FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OTTAWA – Tony Baldinelli, Member of Parliament for Niagara Falls, released the following statement after public outcry from Linda Babcock, who is the mother of Laura Babcock, who was murdered in July 2012 by Mark Smich and Dellen Millard. In May 2013, Smich and Millard also murdered Tim Bosma:

“I am deeply disturbed to see this perplexing pattern within the federal justice system that needs to be quickly addressed. Vile monster criminals like Paul Bernardo and Mark Smich should both be in maximum-security prison for the rest of their lives for the brutal and unspeakable crimes they committed against their victims.

“The soft on crime Liberal Bill C-83, which was passed by the Trudeau Government in 2019, has made it easier for Correctional Service Canada to downgrade the prison security levels of dangerous offenders and mass murderers.

“The justice system must work for and support victims of crime and their loved ones. It should not benefit dangerous offenders and mass murderers. 

“My Private Members Bill, C-342, requires that all court-ordered dangerous offenders and mass murderers be permanently assigned a maximum-security classification. It will also repeal the Liberals’ ‘least restrictive environment’ standard for assigning inmates to prisons and restore the language of ‘necessary restrictions’ that the previous Conservative government had put in place.

“C-342 is a commonsense solution to an obvious problem. Conservatives call on all political parties to support C-342 at the earliest opportunity in the Fall, and we demand the Trudeau Government to immediately reverse the harmful CSC decisions and put Paul Bernardo and Mark Smich back in maximum-security prison for the rest of their miserable lives.”

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