On Parliament Hill

Canadians were shocked to learn that the Parole Board of Canada allowed a convicted murderer with a history of domestic violence to be released on day parole so that he could meet prostitutes in order to satisfy his “sexual needs.” This decision resulted in the preventable death of another young woman, 22-year-old Marylène Lévesque, earlier this year.

Eustachio Gallese (51) was sentenced to life in prison in 2006 for the brutal killing of his former partner, Chantale Deschenes (32).

According to parole records, Gallese discussed his concerns about relationships with women, but his case workers encouraged him to go ahead and satisfy his “sexual needs” by visiting sex workers. Now, another young woman has died, needlessly.

The Trudeau Liberals have sought at every turn to soften the punishments for serious offenders. This case is further proof of the Trudeau Liberals’ soft-on-crime agenda.

With Bill C-75 they weakened Canada’s justice system by watering down penalties for over one hundred serious crimes – including gang crime, using date rape drugs, benefiting from human trafficking and impaired driving causing bodily harm. They fought tooth and nail against doing the right thing after transferring Tori Stafford’s killer to a healing lodge, and I’m sure Canadians have not forgotten the apology and $10.5 million-dollar payout to convicted terrorist and murderer Omar Khadr.

Earlier this month, Canadians learned that  twice convicted sex offender Gordon Stuckless, was back on the streets. In 1997 Stuckless was sentenced to 2 years for sexually assaulting 24 boys. He was paroled in 2001. In 2016 he was arrested again and convicted of sexually assaulting 18 more boys. He was sentenced to 6.5 years but paroled in 2019. Not only are these sentences woefully inadequate for child sexual molestation, the fact that he has twice received early release only further serves to illustrate how broken our justice system is.

Serious crimes deserve serious penalties. Justin Trudeau’s revolving door prison system is putting the lives of Canadians at risk.

Canada’s Conservatives strongly condemn the Parole Board of Canada’s extremely misguided decision in this case. The Liberal appointed board members demonstrated a clear lack of judgement and must face the consequences. That’s why we’re calling on the Liberal government to join us in condemning the board’s actions and to conduct hearings into the matter, including a review of the changes made by the Trudeau government in 2017 to the board’s nomination process.

To that end, this week, Conservatives brought forward the following motion in the House of Commons:

That the House: (a) condemn the decision of the Parole Board of Canada that led to a young woman’s death by an inmate during day parole in January of this year; and (b) instruct the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security to conduct hearings into this matter, including a review of the changes made by the government in 2017 to the board’s nomination process, with the view to recommend measures to be taken to ensure another tragedy such as this never happens again.

Canada’s Conservatives will always put the rights of victims and law-abiding citizens ahead of the rights of criminals.  We must ensure these types of tragedies never happen again.