Halifax police have issued an unprecedented province-wide warning about a newly released prisoner convicted of killing two people in a drunk-driving incident.

Michael Cooper was released from prison Tuesday after serving a seven-year sentence for impaired driving, which caused the deaths of Angela Smits and her 20-year-old boyfriend Michael MacLean in 2004.

The pain of losing their daughter has never subsided for Angela’s parents who lobbied Nova Scotia government, police and bar owners to ensure Cooper never drinks again.

“We feel that we have to try to do everything we possibly can to put it out there, preventing it from happening to another innocent family,” Patricia Smits told CTV News. 

Following Cooper’s release, police issued a statement saying Cooper is a high risk to reoffend -- a status usually reserved for individuals who committed violent or sexual assaults.

The justice department says this is the first time in Nova Scotia that a person convicted of impaired driving has been designated a high-risk offender.

Cooper told the Parole Board of Canada in 2007 that he would likely continue drinking and driving, prompting the board to deny him an early release.

The 55-year-old is expected to live in Halifax following his release from New Brunswick’s Dorchester Penitentiary.

“Officers will Halifax Regional Police will check on Mr. Cooper regularly at various intervals,” Const. Pierre Bourdages told CTV News. “It could be once a day, it could be twice a day, it could be every second day.”

The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation said Tuesday that it will warn staff throughout the province about Cooper, who is prohibited from drinking for two years, and is barred from driving for life.

“They’ll all know what he looks like, a bit of background, and also protocol in terms of what to do should he enter one of our stores,” NSLC spokesman Mike Maloney told CTV News.

Meanwhile, the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia says that by Wednesday morning, all restaurant owners and bar operators across the province will have a photo of Cooper.

“If we have a photograph, we show it to our staff, we give it to our doorman on the weekends,” said bar owner Mike Campbell. “Of all the people out there that are undesirable, that you don’t want in your place --- that’s the guy that we’re most keen about keeping out.”

With a report from CTV Halifax’s Kelland Sundahl