VANCOUVER – The convicted killer of a Toronto police officer has been granted temporary unescorted passes from a B.C. prison, despite warnings from the officer’s widow that he remains a danger.
Craig Munro, 59, was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Toronto police Constable Michael Sweet.
Const. Sweet, 30, a father of three, was shot during a botched robbery at a downtown Toronto restaurant on March 14, 1980.
Munro and his brother, Jamie, spent 90 minutes trying to negotiate with police while Const. Sweet lay bleeding. The police officer later died in hospital.
Jamie Munro was convicted of second-degree murder.
At a parole hearing on Tuesday in Agassiz, B.C., where Craig Munro is serving his sentence at the minimum-security Kwikwexwelhp Healing Village, a two-person panel denied him day parole but granted him four 15-day passes known as “unescorted temporary absences.”
He will spend each of those absences at a halfway house in Kelowna, B.C., where he will be expected to work on developing life skills, said Patrick Storey, a spokesman for the National Parole Board.
Munro will be expected to work with his parole officer and halfway house staff to come up with a list of activities while out in the community, Mr. Storey said. Those activities might include meetings with psychologists, native elders and employment counsellors.
Munro is forbidden from consuming alcohol or drugs and must avoid contact with anyone involved in criminal activity or any members of the victim’s family, he said.
“If he doesn’t abide by the conditions, the parole office can immediately suspend him and re-evaluate the whole plan,” he said.
Several members of Const. Sweet’s family reportedly appeared at Tuesday’s hearing to read victim-impact statements and to oppose any release.
A video statement given by Const. Sweet’s widow, Karen Fraser, was posted yesterday on the website of the Toronto Police Association.
In the statement, Ms. Fraser says that, in her view, Munro is still a dangerous man who has not taken responsibility for his actions.
She recalls the “debilitating horror” of learning of her husband’s death, and breaking the news to her daughters.
“No mother should have to tell give her precious, innocent, loving children such devastating news. I had to tell the children that a very bad man with a gun had shot their daddy and that he had died,” she said.
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