I was hoping Mr. Teague would be here first to break the ice for me, but unfortunately he has not arrived.
My name is Theresa McCuaig. I am the grandmother of Sylvain Leduc. I'm sure some of you will remember Sylvain's horrible death that was committed in 1995 by the Ace Crew Gang in Ottawa.
I'll briefly touch on Sylvain's death so you may understand the cruelty and the despicable crimes that are imposed on victims. You can tell me at the end if these guys deserve the right to apply for section 745 next year.
Fourteen years ago this week we buried Sylvain. Sylvain was at home with his little cousins watching a movie. One of the little cousins belonged to a gang. She had moved to Sylvain's home to escape from them because she was tired of being beaten up, dominated, used for sex, the drug trade, etc. She had run away to my daughter's home, Sylvain's home, to hide from them. They found her.
We don't know how Sylvain was involved in all of this. We never did get the truth. When they discovered where she was living and hiding, they came for her. Unfortunately, Sylvain's parents were not at home that night. He was babysitting. He was 17.
Three of them stormed the house. Excuse me, first of all they called the house. Sylvain answered and they asked to speak to the female they were looking for. She took the phone, they made threats, and she went outside to talk to them. She foolishly left the door open. As I said, we don't know the reason.
The gang barged into the home and took everyone who was there. The four teens were put in the cargo area of a Jimmy van. They were beaten up. They were told they were going to get beaten so badly that people in Ottawa would be afraid to walk the streets. They were beaten over their heads and shoulders with gun butts. Sylvain cried and asked what was going on. They beat him for speaking. He didn't know what was going on, why they were after her, etc., but somehow he got taken along.
They confined them by pulling the cover off the back part of the cargo van and locking them in there. There were no doors, and they could not escape. Somebody cruelly kept loading and unloading a gun over their heads. When they arrived at a high-rise at the end of town, they marched them out one by one with jackets over their head and a gun in their face. They brought them into a third-floor apartment in that high-rise one by one. As they entered, other gang members grabbed them, tied their hands behind their back, tied their feet, tied a wire around their neck, and blindfolded them.
Sylvain was dragged to the master bedroom along with his little cousin, my little niece. My other little niece was placed in a large closet where garbage bags had been taped all over the walls and floors to put their dead bodies in. The other boy--Sylvain's friend--was placed in the bathroom. There were four youths.
Eleven gang members and associates were in that apartment at the time. Many of them systematically beat Sylvain. Sometimes there were two of them and sometimes there were three. While they were doing that, others took a red-hot curling iron, burnt my little niece on the back of her shoulders and the back of her knees, turned her around, stripped her pants off, and raped her with this red-hot curling iron.
Sylvain died hearing her screams, smelling her burnt flesh, and he defecated when they stomped on his chest. That is the way my grandson died.
Once Sylvain died, they said, “Get garbage bags to put their dead bodies into and bring the other guy out”. Can you imagine the victims who were still alive hearing this? They dragged Sylvain's friend into the master bedroom and began kicking him in the head, and thank the Lord a neighbour had called the police. The police arrived in time to save the other three children, but Sylvain died at the scene.
This was horrible, cruel, premeditated--first-degree murder, premeditation, the taking of a human life in cold blood. It could not have been any more premeditated. While they were in the car on the way to the apartment with the victims, they called to say, “Put curtains in the windows so people don't see us when we beat them. Put garbage bags in the closets. Turn off the lights in the bedroom so we can really spook them.” That is premeditation of the highest degree, ladies and gentlemen.
The people who committed these crimes had committed crimes before. They had a history of committing violent crimes, one of them way back to age 13. Of these 11 offenders, five were young offenders. They went to court, were found guilty, served their 18, 24, and 30 months.
I'm here to tell you they've all reoffended again, and one of them has even been declared a long-term offender, but that's not what we're discussing today.
The leader that night was John Richardson. He was a 26-year-old smart-aleck punk who liked to beat up on people--extortion, beating up prostitutes, you name it. He never worked, never had a job. He lived off drug money, prostitution money, and extortion money. He was feared. He called himself the devil. That was his street name, and the people he hurt so bad moved out of town because they feared him so much, and they never bothered writing victim impact statements to the court or parole boards.
At age 21, I believe, he had five serious charges against him for beating up on people--violent, violent charges. He made a deal with the crown, of course. He was sentenced to 30 months. The judge said he would have loved to have given him five years, but the deal was made because the victims were too scared to come forward.
He was sent to a medium-security prison. He was unmanageable, disrespectful to the staff, cruel to the other inmates, suspected of trafficking drugs while in jail. He would not take responsibility for his crime. He had applied for parole after serving one-third of his sentence and he was denied parole, because they felt he was too dangerous to be set free. The parole board said if he were released before he finished his entire sentence, they believed he would commit murder.
They sent him from the medium- to the maximum-security jail because he was so unmanageable, and then from there to what they call special confinement--I guess you call that the hole.
Magically, somehow someone paroled him. The Corrections Canada people did not follow the process of what they call “gating”, so the parole board could interview him properly, so he was let go. He was let go on his own words, and sure enough, their prediction came true. Forty days later, he's killing our children.
On the night these crimes were committed, when the police arrived, of course, the entire group ran from the building. John Richardson ran to Winnipeg, and there police arrested him when he was on his way to rob a bank with a bunch of little teenaged gang members. He was trying to become the leader of that gang. No remorse. He told some of them in Winnipeg, “I had to leave Ottawa because I did somebody there”. Yes, he sure did.
Eventually they all went to trial, and the evidence was overwhelming. They did not have enough decency to plead guilty. The taxpayers paid for the legal aid. They took us to a trial that lasted, God, about a year and a half. The three accused were on trial at the same time. A year and a half, we went to court. They knew they would be found guilty.
They laughed their way through the entire court process in our faces and knew damn well that they would be found guilty. It was just to waste their time. It gave them something to do. It kept them in Ottawa, at our expense, of course. They were eventually found guilty and sentenced to life. They appealed. They had the gall to appeal. The court of appeal turned them down. Well, they went to the Supreme Court of Canada and the Supreme Court would not hear their claim.
Can anyone tell me why people like that should have the right to ask for section 745—early parole? How can that be? I do not believe these people can be rehabilitated, okay? A few decades ago we went from hanging killers and then to a life sentence, which meant real life, and then that was dropped down to 25 years. Now we are sitting at 15. How can we possibly justify that to my daughter, my family, and those little girls' family? That little girl was in the hospital for three months getting those burns cured.
Sylvain's friend is mentally unstable. He is so afraid. In their minds, they think these people are gone for 25 years. I don't dare tell them about section 745 yet. They are still scared to walk the streets. When they find out that these guys just might be approved for 745, what do I tell them? They're petrified. The little girls are petrified. One has been under psychiatric care since that day. We're talking 14 years down the road, here.
How is it that these people get a second chance at life? Sylvain does not. Our whole entire family has been traumatized and still lives through this pain, and it will forever go on. Next year, if they are successful, all three of them will apply for 745. If they are successful, our family is determined to go to court and read our victim impact statement and to be there. God help us if they all go on in the same week.
I don't know if you know, but a month ago we went to a parole hearing for that young offender, who has now been declared a long-term offender. That was a very difficult thing for us to do. It screwed me up mentally for two weeks. It took me two weeks to get back, because you relive that crime. It's very difficult. If these people apply for section 745 and are refused, they are now allowed to do this every two years. We're going to go through this living hell every two years until 25 years comes along.
If someone who is doing life escapes from jail, or is released on 745, goes out and commits murder again, they go to trial again—wasting our time and taxpayers' money—are found guilty again, and return to jail. But did you know that that new sentence runs concurrent with the old one and that they will only serve the remaining ten years? So the second victim is a freebie. This is not right, people. This is not right. Ce n'est pas bon, ça.
They're saying that the 745 clause was created to give a prisoner hope: you be a good guy for 15 years and there's a faint hope we'll let you go.
Myself, I think the motive for that was to save money: “Let's save ten years of incarceration fees and let's make it sound good”. We'll call it the faint hope clause and encourage a prisoner to be good, keep our guards safer--I honestly don't believe that. I think it was a money issue myself, you know, because it absolutely makes no sense.
Did you know that if you kill one, two, three people, it's okay? You can apply under section 745 if you kill them all on the same day, of course. If you're a serial killer and you kill one here, one there, one there, one there, you may not apply.
Very recently, a father, a son, and a common-law wife placed two beautiful little young girls, teenagers, in a car, along with an ex-wife, pushed the car into a canal, and drowned them all. That is first degree murder, premeditated, with malice aforethought. Three lives.
They will be coming up to court soon, and I'm sure they will be found guilty, because the evidence is pretty good. And these people will be allowed, ladies and gentlemen, to apply under section 745 in 15 years. Is that justice for victims? Does that make sense to you? I find it is a cruel thing for families to have to live through.
Our story is pretty horrible, but there are worse. There are worse. I know there are worse. How do you justify it to a family living with this pain for the rest of their life while the killer gets a second chance?
You know, your statistics aren't that good. I was reading them lately. Many of them returned, like about two-thirds. And as I say, whatever crime they committed while they were out runs concurrently, so who cares? They have nothing to lose, right?
If you want to be sympathetic.... I'm not a vengeful, mean old lady, but do you know what? If I had the choice, my sympathies would lie with prisoners who are dying in jail, who are very, very ill, who we know are too ill to commit any more crimes. I would give them parole.
There is a process in our justice system that allows people to ask for a pardon, and that's reserved for the odd few prisoners who really sincerely are remorseful and want to change their life around. They may apply for a pardon. I say eliminate section 745 and let everybody follow that route.
I'll leave you with that.
