Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Earlier this year, I had the honour of being asked by the family of Tori Stafford to speak at a rally being held in her name, Life Means Life: A Protest for Change. Tori was an innocent young girl who, at the age of just eight, was abducted, sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered by Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic in Southern Ontario. Incredibly, after less than a decade behind bars, McClintic was transferred to a minimum-security ‘healing lodge’ despite the hein ous nature of her crimes (a decision that, with public pressure, was thankfully overturned).   I wish I could say this was an isolated incident ... but it wasn’t. The truth is, the justice system in this country all too often favours repeat violent offenders, while ignoring victims and their families.

Trudeau accuses Tories of ‘playing politics’ over Tori Stafford murder By Alex Boutilier   ~~   Ottawa Bureau   ~~   Wed., Sept. 26, 2018 OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused the Conservatives of using the 2009 murder of Tori Stafford to “play politics” Wednesday, as opposition MPs repeatedly attacked a government decision to move one of the girl’s killers to a healing lodge. In a tense debate in the House of Commons, the Conservatives grilled the government over a decision by Correctional Services Canada to move Terri-Lynne McClintic from a prison to the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge last December … … in what NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson described as “sickening” exploitation, several Conservative MPs read graphic details of the case into the record. After multiple rounds of questioning, Conservative justice critic Tony Clement described in detail how McClintic took part’s in Tori’s kidnapping, sexual assault and murder. ...