Currently in Canada, one hundred percent of child murderers are eligible for parole, whereas by contrast, zero percent of their victims are eligible for another chance at life. Parole eligibility for committing murder in Canada mandates twenty-five years of prison time before ever becoming eligible for parole. Even those charged and found guilty of second-degree murder warrants judges to set parole eligibility between ten and twenty-five years. While eligibility is fixed, actual release depends on the Parole Board of Canada physically granting parole by considering a variety of risk factors pursuant to the crime committed. Typically, the Parole Board of Canada denies up to seventy percent of offenders during their first review, however, deliquents on full parole for murder have a very high success rate, with roughly ninety percent completing their supervision without returning to custody for a new offense. Therefore, there is no real percentage of offenders who get parole; rather it is about serving mandatory minimum times before ever being considered, with the final decision being based on rehabilitation and risk assessment. We are therefore, tempted to label this as procurante behaviour on behalf of our government and legal system. In Canadian law, precedent is the principle of stare decisis, meaning courts must follow decisions from higher courts in their jurisdiction and generally follow their own past rulings to ensure consistency, predictability and fairness in the law, creating a binding hierarchy. This system builds the common law, ensuring similar cases are treated similarly and allowing for the orderly development of law, though courts can depart from precedent only for compelling reasons. Hence, it would be remiss to not acknowledge that Canadian laws are enforced primarily based on precedent. To this, we implore, at what cost and to whom?

In Canada, repeat sexual offenders have significantly higher recidivism rates than those who commit murder, with sexual offenders re-offending about thirty-seven percent of the time after fifteen years and first time offenders, nineteen percent of the time. This means that overall, sexual offenders re-offend sexually within five years. By all appearances, the current framework of the Canadian legal system is coincidentally set up in a way that we are sacrificing the safety and livelihoods of our children, only to protect the sordid reputations of pedophilic and/or abusive adults.

Without being sardonic, we would like to consider that a "life sentence" of twenty five years is not only outdated, but is harmful and offensive. Eligibility for parole after fifteen years served, would be laughable if it were not so painful to surviving family members, the lawful citizens of Canada and the reputation of our beautiful country. It would also be negligent to not also question the ramifications this has on deterring potential perpetrators from moving their complex and depraved desires from fantasy to reality. In a sample of convicted rapists, seventy percent reported having sexual fantasies related to rape, with sixty-seven percent having these fantasies on a daily basis. The prevalence of fantasies is particularly high among serial offenders. In fact, fifty-eight percent of sex offenders were found to have had sexually related fantasies before the age of eighteen, which they later acted out on. 

Outdated laws aside, it is also incomprehensible that the National Sex Offender Registry is not accessible to the general pubic due to laws and acts that protect the rights of those convicted of indecent crimes against children. At what point does a citizen of Canada become merely an unlawful, sick individual who has proven (often times, repeatedly) that they are either unable or unwilling to eradicate their desires and that those desires far outweigh the very laws that are meant to govern our people?

The safety of our citizens, particularly our children, is one of Canada's paramount principles that is revered worldwide. As such, we commend the "Institutional Mother-Child Program" however, we strongly recommend that convicted offenders of crimes against children, most notably, sexual, be removed from prisons that offer the program immediately and permanently. While we agree that there are plenty of benefits to the participants of the program and the greater society as a whole, there is zero evidence that supports a child benefiting from living in close proximity to a sexual predator. Sexual predators are widely known to be opportunistic, advantageous and power driven. Despite the fact that more than fifty-two percent of sexual assaults against adults and children are committed by friends and acquaintances, twenty percent victimize complete strangers when the opportunity presents itself. Irregardless, we cannot deny nor ignore that whether it be at the hands of a stranger or a trusted adult, the damage and lasting effects of abuse, namely sexual, are life long, if not life ending.

 It is not only ignorant, but dangerous, to not consider the message we are sending to probable perpetrators when the current laws allow for the opportunity to fatally harm a child yet still have the undue and unjust right to potentially rejoin society within fifteen-twenty five years. This is particularly infuriating and incomprehensible when you consider the fact it can take as little or as long as two days for the organs of a dead body to start to liquify and up to fifteen years to reach skeletonization and in many instances, longer. This means that there have been many cases in which a child murderer has been paroled or released into society before their victim's body has even had time to rot.

Much like we treat other fundamental rights, such as medical health, we, the people, believe that prevention is key. It is far more suitable to operate from the position of research and logic than it is compassion, chance and/or precedent. Without sounding pontifical, to not reconsider the laws and rights surrounding our children (and the people who *choose* to harm them) is not only permissive, but pernicious. It is destructive to the livelihoods of surviving family members and to our society. It also erodes our faith and trust in law enforcement and the legal system as a whole. We ask the government of Canada to put forth a motion to set a new precedent, with laws that are more up to par with not only time served, but by the severity of the crimes and those it affects.

" I am a Canadian,

 a free Canadian,

free to speak without fear,

free to worship in my own way,

free to stand for what I believe wrong,

or free to choose those

who shall govern my country.

This heritage of freedom

I pledge to uphold

for myself and all mankind."

                  ----- John Diefenbaker, 13th Prime Minister June 21 1957- April 22 1963

Signed,