By MARYSSA MCFADDEN
Every day of our lives we place trust in those around us.
We go to work, school, the doctor’s office and countless public bathrooms. While doing so there are hundreds of faces we meet and pass throughout our days.
However, what happens when one of those faces breaches the most basic element of trust?
Last November a 41-year-old New Hamburg chiropractor did just that.
According to a Nov. 7 article in the Waterloo Region Record, a camera was discovered in a clinic’s bathroom ceiling by an employee which led to police finding over 200 images and 19 videos in the man’s possession. These showed he had been secretly recording the bodies of at least 20 women who visited the clinic where he worked.
Despite the crime he committed, the Crown prosecutor argued for a short, 90-day jail sentence. The man is also still able to meet and work on patients, as his chiropractor’s licence was not stripped from him.
Just a few weeks ago a Kitchener janitor was found guilty of a similar crime in which he hid a video camera in the women’s washroom where he worked. Seventy-four videos were seized from the man’s house, however, he only got 45 days in jail despite the tearful victim impact statements read at the hearing.
According to the Cambridge Times, statements were read by two women who said they were now reluctant to use public washrooms and were gripped by fear and anger.
How are they supposed to live a carefree life when they are worried about being secretly filmed again?
The thought this could happen to us raises an important question: is there any place that is completely safe?
Nowhere is off limits, but we believe if the punishment was more severe it could help reduce the crime.
The lives of many women have been forever changed after they learned they had been secretly videotaped, yet the perpetrators received little more than a slap on the wrist. For all we know, they could do it again and we need them to know these acts will not be tolerated.
We believe if these criminals continue to get off lightly they, and others like them, will never stop breaking the law.
It is time to toughen the law and the penalty. Breaches of trust must be taken more seriously.
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