Terri-Lynne McClintic, convicted in the death of 8-year-old Woodstock, Ont., girl Victoria Stafford, is escorted into court in Kitchener, Ont., on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012 for her trial for an assault on another inmate while in prison.Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press
In the face of scathing attacks, the federal government is calling on Correctional Service Canada to review its 2017 decision to transfer one of the two people convicted of killing eight-year-old Tori Stafford to an aboriginal healing lodge in Saskatchewan.
Still, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it clear in the House of Commons that he does not believe politicians should be in charge of determining the detention conditions of inmates, rejecting calls from the Conservative Party to reverse the transfer.
Terri-Lynne McClintic, who pleaded guilty to the 2009 kidnapping and murder of the young girl in Southern Ontario, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years in 2010. Michael Rafferty was convicted in a 2012 jury trial for Tori’s first-degree murder and was also sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Ms. McClintic was initially classified as a maximum-security risk and jailed at the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont. In 2014, she was transferred to the facility’s medium-security wing after being reclassified by CSC.
Three years later, Ms. McClintic was transferred to the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge for Aboriginal Women, where she is detained to this day in the medium-security wing of the facility. According to CSC, the lodge is located 150 kilometres away from the nearest city of Medicine Hat and follows the “practices, culture and values" of the Nekaneet First Nation.
Ms. Stafford’s family recently found out about the transfer and denounced the move in the media, arguing the detention conditions at the healing lodge are too lax in relation to the gruesome nature of Ms. McClintic’s crimes.
“She is living better than probably about a third of Canadians right now. It’s very upsetting,” Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford, told Global News.
In the House, Mr. Trudeau repeatedly pointed to the fact that Ms. McClintic’s security classification was changed under the previous Conservative government, asking the opposition not to politicize the situation.
“One of the things we see in politics these days is a level of polarization, a level of populism, that is creeping into our discourse. On this side of the House we choose to anchor our decisions in fact, in the rule of law and in due process," Mr. Trudeau said.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale had announced earlier that the matter was under review at CSC, while pointing out that he has no control over the security classification of inmates.
“I have earlier today asked the commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada to undertake a complete review of the facts of this case to ensure that the law and all of the long-standing policies of the Correctional Service of Canada have been properly applied,” he said.
Conservative MPs attacked the government for failing to ask for the immediate transfer of Ms. McClintic to another facility.
“On any calculus, this is a bad decision. When bad decisions were shown to us as a government, we intervened. We stopped rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo from receiving conjugal visits, we blocked child killer Clifford Olson from receiving pension benefits,” Conservative MP Lisa Raitt said in the House.
After Question Period, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer defended his party’s decision to attack the government on the matter.
“The Prime Minister has the ability to reverse this decision and he needs to tell Canadians why he is not doing so,” Mr. Scheer told reporters.