A B.C. mother whose 15-year old legally blind daughter was murdered by serial killer Cody Legebokoff, is outraged that she wasn’t informed about his transfer from a maximum-security prison in the province to a medium-security facility in Ontario.
Donna Charlton, mother of Loren Leslie said,” I just want the public to know that Corrections Canada as well as the justice system owes us an answer. They work for us. Number one, we fought long and hard to have victims rights and to be let down this way for a serial killer who has not even said he is sorry? He doesn’t even acknowledge it.”
She said there is probability that the decision to move Legebokoff was a good one, however, is outraged that she was not informed of this decision at all.
“I am not saying – oh, he shouldn’t be sent there. I am saying – one, tell the family. Second, if the public has an interest tell them how it all came about. What is the reasoning behind the transfer? Is it a better place? Maybe the public is safer from him at that jail… I just don’t like how this was done,” she said.
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Cody Legebokoff was sentenced in 2014 to life behind bars with no chance of parole for 25 years for the first-degree murders of four women between 2009 and 2010 in Prince George. The victims were Loren Leslie, Jill Stuchenko, Cynthia Maas and Natasha Montgomery.
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During debate in the House of Commons on solitary confinement in prisons on March 8, Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty said Legebokoff’s transfer by Correctional Services Canada was made “without acknowledgement or notification to two of the four victims’ families.”
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said he would look into the matter and follow up when he has more information.
Black Press Media has reached out to Corrections Canada for comment.
Charlton said she has written a letter to Ralph Goodale as well, to understand why she and the other family weren’t informed about the decision. She said, other people who are interested in knowing why Legebokoff has been transferred, should write to the minister as well.
“The public does have the right to voice their concern and demand that information,” she said.
Meanwhile, Doherty has been vocal in his opposition of Bill C-83, which would replace solitary confinement with “structured intervention units” that separate inmates but don’t stop them from continuing rehabilitation or intervention programs.
Last January, a B.C. Court of Appeal judge granted a six-month extension for the federal government to fix its solitary confinement law after a lower court declared indefinite prisoner segregation unconstitutional.
Aman Parhar
Editor, Vanderhoof Omineca Express
aman.parhar@ominecaexpress.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
