MEDICINE HAT, AB — Terri-Lynn McClintic has been transfered from the Maple Creek healing lodge to an Edmonton prison.
After weeks of national controversy, one Maple Creek local says it’s a huge victory.
Penny Steinkey has been fighting to put McClintic back behind bars for since she heard about the issue.
“I got angry, my friend got angry, a couple other girlfriends got angry, and we said ‘no, we’re not gonna stand for it,” says Steinkey. “We wanted to do something about it, we wanted her gone. For our community and to support Mr.Stafford.”
She and 3 of her friends started a petition to send McClintic back to prison. It now has more than 10,000 signatures, and is sponsored by Cypress Hill-Grasslands MP David Anderson.
They also hosted weekly marches through the town, aiming to get Canada’s attention, and now they’re pleased with the end result.
“It feels awesome,” says Steinky. “We’ve all been over the moon this morning.”
Steinkey says although it’s a victory, but there’s more work to be done.
Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner MP Glen Motz agrees, saying the Liberal Party didn’t take the issue seriously enough.
“Instead of taking decisive action immediately when this child killer was transferred to the healing lodge,” says Motz. “What did Trudeau’s Liberals do in the house, media, everywhere? They deflected.”
Motz spoke on the topic a month ago, saying there should have been checks and balances in place to prevent the transfer to the healing lodge.
Now, although he’s happy McClintic is back behind bars, he says the Liberal government just didn’t do their job.
“It was the right thing to do, but he should have done this right away because if he would have, we could have spared all Canadians and certainly the family of young Tory from this drawn out and sometimes very uncomfortable, painful debate.”
We tried to get in touch with the Neekaneet First Nation who owns the land that the healing lodge is on, but they refused to comment.
