Prison watchdog says politicians need to put McClintic transfer ‘behind us’
OTTAWA — When politicians use particular criminal cases to inflame their supporters it doesn’t help public safety, Canada’s corrections ombudsman said Tuesday.
While ombudsman Ivan Zinger wouldn’t comment directly on the controversial transfer of the woman convicted of murdering eight-year-old Tori Stafford from a prison to an Indigenous healing lodge, he said he cringes when politicians start talking about crime and punishment in Canadian society.
At a press conference in Ottawa Tuesday following the tabling of Zinger’s annual report, he was asked if the Correctional Service of Canada should consider preventing child killers such as Terri-Lynne McClintic from being transferred to healing lodges, a cause the Conservative opposition has been championing.
Zinger said this is because historically political parties have used egregious cases as wedge issues. Political responses to those cases make for bad law, he said.