B.C. politicians point fingers as search for sex offender continues

The search for repeat child sex offender Randall Hopley, on the lam since Saturday, triggered political calls for accountability.

“British Columbians are rightly outraged that this individual was released without adequate supervision,” said Premier Eby on Monday.

Premier Eby pointed blame at the Parole Board of Canada, after Hopley walked away from a Vancouver halfway house and removed his ankle bracelet. “The fact he was able to walk away—the parole board did not place adequate controls on him,” said Eby.

BC United’s Elenore Sturko fired back. “The premier needs to stop trying to blame Ottawa for every single thing,” she said Monday.

“The reality is that Mr. Hopley was not on parole, he served every day of his sentence. They kept him in jail because of the risk that he posed to the community,” said Sturko.

B.C.’s attorney general Niki Sharma acknowledged Monday that the stricter, reverse-onus bail reforms her government has championed, for which they are still awaiting approval from the federal senate, wouldn’t likely have applied to Hopley's most recent alleged offences—since those alleged breaches of his long-term supervision order weren’t violent offences.

“That doesn’t mean that there aren’t other tools that are needed for sexualized violence, and we are investing in police resources and making sure that our system can do better to respond,” said Sharma.

Sturko said Monday that the Crown in Hopley’s recent bail hearing likely didn’t oppose bail. That wasn’t the case. Sharma was quick to point out on Monday that Crown counsel, in fact, opposed bail this February when the court released Hopley in advance of his trial scheduled to begin Monday in Vancouver provincial court.

“I’m informed by the BC Prosecution Service that they sought detention for this matter,” said Sharma. “So using existing laws and understanding that public safety was an issue, they asked the court to keep this individual detained.”