What should be the role of Canada's modern correctional system — to punish or to rehabilitate?
How should Corrections Canada balance incarceration with attempts at rehabilitation?
Terri-Lynne McClintic is serving a life sentence for the gruesome murder of eight-year-old Tori Stafford in 2009. The young girl was abducted from Woodstock, Ontario on her way home from school by McClintic and her boyfriend. They sexually assaulted and killed her, burying her body over 100 km away. It took months to find the girl's remains.
Now, eight years into her sentence, we learn McClintic has been relocated from a medium-security prison to the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge, which is designed to rehabilitate offenders and has no fences.
Tori Stafford's family is outraged by the transfer. The government has ordered a review, but the Conservative Party will force a vote next week demanding the decision be condemned.
How should Corrections Canada balance incarceration with attempts at rehabilitation? Are there some offenders whose crimes are so heinous they should be shown no mercy?
Our question today: What should be the role of Canada's modern correctional system — to punish or to rehabilitate?