Straigh thoughts 184 - What right?

Clifford Olson is a Canadian convicted murderer serving 11 consecutive 25 year sentences.

Because of his continuous criminal activities, he spent most of his adult life in jail. From age 17 he has been out of jail only for about 4 years. Still he was released enough times to accumulate 83 convictions, until he was caught for murdering at least 11 boys and girls.

This is not just the failure of one man, but the failure of the Canadian judicial system.

However bad, the story does not end here.

Now, we Canadians are "more civilized" than our friends to the south: we will not sentence him to death and we will assume the cost of his maintenance in jail. What is the cost to Canadians?

According to the Office of the Auditor General of Canada it costs about $80,000 per year to maintain an inmate in a federal prison. For a maximum security prison, the cost goes up to $121,000 per year. He is now over 70 years old, so taxpayers have already been charged more than $4 Million (in today’s money) for his maintenance.

Many Canadians think that this is not enough. These Canadians have become so indoctrinated about the entitlement of social programs, that they think that he has a “right” to the regular old age pension benefits that everyone else receives, even if he is a convicted murderer who has no living expenses and is already getting room and board, medical expenses and recreation from the government.

These Canadians support a government that forcefully takes money from honest productive people and gives it as a pension of $1,169 per month to Clifford Olson. His first cheque was almost $8,000 in retroactive payments.

This is exactly what a culture of entitlement leads to: the denial of common sense.