EDMONTON – It’s been a week of sleepless nights for some victims of domestic violence in Alberta. They say they fear for their safety now that a program monitoring offenders has come to an end.
“The fear is back. The peace of mind is gone,” said Ian Wheeliker, executive director of the Central Alberta Women’s Emergency Shelter.
For three years, a provincial pilot project kept track of domestic violence offenders with Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, which would alert RCMP if the offenders breached conditions.
The $450,000 project tracked a total of 30 offenders of domestic violence in the Red Deer area alone.
“One sleepless night for our women is one sleepless night too many. And some of these fellows are quite dangerous,” Wheeliker explained.
Get daily National news
One victim, who asked to remain anonymous, says the program has protected her for several months.
“It allowed me to have a safe zone around my home where he couldn’t come within 100 metres of my house,” she told Global News.
The monitoring program launched in the summer of 2011. Offenders were outfitted and monitored at peak times, with an agency alerting RCMP if they breached their conditions.
“The reason we wanted a research project was we want our Crowns to be able to go to court and say to a judge ‘you can include bracelets as part of monitoring in any order that you give and have confidence, with expert research behind it, that it’s going to make a difference to the way that police are able to manage offenders,'” former premier Alison Redford said in September 2010.
The University of Calgary is expected to submit a research report on the three-year pilot project to the province in June.
A spokesperson for Alberta Justice wouldn’t say if the program could be reinstated, but maintained it was never meant to be more than a three-year pilot project.
In the meantime, it leaves victims wishing the pilot program could have been permanent.
“Every night I have problems sleeping,” the victim said.
With files from Laurel Gregory, Global News.
Comments