Best to keep politics out of decisions such as McClintic’s move

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on October 6, 2018.

The judicial decision to allow convicted child killer Terri-Lynne McClintic to serve the remainder of her sentence in an Indigenous healing lodge near Maple Creek has stoked outrage among residents there and across Canada, on which the parliamentary Conservatives have seized.

Indeed, the optics of McClintic, who was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty in 2010 to murdering eight-year-old Tori Stafford in Woodstock, Ont., staying in a lodge intended for women who have been through traumatic experiences are poor.

It’s quite reasonable to suggest this was an erroneous decision on the part of Correctional Service Canada, given the horrific crime of which McClintic was found guilty.

But to say that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is somehow responsible for this decision, as the federal Tories have done, is hyperbolic at best.

An independent judiciary is a fundamental component of our democracy. It may not always make decisions that we like, but it is highly anti-democratic for the executive and legislative branches to tell the judiciary what decisions to make.

As University of British Columbia law professor Benjamin Perrin wrote in yesterday’s Globe and Mail, “The separation of powers between legislators and judicial and administrative decision-makers is vital to safeguard the rule of law.

“To stay the hand of vengeance is not easy. That’s why we have an independent justice and corrections system that’s insulated from political pressures.”

They can make suggestions, as Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has done in asking the corrections commissioner to review the transfer, but it would be inappropriate for the federal government to involve itself in sentencing decisions.

Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz told the News that Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has the authority to reverse Correctional Service’s decision to approve the transfer.

Saying Wilson-Raybould has the authority to interfere in the administration of justice isn’t the same as saying she ought to exercise it.

Postmedia’s Christie Blatchford — who’s by no stretch of the imagination a bleeding-heart left winger — defended the decision to move McClintic to a healing lodge, citing McClintic’s co-operation with the authorities and the murderer’s own history of abuse.

This in no way, shape or form justifies what she did to the Stafford family, but does provide some hints as to the reasoning behind her transfer to a healing lodge.

“Those two little girls, the dead one and the killer, have melded in my mind somehow,” wrote Blatchford.

“One can’t be saved or helped or even made half-whole. Maybe the other one can be.”

Information on the reasoning behind Correctional Service’s approval of the transfer is scant, due to confidentiality issues, which makes this case such a convenient political football for the Conservatives.

But the administrators of justice must have decided that McClintic doesn’t pose as great a threat to public safety as she did when she was originally sentenced.

It’s not like the healing lodge is some sort of resort. It’s an isolated facility in the middle of a forest in rural Saskatchewan monitored by staff 24-hours a day. If a resident’s behaviour is considered unmanageable, they’re transferred back to prison.

The public safety minister made the right call to order a simple review of the decision, rather than imposing the Tories’ will on the judicial system.

(Jeremy Appel is a News reporter. To comment on this and other editorials, go to https://www.medicinehatnews.com/opinions.)

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