Commentary, Opinion

The guy next door

August 14, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

“The lady doth protest too much.”

That was quite a valid observation written by William Shakespeare in his play, “Hamlet.”

Whenever trouble has occurred and there is a group of people who are suspect, the person who talks the most is most likely the guilty party.

I guess it’s just human behaviour to try to eliminate yourself as a suspect by acting over the top, indignant about what has happened.

Maybe it’s not human behaviour, but a type of personality behaviour.

The same goes for fires. When an arsonist, who is a pyromaniac, sets a building on fire, you can almost guarantee the arsonist will be in the crowd watching the fire from the street.

After graduating college, I had a small one-bedroom basement apartment in the northwest end of Toronto.

One day, I came home from work, and something set off alarm bells. Sure enough, someone had been in my place and had stolen a small amount of money. This included a jar of coins, some of which were spilled on the floor.

I told my neighbour, then went to the local police station to report the break and enter.

Later that evening, I returned home and was called to the second floor, where a group of my neighbours were discussing the incident and were concerned that an apartment in the building had been entered.

One guy in particular, who lived above me with his wife and two small kids, was indignant that this could happen.

“We have to do something about this!” he said excitedly. Then he kept talking about security and other things.

At the time, I found his over-the-top concern a little strange.

It wasn’t too long after that that his wife cut all ties with him. Mail arrived for him, and his wife pasted a big note in the lobby for the mailman.

It stated this man no longer lived there, and if they needed to find him, he could be located at the Mimico Jail.

It turns out, this guy had a long criminal history that even his wife was unaware of.

I realized later that the big and loud talker, was indeed the same guy who had robbed my apartment.

I had no real proof of this, so nothing was done about it. However, he was still in jail on other charges, so I got the last laugh.

The moral of the story is, it’s good to know who your neighbours are.

According to recent reports from credible sources, including the Globe and Mail, there are almost 600 foreign nationals with criminal records who are due to be deported, but have simply disappeared in the country.

Canada Border Services Agency has lost track of them. There is a total of 1,635 foreign nationals convicted of crimes in Canada who are currently facing deportation.

How can you know if you have a dangerous criminal living next door if federal agencies don’t even know?

That’s almost 600 criminals, some convicted of serious crimes like sexual assault, and no one knows where they are. They could be living in the house next door to you.

Immigrating to this country is a privilege, it’s not a right. When you arrive on our shores, you are expected to follow the law of the land – regardless of the fact that in the old country, it is perfectly acceptable to murder your daughter for seeing the wrong boy. 

There was a case in Toronto a few years ago of a man and woman who murdered their five-year-old daughter, cut her to pieces, and stashed her body parts by the lakeshore.

After they were apprehended, the man told police that since he got caught, he figured he would only spend six months in jail, because ‘it was only a girl’ that he killed.

A check on immigration and the courts reveals some other disturbing facts about how the justice system is handling this current situation.

There are plenty of stories about people committing serious crimes and judges giving them a break so it won’t interfere with their immigration status.

In one recent serious sexual assault case, the judge reduced a man’s sentence so it would not affect his wife’s chances of joining him here.

Wait a minute – what about the victim?

Maybe our elected officials should be vigorously questioned about the current situation, and see who protests the loudest.

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