An Edmonton Police Service logo is shown at a press conference in Edmonton, Oct. 2, 2017. Police in Edmonton have charged two more people following the killing of an eight-year-old girl whose remains were found on a First Nation south of the provincial capital in April. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

Edmonton

Police in Edmonton have charged two more people following the killing of an eight-year-old girl whose remains were found on a First Nation south of the provincial capital.

Officers responded on April 24 to a welfare call about the girl at an Edmonton home but were unable to locate her.

Her remains were discovered five days later on the Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis.

Shayden Lightning, who is 21, and Raighne Stoney, who is 36, have been charged with being an accessory to murder and causing an indignity to a body.

Three others were initially charged in the case.

Police are not releasing the names of two of the accused in order to protect the identities of other children related to the victim, whose identity is under a publication ban.

A 27-year-old woman faces a charge of first-degree murder and a 25-year-old man faces charges of being an accessory to murder and causing an indignity to a body.

Edward Nievera, 67, was charged with being an accessory to murder and causing an indignity to a body.

Edmonton police Staff Sgt. Colin Leathem said in a release Friday that the recent arrests will be the last in the case and that the investigation has concluded.

“We want to thank the RCMP in Maskwacis and Wetaskiwin for their assistance with this investigation,” he said. “Needless to say, this was an exceptionally distressing investigation to work on, and they went above and beyond in helping to facilitate these final arrests and bring this file to conclusion.

“While nothing can change the horror of what occurred, we hope (the arrests) can provide some measure of justice to those who knew and loved this little girl.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2023.

Federal statistics show most of Canada’s more than 700 dangerous offenders are housed in medium and minimum security prisons. A correctional officer enters the gate at Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ontario, on Wednesday Oct. 17, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg

By Stephanie Taylor in Ottawa

Most of the 700-plus offenders deemed as the most dangerous in Canada are housed in medium- and minimum-security prisons, federal statistics show.

The data were tabled in Parliament in response to a written question from Frank Caputo, a Conservative member of Parliament from British Columbia.

The numbers say that as of the 2022-23 fiscal year, 580 of the dangerous offenders the correctional service has in its custody are classified as needing medium-security lodgings, and only 99 are reported as having a maximum-security classification

Another 57 offenders were reported as having a minimum-security level.

The Conservative query came after news broke that notorious serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo had been transferred to a medium-security prison in Quebec from his maximum-security lodgings at Ontario’s Millhaven Institution.

The Correctional Service of Canada reviewed its decision following widespread public backlash and concluded that officials followed the proper policy in moving Bernardo. He is serving an indeterminate life sentence and has been declared a dangerous offender for his multiple violent crimes.

Prison system commissioner Anne Kelly has said Bernardo does not pose a public-safety risk and the conditions in medium security are similar to — and no more luxurious than — those in maximum security.

The review also revealed that Bernardo, who was arrested and first sent to prison in the mid-1990s, had already met the requirements to be reclassified as a medium-security prisoner for years — but because he had never fully integrated with other inmates, was always kept in maximum-security.

That changed earlier this year, the review found, when prison officials saw fit to transfer him after he had integrated with other offenders without issue.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has called on the Liberal government to intervene and ensure that Bernardo and other dangerous offenders are forced to serve out their entire sentences in maximum security.

Poilievre is pushing a private member’s bill tabled by Tony Baldinelli, a Tory MP who hails from the region where Bernardo committed his crimes.

The legislation proposes that any inmate found to be a dangerous offender as stipulated by the Criminal Code, or who has been convicted of more than one first-degree murder, should be classified as maximum-security and serve their sentence in prisons labelled as such.

The Liberals have pushed back on intervening in the matter, stating that the operational decisions of the prison system are made independent of government, and that it is risky to cross that line.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2023.