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Local police issued a warning late last week about Harks’\narrival at a halfway house in Brampton, Ont., noting that the risk she poses to\nthe public must be balanced with her right to integrate into society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That wasn’t good enough for Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown,\nwho wrote first to Goodale protesting Harks’ presence, then appealed to two\nprovincial ministers to help him in his quest to get Harks’ sent elsewhere.\nSome community members also took to social media to support the mayor and speak\nout against Harks’ arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesman for Goodale’s office said the minister does not\nhave the authority to relocate Harks, whose prison sentence ended in 2010 and\nwho has been living in the community elsewhere in Canada without\nreoffending since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government cannot simply put someone who has served\ntheir sentence back in jail, no matter how reprehensible their crime,\u201d Scott\nBardsley said in a statement. \u201cTo deal with the most difficult cases, the\ncourts, correctional workers, police and community partners put in place and\nenforce strict measures to ensure the safety of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Harks’ case, Bardsley said those measures included\nrestrictions imposed by the court, the parole board and her halfway house. They\nalso include a long-term supervision order, which Bardsley described as the \u201cthe\ntoughest measure available to prevent high risk cases from re-offending.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bardsley said Harks was briefly reincarcerated in 2016 for\nbreaching the conditions of that order, noting that stint behind bars was \u201cproof\nthe system works.\u201d He said 99 per cent of people under long-term supervision\norders do not reoffend within six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither Goodale nor the local police force would specify\nexactly where Harks was living prior to arriving in the city, nor when she took\nup residence at a halfway house in Brampton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The community became aware of her presence when Peel\nregional police and school board officials issued warnings about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police described Harks, 36, as at an \u201celevated\u201d risk to\nreoffend. They said she had previously been convicted of three sexual offences\ninvolving girls under the age of eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The warning prompted Brown to write Goodale over the\nweekend, decrying her presence in the community as \u201ccompletely unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He went into more detail Monday in a subsequent letter to\nOntario Corrections Minister Sylvia Jones and Attorney General Caroline\nMulroney, in which he asked for their support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am asking for your immediate assistance in our\ncommunity’s desire to reverse the decision by Correctional Service Canada to\n‘dump’ Madilyn Harks (formerly Matthew Harks) in downtown Brampton,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe\nfact that Ms. Harks is in a halfway house instead of jail is a clear example\nthat our justice system is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither Mulroney nor Jones immediately responded to request\nfor comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several community members applauded Brown online for his\nefforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomeone like this should not be in our city,\u201d one person\nwrote on Twitter. \u201cI can’t imagine what parents of young kids must be feeling\nright now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another person thanked Brown for \u201cgenuinely caring about the\nvulnerable innocent children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peel police Const. Akhil Mooken said that regardless of\ncommunity sentiment, sex offenders have fundamental rights that must be\nrespected no matter where they live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAlthough Madilyn Harks does present an elevated risk to\nreoffend, she does remain a citizen of Canada and her rights are\nguaranteed,\u201d he said. \u201cWe as a police service must act to protect those rights\nif they are infringed upon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canada’s public safety minister offered reassurances Monday to a Toronto-area community protesting the arrival of a convicted sex offender in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":187747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","mauthors-michelle-mcquigge","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206848"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206851,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206848\/revisions\/206851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}