Confused thinking makes for bad law
The Honorable Madam Justice Mary Humphries' refusal to consider Ryan Cran's killing of a gay man in a Vancouver cruising area as a hate crime
(see my post from earlier today) shows up one of the many flaws of hate crimes legislation.
To be considered a hate monger, you practically need to yell out, in front of multiple witnesses, that you're killing "buddy" because he's gay. Under this reasoning, quiet but deeply evil people who look forward to killing again would go to jail for a short time, while better socialized extroverts would be incarcerated for much longer periods. It's just nonsensical.
I refuse to create that kind of hierarchy of murder: I do not accept that killing someone because they looked at you funny (or because they were rude, or they owed you money or stole your spouse away), is any worse or better than killing someone because they're gay. Murder is murder. And in Cran's case, manslaughter is manslaughter.
ADDENDUM See also my
previous post on the Cran sentencing decision.