It's not an option, because they cannot be cured. They cannot go into prison for 25, 40, or 100 years and be fixed. There are no courses to fix these people, because you're talking about such a small minority of criminals: the Olsons, the Bernardos, the Armstrongs, the psychopathic ones who are predators looking for their victims. They can't be fixed, so I don't think there's anything we can do to protect people of this country.
Even putting a sign on them is not going to protect the public. They shouldn't be there in the first place and have access to people. That's the whole point of our government keeping them in custody for life. That's what the courts are saying: it's life. Then they talk about 15 years and about 25 years. At what point...when is “life” life? What do they have to do to justify a life sentence?
You cannot give your empathy and your sympathies to the offenders. That's not fair. We're paying the price every day of our lives. I am so tired after all these years of being spoken to by people from Corrections Canada and other government agencies like I'm the bad person, because I'm making it so difficult for him and I'm causing him so much grief. I have to get the story to the public so that the people in the government, I feel, have to really watch what they're doing. I make sure that the public is watching the government and what you're doing, because if we don't do what we're doing.... The faith in Corrections Canada is minimal as well.
When you say that you're going to protect us from these animals, then do it. Keep them locked up, for Pete's sake. Twenty-five years is nothing. They can't be fixed.
Please stop giving your sympathies to them. I've been told how much grief I've caused Donald Armstrong. I'm sorry, but I've watched my parents, since 1978. You have no idea what it's like for these families and what they're dealing with. Then to be told that we're causing them grief? I don't care.
On your comment about the jail guards, my husband is a jail guard, and I can honestly tell you that he would not question this bill, because if they're going to be bad in prison at 25 years, they're going to be bad at 20, 30, or 35 years. You can't just put a number on it. If you're not going to make life true life, at least give the courts the opportunity to give them 40, so we can walk out and say that for 40 years we don't have to look back.
This is not what we want to live and breathe. This is not our world. We want to do what you do and have families and raise children.