John Yakabuski is reintroducing a private member’s bill to protect victims of domestic violence.
The MPP for Renfrew-Nipissing-Renfrew first introduced it to the legislature after the murders of Carol Culleton, Anastasia Kuzyk, and Nathalie Warmerdam in September, 2015. Two years later when Basil Borutski was given a life sentence for the triple-homicide, there had still been no movement on the bill.
Yakabuski says Borutski is a classic example of a failed system that allowed a repeat-violent offender to freely harass and eventually take the lives of the victims. However, despite Yakabuski pushing for the bill last September, it was prorogued.
Now reintroduced, Yakabuski says it would make it so offenders like Borutski would need to sign and accept the terms of their probation and parole.
Yakabuski says the bill would also require those convicted of sexual violence to have an electronic monitoring system that would let authorities know where they are.
Yakabuski says the goal of the bill is to make it so something like the triple-homicides in Renfrew County can be prevented in the future.
Even though there’s support for the bill, he says it will likely dissolve when the provincial election is called this year. The bill may have to be reintroduced again after, unless it’s put forward by the government in power.
(Written by Matt Latour)