Bristol Council have voted to delist the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and place it in a museum. The statue was violently toppled by BLM activists during the height of the George Floyd saga that swept the USA and Britain. NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo debates the topic on Sky News with Kay Burley.
Month: February 2024
‘ISIS bride’ Shamima Begum who travelled to Syria and joined the terror outfit loses appeal against removal of her UK citizenship
Shamima Begum, who left Britain to join Islamic State, has lost an appeal against the UK government’s decision to remove her British citizenship. The east London schoolgirl travelled to Syria nine years ago in 2015 at the tender age of 15. Soon after she was discovered in a camp for Syrian refugees in February 2019, her citizenship was revoked due to national security concerns.
The 24-year-old lost a challenge at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in February of last year following a string of court fights, but her attorneys appealed the decision to the Court of Appeal in October. One of the appeal judges who decided the matter, Dame Sue Carr, mentioned that they agreed with the commission’s ruling about Shamima Begum’s citizenship and that her appeal was dismissed. The legal squad representing her had filed a complaint with the court to reverse the decision. However on 23rd February, all three of the appeal judges rendered a ruling against her.
Her appeal was dismissed by the panel unanimously, according to Dame Sue Carr, the head of the court of appeals. The justice stated, “It could be argued that the decision in Miss Begum’s case was harsh. It could also be argued that Miss Begum is the author of her misfortune. But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view. Our only task is to assess whether the deprivation decision was unlawful. We have concluded it was not and the appeal is dismissed.”
Appearing with Lord Justice Bean and Lady Justice Whipple, Baroness Carr declared that any debate over the ramifications of the unanimous ruling which might involve a potential Supreme Court appeal will be postponed for a period of seven days.
Samantha Knights KC asserted to the court during the October appeal hearing that the Government had neglected to take into account the legal obligations owed to Shamima Begum as a possible victim of human trafficking or as a result of “state failures” in her case. However, national security was cited by the Home Office’s Sir James Eadie KC as the “key feature” of the case. “The fact that someone is radicalised, and may have been manipulated, is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security risk,” he stressed.
Baroness Carr noted, “We are not persuaded that there was any obligation on the Secretary of State to take into account the possibility that there might be a duty to investigate the circumstances of Ms Begum’s trafficking, alternatively, to consider whether any such investigation as might be required would be enhanced by her presence in this country,” in the 42-page public judgment.
She added, “In our judgment, SIAC was entitled to find, as the specialist tribunal established by Parliament, that the issue of whether and to what extent Ms Begum’s travel to Syria had been voluntary was within the expertise of the intelligence agencies advising the Secretary of State. Ms Begum may well have been influenced and manipulated by others but still have made a calculated decision to travel to Syria and align with ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant).”
Shamima Begum’s counsel presented five arguments, contending that SIAC erred in dismissing her allegation that former home secretary Sajid Javid faulted in denying her citizenship in 2019. However, the judges invalidated her claims in every instance and highlighted that in cases involving national security, an equality responsibility in the public sector did not apply.
Furthermore, they found that Sajid Javid had taken into account Shamima Begum’s legal team’s argument that she was a victim of child trafficking and that he had the right to rule on whether or not she constituted a threat to the United Kingdom’s national security. The court also ruled that the former minister was not obliged to ponder about whether she would essentially become a stateless person because there was no possibility that she would go back to Bangladesh, the country of her parents’ origin.
Shamima Begum is in a refugee camp in northern Syria. Her legal team is likely to appeal the latest judgement. “As long as she is still there, this doesn’t end,” emphasised one of her lawyers, Gareth Peirce.
https://www.opindia.com/2024/02/isis-bride-shamima-begum-loses-battle-to-regain-british-citizenship/
UK: Trans-Identified Male Set To Compete Against Women As The Reigning Women’s Snooker Champion Following Victory Against 11-Year-Old Girl
A trans-identified male is set to compete against women as the reigning Women’s Snooker Champion at the English Women’s Snooker Championship on May 24 in Walsall, UK. Jamie Hunter, 27, became the top women’s player following a semifinal victory against a young girl last year.
Hunter first rose to prominence during the English Women’s Snooker Champion finals in 2023 after he came out victorious against Mary Talbot-Deegan, finishing 3-1. Hunter had managed to make it to the finals after he beat out Ellise Scott, an 11-year-old rising star in the snooker world, taking 2-0 against her in the semifinal grouping. The event had been Scott’s debut in the tournament, and, prior to her match against Hunter, she had achieved three match victories against experienced female opponents.
Hunter had been participating in women’s cue sports since 2021, just one year after he “came out” as transgender.
Within his first year of competition, he rose to the fourteenth position in the women’s billiards world rankings, and has since won a total of 7 women’s titles. Among them, the 2022 US Women’s Open and 2022 Australian Women’s Open, where he was awarded $9,000 AUD in prize money.
Prior to transitioning, Hunter played in a mixed-sex amateur league for five years. Speaking with Snooker Zone in 2021, Hunter admitted that he had no intention of competing professionally until he discovered that there was a women’s tour.
“Until this year, cue sports was just a hobby, something I done once, maybe twice a week, but now finding out about the Women’s snooker tour, I believe that will change,” he said at the time. “They make out as if I played snooker as a man, I was rubbish, so decided to do it in the women’s instead. I changed my gender for my wellbeing and my life, not for anything else.”
Hunter received significant backlash after his 2022 US Women’s Open win, when former women’s world champion Maria Catalano criticized the policies enabling males to compete against females. In an interview with The Sportsman, Catalano argued that women’s snooker should exclude males from female categories, as some rugby leagues have, to ensure fairness for women.
“We have fought so hard for our rights in the past – myself, Reanne Evans and others got people to write letters to allow us to play in leagues and clubs that banned women. I don’t believe that women can compete against men on a level playing field in sport. We are wired differently, we think differently. We are mentally different,” said Catalano.
The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) publishes a mixed sex international ranking of players. The highest-ranking female on their current list, Mink Nutcharut, is listed at 119.
In response to the criticism of his wins against women, Hunter has framed the backlash as transphobia.
“Everybody’s human. Regardless of what choices you make. You should treat everybody with respect,” said Hunter speaking to a BBC journalist last fall. Bizarrely, Hunter was interviewed while he sat in a gaming chair in a dark bedroom — which he refers to as “the dark girl cave.” The room has a transgender pride flag pinned up on the wall behind him.
The upcoming English Women’s Snooker Championship is set for May 24, 2024. It is being organized by the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards (EPSB), which is the national governing body for the sport in England. They describe their goal as creating a “structured coaching environment that will inspire all regardless of gender, ability, or ethnicity to fulfil their potential in our sport.”
The EPSB has a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy with a lengthy section on discrimination, including a ban on any “condition, rule or practice [that]… particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic.” As for their list of protected characteristics, the EPSB includes “gender, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, religion, age, disability, HIV positivity, working pattern, caring responsibilities, trade union activity or political beliefs.”
The English Women’s Championship is set to take place at the Landywood Snooker Club in Walsall, UK, on May 24.
This is not the first time a male has dominated women’s cue sports, sparking backlash from players and fans.
Last November, a female pool player refused to compete against a trans-identified male opponent at a women’s championship in Wales. Lynne Pinches received an outpouring of support as video began to circulate showing her walking away from the table after being matched to play against Chris Haynes.
Days later, two more female pool players refused to compete against Haynes in solidarity with Pinches during the Ultimate Pool tournament in Blackpool, UK.
In January, Pinches headed an effort to launch a lawsuit against the World Eightball Pool Federation (WEPF) and Ultimate Pool Group (UPG), accusing the governing bodies of subjecting women “to direct sex discrimination and harassment on the grounds of sex.”
France: After Islamist slogans painted on Christian symbols, the Catholic clergy play down the incidents: “There is no need to pour oil on the fire”
Between December and February, four Calvaries in Saint-Pantaly-d’Excideuil and Cherveix-Cubas were daubed with graffiti. The inhabitants are wondering who is responsible for this damage while the gendarmerie carries out an investigation.
On the roadside in Saint-Pantaly-d’Excideuil, two Calvaries were sprayed with inscriptions referring to Islam. The same happened again in Cherveix-Cubas, where two other crosses were also targeted at the same time. In both villages, the residents do not understand what could be the reason for such an act. So far, no one has observed anything unusual, but they all hope that the perpetrator or perpetrators behind the inscriptions will be identified quickly.
In the hamlet of Vaures in Cherveix-Cubas, both the bus shelter and the Calvary were smeared with graffiti. The local authority has since removed the inscriptions. Around a dozen houses are situated on a hill, a place where everyone knows everyone else. “I wondered who could have done this,” says Bicquet when he discovers the damage. It wasn’t locals, but rather people travelling on the country road, I think”.
(…) “There’s no need to add fuel to the fire,” moderates Thierry Niquot, parish priest and administrator of this parish. It is not right to name potential ideological culprits who are members of the Muslim community, that must be avoided at all costs.”France Bleu
UK: How rapist cop who was recruited to the Met after a failed investigation went on to attack women at knifepoint
A former police officer was welcomed into the Met despite being investigated for six counts of rape against a child four years earlier – and was not re-vetted as part of Operation Onyx, the force’s plan to review allegations of sexual abuse from the past 10 years.
Cliff Mitchell (photo), 24, was only charged when his case was reopened following another attack he’d carried out at knifepoint – after he’d obtained his warrant card. He has today been convicted of multiple counts of rape.
The Met confirmed that all serving officers and staff identified as having being arrested for rape before joining are now being dealt with under Operation Onyx – a change that was a direct consequence of Mitchell’s arrest.
However, questions are being raised about whether their investigations will include officers accused of rape and sexual assault prior to their employment, a point which the Met refused to comment on.
The PC, who worked in Hounslow, West London, told his victim nobody would believe her because he was a police officer, as he blindfolded her and bundled her into his car.
LBC can reveal Cliff Mitchell started his officer training in August 2021.
That was after the Met decided to take no further action against him for allegations of rape in 2017.
Following his arrest in September 2023, that investigation was reopened and he was charged with six counts of raping a child – including three when she was under 13.
Following a trial at Croydon Crown Court, Mitchell was found guilty of 13 rape charges and one of kidnap.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Cundy, of the Met, said: “This is a truly shocking case and I am sickened by Mitchell’s abhorrent behaviour and the pain he has caused the victims, who have shown enormous bravery by coming forward and giving evidence in court.
“Mitchell not only carried out a sustained campaign of abuse against both of his victims, but he told one of them she would never be believed due to the fact he was a police officer. This brazen abuse of power makes Mitchell’s actions all the more deplorable.
“I know this is another case which will impact the confidence people have in us. We are doing more than we have done in decades to rid the Met of those who corrupt our integrity, including investing millions of pounds into our professional standards team and bringing in additional officers and staff with specialist skills and experience to investigate criminality and misconduct.”
The Met Police sacked Cliff Mitchell in December 2023 over a breach of a non-molestation order he had in place, with DAC Cundy adding: “we did not wait for his conviction today”.
In April 2023, the Met announced Operation Onyx to reinvestigate officers and staff who have had allegations of sexual or domestic abuse made against them in the past.
But LBC understands Mitchell’s case wasn’t raised as part of that due to the fact he wasn’t a serving officer when the allegations were made.
It is understood that the 2017 investigation was flagged as part of his vetting procedure when he joined the force, though.
Mitchell attacked his second victim on 5 September 2023, where he raped her at knifepoint.
He blindfolded her with his hooded top and tied her hands with cable ties before forcing her into his car.
In Hackbridge, the woman managed to escape and approached a member of the public who let her into her car, where she called 999.
An alert was put out for Mitchell’s car and he was stopped and arrested around seven miles away in Putney.
He was remanded in custody and charged with multiple counts of rape, kidnap and breach of a non-molestation order.
He was immediately suspended from his job.
The 2017 investigation was reopened which resulted in the Crown Prosecution Service agreeing to charge Mitchell with six counts of rape, including three of a child under 13, which all took place between 2014 and 2017.
Speaking to LBC, Joan Smith, who chaired the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board for nearly a decade, said that there is a need to urgently re-vet all officers accused of similar offences to those of Mr Mitchell.
“I think this is a crisis of confidence. Many women in London will be thinking ‘oh no, not another one of these cases’, and that even now – nearly three years on from the murder of Sarah Everard and the case of multiple rapist David Carrick – these things are still coming to light. Clearly, whatever measures are being put in place to deal with the problem of perpetrators in the police force, it is still not working.”
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper added that the Met faces “extremely serious questions”:
“This is a truly shocking, horrendous case. Our thoughts are with the victims and we applaud their bravery in coming forward.
“What’s even more appalling is that some of the offences were committed while Mitchell was a serving police officer, someone who was charged with keeping people safe.
“There are now extremely serious questions as to how Mitchell was able to obtain a job in the Met, having been previously investigated for rape. That should never have been allowed to happen and must never be allowed to happen again.”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ““The Met Commissioner has set out an ambitious New Met for London Plan to reform the culture and performance of the Met, this includes setting higher standards for existing officers and staff, including on vetting. The Met are clear that under new working practices Mitchell would not have been granted vetting clearance and been able to join the Met. The Met have also taken action to extend Operation Onyx to cover such circumstances.”
In response to the LBC’s findings, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “Following his charge in September 2023, the MPS asked the head of vetting at another force to review this decision. They concluded the vetting clearance in 2020 was in line with the Authorised Professional Practice issued by the College of Policing.
“As part of our New Met for London plan, we are reforming the way we vet officers and staff.
“We have changed our approach and are confident that under our reformed approach, Mitchell would not be granted vetting clearance and be able to join the Met.”
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/how-rapist-cop-met-crime-cliff-mitchell-questions-asked/
Suella Braverman claims Islamist extremists are now in charge of Britain
Suella Braverman has claimed that Islamist extremists are now in charge of Britain, after Lindsay Hoyle admitted he was wrong when he decided to break with protocol as a result of security threats to MPs.
The former Home Secretary said Britain is “sleeping walking into a ghettoised society”, something she claimed threatens free expression.
Hoyle sparked the fury of Tory and SNP MPs yesterday after he broke precedent by selecting a Labour amendment, along with a Government amendment, to an Opposition Day motion calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Protocol dictates that the Commons Speaker would only select one of the amendments, and it is highly unusual for an opposition amendment to be selected.
He apologised to the House of Commons last night following a walkout by SNP and Tory MPs. Hoyle said it was never his “intent” for the Gaza debate to have descended into such mayhem.
The Speaker said: “Clearly today has not shown the House at it’s best. I’ll reflect on my part. I do not want it to have ended like this. I’ll meet with all the key players of each party.”
He added that he wanted to offer MPs “the widest range of propositions on which to express a view”, partly as a result of growing security threats facing MPs. He said he didn’t want to have to “pick up the phone to find a friend, of whatever side, has been murdered by terrorists”.
Hoyle has been accused of bowing to pressure from Starmer to select the Labour amendment, an accusation both Labour and the Speaker have denied. If the Labour amendment hadn’t been selected, his MPs would have had to choose between voting for a Government amendment – which stops short of demanding a ceasefire – or rebelling to vote for the SNP motion.
But Starmer denied that he threatened the Speaker, telling reporters: “I can categorically tell you that I did not threaten the Speaker in any way whatsoever.
“I simply urged to ensure that we have the broadest possible debate.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticised Hoyle’s handling of the Gaza ceasefire vote as “very concerning” but said the Commons Speaker is “reflecting on what happened”, as he warned parliamentarians should never be intimidated by “extremists”.
Writing in the Telegraph, Braverman accused the Labour leader of “being in hock” to extremists and “taking the Speaker hostage” with a “grubby backroom deal”.
She said: “The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now.
“They have bullied the Labour Party, they have bullied our institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission.”
She accused politicians of “burying their heads in the sand”, claiming they prefer to believe in an “illusion” of a successful multicultural society.
The former Home Secretary added: “But the law has not changed, mass extremism parades itself proudly, campuses remain dangerous places for Jews, and Labour is still rotten to the core.”
But asked about Braverman’s remarks, Home Secretary James Cleverly suggested he doesn’t agree with his predecessor.
He told GB News Breakfast: “Obviously I remain very good friends with Suella and I listen hen she speaks. I don’t necessarily always agree with everything she is saying.
“But parliamentarians have a duty to do what they believe to be right, not just what they believe to be popular – and they certainly shouldn’t act because someone is threatening them.”
Meanwhile, Sunak said parliamentarians “should not bend” to “extremists”.
He said: “What happened in the House of Commons last night is very concerning.
“It seems that the usual processes and the way that the House of Commons works were changed. Now my understanding is that the Speaker has apologised for that and is going to reflect on what happened.”
Sunak continued: “But I think the important point here is that we should never let extremists intimidate us into changing the way in which Parliament works.
“Parliament is an important place for us to have these debates. And just because some people may want to stifle that with intimidation or aggressive behaviour, we should not bend to that and change how Parliament works.
“That’s a very slippery slope.”
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/suella-braverman-islamist-extremists-lindsay-hoyle-ceasefire
Prominent academic: ‘All French-speaking parties in Brussels are infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood’
The Muslim Brotherhood has achieved so much influence in Brussels that local politicians now need its support to win elections, according to a French academic who researches the organisation.
“All French-speaking parties have been infiltrated by the Muslim Brotherhood,” claimed Dr Florence Bergeaud-Blackler at a February 21 debate in the EU capital.
Bergeaud-Blackler is author of Le Frérisme et ses networks, a 2023 book about the organisation which won the Prix de la Revue des Deux Mondes.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s top three funders, she says, are Qatar, Turkey, and the European Union.
It is “impossible to win any election in Brussels without the Muslim vote, and the Muslim vote is controlled by the Brothers,” she says.
Bergeaud-Blackler explored this theme in her 2021 book Cachez Cet Islamisme, she adds.
In the first phase, the Muslim Brotherhood acted as representatives of the Islamic communities across Europe, argues Bergeaud-Blackler.
Later, they shifted towards anti-racism and anti-discrimination activists, fighting what they identify as Islamophobia and attracting large amounts of funding.
They have an elite focus, work on a very large timeframe and use “influence, trickery, victimisation, subversion of norms, and interpretations of laws”, she adds.
They work by infiltrating the leaderships of institutions and countries, and making them “sharia-compliant”.
“They influence via economy and culture because the political field is not fully accessible to them,” she says.
It will be increasingly difficult for political parties in Brussels to be able to engage in politics without satisfying the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, Bergeaud-Blackler says.
“Obviously, nobody will notice it, because it’s through influence, through money, corruption”, which is “very difficult” to track and “no one wants to talk about it, of course,” she says.
Bergeaud-Blackler is a prominent French anthropologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, one of the largest fundamental science agencies in Europe.
She participated in a debate on migration and public security in Brussels February 21 for the local branch of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, MCC Brussels, Hungary’s largest centre of extracurricular education.
In the debate, she spoke alongside Dr Rakib Ehsan, who focused on failures of multiculturalism and Britain’s migration and asylum systems.
The future girl bosses of Europe? France’s Le Pen meets with AfD co-leader to form strong right-wing core in EU
A new, strong alliance of German and French right-wing forces could be formed, as the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and the leaders of the French National Rally party met in Paris.
Alice Weidel, who heads the surging AfD, welcomed the outcome of a summit meeting with the leadership of Marine Le Pen.
“The meeting with caucus leader Marine Le Pen and party president Jordan Bardella was very important and significant for our common cooperation and for the upcoming European elections,” Weidel told the German news portal Junge Freiheit.
On her social media page, Weidel wrote: “We have discussed a number of policy issues and found that we are looking for the same solutions to the main problems of our time.”
The meeting also discussed the alleged revelations from the German news outlet Correctiv, which is funded by Germany’s left-wing government and recently ran a major hit piece on the AfD claiming members of the party attended a meeting near Potsdam where mass deportations were discussed.
The National Rally initially responded to a news report that it would have to reconsider its alliance with AfD within the EU parliament group Identity and Democracy (ID); however, the meeting between Weidel and Le Pen appears to have smoothed things between the two leaders.
“During the discussion, I pointed out the current campaign against the AfD, which has been going on since the story that Correctiv invented was published. This fight against disinformation and slander only brings the Alternative for Germany and the National Rally even closer together,” said the AfD leader.
The two politicians agreed to exchange information regularly in the future and to stay in close contact.
However, key differences remain between the two parties. The AfD still promotes deportation as an answer to many of Germany’s immigration woes, although the party has said that it does not support plans to deport anyone with German citizenship. Le Pen’s party does not necessarily support such a broad deportation plan as that supported by the AfD.
However, the parties are not oriented along precise party platforms, but are instead jointly seeking to strengthen the national sovereignty of member states vis-à-vis the European Union. In the European Parliament, both parties sit in the same party family.
The National Rally’s strategists are primarily looking to forge an alliance with the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. The latter includes MEPs from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party, while Fidesz, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is considering joining. However, there is also talk of the National Rally joining forces with the European People’s Party (EPP), whose recent opposition to some of the EU’s green transition policies is in line with their own position.
Meanwhile, Le Pen is sending a rather familiar name to the Brussels battlefield: Fabrice Leggeri, the former head of the European border agency Frontex, is standing for election to the European Parliament for the National Rally.
Germany: Interior Minister Looks to Ban Private Gatherings of ‘Right-Wing Extremists’
As a part of her ongoing oppression campaign targeting the political opposition, Germany’s activist interior minister has announced that the state will take action to ban the assembly of ‘right-wing extremist’ groups—namely the ascendent AfD, its exponents, and any other group she considers a threat to the left-liberal order.
The radical measures, set to be implemented as a part of Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser’s 13-step plan to combat the so-called ‘extreme right,’ have been revealed by an information request submitted to the Federal Ministry of the Interior by the German portal Apollo News.
The bans will be enforced by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, which operates under the direction of Faeser’s ministry. New measures pave the way for the BfV to provide information it has concerning some ‘right-wing extremist’ organizers to local regulatory authorities, who will then face pressure to ensure that access to venues will be blocked.
Local regulatory authorities, including police, as well as bodies responsible for supervising local trade and restaurants, will then be able to “examine the issuance of any bans or restrictions on a well-founded, as comprehensive as possible, factual basis,” the interior ministry’s response to the inquiry reads.
In its response, Faeser’s ministry did not specify the mechanism by which events would be banned. Additionally, when asked if, under the new measures, there would be reporting requirements for restaurant owners if they suspect ‘right-wing extremist’ events planned at their establishment, the ministry claimed these were not planned.
“Intensified, consistent clarification and consolidation of knowledge regarding relevant right-wing extremist activities … will be a focus of the work of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the future,” the ministry wrote in its response.
For AfD MEP Joachim Kuhs, authorities are unlikely to execute the measures ordered by Faeser. Speaking to The European Conservative, Kuhs said:
This measure can be ordered by not enforced. Lawsuits filed by the AfD against similar measures in the past have always been successful.
The news comes a week after the social democrat minister Nancy Faeser, who has written for a far-left Antifa magazine with links to extremism, unveiled the so-called ‘democracy promotion’ act which looks to grant sweeping new authority to the heavily politicized Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) under the guise of combatting ‘right-wing extremism.’
Faeser’s ‘democracy promotion’ act has been sharply criticized by high-ranking members of the ruling traffic light coalition. Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki, a member of the liberal, pro-business Free Democrat Party, went so far as to call the proposed law “a threat to democracy.” Kubicki added,
You have to ask yourself who is more dangerous for our constitutional order: those who move within the limits of what is permitted, or those who want to limit the scope of what is permitted to their liking.
Canada: Outrage erupts as serial killer Robert Pickton who murdered 49 women and fed their meat to pigs becomes eligible for parole
An outrage has erupted in Canada over a jailed serial killer becoming eligible for parole. In December 2007, Robert Pickton was convicted of the murders of six women and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
Pickton was also accused of 20 other murders, with DNA evidence linking more missing women to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, however, the charges were dropped since Pickton was already serving the maximum sentence. He has been accused of murdering up to 49 women and feeding the corpses to his pigs.
According to media reports, Pickton will be eligible for full parole beginning in 2027, 25 years after his first arrest on February 22, 2002.
Taking to X on 22nd February, Canadian Conservative leader Pierre Poillevere expressed his disappointment over Pickton getting parole as he wrote, “Today, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, Robert Pickton, has become eligible for parole. Monsters like this should never be released from prison. Common sense Conservatives believe that mass murderers should face consecutive sentences so they only come out of jail in a box.”
In a statement, Conservative leader Rob Moore said that “monsters like Pickton should never be eligible for parole.”
“Much like Paul Bernardo, the only way Robert Pickton should ever leave prison is in a coffin. Pickton’s parole eligibility means that for every two years from now until his death, he can retraumatize the families of his victims by making them explain why he must be held in prison,” Moore said.
On Wednesday, the families of Robert Pickton’s victims held a vigil at the former pig farm.
Michele Pineault, whose daughter Stephanie Lane’s DNA was discovered on the Pickton property, said “Pickton should not walk on this earth. He doesn’t deserve to take one step out of where he is. He needs to stay where he is until he dies.”
Lorelei Williams, the cousin of a victim whose DNA was found at the pig farm said that it is disgusting that Pickton can apply for day parole.
“I already don’t trust the justice system, and this just makes me not trust it even more because of the fact that a person like this could be let out of jail, or who would apply. … I really don’t believe that he’ll be given day parole, but the fact he can apply, it’s disgusting,” Williams said.
Several Canadian netizens expressed their anger over the chances of Pickton getting a parole year after he was found guilty of second-degree murder in December 2007.
An X user wrote, “We live in a country where serial killers like Robert Pickton or Paul Bernardo have more rights than your average citizen. This is Trudeau’s Canada.”
Another one wrote, “Trudeau’s criminal-friendly policies have completely destroyed Canada’s justice system. B.C. Serial Killer Robert Pickton Qualifies for Day Parole.”
Notably, in December last year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) was accused of attempting to dispose of evidence in the case. In a letter to the federal public safety minister, the commissioner of the RCMP, and British Columbia’s attorney general and solicitor general, the families of Pickton’s victims had written demanding that immediate steps be taken to preserve the evidence in the case.
It was reported that the RCMP was planning to dump thousands of pieces of evidence seized by police during the investigation into the gruesome murders committed by Robert Pickton on his pig farm.
Crimes of Robert Pickton and Police mishandling
Robert Pickton was a Canadian serial killer who killed women, many of whom were sex workers or Indigenous, in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. He enticed ladies to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where he killed them. Despite evidence that a serial killer was active, his atrocities went un-investigated for many years. He was eventually captured in 2002 and convicted of six charges of murder in 2007, despite claiming to have killed 49 women in total. The case exposed systematic inadequacies in how police handled missing people, in particular sex workers and Indigenous women. An investigation revealed that police were inattentive and prejudiced in their handling of the case.