It is hard to understand why an Ontario judge would go out of his way in order to help two vicious criminals from being deported from Canada. But this is exactly what Justice Colin Westman did in a Kitchener courtroom this week when he provided special treatment to two Romanian immigrants who terrorized a local family in order to extort money from them.
The fact is that crimes committed by Viorel Goja and Adrian Tif were deliberate, premeditated and deeply damaging to home builder Peter Catana and his family members, who were constantly threatened with death over a period of weeks last year.
After claiming Mafia connections, Goja and Tif ordered Catana to pay them $500,000 or else they would be killed. Beyond the death threats, they also threatened to blow up Catana’s office and building sites or to spray gunfire at the church he attended.
Who knows if Goja and Tif would have actually carried out the threats?
During the ordeal, the family fled their Petersburg home. Catana took his three children out of the school for two weeks, as they were targets of particularly nasty threats.
Both the offenders had already served one year in jail. Under normal circumstances, that time would be included in the overall sentence handed down by the court to them. But this time, the pretrial custody was not included in the overall sentences because defense lawyers argued that if they officially received sentences of more than two years then Tim and Goja would be flagged for deportation. Agreeing to the arguments of their lawyers, Westman formally recorded only the pair’s extra jail time, which is 15 months ofr Tif and 18 months for Goja.
But the question that begs an answer is that why has been there a special treatment for Goja and Tim? Why did Justice Westman went out of his normal way shielded the duo from Canadian immigration officials?
Tif and Goja have violated the trust and generosity which is shown by the nation which opened its door to them. In addition to the current conviction, Goja has also a record in this country for assault with a weapon and break and enter. There is a strong argument that the duo must not qualify as suitable candidates for Canadian citizenship. They do not deserve to live in this beautiful place. They should rather be thrown out of this place as soon as possible.