Sex offender's release opposed by community

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Viola Thomas, president of United Native Nations, is fighting to get a man convicted of multiple sex offenses against young Native boys back in jail for good. She wants the man declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to a life term.

Several community leaders spoke at a press conference on Dec. 18, which was called to bring attention to the release of Ralph Rowe from Mountain Prison in British Columbia. Rowe has served the last four years at the correctional facility after being sentenced to a six-year term for sexual assault.

Federal law requires that inmates be granted parole after serving two-thirds of their sentence, but Thomas is worried that a man with a history of sexually molesting Native boys has been released into the community.

"Rowe has had 38 sex related convictions of molesting 26 young Aboriginal boys between the ages of seven to 12 years of age between the period of 1975 to 1982 in northern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario," Thomas said.

Thomas, along with representatives of the federal NDP party, Vancouver East MP Libby Davis, co-ordinator of the Vancouver Native Police Liaison Society, Freda Ense and Fay Balenay of the Aboriginal Women's Action Network, told reporters that Rowe should not be released.

The UNN president is outraged the Parole Board of British Columbia would consider releasing a man with such a long record of victimizing young Native people. She told Windspeaker she hoped it wasn't a case of indifference to the problem because it involves Aboriginal victims.

In a letter to the new Solicitor General of Canada, Lawrence Macauley, Thomas told the federal Cabinet member that "the trauma both the Aboriginal parents and their children have endured due to the sexual abuse and mental abuse inflicted on them because of Ralph Rowe's molestation will be forever implanted through their nightmares. Releasing Rowe only means that the parole board is putting our large Aboriginal youth population at risk within the Lower Mainland."

The press conference was held at the offices of the Vancouver Native Police Liaison Society because, Thomas said, it is an organization that provides support services to Aboriginal people who are victims of criminal acts.

Since many health care providers believe that pedophilia is a condition that can't be cured and many pedophiles consistently re-offend, Thomas and the others who participated in the press conference are especially determined to keep tabs on Rowe. By urging authorities to declare him a dangerous offender, they hope to see him returned to custody indefinitely.

Thomas said she was alerted to Rowe's release by the Aboriginal member of the Manitoba provincial legislature, Rod Robinson. Many of the crimes for which Rowe was convicted happened in or near Robinson's constituency. Thomas said she has learned that six of Rowe's victims have committed suicide. As a former Anglican priest and Boy Scout leader, Rowe was able to gain the trust of a lot of young boys and their families, Thomas said.

"Rowe used his position of authority to gain the trust of parents and the young boys only to sexually assault them," she said.

Thomas wants to know how it is that a person with a lengthy record of sexual offenses against children was not required to undergo any therapeutic counseling for his behavior while he was in custody. She also wonders about a system that can release someone with a proven pattern of victimizing children if he hasn't received treatment.

The National Parole Board's Pacific Region's director told Thomas his hands were tied by the law. Fraser Simmons also told Thomas that it's too late to have Rowe declared a dangerous offender. That needed to have been initiated by the Crown within six months of his conviction.

Rowe is under the supervision of a parole officer and any non-compliance with the conditions imposed on him by the parole board will lead to his return to prison.

The local parole board seems to agree with Thomas - Rowe's application for ealy release, or day-parole, in November of last year was rejected.