By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Flawed parole system means Shearing still holds all the power over the family of his victims

Apr 30, 2021 | 10:15 AM

YOU CAN SAY DAVID SHEARING SHOULD BE PUT TO DEATH, but that’s just not going to happen.

You can say he should remain in prison forever, but according to the sentence he was given, he will continue to receive opportunities to apply for parole.

And for every time his case comes up before the Parole Board of Canada, the family of the Johnsons and Bentleys will be put through hell yet again.

By now, the story is well-known.

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Shearing killed six members of the same family, two each from three generations, in 1982. Before killing the young girls, he held them captive for a week, doing unspeakable things to them.

It was more than a year later that he was finally apprehended.

Pleading guilty, Shearing received six life sentences to be served concurrently, with no chance of parole for 25 years.

In 2016, the last time he had a chance to apply for parole, Shearing waived his right to a hearing. His motivation for doing that is unclear, but the result was at the very least merciful to the family.

Fast forward five years later and Shearing has a hearing scheduled for July. This time, he wants out.

While Shearing has the right to apply for parole, it falls on the family of his victims to act as the prosecution, convincing the board that he should remain behind bars.

Rather than doing their best to erase Shearing from their minds, family members have to dig deeper into his life.

They have to absorb reports of how he has acted and what he has said during his jail term so they can effectively argue he should not be allowed out.

They have to share their story over and over again in order to accumulate signatures on a petition measuring public sentiment.

It’s agonizing, but it’s what the system forces them to do.

In cases as heinous as this one, the job of arguing for continued incarceration should not fall to the already-devastated family.

Public prosecutors, corrections officials and psychologists, police officers both past and present, and interested members of the public should band together to shield the family from this re-victimization, taking on the argument themselves.

Otherwise, the power to either terrorize or spare this family will always lie with David Shearing — whether he’s in prison or not.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.