anyone
00:05:52.220 supporting the convoy. Then in January of 2024, federal court justice Richard Mosley ruled that the
00:05:58.840 government use of the Emergencies Act was unjustified and unconstitutional. He said there was no national
00:06:04.080 emergency, and that existing laws could have handled the protest. In his words, the act infringed on
00:06:09.480 Canadians' charter of rights, like freedom of expression and protection from unreasonable searches.
00:06:14.760 Still, the Crown is moving ahead, treating Leach and Barber as if they'd led a violent uprising,
00:06:20.140 and the Prime Minister himself, Justin Trudeau at the time, called the protesters a fringe minority
00:06:24.960 with unacceptable views. And members of his government drew comparisons between the convoy
00:06:30.360 supporters and domestic terrorists, a label that shaped public perception, and many would argue the
00:06:35.740 courtroom. And this is the core issue. People are starting to feel like there are two sets of rules
00:06:40.160 in Canada. If you commit a violent crime, you might get bail, probation, or even walk free. But if you
00:06:45.080 challenge the government, even policefully, they'll throw the book at you. This is what happens.
00:06:50.020 When justice stops being blind and starts becoming political. When who you are or what you believe in
00:06:55.520 becomes more important than what you actually did. We've got repeat violent offenders being released
00:07:00.420 back into communities. People assaulting strangers, distributing child exploitation material,
00:07:05.300 killing people while out on bail. And yet two people who organize a protest that didn't align with the
00:07:11.000 government's position are the ones facing the harshest sentence we've seen in years for a non-violent
00:07:15.740 crime. If that's not a double standard, I don't know what is. Justice should be fair. It should be
00:07:21.300 equal and it should never be used to punish political dissent. Now this matter has been pushed
00:07:25.700 to October of 2025 where they're going to find out their ultimate sentence. Now let's dive into a
00:07:30.840 headline that seems straightforward on the surface, but under the hood it tells a much more complicated
00:07:35.040 story. Last week Statistics Canada announced that the National Crime Severity Index or CSI dropped by
00:07:41.760 4% in 2024. Headlines across the country picked it up. Crime is down. Severity has fallen. Things are
00:07:48.080 getting better. But are they? Let's be clear. The Crime Severity Index is just one tool. And while it's
00:07:54.240 useful in tracking trends, it also has some serious blind spots. And if you're someone watching your
00:07:59.280 neighborhood get life safe, the CSI can feel a lot like government gaslighting. According to the report,
00:08:05.000 most of the 4% drop was driven by a decline in non-violent crimes. Things like break and enters,
00:08:09.520 mischief and drug offenses. And yes, on paper those are down. But here's where it gets messy.
00:08:15.080 Violent crime, the stuff people actually fear the most, only dropped by 1%. And after three straight
00:08:20.560 years of going up, including a 15% increase between 21 and 23, that 1% dip is hardly a turnaround.
00:08:28.060 And there's something else going on here that stats can doesn't account for. And that's why people
00:08:31.860 don't report crime in the first place. Here's the reality. Many Canadians don't bother reporting crime
00:08:37.460 anymore. And who can blame them? You call the police when your car gets stolen or your house
00:08:41.860 gets broken into, but the person responsible gets bailed the next morning and is right back out doing
00:08:46.140 again. Or your home is hit by a break and enter. You call it in, but the system drags. The charges
00:08:51.220 don't stick and nothing ever comes of it. After a while, people think, what's the point? And that's not
00:08:56.640 a theory. That's what people tell me directly. Victims, witnesses, even frontline officers. We've created
00:09:02.440 a revolving door system since Bill C-75 came into effect in 2019. We've seen a sharp increase in
00:09:08.440 repeat violent offenders getting bail, even after being charged with serious violent offenses. The
00:09:13.740 public sees it, victims feel it. And as a result, more crimes are going unreported, especially crimes
00:09:19.180 like fraud, extortion, threats, and property theft. So when stats can says the volume of nonviolent
00:09:24.360 crime is down, part of the reason might be because people aren't bothering to report it anymore.
00:09:28.360 And what about violent crime? Here's something else the CSI doesn't really show you. Crimes like
00:09:33.520 home invasions and carjackings, which are up in major cities, don't actually exist as specific
00:09:38.600 offenses in the criminal code. They're broken down into other categories like robbery, assault,
00:09:42.860 or break and enter. So when those crimes go up as they have, the CSI doesn't reflect the increase
00:09:48.080 accurately. They're hidden inside broader buckets that water down the severity. For example, in Toronto,
00:09:53.120 home invasion style robberies jumped up nearly 50% in 2024. Carjackings, same story. Cities like
00:10:00.500 Toronto, Peel, and Ottawa are seeing double digit spikes, but you won't find a CSI chart that says
00:10:05.400 home invasions up 47%. It's buried inside robbery or B&E and treated no differently than a snatched
00:10:11.820 handbag or an unoccupied garage break-in. Even youth violence is underplayed in these statistics.
00:10:17.000 In Ontario alone, youth criminal charges increased by 19% between 22 and 23. Schools, transit hubs,
00:10:24.600 shopping malls, these are now common scenes of swarming, stabbings, and random attacks.
00:10:29.160 But again, these numbers get blended into national averages and lose their urgency.
00:10:33.140 And let's not forget that the CSI weights crimes based on sentencing trends, not just harm. So when
00:10:38.320 judges are handing out conditional discharges for sexual offenses or 18-month house arrest for child
00:10:43.220 porn distribution, those crimes, no matter how serious, aren't weighted heavily, which makes
00:10:47.700 the index look better than reality. Now, I'm not saying the whole index is useless. It has value
00:10:52.300 in showing trends over time, but only if you understand what it leaves out. If the system is
00:10:57.360 giving violent criminals light sentences, if more crimes aren't being reported, if serious high-impact
00:11:04.400 crimes like home invasions are hidden behind generic labels, then that 4% drop isn't the good news
00:11:10.040 story some politicians want you to believe it is. At best, it isn't complete. At worst, it's misleading.
00:11:15.540 If you're a homeowner dealing with break-ins, if you've been carjacked, or you're just trying to
00:11:20.080 raise your family in a city where violence is becoming the norm, does any of this feel like crime is
00:11:25.140 going down? Because this is what people are really saying. I don't feel safe. And when the stats don't
00:11:30.640 reflect what the public is experiencing, we have a credibility problem. Crime isn't just numbers. It's
00:11:34.900 trust. It's safety. It's whether you believe that if something happens to you, someone will do something
00:11:39.600 about it. And until that changes, no percentage drop is going to convince people that we're heading
00:11:44.340 in the right direction. Let's tackle a growing chorus of provincial premiers from Ontario to
00:11:48.800 Saskatchewan to British Columbia demanding real bail reform and making it crystal clear why they're
00:11:53.300 fed up. Their message to Ottawa? Deliver meaningful change or risk the safety of communities.
00:11:58.580 And Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke bluntly at the Council of the Federation. We can't release people
00:12:03.480 the next day after they kick down doors, put guns to people's heads, and then go to some weak-kneed
00:12:08.940 judge who lets them out. He called the last federal attempt at bail reform pokey-pokey and said
00:12:14.300 provinces will be holding Ottawa accountable for legislation this fall. Now here's why he's
00:12:19.040 absolutely right. Peel Police's Project Night Train this July exposed two criminal networks tied to 17
00:12:24.880 violent home invasions and jewelry store robberies across Mississauga and Brampton. Victims were shot,
00:12:30.820 run over, and some left with permanent injuries. Twelve people, six adults, and six teens face a total of
00:12:36.900 136 charges, and five of them were already on bail when they struck again. Now there was also the
00:12:42.440 case of Darko Jugova, a 35-year-old labeled a repeat violent offender in Mississauga. While out on bail,
00:12:48.060 he allegedly forced his way into two homes, bound victims, stole bank cards, and demanded cash. Police
00:12:54.160 found multiple firearms hidden at his residence. He was rearrested, facing charges including robbery with a
00:12:59.760 firearm and extortion. Carjackings have also soared. Toronto's Provincial Carjacking Task Force made
00:13:06.160 124 arrests and laid 749 charges between September of 23 and March of 24. They recovered 177 stolen
00:13:13.940 vehicles worth over $10 million, yet nearly half of those suspects were already on bail and most were
00:13:19.280 released again. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Mow is equally bewildered by Ottawa's inaction. He pointed
00:13:27.280 to the rise in fentanyl and meth trafficking as a toxic threat tearing communities apart. RCMP seized
00:13:32.740 8 kilograms of fentanyl, enough to distribute millions of doses during a traffic stop in Swift Current in
00:13:38.240 January. He and his province introduced massive fines, up to $1 million for drug traffickers, new weapon
00:13:44.360 legislation, and calls to treat drug paraphernalia as street weapons. In British Columbia, Premier David
00:13:50.700 Eby has urged the federal government to ensure bail reform addresses intimate partner violence. A June
00:13:56.140 independent review called the province to declare gender-based violence an epidemic, noting 80% of survivors
00:14:02.460 never report, and many victims who do still face systemic indifference. A tragic case drives the
00:14:08.760 point home. On July 4th, a woman named Bailey McCourt was murdered hours after her ex-partner's sentence
00:14:14.420 on assault and threats were delayed by 10 weeks for a psychiatric assessment. There she left, left
00:14:20.420 vulnerable in a system that prioritized process over protection. Her death really shows how a delay in
00:14:27.140 lenient bail conditions can cost people their lives. So those premiers, Ford, Moe, Eby, and Holt aren't just
00:14:33.600 grandstanding. They're pushing for restoring mandatory minimums, stricter bail conditions, and stiffer
00:14:38.420 consequences for car thieves, home invaders, traffickers, and repeat violent offenders. Now why are they so
00:14:45.060 urgent? Because the stories aren't getting better, they're getting worse. Imagine this, a woman filling her
00:14:51.540 luxury car up at a dealership gas pump in Burlington, only to have robbers point guns at her head and drive
00:14:57.720 off in her S-Class. One of them was James Garthwaite, already out on statutory parole for a 2018 armed home
00:15:04.500 invasion. Police later linked him to a violent ring behind 17 armed invasions across Mississauga and
00:15:11.180 Brampton. Organized groups are actively recruiting children and teens to carry out violent break-ins.
00:15:16.840 Recent investigation revealed that 48% of break-ins occur through the back patio door in neighborhoods
00:15:22.420 like Oakville and Etobicoke. And many offenders are under 18, choosing such youth to avoid adult
00:15:28.380 sentencing provisions. The victim after victim tells the same story. They reported crimes, cooperated,
00:15:34.680 saw justice delayed, and offenders re-offending almost immediately. No deterrent, just oppression of hope.
00:15:41.160 This is exactly what the premiers are calling out. Reform isn't a talking point anymore,
00:15:46.140 it's a survival issue for communities across provinces. Mark Carney and Justice Minister Sean
00:15:51.540 Frazier say legislation is coming and that'll include tougher bail rules and sentencing for
00:15:56.360 organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion, and repeat offenses. But the architect of the current
00:16:02.000 failing system, David Lamedi, the man who introduced Bill C-75 and Bill C-5, is still the principal
00:16:07.940 secretary advising Carney. The same laws he championed stripped mandatory minimums, prioritized release,
00:16:13.680 and sowed the chaos we see now. So the question remains, is the fall bail reform real legislation?
00:16:21.620 Is it actually going to happen? Or is it just a political response to a system collapse visible
00:16:25.940 in the heartbreak headlines and fear? Because if bail laws don't change, if consequences remain weak,
00:16:32.360 nothing will stop this cycle. Victims won't trust the system anymore, communities won't feel safe,
00:16:36.640 and officials who promise change will lose credibility. We're revisiting a case that still haunts
00:16:41.200 Toronto and shines harsh light on Canada's parole system. It's about a teenage girl killed on Boxing
00:16:46.560 Day in 2005 and how one of the men convicted in her death is now facing a new first-degree murder
00:16:52.900 charge less than seven months after his release on full parole. Jeremiah Valentine, 43, was convicted
00:16:59.740 in 2009 of second-degree murder and the shooting death of 15-year-old Jane Grieba after rival gang
00:17:04.860 bullets struck her on busy Yonge Street in Toronto. He received life in prison with no eligibility for
00:17:09.840 parole until 12 years had passed. That was the plan, a long sentence fitting a brutal crime.
00:17:15.620 Fast forward, Valentine was granted day parole in November of 2023 and elevated to full parole in
00:17:21.440 January of 2025, even though a 2021 psychological assessment found that he had a 76% chance of
00:17:29.320 violently re-offending within five years. Yet parole was approved, with the board stating he had shown
00:17:33.940 observable and measurable change. Seven months later, this July, this month, he's been charged
00:17:40.540 with first-degree murder and the killing of a 33-year-old, Abdeck Kenneth Ibrahim, who was gunned down in
00:17:45.760 downtown Montreal around 12.45 a.m. on July 17, 2025, just a few weeks ago. Now, this is not a one-off.
00:17:53.320 Valentine's two co-Qs, Louis Woodcock and Tyshawn Barnett, were convicted of manslaughter and
00:17:57.860 Kriba's death and sentenced to 12 years each. But because they had already served nearly four years,
00:18:02.480 they walked free much sooner. Woodcock was arrested again in 2017 for drug offenses and in 2024 for
00:18:08.980 firearm and drug-related charges. Barnett was convicted of gang-related drug offenses in 2022
00:18:14.260 and later that year pleaded guilty to firing gunshots into a man's legs in Ottawa, what prosecutors
00:18:19.800 called a revenge shooting. He received an additional 11-year sentence despite lifetime weapons bans.
00:18:27.020 Now, I was in Toronto Police in 2006, in the aftermath of that summer of the gun. In response,
00:18:31.960 Ontario launched Tavis, later rebranded as Pavis, to target gangs and gun violence. Now, it wasn't
00:18:37.140 perfect and at times it led to over-policing, but it put real pressure on violent criminals. Jane
00:18:42.480 Kriba's death galvanized that effort and for a while it made a difference. But look at what happened
00:18:48.200 now. Men involved in that same tragedy are back on the streets, some with new violent charges against
00:18:53.920 them. That isn't rehabilitation, that's a failure of accountability. When a man with a 76% risk rating
00:19:00.020 is deemed safe for full parole and then accused of murder months later, you have to ask, what is the
00:19:05.640 point of parole if the risk predictions are ignored? And for the victim's families, those who
00:19:10.320 lived through the tragedy and mourn it every day, this isn't just a legal procedure, it's an ongoing
00:19:15.000 trauma. A system that releases repeat violent offenders early despite risk assessments teaches
00:19:20.080 a harsh lesson. Justice doesn't always come through. So what's the takeaway? We need real reform,
00:19:25.900 systems that prioritize public safety over wishful rehab, risk assessments that matter,
00:19:30.980 parole that's contingent on real proof, not just progress reports and consequences that fit the
00:19:36.540 crime. Jane Kriba lost her life that boxing day. 20 years later, the justice system has failed to hold
00:19:42.720 accountable everyone involved. Jeremiah Valentine is now accused for another murder. Woodcock and Barnett
00:19:48.740 repeat offenders. That pattern demands change. We owe Jane Kriba better. We owe her family better.
00:19:54.620 And we owe every victim's family a system that actually protects. Until parole boards, judges and
00:20:01.180 lawmakers fix this, tragedies like this will keep repeating. Project Night Train, which I mentioned
00:20:06.560 before, is a chilling case study in how violent crime is tearing through communities and why bail and
00:20:11.500 sentencing reforms can't wait. Again, we've been talking about it, but it's an important issue.
00:20:16.300 From May to December of 2024, Peel Regional Police investigated 17 horrifying incidents tied to
00:20:22.420 two overlapping criminal networks responsible for violent home invasions and jewelry store robberies
00:20:26.940 across Mississauga, Brampton, and Toronto in Ontario. Investigators laid 136 charges and recovered
00:20:32.620 nearly $2 million in stolen goods, including Mercedes G-Wagons, Lamborghini Uruses, high-end jewelry,
00:20:37.980 designer bags, cash, and even a loaded firearm. Two cases reveal how brutal these attacks truly were.
00:20:44.160 On October 15, 2024, around 1234 a.m., three mass suspects forced their way into a home near
00:20:50.440 Glen Aron Drive in Burnhamthorpe Road West in Mississauga. Skirmish ensued, and one victim was
00:20:55.240 shot in the chest. The assailants, they fled in a stolen vehicle. The victim survived but suffered
00:20:59.700 life-altering injuries at a trauma center. One week later in Brampton, around 1.20 a.m., on October 22,
00:21:06.380 two suspects followed victims to their home near Mississauga Road in Queen Street West. They demanded the
00:21:11.620 keys to a luxury vehicle, assaulted one of the victims until they lost consciousness, then drove
00:21:15.780 the stolen vehicle over them. The victim was critically injured but is expected to survive.
00:21:20.460 The investigation concluded that these were not solo acts. They were coordinated by two overlapping
00:21:25.780 groups who recruited and rotated young offenders to carry out the crimes. As of July 22, 2025, six
00:21:32.000 adults and six young persons, being between 15 and 18, have been arrested and charged. At least five of
00:21:37.560 those, they were already out on bail at the time that they were committing these offenses, and seven
00:21:41.460 remain in custody following bail hearings that we know of today. Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich summed up
00:21:46.420 the impact. These crimes cause profound and lasting trauma, often within victims' homes. Every resident
00:21:52.680 deserves to feel secure in their own homes. Ontario Solicitor General Michael Kersner and Brampton Mayor
00:21:58.420 Patrick Brown stressed the Ontario government's full support. If you commit a violent crime in Ontario,
00:22:03.660 you will be caught. You will be prosecuted, and you will be locked up, according to both Kersner and
00:22:08.860 Brown. Despite all those charges and the clear evidence of organized crime violence, the troubling
00:22:14.100 fact remains most of those arrested were already on bail, and several were released again after the
00:22:19.040 arrest. What was meant to be a public safety instead became a revolving door. Project Night Train proves
00:22:24.460 two things. One, Ontario policing can dismantle organized crime, brutal crime when given resources,
00:22:30.100 and two, without strict bail laws, repeat offenses under old charges become new headlines. The system may arrest
00:22:35.980 fast, but it releases too soon. Now, these kids and adults carried out invasions that left people shot
00:22:41.900 and run over. Lives changed forever. And the message from law enforcement is clear. We'll stop criminal
00:22:47.340 networks, but only if lawmakers let our sentences stick. So, rest assured, these arrests are a milestone,
00:22:54.220 but justice doesn't end when the cuffs click. It ends when offenders stay in custody until closure.
00:22:59.740 If bail systems remain porous, repeat violent offenders won't fear consequences, and neither will
00:23:04.620 Canadians. Outrage is building over yet another court decision that appears to prioritize the
00:23:09.740 immigration status of violent accused over the safety of Canadians. 22-year-old Victor Buron,
00:23:16.140 a Filipino national who immigrated to Canada just over a decade ago, was set to plead guilty this week to
00:23:21.740 multiple gun and drug charges in Barrie courtroom. Police arrested him back in January during a high-risk
00:23:27.100 takedown where firearms and drugs were seized, and he's also facing an unrelated manslaughter charge in
00:23:32.460 Toronto for a fatal stabbing. But as Buron stood ready to plead guilty, Superior Court Justice Vanessa
00:23:38.380 Christie stepped in, not to challenge the facts of the case, but to delay it. Why? Because Buron might
00:23:44.380 be deported if he's convicted, and the judge wasn't sure if he had enough time to speak to an immigration
00:23:49.100 lawyer. Let that sink in. This isn't about new evidence or procedural fairness. This is about a judge
00:23:54.460 saying, we're not experts in immigration law, and stopping a guilty plea, not to protect justice,
00:23:59.740 but to protect his chance at staying in Canada. And this isn't a one-off. Just last month,
00:24:04.540 we've covered it multiple times, Akash Kumar Kant, the foreign national from India, pleaded guilty
00:24:08.860 to trying to buy sex from someone he thought was 15 years old. He didn't go to jail. He didn't even
00:24:13.900 get a criminal record. Why? Because the judge said he didn't want to delay Kant's citizenship or affect
00:24:19.020 his ability to sponsor his wife. These decisions are sparking real anger across the entire country,
00:24:24.300 because people see justice system where the rights of Canadians, the safety of our communities,
00:24:28.860 and the voices of victims keep getting pushed aside for the convenience of non-citizen offenders.
00:24:34.780 Think about the message this sends. If you're a Canadian and you're peacefully
00:24:37.740 protests like Tamara Leach and Chris Barber, you'll be dragged through the court, restricted from travel,
00:24:42.940 travel publicly vilified, and threatened with jail trial. But if you're a foreign national linked to
00:24:47.660 a homicide, caught with illegal guns and drugs, the judge might personally stop your guilty plea
00:24:52.460 just to make sure you don't get deported. That's just not soft on crime. It's a system completely
00:24:57.660 upside down and people are fed up. They're asking why immigration status is being treated like a
00:25:03.020 shield from accountability. They're asking why violent criminals are getting the benefit of the
00:25:06.860 doubt, while law-abiding Canadians are treated like threats. And they're asking a very simple
00:25:11.260 question. When did protecting immigration status become more important than protecting Canadians?
00:25:16.780 Well, that's it for this episode of the Crime Report with Ron Chinzer. We covered a lot from double
00:25:22.140 standards and sentencing to a justice system that's failing to hold violent offenders accountable while
00:25:27.100 treating peaceful protesters like criminals. We looked at bail reform that's long overdue and cases where
00:25:32.460 immigration status seems to matter more than victims' rights or public safety. If you think Canada deserves
00:25:38.140 better, so do I. Visit JunoNews.com forward slash Ron to subscribe and save 20%. Your support helps us
00:25:45.820 keep digging, keep reporting, and keep standing up for real justice. Thanks for watching, and as always,
00:25:51.260 stay safe and stay informed. I'm Ron Chinzer. See you next time.