I was already feeling despondent yesterday morning, about the fact that the Oilers blew a three-goal lead in the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs, lost their star goalie to injury, then had the backup goalie make a stupid mistake that caused the winning goal for Carolina ... then I read something in the paper that just made me feel ill. I won't go into details or even link to it, those in Edmonton who know me might figure out what it is and the connection (and if you really want to know, e-mail me), but it doesn't seem right to post details about it at all.

What I wanted to say, though, was that although I'm certainly a big advocate of the justice system learning how to properly deal with people who have mental illnesses (let's just say I know from other personal experience that the justice system doesn't always treat such people well), it doesn't mean that I think those with mental illness should get away with violent crimes by virtue of being "not criminally responsible" - if it gets to that point, the system has already failed them miserably, but they still need to be accountable for what they've done (even if that means confined to a psychiatric institution long-term rather than prison, but at least something). What made me feel ill was the idea that 2 years after an incident, on the morning a trial was about to start, only then does it come to light that perhaps someone has a mental illness and needs psychiatric evaluation/ possibly can't stand trial?? Yeah, right ... nice delaying tactic there. And that's all I can really say about it.