The father of the little girl from Granby will remain in prison for the moment: the appeal section of the Parole Board of Canada has confirmed previous decisions which had refused him conditional release as well as day parole.
These two refusals had meant to him last April: the Commission then ruled that he presented “an unacceptable risk for society”, adding that his crime was “imbued with great psychological violence” against a person vulnerable that he should have protected.
Dissatisfied, he appealed these decisions. In vain, because in a decision dating from September 21 obtained by The duty, the appeal division indicates that at the end of its review, it confirms the decision of the Commission to refuse day parole and full parole.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of the other children involved in this horrific affair, is serving a four-year penitentiary sentence for kidnapping his 7-year-old daughter shortly before she died, in April 2019. He pleaded guilty to this charge, although he had initially been accused of a more serious crime, criminal negligence causing death.
However, he did not commit this crime alone: his partner was found guilty of kidnapping and second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 13 years. She appealed her conviction and sentence.
The child’s death and the details of his short life shocked Quebec. It led to the holding of the investigation by the Special Commission on the Rights of Children and the Protection of Youth, created in response to this horrible crime and the failings of the youth protection system.
On the morning of April 29, 2019, the child was found unconscious on the floor of her bedroom, after having been completely surrounded by large adhesive tape, including on her small face. The father admitted having agreed with his partner to immobilize her in this way to prevent her from running away as she had done the previous night. The child died the next day in hospital. The cause of his death was established by the forensic pathologist as suffocation.
The father has been serving his four-year sentence since January 2022.