On Thursday morning, while catching up on the news about last weekend’s massacre on (and around) James Smith Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan, I ran across a truly remarkable Globe and Mail headline: “Saskatchewan suspect’s case draws new scrutiny to statutory release.” I hardly knew whether to laugh or cry at this exercise in the journalistic privilege of agenda-setting. The crimes of Myles Sanderson, who died mysteriously in police custody Wednesday after stabbing 18 people and killing ten of them, ought to “draw new scrutiny” to about a hundred different things about the Canadian state and its philosophy of criminal justice. One hardly knows where to start with the list-making.
