Toews blasts loophole that got killer out of jail
OTTAWA — Parole board decisions should reign supreme, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said this week following revelations that a seconddegree murderer was granted an escorted absence from prison by a warden despite a negative parole board decision.
“Individuals deemed ineligible for parole should not be given conditional release that is tantamount to parole through the back door,” he said in an email statement.
“I’ve asked (Correctional Service of Canada) commissioner Don Head for options to ensure that decisions of the Parole Board of Canada are given full effect, both in letter and in spirit.”
He also commended backbencher Conservative Corneliu Chisu for taking on the issue in the form of a private member’s bill aimed at closing the loophole that’s allowed wardens to make such decisions in matters involving inmates serving life sentences without considering previous decisions of the parole board.
It raises questions about whether the government will take over the bill, which has yet to be introduced, or simply lend its support to the legislation which would hasten its passage.
Toews’s comments followed a Postmedia News report this week that a police killer was granted an escorted temporary absence (ETA) from prison even though she was denied the same privilege by the parole board a year-and-a-half earlier.
The so-called ETA was expanded earlier this month by Fraser Valley Institution for Women Warden Carol-Ann Reynen when Elaine Rose Cece was transferred to a halfway house as part of a 60-day, “openended” work release that’s been described as the equivalent of day parole.
Cece, along with her partner Mary Barbara Taylor, was convicted in 1999 of murdering Toronto Det.-Const. William Hancox.
The authority for wardens to make such decisions lies in the “Commissioner’s Directive on Temporary Absences,” which, among others, applies to so-called “lifers” who are within three years of full parole eligibility.
Chisu’s private member’s bill seeks to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to harmonize decisions made by the warden and decisions made by the parole board in cases of first- or seconddegree murder.