Tories demand punishment, not pensions

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This article was published 27/04/2010 (5842 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The Harper government plans to introduce legislation as early as this spring that would stop serial killer Clifford Olson and other senior citizens from receiving old-age security cheques while they are in prison.

"They should be getting punishment, not pensions," Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said Monday after receiving a 46,000-signature petition calling on the government to stop sending Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement cheques to prison addresses.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which delivered the thousands of pages of signatures to the front door of the Parliament Hill building housing Finley’s office, says the government should abolish seniors benefits for all prisoners serving penitentiary time.

Upon release, they would be free to apply, said Kevin Gaudet, director of the taxpayer watchdog group.

Finley would not confirm what type of legislation the government has in mind — whether it intends to exclude all prisoners, or only those serving life or indefinite sentences.

"What we want to make sure is that people who have been convicted of serious crimes like Clifford Olson did not get the benefit of old-age security," Finley said.

Proposed legislation is expected to be tabled in the House of Commons this spring, or next fall at the latest.

It came to light last month that Olson, 70, is receiving $1,100 monthly in federal income supplements.

The Harper government seized on the news reports to denounce serial killers gaining from the public purse.

"I’m as upset about this, as concerned about this, as any other Canadian is," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters at the time.

Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society, a prisoner-rights group, accused the Harper Conservatives of developing legislation in haste to divert attention from other problems plaguing the government.

"They are taking attention off scandals, it’s about moral panic," said Jones.

The government, in the wake of recent revelations that disgraced junior hockey coach Graham James received a pardon from the National Parole Board, is also planning imminent legislation to make it harder for sex offenders to be pardoned.

Olson’s monthly cheques, intended for low-income seniors, are put in a trust account while he continues to serve 11 consecutive life sentences in a Quebec federal penitentiary for the murder of 11 children in British Columbia in the early 1980s.

Families of the murdered children have said Olson’s money should be given to them.

 

— Canwest News Service