Brian Ilesic’s parents joined St. Albert MP Michael Cooper Thursday to push Bill S-281, which, if passed, would reduce the frequency of parole hearings for people convicted of murder.
Bill S-281, an Act to Amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act (parole review), was introduced by Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu Wednesday in the Senate.
“I’m hopeful that senators will work to move this bill forward and send it over to the House of Commons so we can get it passed,” Cooper, who worked with Boisvenu on the bill, said Thursday.
The bill would mean that an offender serving a sentence for first- or second-degree murder would not be able to apply for parole every year once the board denied day or full parole or cancelled the offender’s parole entirely. Instead, parole would be reviewed every five years.
Travis Baumgartner was sentenced to consecutive life sentences for the 2012 HUB Mall shooting at the University of Alberta that left three of his co-workers dead and another with life-altering brain injuries.
He was sentenced to 40 years without the chance for parole. Baumgartner was the first offender to receive a consecutive sentence for multiple murders.
However, a May 2022 Supreme Court decision could change that, Cooper says.
Canada’s high court ruled that the killer who went on a deadly shooting spree at a Quebec City mosque in 2017 can apply for parole after 25 years behind bars.
The court declared unconstitutional a 2011 Criminal Code provision that allowed a judge, in the event of multiple murders, to impose a life sentence and parole ineligibility periods of 25 years to be served consecutively for each murder.
That means Baumgartner could apply for parole in just 12 years, Cooper said.
“Mike and Dianne (Ilesic) said to me that the only thing that really provided comfort to them was knowing they would not have to think about going to a parole hearing for 40 years,” he said Thursday, “and now it could be 12 short years away.”
Cooper and Boisvenu believe frequent parole hearings further traumatize the families of murder victims.
“We don’t want to go to parole hearings every 18 months,” Dianne said. “Victims do not appreciate that… We want Bill S-281 to be instilled in the government and change parole hearings to every five years.”
Brian’s father urged MPs and senators to support the amendment “and not simply state: ‘Our hearts go out to you.'”
“Multiple murderers should not be permitted to continually retraumatize the victims’ families,” Boisvenu said. “Bill S-281 aims to ensure that bereaved families have the right to mourn in peace.”
“Why is it that year after year, such criminals can apply again and again?” Cooper asked. “Putting their victims through a process that is traumatizing, in which they are revictimized, in which they have to face the person who took the life of their loved one? Where is justice in that?”
Cooper said Boisvenu can empathize very closely with the Ilesic family.
“Senator Boivenu is also a victim. His daughter was murdered. He walks in the same shoes as Mike and Dianne.”
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