Editorials - July 1, 2022

The sins of the son  

In a complicated turn of events, there is an outcry on social media to strip the Muzzo name from Toronto-area hospitals that have received multi-million dollar donations from the billionaire philanthropist family, which includes Marco Muzzo, the drunk driver who killed three children and their grandfather in 2015. The children’s father, Edward Lake, died by suicide late last month bringing the tragedy to the forefront of headlines again and spurring the calls to remove the Muzzo name as a show of support for the remaining Neville-Lake family members. 
   

Muzzo served less than half of his 10-year sentence before being granted full parole in 2021, with some wondering if his wealth and status played at least a partial role in what seemed to be a lenient sentence.
   

While the victims’ loved ones could find the prominence of the surname triggering, the family’s foundation has been making large donations to community and healthcare organizations for many years. In fact, besides the hospital naming rights, there are also parks and streets named in honour of the family’s generosity, especially Marco Muzzo Sr., the grandfather of the drunk driver, who died in 2005 long before he saw his family name become associated with such a tragedy.
   

How do we punish the evil and honour the generous? Perhaps, instead of petitions to remove names from buildings, the outcry should be directed towards the sentencing of the drunk driver who took four lives (and likely caused the death of a fifth) and should spend more than five years in jail. – DS

It could happen to you

In the eyes of left-leaning people around the world, the U.S. Supreme Court had a rough week. First, it struck down a New York State law that would have restricted gun-carrying rights and then came the long-rumoured overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that preserved a woman’s right to have an abortion. Many have opined that these two decisions, made back-to-back, show that right-leaning Justices on the Supreme Court, as well as many American Republicans, feel that guns should have more rights than women.
   

Polls have consistently shown in the U.S. that a majority of residents support access to abortion. The most recent poll, conducted by NPR, PBS News Hour and Marist, showed 56 per cent opposing the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and just 40 per cent saying they supported the decision. While some have chalked this up to the U.S. being the U.S., others in Canada have urged their fellow citizens to not feel so comfortable. A list of Canadian MPs who actively oppose the right to an abortion began making the rounds in the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision, which includes Huron-Bruce MP Ben Lobb. Furthermore, Prime Minister hopeful Pierre Poilievre has been deafeningly silent on Twitter since the decision, making some wonder.
   

In May, when news of the impending Roe v. Wade decision leaked, Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies conducted a poll in the Great White North that showed about four in five supported a woman’s right to an abortion, while just 14 per cent said they were opposed. 
   

These decisions (clearly) are being made by archaic thinkers, regardless of what the public wants. And with many Canadians following Americans as attitudes there travel back in time, many Canadians are rightfully concerned over what the future holds. – SL 

Grey areas 

Recently Mark Powell, the widow of Regan Russell, who was killed during a protest at a Burlington pork plant, made the decision to sue a number of organizations and people he feels are involved in Russell’s death, including some locals. Powell claims the move is because he has lost faith in the court system, which, two years after the incident, still hasn’t set a trial date in regards to the death. He has filed a $5 million lawsuit that is targeting, among others, Brussels Transport.
   

While most can and should sympathize with Powell, losing a loved one, the question does have to be asked: how much responsibility is borne by those Russell was protesting and how much did she take on herself? Most parents teach their children to stay back from the road, look both ways before crossing and stay as far away as possible from vehicles in operation. The protesting group that Russell was a part of, however, made it their mission to stop trucks full of farm animals from entering a processing plant by ignoring those basic tenets of safety and standing in front of them. Even the police must recognize there was responsibility to be spread around because the incident resulted in a non-criminal provincial offence for the driver. Powell’s own claim posits that the driver didn’t operate safely, not that there was any malice.
   

So the question remains, who is at fault? Is it a driver who Powell claims didn’t look where he was driving or a protester who may have put herself in a life-threatening situation where a driver might not have been able to see her? The answer may lie somewhere in the middle and, hopefully, everyone recognizes this could have been prevented. – JDS