Poilievre and Doerkson slam cooking class leave for Surrey child killer

PENTICTON — The Parole Board of Canada granted Shane Ertmoed a 60-day unescorted temporary absence so the man serving life for abducting, sexually assaulting and murdering 10-year-old Heather Thomas can take cooking classes.The September 2 decision says he "will not pose an undue risk."Ertmoed was slated to leave William Head Institution in Metchosin for a community residential facility on September 28. Global News reported Friday that date has been postponed. The Vancouver Sun, citing a Friday letter to the family, wrote that the plan may be delayed or cancelled. No public reason has been given..Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre quoted Global BC on Saturday morning and called the leave a product of a sick system. "She went missing while riding her bike in front of her dad's home. 10 years old," he wrote. "And the man who sexually assaulted and murdered her is getting day passes to go free and take cooking classes. The Liberal justice system is sick and immoral. We must scrap Liberal laws. And lock up murderers in maximum security penitentiaries until they die.".Interim BC Conservative Leader Lorne Doerkson, who finds himself in the midst of a snap election campaign, posted two hours later.."A child predator who abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered a 10-year-old girl is being let out of prison so he can take cooking classes," the Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA wrote. "This is not rehabilitation. This is a justice system that puts the comfort of a convicted child killer ahead of public safety and the rights of victims. Enough. Life should mean life. Temporary absences for the worst offenders should not exist. Families who already buried a child should not have to wonder if he is walking free in their community."Heather disappeared October 1, 2000, while riding a bike outside her father's townhouse complex in Cloverdale. Her body was found three weeks later in Alouette Lake. Ertmoed, then 24, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002 and sentenced to life with no parole eligibility for 25 years. He became eligible to apply for full parole in November 2025. The board denied him day parole in January 2025, finding he still posed a risk of serious harm..The September plan would have him live at an unnamed community residential facility under 24-hour supervision, return there each night, and work four-and-a-half hours a day, five days a week, with a Red Seal chef. Conditions listed in the decision include no contact with the victim's friends or family, a ban on more than 30 named BC municipalities plus Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick and Ontario, no unsupervised presence with females under 18, and no internet-capable device without written approval.The case management team told the board cooking skills do not align with Ertmoed's stated long-term plan to work as a plumber, and that employment was not a factor in the original offence. A June 2024 psychological assessment, quoted in the ruling, put his risk of future sexual reoffending at "average" relative to other sexual offenders and said any new victim "would be a pre-pubescent or pubescent female." He began "arousal-reducing medication" in November 2025.Heather's mother, Jody Aspin, told Global she was afraid for other children. "I know what he did to my daughter and I know he will do it again," she said. "And no one should have the life that I have because of him." She told the Vancouver Sun the ruling was "terrifying" and that the board was "basically granting him access to other people's children." The decision itself records that Aspin and a childhood friend of Heather's told the panel he "should remain in prison until you die.".Poilievre has run the same argument on other lifers. On September 13 he used Paul Bernardo's repeated parole applications as "the worst example of sick Liberal crime laws" and said Bernardo should never be eligible. .The Corrections and Conditional Release Act that governs temporary absences and parole predates the current Liberal government and was used under Conservative governments as well.Prime Minister Mark Carney had not posted on the file by late Saturday morning. Neither had Premier David Eby. The premier's authorized account spent Saturday recycling a Thursday Maple Ridge clip on "Built in B.C." procurement. The Parole Board of Canada and Correctional Service of Canada had not issued a fresh public note on what happens next.

Poilievre and Doerkson slam cooking class leave for Surrey child killer

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