N.B. Sex Offender Won't Explain Suspension From Sex Treatment Program
By Judy Monchuk
Originally published by The Canadian Press, April 25, 2001
CALGARY (CP) — Former youth jail guard Karl Toft will not explain to the National Parole Board why he was pulled from a sex offender treatment program and returned to prison just months before his release date. And that could extend his time behind bars until 2003.
Toft, one of New Brunswick's most notorious sex offenders, sent word to the parole board Wednesday he did not want to appear before a hearing Thursday.
"The board members will make a decision without benefit of a face-to-face interview," said board spokesman Irene Fraser, regional manager of community relations.
"Their decision will be based on file information available to them."
Toft, 64, was to explain his suspension last month from a treatment program at the Alberta Hospital near Edmonton. At a parole hearing in 1999, Toft said he still fantasized about having sex with young boys, but that he would not act on those urges if released.
Toft is to be released from Bowden Institution in central Alberta on full parole in August after serving two-thirds of a 13-year sentence.
Toft will stay in prison until 2003 if the three-member board revokes his parole.
Their decision could come as early as Friday.
Toft was convicted in 1992 of more than 30 sex offences involving boys in his care at the Kingsclear youth jail near Fredericton during the 1960s and '70s.
One of Toft's victims says the convicted pedophile should never be released from prison.
"He was entrusted to take care of us—to keep our bodies and our minds together," said the man, 46, who lives in Saint John, N.B.
"If he does come to New Brunswick, he won't be safe down here," said the man, who did not want to be named. "I won't go looking for him, but if he darkens my door, you won't have to worry about ever putting him back in jail, they'll be putting him in a hole. I'm sure there are a thousand other guys who feel the same way."
The board could also opt to allow Toft's full parole in August, but attach stringent conditions such as banning him from being near anyone under 16.
Norm Bosse, a lawyer who represents dozens of Toft's now-grown victims, says Toft has left the parole board few options.
"I suspect he's at the point now where if he can't control the system he's just going to withdraw and not appear at these hearings and suffer the consequences," Bosse said from Saint John.
"I think the board will have no (option) but to say 'If he's not going to show us any remorse—show us that he's trying—then why should we release him?'"
Bosse said Toft has also made it difficult for society.
"If and when he gets out, we have to believe that this man has not been rehabilitated. He's still a threat to young kids out there."
The New Brunswick government has twice offered compensation to those abused by Toft or others at Kingsclear. More than 400 men have applied for compensation and the province has paid out more than $10 million to about 280 of the victims.
For the past year, an RCMP task force has been investigating hundreds of new allegations against Toft and others. No charges have been laid.
