Ethics Newsline®

Special to Newsline from Canadian correspondent Errol P. Mendes

VANCOUVER
Former Canadian judge David Ramsay was sentenced last week to seven years’ imprisonment for serious sex assaults against underage aboriginal prostitutes in Prince George, British Columbia.

A former colleague of the disgraced judge, Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm of the British Columbia Supreme Court, said Ramsay had shamed the judiciary, his family, and himself with his criminal acts.

Dohm imposed what is believed to be the longest sentence imposed on a former judge in Canadian history for what is also believed to be the most serious crime committed by a former judge.

In handing down a longer sentence than asked for by the Crown prosecutors, Dohm stated that Ramsay had used his office to intimidate the girls and shield his actions over a nine-year period from 1992, just a year after he had been appointed to the bench.

The crimes and the sentence have disturbed aboriginal communities and activists throughout British Columbia, many of whom had traveled to Prince George to condemn the reign of terror that the judge had imposed on the underage prostitutes.