Racist Jailed For Attack On Women
By Jim Day
P.E.I. Guardian
September 2, 2000
A judge showed some leniency in sentencing well-known white supremacist Dwayne Finlayson in the hope the move would best help the Charlottetown man change his violent pattern of behaviour.
Provincial Court Judge John Douglas Friday ordered the 29-year-old Finlayson to serve three sentences of four months each concurrently in the Provincial Correctional Centre in Sleepy Hollow for charges stemming from a racially-motivated attack on three Japanese women on a Charlottetown street April 28.
Douglas said he could have sentenced Finlayson to three four-month sentences consecutively as a result of the ugly incident, thus locking him up for 12 months, rather than the four months he has been given to serve.
Finlayson will be on probation for 24 months once his sentence has been served.
Finlayson pleaded guilty to two charges of assault and one charge of causing a disturbance by shouting obscenities in a public space following an incident in which he pushed a slice of pizza into the face of a young Asian woman.
Douglas noted Finlayson has shown positive signs since the attack that he is trying to turn his life around.
Finlayson, according to a probation services pre-sentence report, has landed full-time employment painting, he is working towards reconciliation with his estranged wife, and he has exhibited a desire to address his racist views and his problem with alcohol abuse.
However, Crown attorney John MacMillan is skeptical Finlayson has any remorse for his racially-charged crimes and believes Finlayson is an unlikely candidate to change his troubled ways.
MacMillan told the court Finlayson, who has a long criminal record, has not once made the slightest effort during any of his numerous probationary periods in the past to clean up his act.
The Crown attorney described the April 28 attacks, which included beating a man who tried to intervene, "despicable, cowardly, unprovoked acts.''
"Sometimes a guilty plea is an admission of the inevitable,'' MacMillan said of Finlayson's decision to plead guilty and voice a desire to change.
"It's a last-ditch effort to avoid the inevitable.''
Finlayson, dressed in running shoes, khaki pants and a long-sleeve black shirt, spoke softly in giving a brief statement in his defence before being sentenced.
He told the judge that although he felt his words wouldn't change how the public or the Crown view him, he realizes he needs to change.
The judge seemed to be acknowledging a large crowd of anti-racist protesters who poured into the courtroom when he told Finlayson that the public would "like to have me tar and feather you.''
One of the protest organizers, a 19-year-old member of Anti-Racist Action Fredericton, felt the sentence didn't match the crime. "I think it's outrageous that there's somebody like this in the Maritimes that's getting four months of concurrent sentences when it can be three times as much,'' he said. "The hatred he promotes in our communities is completely unacceptable.''
The protester is convinced Finlayson will be quick to rekindle his white-power campaign once he returns to the streets.
"He's not genuine in his remorse,'' he said. "He's going to wear this (sentence), as the Crown said, as a badge of honour . . . I have no doubt that the Heritage Front (a white supremacy group that Finlayson has tried to woo high school students to) membership cards are going to keep popping up around Charlottetown and he's going to be the person dropping them.''
But another protester is cautiously optimistic Finlayson is being genuine when he states a desire to turn over a new leaf.
"I guess it remains to be seen,'' she said. "Maybe we'll have a look at him in four months and see if the tattoos and the attitudes are still there.''
Finlayson, who gained prominence in a profile in The Guardian last year, sports tattoos of swastikas and German military service decorations on his neck and arms.
One Mermaid resident was so appalled by Finlayson's crime that he chose to take part in his first-ever protest, joining about 30 others who were involved in the quiet anti-racist gathering.
"I don't usually go out and demonstrate things, partly because I'm an old guy but partly because I don't want to polarize the debate,'' he said.
"But in this case, I think if people don't actively stand up and be counted as being opposed to it then there is the tendency for it to just get swept under the rug.''
Jonathan Petrie, who has pleaded guilty to assault and disturbance charges for the same April 28 incident Finlayson was charged over, failed to appear in court for sentencing Thursday. The judge set Oct. 4 for Petrie to be sentenced.
"The reason why he didn't show up today will be dealt with at that time,'' said Douglas.