MARTIN: The Michigan shooting is a reminder of parental responsibility

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In Canada, we don't have involuntary manslaughter charges like the one that saw two Michigan parents face serious prison terms this week for allowing their teenage son to go on a killing spree at a high school.

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But that doesn't mean parents on this side of the border aren't immune to such harassment if they inadvertently allow their child to engage in such heinous behavior.

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Jennifer and James Crumbley were sentenced Tuesday to 10 to 15 years in prison for their actions in the attempted murder of their 15-year-old son Ethan at Oxford High School in Michigan.

According to the Associated Press, they are the first parents in the United States to be convicted of mass school shootings by their children.

They were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials in Oakland County, 64 kilometers north of Detroit, the AP reported.

“The blood of our children is on your hands,” said one of the victim's parents in a speech to the convicted parents.

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According to the Associated Press, Crumbles was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors presented evidence of an unsecured gun in the home and neglect of the mental health of her teenage sons.

Ethan Crumbley was sentenced to life in prison on November 30, 2021, for the shooting deaths of four of his classmates.

While Canada's Criminal Code doesn't distinguish between involuntary manslaughter, voluntary manslaughter and vehicular homicide in the U.S., it does have provisions that could see someone like Crumbley prosecuted here.

Under Canadian law, manslaughter is one of three types of culpable homicide that can lead to prosecution, the other two being murder or the extremely rare crime of infanticide, where a woman's intentional act or omission results in the death of her newborn child. .

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But murder can still take many forms in the Great White North.

By simple definition, the Criminal Code defines manslaughter as “culpable homicide not being homicide or infanticide.”

It defines culpable homicide as someone who, by “unlawful act” or “criminal negligence,” causes the death of a person.

Criminal negligence (which can be prosecuted as a special crime by the authorities) means doing “anything” or “failing to do anything” that is their duty, and “shows reckless or reckless disregard for the life or safety of others. .”

So, homicide in Canada basically falls into the two broad categories of killing someone by unlawful acts, such as assault or dangerous driving, without the intent or recklessness required to commit murder.

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In legal circles, they are often referred to as criminal homicide or criminally negligent homicide.

In the Crumbleys' case, they had a duty as parents to ensure that their son was not a danger to his classmates because of his mental health and to prevent him from having easy access to his father's deadly handgun.

The same could be said of Canadian parents who gave a child who showed signs of danger easy access to a deadly weapon.

According to the AP, Ethan drew dark pictures of a gun, bullets and a wounded man accompanied by sad phrases during a math challenge. The school staff did not insist that he go home, but during a brief meeting, they were surprised that his parents did not volunteer. Nor did they mention that the son's gun was similar to the one his father had bought a few days earlier.

That day, the teenager took out the same gun from his bag and started shooting at his classmates.

It is impossible to say whether the Canadian authorities chose to prosecute Crumbler for such an act. But their convictions and sentences should serve as a reminder of what abdication of parental responsibility entails.

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