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st the tribune thursday june 26 1997 p3 two mothers and the act that separates them jennifer brown metroland staff young two mothers two sons tvo opinions on the offenders act embroiled in a shocking exhibi tion of violence the mother of a york region police officer and the mother of the teen charged with attacking him represent the polar ized views many canadians share on how youths should be treated under the law the suspects mother believes young offenders deserve a chance to be protected and rehabilitated under the law the victims mother 65yearold ruth wiche wants radical changes to the act that would see teenagers subject to the same punishment as adults ruth wiche was with her son det robert wiche on june 10 when he was stabbed four times in the back and once in the neck she felt helpless as she stood by that morning outside a newmarket courtroom and watched her son fall to the floor wiche s assailant was a 15-year- old markham boy now charged with attempted murder its been a very bad year for all of us said ruth referring to the stabbing and the manslaughter charges her son was facing in court that day wiche has been charged in the shooting death of 16-year- old faraz suleman of markham last june but im so proud of my son its a miracle he survived protected the identity of the teenager who stabbed wiche is protected under the young offenders act and his sentence will likely be limited to three years something ruth wiche wants changed she has approached her mp john nunzia- ta to start a petition to reform the act im not a legal mind but their names should be made public in my humble opinion and the sen tence should be the same as for anybody else we hear too much about young people getting into trouble said ruth who lives with her husband hans in weston i would hope the justice system will do what is right the act right now is not a deterrent as it is i think they would think twice if everybody knew what they had done wrong in my jail she said nobody would come back for sec onds her daughter wiches older sis ter denise mountenay has worked with young offenders and agrees its time they pay the full price for their actions if youre old enough to do the crime you have to do the time especially in seri ous vicious crimes kids think they can get away with it now and just get a slap on the wrist moun tenay says different per spective but the mother of the boy who attacked wiche has a different per spective having watched her son go through the system created to protect young people under the age of 18 i see the differ ence between the young offenders act and the crimi nal code is that the young offenders act is corrective rather than one of punishment and is rehabilitative so the young person gets better there is a major major difference however the wiche family believes strongly that todays youth special report attacking someone with a knife is not kids stuff no matter what age he said adding peer pressure ifm- are savvy enough one side of a tragedy ruth and hans wiche det bob wiches to know the ins parents and his sister denise mountenay in their weston apartment and outs of the law tell their story and corrective measures such as community ser vice orders rarely have an impact from what i see a lot of smart people are using the young ones to do their dirty work they tell you i can get away with anything and you find so many are not remorse ful said ruth wiche hans wiche says there has to be a distinction between a criminal act and an act of mischief when dealing with young offenders may have been a factor i think he was coached i dont think a 15- yearold would do that on his own if he does a crime like that hes smart enough to know no one can touch him personal circumstances yet the mother of the young offender argues each person should be judged based upon their personal circumstances i dont think kids should be tried as adults theyre not mature enough and many are vic tims of circumstance in the case of my son or any other child they are victims too some have suf fered sexual abuse or seen disturb ing things she said adding peer pressure also plays a large role in the things young people do today while she fully supports the current young offenders act the mother of the boy who attacked wiche does question the pros and cons of making the name of an offender public knowledge i think proba bly people would under stand what has happened and why it hap pened they would be sup portive he is a victim of cir cumstances they would understand bet ter however she does question the impact of broad release to the media whether peo ple are allowed to have his name or not should be a decision made on a oneonone basis but if the media reports it you cant con trol who gets the information what about retaliation where is the safety of the kids but for ruth wiche and her fam ily the crime committed upon her son three weeks ago was too vio lent to be considered an immature childish prank ruth was with her son that day in court when the teen jumped wiche from behind and stabbed him in the back and neck barely miss ing his spinal cord i was sitting on a chair outside photo by rob alary the courtroom because i had been coughing and didnt want to dis turb things they called a recess at 11 am and bobby came to see how i was she recalled just then in the corner of my eye i could see somebody like a bullet he the boy jumped at him and stabbed him and then i saw blood coming i was just standing there like a zombie and it was happening right in front of my eyes i had no weapon but i would have defended him if i could but all i could do at the moment was stand there i started yelling call 911 my son has been stabbed it haunts me still heart attack following the stabbing ruth was taken to hospital that day and the family feared she was having a heart attack she has since returned to hospital for panic attacks associated with the stab bing mountenay was also in the courtroom that day and saw her brother attacked out of the blue this young guy jumped on his back it happened so fast it was unbelievable he knew exactly what he was doing at first i thought it was a joke then when i saw the blood the knife had hit the carotid artery and it was squirt ing like a fountain and then bobby fell right to the ground the offi cers had to wrestle with him and i heard his mother crying police brutality denise and her mother knelt beside wiche and prayed he was on the doorstep of death and all we could do was pray he would live it seemed to take for ever for the ambulance to get there and my mom was on the threshold of having a heart attack recalled mountenay i said bobby youre going to be ok for now the family is thankful their son and brother is recovering and for the support of the commu nity they want to turn what was tragic and traumatic into some thing good it doesnt matter whether it is this case or any other case we cant change whats happened said ruth but we can make it better and change things for the future we need more respect for each other and those in authority i think a lot of young people would like to have discipline masons from across north america parade through town about 300 free masons from across north america paraded through stouffville last night the male fraternity which has been in stouffville for over 137 years tossed what they hope will become an annual celebration of their order the masons and their wives met at the richmond mason lodge around 530pm and proceeded in a parade down second street to the new train station then the whole shebang rode the rails up to their sister lodge in uxbridge for a visit and dedication of a mural slow down in lemonville from page 1 the traffic situation is threatening the safety and well being of local resi dents including more than 20 children ertl added wildlife is also at risk speeders have killed canadian geese and their babies said ertl maybe we should have kidscrossing and geese crossing signs a little bit of every thing would help said ertl most vehicles travelling through lemonville travel at wellover the 60kilometre posted speed limit and vehicles are reg ularly passing other slower moving traffic ertl told council theres only two other lodges in ontario who can visit each other by railroad like this thats in tottenham and beaton and they dont do it said kelly holden the local lodge master so this is a unique situation the situation was so unique that masons from new york state and the entire greater toronto area came up including ontarios top mason durward i greenwood the grand master of the grand lodge of canada in the province of ontario the stouffville masons will open their lodge to the public running an open house this sunday from noon to 4pm admission is free there are about 660 lodges in ontario with over 60000 members t irain running on v vi v- v vmy 11 forholr