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02/07/07
School Teacher Gets two Years House Arrest
By Lee Hanlon
In December of 2006, Tom Elision, a former Vancouver, BC school teacher, accused of having sex with a number of his students in the 1980’s, was convicted of two counts of indecent assault, two counts of gross indecency and one count of common assault.
In January of 2007 Ellison was given a conditional sentence of two years less a day. Ellison will not serve his time in jail, but rather in the community. In other words his home is his jail. Further conditions of Ellison’s sentence included a prohibition from drinking alcohol and to participate in 60 hours of community service.
BC Provincial Court Justice Mark Takahashi handed down this outrages sentence.
The Canadian Criminal Code is very clear on what sentences should be for these offences.
According to section 266 of the Canadian Criminal Code the sentence Ellison should have received for the conviction of indecent assault should have been five years on each count, and six months plus $2000 on the count of common assault.
And for the conviction of gross indecency, according to section 173 Ellison should have been sentenced to the maximum of six months and $2000 fine on each count. Even that is a lenient sentence.
If Ellison were an American school teacher he would have received at least ten years, if not life. What do these sentences in the Canadian Criminal Code tell us? They tell us that it is okay to commit sexual acts on our children.
There needs to be a change in the criminal justice system. Harsher sentences for sexual assault needs to be increased to protect society from criminal sexual deviants as the likes of Tom Ellison.
As for Judge Takahashi, if he wants to instill sentencing philosophies of the Japanese Criminal Justice system, he should do so…..in Japan.