Legislative Clarification Required

"Individuals deemed ineligible for parole should not be given conditional release that is tantamount to parole through the back door.
"I've asked [Correctional Service of Canada] Commissioner Don Head for options to ensure that decisions of the Parole Board of Canada are given full effect, both in letter and in spirit."
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews

An National Post newspaper investigative reporter published an expose brought to his attention b a public citizen. Kim Hancox-Spencer just happens to be the widow of det.-Const. William Hancox who, in 1999, was stabbed to death by Elaine Rose Cece when she and her lover, Carol-Ann Reynen conspired together to attack the policeman while he was sitting in his squad car, alongside a shopping mall in Toronto.

The two women were charged with second-degree murder, and both were sentenced to prison; Elaine Rose Cece to sixteen years in prison. She had appeared before a Parole Board hearing but had failed to impress her interlocutors with having accepted responsibility for her role in the death of William Hancox; she spoke repeatedly in the second person despite being quietly prompted to speak in the first-person.

Her application for an escorted temporary absence from prison was denied. However, Fraser Valley Institution for Women Warden Carol-Ann Reynen took the liberty under a loophole in the law which permits someone in her position to override the conclusion of the Parole Board, and gave Ms. Cece permission for day parole.

Wardens are given that authority in wording contained in the "Commissioner's Directive on Temporary Absences". Minister Toews has responded to the public airing of this situation to issue his own directive, overturning the interfering decision of Warden Reynen.  And stating his full support of a private member's bill introduced to Parliament addressing the very instance allowing wardens to make such decisions.

This is what one may call, without an iota of sarcasm, just desserts.