Protecting young offenders under the Youth Criminal Justice Act

CALGARY – Alberta Justice says it will take some time to determine if the Youth Criminal Justice Act was breached in a public disclosure regarding Canada’s youngest multiple killer.

The case involves a Medicine Hat girl convicted of three counts of first degree murder. At the age of 12 she and her boyfriend brutally murdered her parents and 8-year-old brother in 2006. The girl is now 18 years old and well into her planned reintegration program.

Specific information was released Wednesday regarding the post secondary institution the girl is attending in Calgary.

The issue has raised the question – does the public agree with the protection offered to these serious offenders under the Youth Criminal Justice Act?

Some university students say no.

“Ya, I would want to know if she was going to my institution for sure. A don’t think she’s necessarily a danger but I think we have the right to know,” says one male student.

“When they let people know who she is then she’s more prone to being identified as the person she was then probably being attacked for that,” says the student.

According to a non-scientific poll on Global Calgary’s website, 85 per cent of people feel young offenders convicted of serious crimes like murder should not be protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Criminal defence lawyer and former Crown prosecutor Balfour Der finds those results unsettling.

“It makes me shake my head and think, gosh people, we have this mob mentality.”

“What do they want, a brand on someone’s forehead?”

Der says these young offenders are protected under the act for a good reason.

“We know a child at 12 or 13 hasn’t the development to make decisions and to hold that against them for the rest of their life I think is just plain wrong.”

The issue is black and white in law but has many members of the public in debate.  

What do you think? Vote in Global Calgary’s poll below: