From the Department of Glaringly Obvious Headlines

"Man who beheaded bus passenger remains 'a serious risk'"

You don't say?

Remember the story from last July out of Canada about the deranged man on a Greyhound bus who picked a sleeping fellow passenger at random, then proceeded to saw the victim's head off with a knife while the rest of the passengers merely stood by like sheep and watched?

Would you believe that the Canadian justice system actually considered releasing the man after a little more than a year in custody? We didn't either, until we saw it in print:

"A judge ruled in March that Li suffered from untreated schizophrenia and did not realize that killing McLean was wrong.

Li's case was then handed over to the province's review board to decide whether he should be given an unconditional discharge, released with conditions or continue to be kept in a mental health facility."

It's absolutely mind-boggling that the first two options were even on the table, especially after such a short period of treatment. How dare they seriously consider letting such a dangerous lunatic back out onto their streets so soon after what he did to an innocent person, especially given that he doesn't really seem to be working very hard at rehabilitating himself?:

"[The board] also says Li has a history of refusing treatment for his illness and has shown 'unpredictable, threatening, impulsive and anti-social behaviour.'"

Sounds like the perfect candidate to quickly foist back onto society.

As if that weren't bad enough, the "authorities" up there seem to have been more concerned with the privacy rights of the murderer, Vince Li, than with letting the public (as well as the family of the victim, Tim McLean) in on their decision-making process:

"The board initially said it might not release the reasons for its decision out of concern for Li's privacy rights. Following an outcry from McLean's family and others, the board decided to make its detailed decision public."

A country that bars law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for self-defense against just this sort of horrific, unpreventable random violent crime, secretly ponders cutting the perpetrator loose after little more than a year with only a few unspecified "conditions", and then doesn't bother to inform the victim's family or the public (which just might want to know about the possibility of such a man being released back into their midst) about the particulars of their decision until a mighty uproar is raised.

Canada sounds like a charming place to live. Very enlightened and progressive, and a country that's continually pointed out to Americans as a model of successful governance.

We should emulate them forthwith.