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OPINION: Chilliwack killer violated a condition of statutory release just 1 month out of jail

Mother of man stabbed to death outraged at killer’s early release, now shocked he’s not going back to jail
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Barb Presseau, seen here on Oct. 21, 2022, was upset the man who killed her son Doug on July 7, 2017 downtown Chilliwack was released on Nov. 19, 2022. Less than a month later, Kirkland Russell violated one of the conditions of his release. (Paul Henderson/ Chilliwack Progress)

Barb Presseau was understandably horrified when she learned her son Doug was stabbed to death by Kirkland Russell on a downtown Chilliwack street in 2017.

She was then shocked when Russell was sentenced to just eight years in jail.

All that turned to bewilderment when she learned about statutory release, the legal reality that federal offenders are let out of prison after two thirds of a sentence to serve the final third in the community.

On Nov. 19, Russell was let out on statutory release and was living in a halfway house in an unknown community. Not long after, Barb said she was told Russell violated one of the many conditions of his release.

“Less than one month out of prison, Kirkland Russell broke a parole condition,” Barb told me. “He was put in jail. I, of course, was ecstatic and hoped for a miracle. I didn’t get one.”

That’s because after being sent to Pacific Institution in Abbotsford for an assessment after violating a release condition, Russell’s risk was deemed manageable and he was sent back to the halfway house.

“I am so absolutely disgusted with our justice system,” Barb said. “I have emailed the parole board and the premier demanding the reason that they believe this prolific, murdering criminal who breaks parole in less than a month, can walk freely with no punishment.”

Kirkland Russell stabbed Doug Presseau, who was being a Good Samaritan at the time, a total of 14 times on July 7, 2017. Presseau had come to the aid of Russell’s girlfriend who herself had been stabbed. That’s when Russell turned on Presseau and killed him.

Minutes prior to Presseau’s stabbing, another man, Steven Drage, was killed by a knife attack near Russell and his friends. No witnesses saw the attack so no one was ever charged in the case.

A month before Russell’s release, I wrote about Barb’s shock learning about credit for time served and statutory release.

READ MORE: OPINION: Mother of man stabbed to death is outraged over her son’s killer’s imminent statutory release

She talked to me then, and again this week, because she wants people who may not know about these elements of the justice system to learn.

“He has breached a condition in just under a month,” she said. “Obviously this person is not rehabilitated in any way.”

Barb called to mind the case of Myles Sanderson in Saskatchewan, who went on a stabbing spree while on statutory release killing 11 people in all. Controversy over the practice of statutory release came up after those killings, but incidents like that are quite rare in Canadian criminal justice.

Queen’s University law professor Lisa Kerr says in more than 98 per cent of cases over the last five years, statutory release is completed without the offender being charged with a new criminal offence.

Writing for the Queen’s Gazette in September, 2022, Kerr said the rate of violent recidivism in Canada dropped from 1.6 per cent in 2015-16 to 1.1 per cent in 2019-20.

And while it may seem counter-intuitive, “The purpose of statutory release is public safety: it ensures that inmates do not leave a penitentiary without supervision and structure.”

After a sentence is complete, authorities release offenders and have no say where they live or what they do. On statutory release, the parole board knows where people like Russell are living and they need to adhere to strict conditions.

In her article, co-authored by lawyer Amy Carter, Kerr concludes that even Sanderson’s release was, at the time, the right decision based on a number of factors.

“The board’s decision was a reasonable one for that moment in time. It appears to represent careful consideration of the many factors that are in play when assessing risk and broader goals of public safety in the near and long term.”

As for Russell, Barb was not told what condition of his release he violated and that part is not necessarily important to her.

And the legal reality outlined by Kerr about statutory release is certainly cold comfort for the mother of a murder victim.

“I would think that’s the whole point of having conditions, if you break them, you are not ready in go back to society,” she said. “Why set up all these conditions if he can break them?

“The more people that know that our justice system is (messed) up the better.

“First I learned that eight years isn’t really eight years. Now I learn that parole with conditions isn’t really parole with conditions.”


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