Don Edwards' frustration with the Canadian justice system has neared its boiling point, after George Harding Lovie was granted six unescorted passes by a parole board to travel to Sudbury for temporary stays.
These passes account for 72 hours each, plus travel time, meaning that the man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years for the brutal murders of Don's parents Arnold and Donna will be out in public without an escort for at least 18 days.
"I'm just fed up with everything, the justice system, the parole board of Canada, it's all in need of a complete overhaul," said Edwards during a phone interview with Sudbury.com.
"This is a travesty, what has happened to us and having experienced what we have it's easy to tell that it's all about rehabilitation for the offender and not at all about the victims. This has impacted my family in ways that can never be expressed."
Lovie has served 25 years of his life sentence for the murders of Donna and Arnold Edwards on March 21, 1991. He was also convicted of attempted murder of their daughter, Michelle, with whom he had a brief relationship.
At the time of the murders, he was on bail after being charged a month earlier with sexual assault and forcible confinement of Michelle. She had broken off the relationship a short time earlier.
After being granted bail on the charges, he bought a rifle and hid under her porch. When she came out and saw him, she ran across the street to her parent's home to try and escape.
Lovie shot and killed Donna Edwards, and stabbed Arnold Edwards to death, shouting “d'you you like me now?” as he inflicted the fatal wounds.
Don and members of his family attended a number of Lovie's parole hearings - Don himself sat through five of them - and says that he never once felt the process was a fair one.
"When we walked in there, it was as if the decision had already been made," said Edwards.
"He (Lovie) continues to be in complete denial about the whole thing, he showed no remorse. In the Canadian parole system, an offender can appeal an decision made by a parole board but a victim can't," said Edwards.
"I have family that vacations near Sudbury. How would you feel if you were in a restaurant or a grocery store or wherever and this person walked in? It doesn't matter where he is whether it's in my backyard or yours, in anybody's backyard he's a risk and I absolutely have concern for the safety of Sudburians."
Lovie is currently an inmate at the Beaver Creek institution, a minimum and medium security federal prison in Gravenhurst. He will be spending three days at a time at the St. Leonard’s halfway house on Larch Street in Sudbury.
Edwards is concerned that it's just a matter of time before Lovie is granted full-parole and will be walking the streets of Sudbury again. Don's concerns are shared by Carolyn Solomon, a board member with the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime and a resident of Sudbury.
She and her husband attended Lovie's parole hearing last year at the Beaver Creek Institution, as they have a connection to the Edwards family in that they are going through a very similar situation.
Solomon’s son, Kevin, was murdered in 1997 in Thunder Bay by a federal parolee. The parolee also shot Kevin’s friend to death and, a month later, killed another young man in a botched armed robbery of a gas station where the victim worked.
The offender was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for 25 years.
"I can see the (Edwards family's) concern, my offender is applying for parole as well and some of these guys just slip through the cracks," said Solomon.
"My concern is that this person is coming into our community, he's going to be looking for jobs, he's going to be looking for real estate. What if something like this happens again? What are the parole board going to say, 'oops'? The community should be aware that this person is going to be out there again."
As for Edwards, he says there's "no way in hell" that he would ever come back to Sudbury after hearing of this decision.
"If I wanted to go see the Wolves play, no way, no way in hell," he said. "This has affected my livelihood and it's just frustrating to be at the mercy of the parole board and the Canadian court system that has failed us."
