Scheer defends MPs’ use of graphic details

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is abandoning his responsibilities by not ensuring Tori Stafford’s killer is put back behind bars — and he firmly rejects any assertion his MPs are being too graphic about the case in the House of Commons.

Scheer told The Canadian Press on Thursday that he was extremely frustrated and angered by the way he thought Trudeau deflected from questions about why Terri-Lynne McClintic, one of Stafford’s killers, was transferred to an Indigenous healing lodge.

On Wednesday during question period, Conservatives demanded Trudeau reverse the transfer. Many of their questions included preambles that detailed some of the grisly details of the murder.

Trudeau reacted by pleading with the Opposition Conservatives for more decorum.

“I think it was a disgusting and shameful display of a prime minister trying to avoid responsibility on this,” Scheer said in an interview.

He and his Tory MPs felt it was necessary to remind everyone about the horrific details of the crime after Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale referred to McClintic’s role in Stafford’s murder as “bad practices.” Goodale made the remark during his appearance earlier this week on CTV’s “Power Play.”

McClintic pleaded guilty in 2010 to the first-degree murder of Victoria (Tori) Stafford, who was last seen in April 2008 being led away after school. McClintic, then 18, had promised to show the trusting girl a puppy. Waiting nearby was McClintic’s boyfriend, Michael Rafferty, who drove his victim to a remote field where he raped her repeatedly.

Court would later hear how McClintic, who confessed a month later, had ignored Tori’s pleas for help. Ultimately, she was killed by hammer blows to her head.