On Monday we ran a feature article on the failure of the Justice System in letting a habitual criminal out with a 4 month sentence after violating his conditions of release and reportedly pointing a handgun at two people in Mayerthorpe. You can read the full article here. ( a new page will open )
Fresh out of prison, Derrick Phazar Whitford, is now the primary suspect in the death of 18 year old O’Chiese First Nation man Travis Strawberry. The young man was found deceased in a wooded area in Clear Water County in November of last year. A charge of 2nd degree murder was laid on Whitford who has been on the run from the police.
RCMP announced via a late press release Friday afternoon that they have Whitford now in custody. Details on how or where he was arrested were not provided in the brief notice.
A Little to Late for the Justice System to Make Things Right…
With Whitford now safely behind bars, questions still remain why he was back on the community after a long series of violent crimes that included gun charges, armed robbery, assault and a clear lack of remorse or respect for the law. The failure of the Judge Justice Jeffrey B. Champion and Crown counsel Alicia Wendel to adequately protect the public with their minimal sentence for Whitford indirectly resulted in the death of the 18 year First Nation’s man just 4 months later. If Whitford had been sentenced with any type of logic last summer – Travis Strawberry would still be alive and his family on the O’Chiese First Nation would not be mourning the death of their family member.
“There must be deterrence and denunciation,” Crown counsel Wendel stated during the trial, which was presided over by Justice Jeffrey B. Champion.
Whitford is now facing a minimum sentence of 10 years before being eligible for parole if found guilty of his second degree murder charge – and up to 25 years depending on the outcome of his trial. At age 27, Whitford will be in his 40’s and potentially 50’s before he stands a chance of be a free man again.
One could argue that the ridiculous sentence handed down last summer in a Mayerthorpe courtroom destroyed two young men’s lives. Travis Strawberry is dead – and Whitford will come out of prison even more hardened and likely a greater potential danger to society then he was the day he stood in the that Mayerthorpe court room where justice was not served for anyone.
At the time, Whitford’s defense attorney Robert Kassian argued his client deserved leniency due to his addiction problems and that his grand parents were survivors of the residential school system. One can’t but help but wonder about the family of the young O’Chiese First Nation band member Travis Strawberry and if they would accept that argument. The Justice system is as much at fault in all of this as Whitford is. That judge last summer needed to protect Strawberry as much as he needed to protect Whitford from himself.
In attempting to go easy on Whitford – a criminal with a long history of violence and gun charges – the vicious cycle of violence destroyed the life of a young man and is perpetuated in our broken justice system. Fixing society begins at home and our provincial leaders need to hold the legal system accountable for its mistakes. Enough of appeasing the Americans on border security and worrying about plastic straws – let’s begin with fixing our own systems.
