Rahim Jaffer, the former Conservative MP, doesn't owe anybody an explanation after he walked away from drunk driving and cocaine possession charges in a Toronto courtroom this week.
Even the judge acknowledged that Jaffer had just caught a big break.
Jaffer had been charged with drunk driving, cocaine possession and careless driving, but a plea bargain deal let him off with a careless driving conviction and $500 fine.
No, it's the week-kneed justice system that has some explaining to do, not Jaffer, once a rising star in the Conservative caucus.
Jaffer was stopped by a police officer at 2 a.m. for speeding.
He claimed to have had just two beers (how many times has a police officer heard that one) earlier but he blew over the legal limit, which means he was drunk.
Oh yes. Police also found a bag of cocaine in the vehicle.
Sounds like one of those rock-solid cases.
Blows over the limit. Bag of coke in the car. Speeding.
Well, maybe for the average joe, but not for a former MP and husband of a cabinet minister.
Bring on the sweetheart deal, baby.
The whole thing reeks of a double-standard.
This sort of "arrangement" happens all too often behind closed doors.
The Jaffer case just puts it in the spotlight for a couple of days.
Police do their job. Investigate. Lay charges that include a mountain of paperwork. The Crown goes over the charges and paper work and agrees. Then months later the same Crown prosecutor decides it doesn't have a case, so agrees to a lesser charge.
It's a waste of good police resources and money.
There have been cases where victims find out about a plea bargain deal after the fact.
In one local case, the Crown claimed he got too busy with other cases to notify the victim who learned about the deal days later from, of all people, a defence lawyer who happened to be in the courtroom when the deal was consummated.
Meanwhile, the law and order, hang 'em high federal Conservatives are playing dodge ball on Jaffer's suspicious slap on the wrist.
They claim that this is a provincial issue, so they can't comment.
Of course it's a provincial issue. We know that.
But here is one of their own, a former caucus poster boy, husband of a loose cannon of a cabinet minister, taking advantage of the discount justice system that the party rails against and says must be toughed up. That people can't be getting away with this stuff.
Instead, we have people like Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is too busy to answer city council's letter re: border crossing, blaming the media for making too much of the Jaffer discount justice deal.
These are the same law and order guys who want to give police officers the right to randomly pull over drivers to see if they have been drinking.
And they wonder why ordinary people have lost faith in the court system and politicians.