Ombudsman: Parole laws need updating

OTTAWA, Quebec, July 31 (UPI) -- Canada's ombudsman for crime victims called for legal changes following the release of a Montreal Internet sex predator who served one year of his sentence.

Steve Sullivan's letter to Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said Canada's accelerated parole-review provisions giving first-time federal offenders convicted of "non-violent offenses" a chance at early parole needed updating.

"When these (accelerated parole) provisions were created, the Internet and luring were not on legislators' minds," said Sullivan in his role as federal ombudsman. "The law has to be updated to reflect the new reality of how predators can access our children. It is shocking."

Sullivan's objection came in response to the highly publicized case of Joshua Innes, CanWest news service reported Thursday.

Innes was convicted of blackmailing two Alberta teens into stripping for him online. He was recently released on parole after serving one year of a nine-year sentence. Courts had called the crime "unprecedented" and "premeditated torture" equivalent to a physical assault because of the great psychological impact, CanWest said.