Child murderer deserves return to regular prison
Many years ago a young man by the name of Dale would frequently phone me at work from whatever provincial jail he happened to be in at the time.
He was a car thief, mostly, and had a rap sheet as long as a stretch limousine.
One day, not long after I had dropped off some groceries and bus passes at his rental home, I was reading the paper and saw Dale’s name in print after he was charged with some more serious charges than car theft, including assaulting a police officer.
I remember hoping that Dale would finally receive a longer sentence than usual — a federal sentence of two years plus a day or more — instead of provincial time — not because I wished him ill, but because I wished him well.
Thankfully, Dale got a federal sentence and as a result of the excellent programming behind federal prison walls, he was finally able to deal with the abuse he endured on his reserve and other valuable lessons. Last I heard, Dale was working in Fort McMurray, driving one of those enormous dump trucks.
Our federal prison system is aptly named the Correctional Service of Canada, where the emphasis is — and must be — the correcting of the anti-social behaviour of those in its charge.
Rehabilitating inmates makes sense. Most criminals — such as thieves, robbers, drug dealers, fraud artists and even those convicted of sex crimes — will be released eventually into society, so ensuring that they leave prison as better people is good for everyone.
Canadians, for the most part, accept this logic. CSC does a good job teaching inmates impulse control, the difference between assertiveness and aggression and in many cases they are even taught basic literacy. Many learn important job skills too, including carpentry, welding and cooking.
Which brings us to Terri-Lynne McClintic, who was convicted along with her boyfriend of the April 8, 2009, abduction and first-degree murder of eight-year-old Tori Stafford in Woodstock, Ont.
Parliament is in an uproar after it was discovered that McClintic — less than nine years into her life sentence — was transferred from the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, a medium security facility with fences, to a fenceless minimum/medium Aboriginal healing lodge in Saskatchewan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Conservative MPs “ambulance-chasing politicians” in a heated exchange in the Commons Wednesday as they demanded the killer be returned to the fenced prison in Ontario.
NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson said: “The Conservatives’ exploitation of this little girl’s death is sickening.”
Considering that McClintic’s transfer to the healing lodge was raised by Tori’s grieving father, Rodney Stafford, one has to wonder if these MPs think he is exploiting his daughter’s murder? It’s a grotesque charge.
The healing lodge is an appropriate place for an Aboriginal woman raising her young children to serve out her sentence and for those nearing the end of a set sentence to prove their suitability for return to society.
Why then is McClintic taking up one of these coveted and rare spots? It’s not because of good behaviour because apparently the 28-year-old savagely beat another inmate and she’s not eligible to even apply for parole until 2035.
When Tori’s little body was found 103 days after she was kidnapped, raped and murdered, it had 16 broken ribs and a crushed skull. McClintic admitted to smashing the girl’s skull with a claw hammer. She now lives among Aboriginal women and their children at this lodge.
Trudeau has been sanctimoniously pleading with the Conservatives to stop reading the disturbing details of Tori’s death into the record.
How weak. If Tori had to live it, then surely our legislators can listen to the facts and make it clear to corrections officials to send McClintic back to her previous prison and give Tori’s devastated family some peace at least until 2030.
McClintic pleaded guilty to the most heinous crime possible — the first-degree murder of an innocent child. Most Canadians, including those who believe in rehabilitation and treating inmates humanely, are appalled by this transfer so soon after the crime was committed. Do the right thing, prime minister, and send McClintic back.