The teacher, a US citizen, chose a three-year exile in Canada over a one-year jail sentence for his crime. He already lived in Fort Erie, Ontario, with his Canadian wife and kids, and commuted across the border to his job in Buffalo.
My question: can a US citizen be exiled? Is it a real exile, as in “they will not let him back in”? I suspect that the US authorities will let him back in, but that he will immediately go to jail to serve his one-year sentence.
OTOH, it basically means a suspended sentence. If he hasn’t been sentenced to jail time, he’s in the clear because he can’t be retried for the same crime.
IANAL, nor even a US Citizen or US Resident, but here in Spain there used to be a penalty called “local exile”: you had to move 100km away from your place of residence and if you went back to the original place of residence during the time of your sentence, you’d end up in jail (for “breaking exile”, not for the original offense).
Note that 50 years ago, 100km was a VERY large distance.
There is something that absolutely tickles me about the idea of exiling people to Canada as punishment for crimes.
I can just picture the convicted saying goodbye to loved ones amidst tears and hugs, as he/she boards the plane marked “Montreal” with police escort accompanying.
Well, the Supreme Court did let Bush win but they couldn’t give him a mandate, which is frankly unconscionable. After all, he did almost get a plurality of the vote, and obviously the intention of the American voter was to let him know we were okay with just about anything he wanted to try.
How lovely… More cheap shots. There is no reason why we should have to be treated like your dumping ground. That Judge had no right to tell him to go to Canada! Persononally I hope they stop the Perv at the boarder and force the judge into having to make a real decision.
Gahh.
Just how could a judge consider this a punishment? How does this really effect him? He loses his job? Big freakin’ deal. He already has a home in Fort Erie where his own family lives. The only punishment I could even begin to imagine will occur with this guy is one the judge didn’t mandate: The public backlash against his forced presence here that may end up driving him out of his home, or at least making his stay there as uncomfortable as possible.
I say we add the threat of exile to New Jersey to our canon.
It is a weird case but calm down a bit guys there is this interesting piece of information from the Star article
So he is a Canadian resident with a Canadian family. If I read the article right he agreed to plead guilty to avoid a trial on the condition he could spend his 3 year sentence in Canada.
I’m just baffled how they managed to discuss this without involving the Canadian government.
They’re sending us their criminals without our consent.
And they’re not, at least not yet. The sentence appears to be the result of a plea bargain but if the border agents refuse him entry then back he goes. There is no indication that the US is about to catapult him into Fort Erie come hell or high water.