"Canada is safe haven for criminals and we have no tracking of convicts after they are released from Corrections Canada," said Holly Desimone, "and this tracking deficiency includes convicts facing deportation." Holly is a crime prevention advocate with a long term commitment to changing laws and improving the safety of Canadian women.
"The convicted criminal facing deportation reports to the RCMP," she said, "and often then escapes custody through gaps in interprovincial policing," where RCMP do not operate, for example, to Quebec and Ontario. "This is wrong to lose track of criminals."
Problems rise because, "two federal government ministers are unable to agree (one: Monty Solberg, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration; the other, Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety) on custody of the convict before deportation."
Visit her blog for the full account in Readers Digest Holly went through a life changing experience from rape 15 years ago in Red Deer, Alberta. She never stopped pursuit of a globe-trotting serial rapist from Iran named Ali Rasai, who expertly transgressed international borders for years trying to escape the inevitable.
Hot pursuit of Holly Desimone made him face testimony in a Canadian court of law and her successful chase ultimately led to his conviction for rape and sentencing to nearly 10 years in prison. She said, "My main message is to report if you are sexually assaulted. Get to the police to launch the complaint. Date rape or whatever, if you cannot report, still seek out medical treatment immediately."
She has been a successful advocate for making changes to laws to protect society. Furthermore, she promotes education for front line workers in rape trauma situations. A necessary program development follows training of nurses and hospital personnel in treating rape victims, she says, and specially trained nurses are needed to facilitate information gathering from rape reports.
"Somebody has to maintain a presence and a steady hand during procedures and all phases of examination." The process requires a better effort to balance physical demands off against emotional support and understanding. SAIN? It is a program taught to nurses, says Holly, which has been limited to a few hospitals in Canada thus far.
Clinical situations for treatment of rape include photographs, swaps for DNA or blood samples, sterile examination and collection of data, after doctors may first be compelled to deliver essential patient care. The discompassionate investigative scenario is disquieting to patient whose victimized body becomes the investigation scene after the fact.
Clothing and other valuable or treasured personal possessions may be seized for evidence, while stark reality sets in when essential personnel leave. An educated understanding of the psychological conditions likely extending to the rape victim has to be taught to healthcare providers.
Rape trauma victims are survivors of terrible physical violence, and crimes like these occur across a wide spectrum of behaviour, and ages, and situations, the entire gamut of human relations intersect. People assisting on the recovery end need to be specifically trained into the psychological problems of drug induced date rapes, or other scenarios that require information for a court proceeding.
Holly said, "Because reporting is rare, the public should be informed of new investigative methods to enable higher levels of comfort while forensic activities are acted out on the body."
A core process is required to distribute widely to all trauma wards of hospitals in Canada. She also wants courts to impose tougher sentencing in Canada. "It rarely goes past 10 years for convictions on rape or sexual assault." Why is Canada safe haven for the world's criminals? "We have no death penalty. Our deportations do not take," said Holly.
Criminals once deported too often wind up back in Canada. "We don't have deportation arrangments to all countries, we have to look at the processes of deportation that rids us of criminals, to make it return them to the countries where they have charges, to face the justice. We should stop treating these criminal deportees as Canadians.
"We should stop drug cartel fugitives from coming in. Canada refuses to deport fugitives to countries that have the death penalty." The question is, why do Canadian authorities mollycoddle criminal fugitives while deporting kids. Canadian authorities refuse to accept any health burdens that would cost the system a lot of money, like HIV carriers.
On the other hand border controls are inadequate to prevent human smugglers using Canada as a favored place for business. Holly wants changes to the Canadian Privacy Act to enable the Privacy Commissioner more ability to consider victims of crime in the information stream about deportations, movements, detainments, releases.
Holly wants Canada to secure its borders, and make the border situation sensible. "Allow them in once it is proven people qualify for refugee status. Make it possible for the ones we turn away to make it into Canada," instead of the current flow of criminals from drug cartels and human traffickers.
She suggests, "Let's help police forces network together," and asks, where is the cooperation between authorities, which includes RCMP, OPP, QPP, and a myriad of large and small city police forces that need to communicate? The Amber Alert program in Canada is operating in only two provinces: this current patchwork causes kids to disappear out of those jurisdictions.
Holly Desimone is an advocate for a national hotline for reporting Sex Crimes, similar to RAINN in the USA; and a victim's protection plan that includes knowledge about which rapists when, where, and the reasons why (they) are being released (mandatory release/day parole/other).
