Environmentalist extremists are lionized in New York, California and other places where the left rules the roost.  Canadians apparently take a different view – at least in Montreal, where a 25-year-old Quebec woman, charged with two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death, has been found guilty.  Four years ago, she had stopped her car on a busy highway to rescue some ducklings, which led to a crash that killed a motorcyclist and his teenage daughter.  The conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison for criminal negligence and 14 years in prison for dangerous driving.

As reported by CTV News Montreal, on June 27, 2010, Emma Czornobaj parked her car in the left lane of Highway 30 in Candiac and got out to herd some ducks waddling on the median into her car.  Distracted by these absurd antics, two motorcyclists were unable to stop in time and smashed into the parked car.  Roy Volikakis died at the scene, while his passenger, daughter Jessie, died soon afterward at the hospital.  Roy’s wife Pauline, riding the other motorcycle, was badly injured.  Other motorists barely managed to swerve out of the way of the parked car.  It could have been much worse.

The prosecution argued that Czornobaj's actions were “not logical” and that “a normal person would not have parked in a traffic lane.”  This led me to wonder: had the accident occurred in this country, would our prosecutors have dared to raise these arguments?  I doubt it.  It would have meant accusing a sensitive nature-lover of being “not logical.”  MSM pundits would have had the prosecution disbarred!  How could it not be “normal” to do everything in one’s power to save those ducks?  After all, mustn’t we do everything in our power to save, for example, the snail darter?  Highways, dams, and pipelines should not be built, say environmentalists, if it means interfering in any way with the natural habitat.  Never mind that such concerns are often “not logical.”

Common sense won a round this time – at least in a Canadian court.