City of Vernon officials are unhappy with Corrections Canada claims that the department’s report on Vernon’s former halfway house won’t have the answers the city is looking for. “I believe the city thought the report would be all encompassing,” said mayor Wayne Lippert. Greg Fortnum, area director for Community Corrections, said he will know in a week what parts of the report will be revealed to council. Council will likely receive a “gist” summary of the actions taken by Corrections Canada based on the report’s recommendations, which themselves will not be divulged.
This is insufficient disclosure for some members of council. “This doesn’t satisfy me,” said Coun Barry Beardsell, “we deserve to know who is responsible and how it will be addressed.” The report to council will likely be made out of camera, meaning that it will be available to the public. “I can’t see us disclosing something in camera that we couldn’t disclose publicly so it will likely be before the public,” said Fortnum. While many people may be looking for the report to appoint blame, the John Howard Society, the group in charge of the former halfway house, is hoping the report will exonerate the society from any wrongdoing. “This is an issue of reputation for the society across Canada,” said Barb Levesque, executive director of John Howard House. “The inquiry has been done and it’s already been determined whether John Howard society is at fault; we want that information out there.”
Brian Lang, district director of Corrections Canada said that although “people want someone to blame,” the report only concerned itself with whether policy was followed by corrections, the parole board and the Howard house. Lang went on to say that that the report “will confirm that (Howard house) met our standards and passed our audits.” At Monday’s council meeting, Lang said that “certain expectations of that report might not be met.” Lang said that most of the report cannot be released as it may compromise Eric Fish’s right to a fair trial. Fish is accused of first degree murder in the beating death of Bill Abramenko. Fish was a resident of the halfway house and was missing for some time before the murder.
Lang said he realizes how the terms of reference for the report, which was charged with “thoroughly and rigorously examining all aspects of this tragic incident,” may be misleading to some. “I can see that people not as comfortable with the corrections system would see those terms as indicating a broad-based and wide-reaching report.”
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Don Quixote Note: The terms of reference news release re CORRECTIONAL SERVICE OF CANADA AND NATIONAL PAROLE BOARD ANNOUNCE BOARD OF INVESTIGATION INTO THE RELEASE AND SUPERVISION OF ERIC FISH dated aug 17/ 2004 can be found at:
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