By Rick Pusiak
The Justice Over Everything: Making Appropriate Choices (JoeMac) committee didn?t get their meeting this week by federal Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay.
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Lawrence MacAulay |
Delegates tried to arrange a meeting at MacAulay?s constituency office in Prince Edward Island Tuesday, but were told the minister was unavailable.
Committee members made the request for a meeting some time ago as they prepared for a tour of the East Coast to garner support for their resolution calling for the return of convicted cop killers Clinton Suzack and Peter Pennett to maximum security prisons.
JoeMac spokesperson, Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci said he explained to MacAulay?s assistant that the get-together was to exchange information.
Back in April MacAulay committed to issuing a written directive to federal corrections and parole officials stating there is to be no quota system on releasing offenders under community supervision.
That is also part of the JoeMac resolution.
But Bartolucci said there has been no communication from the minister since that time.
?He issued a letter to us saying he was going to issue a directive,? said Bartolucci.
?We wrote back, said thank you very much, give us a copy of that directive. We?ve never heard anything back. That?s what we wanted to question him on?give us some hope that you?re taking our issue seriously.?
The JoeMac committee will be requesting a meeting with MacAulay for early September before the House of Commons finishes its summer recess.
An official letter will be mailed out Tuesday.
Bartolucci, meanwhile, called MacAulay?s no-show a sign of disrespect and likened it to a dodge rather than a snub.
?This one, he was running away from us. We couldn?t have been more compliant. We would have gone anywhere on the island to see him. He didn?t want to face the reality of having JoeMac, who came all the way from Ontario to his constituency, wanting simply to talk about the issues.?
JoeMac members spoke yesterday afternoon (Thursday) in St. John?s, Nfld., at the annual meeting of the Canadian Police Association.
Delegates were expected to endorse the JoeMac resolution which was unanimously passed Tuesday in Halifax at the annual meeting of the National Association of Professional Police.
The JoeMac motion, meanwhile, also calls for an external review of Correctional Services Canada.
Suzack and Pennett were sentenced back in 1995 to life in prison for killing Sudbury Regional Police Const. Joe MacDonald. The officer was killed Oct. 7, 1993. The sentencing judge recommended the prisoners serve their entire sentence in maximum security.
The convicted murderers are both residing in so-called Club Fed medium security facilities.
