 |
| Marie-Helene Dickey |
Experts cite the aging of the population, increased incarceration of dangerous offenders and lowered quantities of airborne lead.
But another possible factor, present in Montreal since 1988, has largely been overlooked.
Quebec's first victim impact statement was directed against a person I later got to know.
Richard Dickey, a 46-year-old father-of-three was working his 11-9 overnight shift at the Francy Depanneur at 0901 Charlevoix on 17 March 1987 when regular customer Johnny Grenier, who lived across the street, entered.
It was 4:35 a.m. and Grenier lured Dickey into the third aisle, away from the surveillance camera.
Grenier then stabbed Dickey to death, escaping with less than $100 cash and several cartons of cigarettes in a heist estimated at about $500.
Grenier left but returned to stab Dickey some more to ensure that he would not survive.
Dickey bled to death on the floor near the cash register at the convenience store.
Lobo, the guard dog that the store had rented for $180 a month to protect against such incidents, did nothing to prevent or curtail the attack.
Police came to Grenier's apartment at around 7:15 a.m. and found him sleeping with his girlfriend.
Grenier said that he had been using drugs and remembered nothing from the encounter. He was jailed and charged with premeditated murder.
On October 5, 1987 a pilot project at the Montreal courthouse gave a voice to those whose lives were harmed by the pain of violent crime.
It proved hugely popular as about half of all eligible candidates took advantage of the opportunity to fill out the bright yellow form to articulate their grief, as a total of about 600 people a month wrote out their thoughts.
The very first of those victim voices was Marie-Helene Dickey, the widow of the victim of Charlevoix Street.
Marie-Helene Dickey, who worked as a cashier in the same corner store, detailed the sorrow she and her three children suffered, denouncing the "senseless act," and demanding to know why Grenier had done it.
Onlookers celebrated the new wrinkle in justice.
"Courts have always been preoccupied by the rights of the accused. It's about time for an equilibrium, for the scales to be brought back into balance" said Crown Prosecutor Esther Gravel, who oversaw the project.
The prosecutor asked the judge to sentence Grenier 20 years, while the defence requested 15.
Grenier got 18 years for second degree murder, a crime which can land a prisoner behind bars for anything from 10 to 25 years.
Impact statements were not permitted to include any suggestion about sentencing but that restriction was removed in 2015.
Johnny Grenier served his time and was free and living in Verdun as of 2005 and living in a building I owned at the time at 4075 Verdun Ave.Grenier, whose mother was one of Quebec's earliest Korean immigrants and had a large number of children, was - by 2005 - a welfare recipient who was not involved in criminal activities to my knowledge, although some of those in his immediate circle were involved in petty theft and smoked crack cocaine.
Grenier himself did not appear aggressive or hostile in spite of a few conflict situations I had with him.
Some studies have suggested that impact statements reduce recidivism although it's unclear whether that is a generally-accepted consensus.
Marie-Helene Dickey and her three children, wherever they may now be, might have played a small role in helping build the safety we all enjoy here now.