Zach LarkinsSPRUCEDALE REVISITED
Every once in a while, you can hit ‘em out of the ballpark. It seems I've done that with an article I wrote back on March 12, entitled "Sprucedale". Now, almost a month later someone called ‘Anonymous' wants to push a pin into my balloon. Fat chance.
The article was about Moonie Ali and what happened to her son, Terrence, and his killer. Mrs. Ali never claimed her son was an angel. She did however claim he deserved justice. The killer in this case caught all sorts of breaks and at age 21 was still being held in the Sprucedale Youth Centre. This is a Club Med for wayward youths and Moonie wanted him moved to an adult facility to serve the rest of his sentence. Obviously, if he's 21 now, he can do some real time for the crime.
I laid out just how easy they have it at Sprucedale and Anonymous took exception to this. "Those kids you are referring to made mistakes and are paying for them BEHIND BARS, under lock and key," he says. I would think premeditated murder is more than a "mistake". As for paying for any mistakes ‘behind bars', why then are they treated to an indoor pool, a gym, a weight room, tennis courts, shared kitchens, video games and, on late-night weekends, they're allowed to order in Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald's. If they get bored, there's the volleyball club, hockey program, arts and crafts and music appreciation. One of the inmates was allowed to leave the facility to go bowling with his guard and just to really keep him amused, had sex with her. I guess we have different ideas of what ‘behind bars' means.
This guy seems to think that while Terrence was busy being a teenager, he deserved to be kicked to death to a point where his skull was separated from his spine, ("Now he's the innocent victim," writes Anonymous) and dumped in Lake Ontario to drown just to make sure he dies. Perhaps he was not lily white during his short life, but in this case he surely was innocent enough not to deserve what befell him.
Anonymous spouts further, "Moonie's after as much sympathy she can get...her charity is set up to get money so she can help kids and families at risk...she's no hero...she needs help...the government should just right (sic) her a check (sic)...that's what this is really all about, she wants money off her dead son." I have spoken with Mrs. Ali and Anonymous is right. She has set up a foundation to help kids and families at risk. How that makes her a non-hero is beyond me. As to making money from the death of her son, Moonie has not collected one cent. She can't. She's not yet set up to receive any money. And she named the foundation in memory of her son, not to collect funds because of him, but to collect them in his memory to help others.
Anonymous spews, "First Moonie has the kid moved, then she bitches that he drops his appeal to be released, then she says he run's the courtroom. Then she bitches that the kid asks to stay in jail." Indeed she did bitch. Good thing too. Moonie got him moved from Sprucedale to the Metro East Detention Centre. This is an adult jail. Jail is where you go to serve a sentence of up to 2 years less a day. Prison is where you go to serve any time longer than that. He whined that he wanted to go to Brampton's Ontario Correctional Institute rather than face the big boys at Millhaven or Kingston. He has served just 20 months of a 6 year sentence. By going to jail, he could be out tomorrow. In prison he might have to stay the remaining 4 years. Initially he asked to be sent to prison and then changed his mind. Jail was a much better option for him. Did he run the courtroom? Consider that his application for prison was supported by the provincial director of Youth Justice Services. This is the guy who the judge said he couldn't override in his decision of where to send the killer. This is the guy who Justice Russell Otter did override when he cancelled court dates in February and March while he ‘got all the facts'.
The killer's lawyer said, "It's the wishes of my client that it (early release) be withdrawn at this time." Perhaps more apt was Mrs. Ali's response, "They do the crime and they have wishes? The youth calls all the shots and gets them. Why does he have a preference of where he gets to serve his time -- what kind of message does that send to the community? Are the criminals running the legal system in Canada?"
And Anonymous thinks all these people are picked on and doing hard time? He wants to defame Mrs. Ali and what she does, what she stands for? Anonymous needs his head read.
Sources: Michele Mandel Justice On Killer's String Toronto Sun
The article was about Moonie Ali and what happened to her son, Terrence, and his killer. Mrs. Ali never claimed her son was an angel. She did however claim he deserved justice. The killer in this case caught all sorts of breaks and at age 21 was still being held in the Sprucedale Youth Centre. This is a Club Med for wayward youths and Moonie wanted him moved to an adult facility to serve the rest of his sentence. Obviously, if he's 21 now, he can do some real time for the crime.
This guy seems to think that while Terrence was busy being a teenager, he deserved to be kicked to death to a point where his skull was separated from his spine, ("Now he's the innocent victim," writes Anonymous) and dumped in Lake Ontario to drown just to make sure he dies. Perhaps he was not lily white during his short life, but in this case he surely was innocent enough not to deserve what befell him.
Anonymous spouts further, "Moonie's after as much sympathy she can get...her charity is set up to get money so she can help kids and families at risk...she's no hero...she needs help...the government should just right (sic) her a check (sic)...that's what this is really all about, she wants money off her dead son." I have spoken with Mrs. Ali and Anonymous is right. She has set up a foundation to help kids and families at risk. How that makes her a non-hero is beyond me. As to making money from the death of her son, Moonie has not collected one cent. She can't. She's not yet set up to receive any money. And she named the foundation in memory of her son, not to collect funds because of him, but to collect them in his memory to help others.
Anonymous spews, "First Moonie has the kid moved, then she bitches that he drops his appeal to be released, then she says he run's the courtroom. Then she bitches that the kid asks to stay in jail." Indeed she did bitch. Good thing too. Moonie got him moved from Sprucedale to the Metro East Detention Centre. This is an adult jail. Jail is where you go to serve a sentence of up to 2 years less a day. Prison is where you go to serve any time longer than that. He whined that he wanted to go to Brampton's Ontario Correctional Institute rather than face the big boys at Millhaven or Kingston. He has served just 20 months of a 6 year sentence. By going to jail, he could be out tomorrow. In prison he might have to stay the remaining 4 years. Initially he asked to be sent to prison and then changed his mind. Jail was a much better option for him. Did he run the courtroom? Consider that his application for prison was supported by the provincial director of Youth Justice Services. This is the guy who the judge said he couldn't override in his decision of where to send the killer. This is the guy who Justice Russell Otter did override when he cancelled court dates in February and March while he ‘got all the facts'.
The killer's lawyer said, "It's the wishes of my client that it (early release) be withdrawn at this time." Perhaps more apt was Mrs. Ali's response, "They do the crime and they have wishes? The youth calls all the shots and gets them. Why does he have a preference of where he gets to serve his time -- what kind of message does that send to the community? Are the criminals running the legal system in Canada?"
And Anonymous thinks all these people are picked on and doing hard time? He wants to defame Mrs. Ali and what she does, what she stands for? Anonymous needs his head read.
Sources: Michele Mandel Justice On Killer's String Toronto Sun
youranter
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opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
He clearly does NOT research his "facts" at all. I also happen to know Mrs. Ali, and confirm that she CANNOT receive funds nor would she want to. She most certainly IS, unlike Anonymous, a hero though she would be the last to seek such a title.
I can confirm first hand she does, indeed, actively assist at risk youth. I have witnessed her actions in this regard first hand. What kind of "human being" (?) could accuse the mother of a MURDERED child of seeking to profit from such a cold blooded, brutal killing of her own flesh and blood?
This has nothing to do with your right to disagree. It has to do with having some common sense and a modicum of reason not to mention humanity and decency! For Shame, Anonymous!
So, IF a 15 year old boy is on probation, Anonymous apparently believes it is acceptable for 3 much larger cowards to beat the young man so badly that, as the coroner stated, his injuries were similar to those sustained in an airplane crash.
Mrs. Ali does suggest that victims have no voice as do I and huge majority of other reasonable persons. Why? Because, Anonymous, you see murdered persons are gone. They will NEVER again be able to speak or defend or respond to despicable, innaccurate, insensitive remarks about them and their grieving parent(s) again, unlike their killers. This seems to have missed you, Anonymous.
You further lower yourself to suggesting Mrs. Ali is after sympathy? FYI, she has much more of that from the masses than she needs. She need not seek it, and I assure you she does not though she richly deserves it, unlike the cowardly killers with whom you, Anonymous, clearly have aligned yourself. They have and deserve NONE--ever!
Mrs. Ali seeks only justice for this unspeakably vicious homicide that robbed a young boy of a future and her of her son. Terrence will not have an opportunity to soak up sun, watch videos, exercise, socialize, even in a "Sprucedale" unlike the killer. He will NEVER be able to graduate high school, go on to college or University, meet a wonderful lady, perhaps, marry and raise a family. All of this has been taken from him those who DO enjoy and WILL enjoy all the aforementioned.
Honestly, I can scarcely believe the callous false, tawdry innuendo you, Anonymous continue to promulgate via the only medium in existence that would give you a forum to offer such garbage while attempting to defame and slander an innocent and decent person with clearly much higher standards than you apparently have.
Kudos to you, Moonie! Keep up the honourable fight for justice and be not dissuaded by such fringe elements.
Finally, I would respectfully suggest that the administration of such a website as this may wish to screen such posts as those which assail people who have already been victimized in the most severe way possible by people who attack and speak ill of both a deceased person and his family.
Opinion is one thing we all cherish the right to offer. Defaming one's character, one's entire organization, and tainting the memory of a murdered young boy far exceed that right in my respectful opinion.
youranter
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opinionatedranter
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The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
Looks like they do. Good. Look up "oxymoron", please.
Here's a tip: If you're going to make nasty comments without leaving your name, they'll have a lot more impact if your spelling and usage are past the grade 3 level.
Just a thought.
youranter
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opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern