Mr. Speaker, Helen Betty Osborne, a 19-year-old Métis girl, was brutally murdered in 1971 in The Pas, Manitoba. Sixteen years later Dwayne Archie Johnston was the only person convicted for the crime and sentenced to a life sentence with no eligibility of parole for ten years. An aboriginal justice inquiry also determined that the murder was clearly motivated by racism.
Today, only seven years after his conviction, Mr. Johnston is out on day parole and can enjoy his weekends outside the prison. Newspaper reports state that there are a number of serious factual errors in the parole board's file on Mr. Johnston and that he "narrated his version of events in an emotionally flat, bland manner, as if rehearsed".
I strongly urge the parole board to seriously re-examine its decision to allow Mr. Johnston day parole.