As the 10-year anniversary of his daughter’s murder approaches, Rodney Stafford is worried that those responsible could one day be released from prison.
“It’s not like somebody stole my wallet, stole Tara’s (McDonald) purse, stole anybody else’s anything,” he told 980 CFPL’s The Craig Needles Show.
“They took our child. They abducted her, brutally raped her, and murdered her.”
Eight-year-old Victoria ‘Tori’ Stafford disappeared while walking home from her Woodstock elementary school on April 8, 2009.
Michael Rafferty and Terri-Lynne McClintic were both sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the kidnapping, rape, and murder.
The two made national headlines again in 2018, after it was first learned that McClintic had been transferred to a Saskatchewan healing lodge (she was moved back into prison following public outrage) and again after it was discovered that Rafferty had been moved to a medium-security facility months before McClintic’s transfer was made public.
“I haven’t heard one call from CSC (Correctional Service Canada), I haven’t received any information from CSC, nothing,” Stafford said.
WATCH: What a healing lodge is and why child murderer McClintic served time there
“Nothing in regards to anything, any of the questions I’ve asked to Ralph Goodale himself. I got just basically a common response that everybody gets and really no answers to any of the questions I’ve given since November.”
Stafford says he wants to know how it’s possible that child killers have been able to manipulate their way through the system.
“Michael Rafferty himself hasn’t even admitted guilt yet — where’s the rehabilitation process in that? Since incarceration, Terri-Lynne McClintic’s had 23 infractions. What’s it going to have to take in order for their punishment to stick?”
During Thursday’s show, Needles asked Stafford specifically if he’s worried that one day his daughter’s killers will be released.
“I know that you would’ve been told several times throughout this process, there’s life with no chance of parole for 25 years and that’s what they both would’ve got. I’m sure you would’ve been told by people with the Crown, police, whatever, ‘These people are never going to get out of prison. They’re not going to get parole,'” Needles said.
“Do you worry about that not being the case based on the way that the system has handled the two of them so far?”
Stafford quickly replied, “I can tell you right now, that is not the case whatsoever, and they will not remain behind bars for the duration of their incarceration.”
On Monday, exactly 10 years after his daughter’s brutal murder, Stafford will be in Ottawa to protest. He says he’s pushing to make sure Canada’s most dangerous offenders pay the price for the crimes they’ve committed.
“This isn’t a political thing. It’s a moral thing, an ethical thing within Canada,” he said.
“There’s not one politician within the House of Commons that shouldn’t be standing behind this fight if they’re doing their job for Canadians.”
The Justice for Tori — Protest for Change Round 2 demonstration on Parliament Hill will go from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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