Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you to give a voice to victims and their families in support of Bill C-479, an act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (fairness for victims).
I would first like to thank Mr. Sweet and his staff for all their hard work in getting this bill to this point and for his support for victims of crime in Canada.
I would also like to thank Sue O'Sullivan, federal ombudsman for victims of crime, for her submission and I fully support her minor modifications to enhance the bill.
By way of background, I wish I wasn't, but unfortunately, I have become an expert in many of the issues dealt with in this bill by way of personal experience. My sister was savagely murdered in October of 1997. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, as he covered it up to appear to be a robbery, and was sentenced to life with no parole for a minimum of 12 years.
We were spared the agony of a long-drawn-out trial, but it was not until six years later, in 2003, that I was able emotionally to bring myself to even find out where he was located. Once I did that, I became involved in this system and became a “registered victim”, with all its entitlement.
Beginning in 2004, a mere seven years after the conviction, my family and I have endured the hardship that comes with being a victim involved in the parole system in Canada. From June of 2007, when his first application for day parole was denied, to the present time, there have been six parole hearings, involving six victim impact statements and the torture that goes with them. Forget about every two years, ladies and gentlemen. Some of these hearings were held six months—yes, six months—apart.
If I may, I would like to take this time to read some excerpts from my victim impact statements to show the gut-wrenching nature of these hearings and what families of victims of crime have to endure. The first is from September 2008, only one year after his first application for day parole was denied.
“To the members of the national parole board, I want you to imagine the revulsion that I felt when I came home recently and opened yet another letter from the parole board advising me that he had submitted yet another application for day parole. I was told last July that it would be another two years, in 2009, before he would be able to apply again, when the minimum 12-year sentence was up. But, no, I was told that this case was special and an early decision was being requested.”
Then I go on to say in the statement, “There is currently a petition to the federal government, a copy of which I attached, which is asking for parole hearings every five years instead of every two years. It states in part, and I emphasize, that families of a homicide do not get parole for their suffering, and that repeated parole hearings can have tremendous negative effects on the families of the victims.”
There was another hearing a year later, in September 2009, when he applied for full parole and was denied, and another hearing less than a year later, in April of 2010, where he was finally granted full parole, unfortunately.
But the story is not over, ladies and gentlemen. Last July I got a phone call in the middle of the night to tell me that he had been arrested and had his parole suspended. It has now been revoked and he is back in prison, thankfully, but I am now back in this system, unfortunately.
At the time, last summer, I was asked to do another victim impact statement, wherein I said in part, “We all know how disheartening it is to hear the phone ring in the middle of the night, so you can imagine how upset I was to find out by a 3:30 a.m. phone call that he had a warrant out for his arrest yet again. The next day I found out that he had been arrested and sent to the penitentiary.”
In spite of strong efforts on my part and going down many avenues, I have not been able to find out what he did to cause this to happen. Person after person told me, “Sorry, he has his right of privacy, and we can't tell you what he did.” How fair is this, I ask you? As I pointed out in my previous statement, where are my rights and the rights of my family? No wonder parliamentarians have brought forward Bill C-479, which aims to change, among other things, the right to have a parole hearing from every two years to up to every five years. Each time these hearings come up we are revictimized, and we have to relive the events that caused the brutal death of our loved ones.
That brings me to the points about the hearings themselves. As they were held in another city, and for the reason that I had never been face to face with my sister's killer, I chose to do these statements by audio tape at first, and then video tape. I had several occasions where I had difficulty with the execution of these at the hearings. In one case I was really frustrated by the fact that because I had inadvertently forgotten the last part of the written transcript, they cut the tape off before the end of it in mid-sentence. No one even called me to ask me to fax the rest of the statement to them. It was about the killer's right to see it first, and my voice was not heard.
There were also occasions where they were not even prepared with the right equipment to show the tape. I was also not even allowed to show a picture of my sister in the video that I made, as I was told that the hearing was about him, and not her, if you can believe that.
As I mentioned, the true flavour of the hearing was conveyed to me only by the kind person from the victims' group who attended on my behalf. The decision register that we receive is so sanitized as to protect the killer, with pertinent facts blocked out to protect his privacy rights. That is why I urge you to include the provisions of access to teleconferencing or closed-circuit video feed, and to be able to read our victim impact statements at these hearings. We need to be heard, and to be able to hear.
Therefore, I would ask that one thing you consider is an amendment to this bill, because the way it's drafted here it provides for teleconferencing only if the board decides not to permit a victim to come. I would ask that you consider it to apply to all hearings, and not just the ones where the access has been denied. For somebody like me this would have been very helpful.
As I had not seen the offender in person, other than in a 15-year-old picture, at the time of his full parole I asked both the Parole Board and Correctional Service Canada for a picture of him. Once again I was told it was against his privacy rights. This man could have shown up at my door and I would not have known who he was. It was only when I turned to the police that they sent me a copy of a picture of him. This is a matter of safety for me and my family, which was denied to me. I would urge you to consider adding this provision with the other information to be given to victims. The more information we have, the better we can be prepared to participate in this system. This would also include receiving a more conclusive plan for rehabilitation.
In conclusion, I thank you for your consideration, and would say that this bill is a great beginning for helping victims of violent crime. I would urge all parties to continue to work together to allow our voices to be heard.