Child killer back in prison after stint in healing lodge
Terri-Lynne McClintic pleaded guilty in rape, murder of 8-year-old
A convicted child killer who became the subject of national outrage when it was learned that she had been transferred to an Indigenous healing lodge is back in prison, the father of her young victim said Thursday.
Rodney Stafford issued a brief, celebratory Facebook post announcing that Terri-Lynne McClintic, who pleaded guilty in the brutal death of his eight-yearold daughter, Tori, was no longer at the Saskatchewan lodge run by Corrections Canada.
“It’s official!!! Terri-Lynne is back behind bars,” he wrote in the online post.
Stafford told a Toronto media outlet that McClintic had been relocated to a prison in Edmonton overnight, noting that Corrections Canada officials told him of the move Thursday morning.
McClintic became a figure of national infamy after details emerged about Tori’s 2009 slaying.
The girl from Woodstock, Ont., who was missing for three months before her body was found, had been abducted, repeatedly raped, and ultimately bludgeoned to death with a hammer.
McClintic, 18 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty in 2010 and offered testimony that helped convict her then boyfriend, Michael Rafferty. McClintic and Rafferty were both sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole for 25 years.
Stafford learned, however, that eight years into her sentence, McClintic was quietly relocated to the healing lodge, a facility touted as a path to rehabilitation for Indigenous offenders. The remote, rural lodge is listed as a medium-security institution for women.
Stafford, who has emerged as a child safety advocate in the years since his daughter’s death, found himself at the centre of a charged political controversy when word of McClintic’s transfer emerged.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government came under fierce criticism for the transfer and the fact that no move was immediately made to reverse it.
The government said it would review the transfer decision, and the Conservative opposition repeatedly raised the issue, calling on the Liberals to place McClintic back in prison.
On Wednesday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced more stringent measures governing transfers to healing lodges, adding that the new approach would be applied in both past and future cases.
Trudeau said on Thursday that the new rules will increase accountability.
“These changes will help ensure guilty parties are held accountable while fostering rehabilitation so we can have fewer repeat offenders, fewer victims, and ultimately safer communities,” he said during question period.