Killer loses shot at freedom after five decades in prison

A 74-year-old convicted killer’s shot at freedom — following more than 50 years in prison — was terminated once he admitted he’d lied about elements of his Métis background.

Jack Wayne Bender of Manitoba, who is one of Canada’s longest-serving inmates, was placed back behind bars just weeks after receiving day parole.

He had received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 20 years in 1974 after he was found guilty of a fatal axe attack near Lockport one year earlier.

The Parole Board of Canada granted him six months of day parole on April 14 and he was to be moved to a halfway house and granted leave privileges on certain conditions.

Part of the reason officials granted Bender day parole was his apparent transformation in recent years, after he connected with what he said was his Indigenous culture and traditional healing, last month’s decision said.

However, in a May 5 decision that was made public Thursday, parole board officials revoked day parole and said he had admitted to misrepresenting his Indigenous background days after his release.

“However, since the events of April 22… where you disclosed that you had been lying about elements of your (Indigenous social history), your (case management team) believes a more cautious approach is warranted and that there is now a significant concern due to your lack of honestly and transparency,” the new decision says. “You concealed personal difficulties and held a firm belief that your parole would be denied.”

Correctional Service of Canada officials recommended his day parole be cancelled.

“CSC expresses concern that you had not been forthcoming with the professionals involved in your case, including members of your case management team, the Indigenous liaison officer, the psychologist, psychiatrist, elder and others,” reads the new decision.

“There is now a significant concern due to your lack of honestly and transparency.”

Parole board officials concluded Bender no longer met the criteria for release. He had maintained the “deception for several years,” the decision said.

Bender also said he never wished to be released on day parole. Officials said he has a clear reluctance about being released into the community after decades of imprisonment.

His ability to develop a trusting relationship with staff was one reason the board decided to grant him day parole, but that ability is in doubt given his admission, the decision said.

Officials at the halfway house where he was supposed to live no longer support Bender living there.

“The board concludes that there is no viable day parole release plan at the current time,” the decision said.

Bender and his accomplice, Dwight Douglas Lucas, were seen stealing from Michael Raymond Hurd’s parked van in West Kildonan on Nov. 21, 1973. Bender was on parole from a federal sentence at the time.

After the 26-year-old victim and his 20-year-old brother found the pair a short distance away, Lucas held the men at gunpoint and forced one of them to drive to a deserted area near Lockport, while Bender held the other at knifepoint in the back of the van.

Once they arrived at the snow-covered field, the brothers were forced from the van, onto their stomachs, and their hands were tied behind their backs, the parole decision said.

Bender got out an axe and hit both of them repeatedly. He and Lucas left in the van.

Hurd died, while his brother, who was critically injured, managed to make it to a farmhouse to call for help. The victim’s body was found around 11 p.m.

Bender later said he was drunk and on pills and claimed to have blacked out.

The men were arrested two days later and were convicted of non-capital murder — so-called because it did not merit capital punishment — by a jury in June 1974.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca