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Private Members Bill

Thursday, 27 March 2014 at 05:00

A private member's bill from Oxford Conservative M-P Dave MacKenzie is continuing to make headway in Ottawa.

Oxford's member of parliament continues to push a private member's bill to end authority by prison wardens to grant temporary escorted absences to those serving murder sentences.

Dave Mackenzie says his bill -- if successful -- would give that power over to the National Parole Board.

"With National Parole, victims have a right to be informed, to provide information to National Parole but once it gets in to where the prison wardens control it, there is no involvement by victims even to the notification that someone is now out on the street."

Currently, the parole board can grant any temporary escorted absence until a killer's last three years behind bars -- after which the decision making is then transferred to wardens in the prison system.

Mackenzie says the bill is necessary for victims of crime, who have a right to be informed when an inmate serving murder is to be granted any escort privileges during their sentence.

Currently family victims of murder crime are alerted to appear before National Parole Board for hearings, but still have no input into the decisions which wardens can impose.

Mackenzie says the Parole Board follows a national set of criteria for allowing such freedoms -- and having the decision fall to various wardens could create future problems.

"It is the system that is wrong and that is why I have this Bill forward so that we can fix the system so the prison wardens aren't blamed for things they have done that others might say is wrong."

MacKenzie says the bill is currently at committee stage, and could return for a third reading in the house before the end of the Spring session.

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