Editor:
I suppose I take some comfort from Staff Sgt. Prunty’s statement that Sunshine Coast RCMP “do not believe criminality was involved” in the deadly crash at Sunnycrest Mall. Not because it makes the deceased victim any less deceased or the injured victim less injured, but because it seems to show police caring enough to make statements that are true as far as they go even though they don’t go very far.
Politicians may have always considered such a guiding principle to be an unjustified limit on their verbal creativity, but it seems to me our current environment of social media makes it easier for them not to worry whether there’s any interpretation of their words that matches observable reality. Still, one can hope police are more inclined to stay within these bounds, so here are three possibilities I think could be consistent with the Staff Sgt.’s words.
First, the word “criminality” in Canada can mean something that contravenes the Criminal Code, as opposed to something which is an offence under legislation such as BC’s Motor Vehicle Act. So, if police had charged the crash vehicle’s driver for driving without due care and attention it wouldn’t make the public statement false. Second, maybe the distinction between public road and private parking lot means they couldn’t have done even that and lastly, maybe they could have done it but chose not to for some undisclosed reason.
Given that the guardrail dislodged was by a liquor store, and that Vancouver suffered intentional ramming deaths earlier this year, it’s easy to think of some of the scenarios the Staff Sgt. might have been looking to exclude with her words. But a followup question or two wouldn’t have hurt.
David Stow,
Elphinstone
