EDMONTON - The National Parole Board has cancelled an upcoming hearing for a man who killed six members of a family during a camping trip in 1982.

The board says David Ennis indicated he didn't want a full parole review to go ahead in September.

Another hearing has been scheduled for September 2012 as required by law.

Ennis, who was known as David Shearling at the time of the murders near Clearwater, B.C., was denied day parole after a hearing in April 2009 in which he appealed an earlier decision which refused him that privilege.

Ennis shot George and Edith Bentley, their daughter Jackie Johnson and her husband, Bob, as they sat around a campfire.

He kept the Johnsons' 11- and 13-year-old daughters alive for nearly a week and sexually assaulted the older girl before killing them both.

Ennis was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 25 years, a period that expired in November 2008.

Police began a massive search when Bob Johnson didn't return to work at a sawmill in Westbank, B.C., where he lived with his wife and children. The grandparents were from Port Coquitlam, B.C.

About a month later, the charred remains of three generations of the Bentley-Johnson family were found in the burned-out husk of their car on the side of a mountain.

Ennis's first attempt at a parole bid was denied by a three-member panel at a hearing in October 2008 at Bowden Institution in central Alberta. Five relatives delivered tearful victim impact statements to the board at the time.

The parole board panel ruled that Ennis didn't demonstrate remorse for the killings and hadn't done enough to ensure he no longer poses a danger to society.

Ennis argued in his appeal six months later that his lack of emotion and remorse during the hearing was due to stress from the media being present and from hearing the victim impact statements.

He also said the board didn't recognize that he wanted to become a better person and that he was sorry for the damage he had caused. He argued he had already paid a high price for much of his life for his "mistaken choices."