Dear Editor:
Although the editorials here will usually try to boost the NDP in a backhanded way, the article "Court system has its hands tied in B.C." (Our View, The Record, Dec. 30) is clearly off base in citing the community nuisance problem of Derek Delaurier.
What he needs are controls on where he lives (semi-custody), which the NDP always cry as a violation of human rights.
He also needs a compulsory living context to take his medication (against the NDP notions).
Despite the court problems, he is processed, but the judge has no viable place to assign him (sentence him). The courts have sufficient power to render a sentence but few "end-game options."
Over the years the NDP has ensured that there are legal barriers to having psychiatric boarding homes that have sufficient legal powers and con-trols, so the public is protected.
The fiscal discipline applied to the courts is a significant but unrelated problem to the predicament of sentencing, to balance personal rights and freedoms against the larger public interest of community protection.
Paul Forseth, by email
