Bret McCann outside the Edmonton courthouse December 12, 2016 after giving his victim impact statement at the Travis Vader sentencing hearing at the Edmonton Law Courts in Edmonton, Alta., on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016.Larry Wong/Postmedia
The son of an elderly St. Albert couple believed to have been murdered while driving to B.C. for a family camping holiday is calling on the Canadian government to reform the Criminal Code.
Bret McCann plans to address the media Sunday alongside Conservative MP from St. Albert-Edmonton, Michael Cooper.
McCann’s parents, Lyle and Marie, disappeared in 2010, sparking a massive police search. Their burned-out motorhome was found near Edson, but their bodies have never been recovered.
Travis Vader was arrested and charged with the killings. Vader, 44, was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder on Sept. 15, however Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Denny Thomas used a section of the Criminal Code that was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1990.
In an October ruling Thomas told Vader he was vacating his second-degree murder convictions based on a legal “error” made in his earlier verdict and then said he was finding him guilty of the lesser and included offences of manslaughter.
Vader’s sentencing hearing continues Monday.
McCann and Cooper say there are many other parts of the Criminal Code that, though deemed unconstitutional, remain in the code.
