Family of murdered Alta. man supporting bill that proposes longer timeframe between parole reviews

Dianne Ilesic, front, speaks to press in Ottawa on Nov. 9, 2023, as husband Mike Ilesic and Senator Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu stand behind her. The Ilesics' son, Brian, was killed in a robbery at the University of Alberta in 2012. The family was in Ottawa for the tabling of Bill S-281, which proposed effectively extending the time between parole reviews for people conficted of murder. (CTV News)

An Edmonton family is standing behind a bill which would effectively extend the time between parole reviews for people convicted of murder to five years.

Dianne and Mike Ilesic's son Brian was one of four people shot by Travis Baumgartner while they were servicing an ATM machine at the University of Alberta on June 15, 2012. Brian was one of three victims who died.

Baumgartner was sentenced to 40 years in prison but the Ilesic family expects he could become eligible for parole as early as 2035 in light of the Supreme Court's May 2022 Bissonnette decision.

They say families of victims "do not appreciate" needing to attend yearly parole reviews and as such, worked with St. Albert-Edmonton Conservative MP Michael Cooper and Senator Pierre-HuguesBoisvenu to propose a change.

Tabled Wednesday, Bill S-281, seeks to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Actso that people convicted of first or second-degree murder cannot apply for a parole review and must wait for their next mandatory review.

The current legislation allows offenders to apply for a parole review one year after the board denies, cancels or terminates parole.

Mandatory parole reviews happen every five years.

"The police [and] justice system work very hard to solve these types of cases only to have their efforts treated without any regard for victims or survivors. This is not right," Mike Ilesic said in a news conference in Ottawa Thursday morning.

Cooper added, "If you've served 25 years, it's probably not going to be next year that you're in a position to be releasable."

"So why is it," he asked, "after that period, every year, such monsters, such criminals, can apply again and again and again, putting their victims through a process that is traumatizing, in which they are revictimized, in which they have to face the person who took the life of their loved one? Where is the justice in that? Where is the balance in that?"

Cooper called Bill S-281, which he drafted with Boisvenu, "the least that should be done" following the Bissonnette decision.

In May 2022, the Supreme Court unanimously decided imposing consecutive 25-year periods of parole ineligibility is unconstitutional as it denies offenders the chance of reforming and re-entering society.

The man at the centre of the case, Alexandre Bissonnette, was handed consecutive periods of parole ineligibility for murdering six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.

A provision passed by Stephen Harper's government in 2011 allowed judges to do so in cases of mass murder. The supreme court characterized the provision as authorization of "a degrading punishment that is incompatible with human dignity."

Cooper accused Justin Trudeau's Liberal government of prioritizing the rights of offenders over victims and said the prime minister should have overruled the Supreme Court's decision.