Mom Who Hired Hit on Husband Walks Free

Story here. Excerpt:

'The radical anti-father/pro-mother bias of Canada’s courts was on full display last week for all to see.  Here’s Barbara Kay’s predictably accurate take on the whole shameful thing (National Post, 1/24/13).  The only remarkable attribute of the case is that it mostly played out, not in family courts, but in criminal ones.

Michael Ryan and Nicole Doucet Ryan were married and had a daughter who is now about 12.  He ran their family farm in Nova Scotia and she was a school teacher.  By his account, they were happy and their daughter was thriving.  But Nicole had problems with her own family that were much litigated, including allegations by her sister Peggy that Nicole tried to run her down with her car and statements by her mother that Nicole was sick and would likely try again to kill or injure her sister.  The ongoing grief caused by Nicole and her relationship with her birth family plunged her into a depression and caused conflict between her and Michael.  In 2007, Michael filed for divorce.
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Astonishingly, Nicole was acquitted by the trial judge.  Apparently he/she bought the battered woman defense despite there being no evidence of abuse save Nicole’s word for it and the fact that legally it couldn’t have amounted to duress.

So the Crown appealed to an appellate court for the province of Nova Scotia and then to the Supreme Court of Canada.  It was that last appeal that was decided last week.  In it, the court acknowledged that the defense of duress had been improperly allowed by the trial judge and overturned Nicole’s acquittal.  But, in perhaps the most astonishing event in the entire sorry affair, the court stayed all further proceedings.  That means that Nicole may not be retried, the people of Canada will not be permitted to punish a heinous wrongdoer, Michael Ryan will not be able to tell his story, the RCMP will not be able to tell theirs, Michael Ryan will forever be judged (as he has been by the press) a monster who abuses women and children and of course, a woman who attempted to have her husband murdered will walk free with no record of criminal wrongdoing.'