Editor, The Record:
Imagine the outcry if an enquiry proved that 15 innocent people had been convicted in the same court, with the same judge and the same prosecutor. At the very least there would be a public inquiry and it is likely heads would roll.
Yet this is precisely what is admitted by Mission council in relation to its ill-starred Public Safety Inspection Team/grow-op bylaw.
Obviously, this casts severe doubt on the many other fines or fees levied by the same council on other citizens under the same bylaw and with the same witnesses.
To restore even a modicum of justice, Mission council needs to offer every single person who has been levied a fine or fee an opportunity to challenge the decision.
This process must include the right to cross-examine witnesses and produce their own evidence and witnesses. They have, so far, been afforded none of these rights.
Clifford Olson, Robert Pickton and Russell Williams all had these rights.
Innocent Mission citizens deserve no less.
Ron Taylor
Mission