Justice

I don't know which is more disturbing. That a 14-year-old would take a sawed-off shotgun to school with the intention of killing everyone there, or that he would be allowed to walk free from a halfway house only six years later.

The person responsible for the infamous school shooting at Taber, Alta., gunned down a 17-year-old student, injured another and tried to kill many more. The Taber shooting came one week after the horrific Columbine shootings in 1999.

Six years later, the school shooter (now 20 years old) tasted freedom after leaving a Toronto halfway house. Although police and the media released his name last week (while the suspect was still at large) the convicted killer enjoys anonymity once again.

Convicted of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder, he was sentenced to just three years of secure custody.

Despite the fact that the school shooter continued to have violent fantasies and the Crown argued he still posed a "significant risk" to the public, the disturbed individual was transferred to a halfway house this past March.

This week, the killer decided to regain his freedom, walking out of the halfway house. He left behind a disturbing letter saying, "I can't be caged anymore ... if they find me they will have to kill me."

Call me a cold-blooded conservative if you wish, but I had hoped that someone who commits first-degree murder would receive a sentence slightly harsher than three years. I had also hoped that a convicted killer who still harbours violent fantasies would not be given the privilege of being transferred to a halfway house where the possibility of escape is high.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. After all, it was just this summer that Winnipeggers learned that Ryan Horvath wouldn't spend a single day behind bars after driving drunk and high on drugs, leaving 24-year-old Danielle Rouire with a permanent brain injury.

And just this month we learned that the killer of Lynda Shaw had already been convicted of murder, not once, but twice. Allan Craig MacDonald killed a Nova Scotia police officer as well as a cabbie back in 1975. He got out in 1989 due to good behaviour and his new-found freedom allowed him the opportunity to rape and kill Shaw, a 21-year-old university student.

One might ask how anyone convicted of killing two people (including a police officer) could be released early from prison.

But this is Canada, and sadly, we seem to have an injustice system that lets victims down again and again.

The mother of Lynda Shaw is understandably upset that MacDonald was given the chance to kill again.

"I feel that Lynda and our family have been betrayed by a federal judicial system that put a cold-blooded murderer back on the street," declared Carol Taylor.

"Lynda was a victim of our justice system and, in particular, of a parole board that acted irresponsibly in releasing this man from prison."

It is tragic enough when someone loses a loved one in such a way.

But to know that the crime could have been prevented had the parole board used better judgment makes the tragedy that much more grievous.

Had MacDonald served his full sentence, Lynda Shaw would likely be in the prime of her life. And Lynda's mother might be enjoying some grandkids right now.