Vader case: What it's like to watch a parole hearing if you're the son of homicide victims

On the other side of the planet, Bret McCann, whose parents went missing and died in the 2010s, sat anxiously as the man convicted in their deaths pleaded for parole.

“I wasn’t sure which way it was going to go, but I think they did the right thing,” he told CTV News during a videocall from Australia, where he lives.

A parole board has denied Travis Vader day parole on Thursday, noting that his “community supervision history is very poor” and that his “risk to the public would be undue” at this point in his sentence.

In 2017, Vader was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of Lyle and Marie McCann.

The couple, who were in their 70s, disappeared in 2010 after leaving their St. Albert, Alta., home, a small community near Edmonton. Their burned-out motorhome and vehicle they were towing were found days later, west of the city, but their bodies were never found. It’s not known how the couple was killed.

Following a lengthy and high-profile legal process, Vader was initially charged with first-degree murder, but a mistrial was declared, and the murder charges were stayed.

Vader has never admitted to killing the McCanns and maintained his innocence during the hearing. The board also took that into consideration in its decision.

“Vader has never acknowledged his guilt and as a part of that he’s never revealed what happened and what happened to my parents and what happened to their remains. And so that was the kind of message I was trying to get across,” said McCann.

“’No body, no parole’ laws have been introduced in Australia as a way of trying to bring closure to the families of murder victims. The U.K. is considering such action as well,” he said in a statement released by the family to the parole board.

“In our opinion, such a law should be implemented in Canada.”

In 2019, Sturgeon River-Parkland MP Dane Lloyd introduced a private member’s bill called “McCann’s law” to lengthen sentences or block parole for convicted killers who don’t reveal what happened to their victims. It did not pass.

“It’s a bill that I’m continuing to advocate for,” said Lloyd.

“I’m running on it in the next election, and I have the support of my Conservative colleagues to pass this legislation when we hopefully form government after the next election.”

Bret says he is hopeful the bill will pass. But for now, he will continue to attend future parole hearings.

“At least we're now more familiar with the process and we can participate and have our say in the future.”