Americans owe a huge debt of thanks to the Toronto Police, for extraordinary work, above and beyond the call of duty. Members of the child exploitation branch of the Toronto Police sex crimes unit managed to extract enough information from a collection of child—porn images posted on an international police website to identify the school attended by a six year old girl, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks to the persistence and hard work of our Canadian friends (can anyone doubt their friendship, all political disputes aside?) a small child's life has been saved.

As the Toronto Globe and Mail's Christie Blatchford reports this morning,

By zeroing in on a wristband the child wore in some of the pictures, a badge on her girl scout uniform and a deliberately blurred—out logo on a T—shirt she wore under a school jumper, the Toronto squad was able to narrow the search first to the Raleigh—Durham area, and ultimately, by cross—checking with school uniform manufacturers in the area, to direct officers from the local Federal Bureau of Investigation office to the right address.

Once the school was identified, the child was identified. The child then led authorities to the suspect, one Thomas Schellenberger, who has now been indicted by a grand jury. Chillingly, local police are investigating reports that Mr. Schellenberger may have tried to hire someone to kill the little girl and her mother, who was apparently unaware of the abuse.

Information contained on Mr. Schellenberger's computer has led police in Dallas to a woman in Dallas, Tex., who was allegedly "renting" out one of her three children to worldwide customers who would fly in from as far away as England to have sex with the child.

We suppose that once they determined that the crime was taking place across the border, the Canadian police could have shrugged their shoulders and let the matter go. But these Toronto police are made of better stuff. They obviously take their work seriously, and have a passion to rescue the most innocent victims imaginable from the most evil crimes imaginable.

For any Torontonians concerned about the 'waste' of police resources on extra—jurisdictional crimes, we would like to point out that the child—abusing monsters link themselves across national borders. No child anywhere is safe from them. Moreover, no city can buy publicity as favorable as that now being justifiably garnered by Toronto. We might even suggest that this expenditure of resources packs more punch than a week's worth of Conan O'Brien programming.

A very hearty 'thank—you' to the city, people, and especially the police of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Well done!