IT HAS BEEN 30 YEARS

 IT HAS BEEN 30 YEARS

By Lisa Freeman
  It has been 30 years since the murder of my father on a cold winter evening in February of 1991. John 'Terry' Porter was on parole for another crime when he axed my father, Roland Slingerland, to death in Oshawa- my Dad was the maintenance man for some rooming houses when Porter came looking for a former girlfriend. The woman had been moved to another location for her own protection, my father knew where she was, but refused to tell him. Terry Porter took an axe, roofer's hatchet and hammer and mercilessly attacked my father, hacking him to death. I was 21 years old at the time, and I identified my father a few hours later. Terry Porter was charged with first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, no eligibility for parole for 25 years.
There is nothing I can utilize that could accurately measure the impact that my father's murder has had on me- not only did Terry Porter leave his finger prints at the crime scene but all over my life as well.  For the first two decades I would rarely speak of this crime to anyone- Terry Porter was incarcerated, there were no support services for crime victims as there is now, so I moved on with my life as best I could, trying to look ahead of me rather than behind.  In 2012, at the 21-year point of his sentence, the parole process for Terry Porter began to unfold with his application for escorted temporary absences from the penitentiary in Kingston. Despite it widely being reported that a life sentence carries an automatic no eligibility period for 25 years, this is untrue- parole begins at the 21-year mark.
For the first time in two decades, I would see my father's killer again, this time in board room at a prison in Kingston, when I would stand in front of him and read my victim impact statement. There was nothing to guide me on how to best write an impact statement except guidelines from the Parole Board- and I was shocked that they instructed me to 'keep my statement short- about 10 minutes when read aloud.' No, I told them, my statement will be as long as it needs to be, because I am more than a 'ten-minute victim'. I was told that I would deliver my statement whilst seated, and at the beginning of the hearing; and I said no, pushed for and was allowed to stand to read my statement at the end of the hearing. I wanted to make sure my voice, not the offender's, was the last they heard before they made any decisions. Even though I did my best to prepare myself before I got to the hearing, nothing could ever prepare me for what happened inside the room that day when one of the panelists introduced me twice, by full name, to the room, and in front of my father's killer. Not one person at the parole board told me that they would say my name in front of Terry Porter that day, no one had thought to ask me if I wanted to be identified, or how I would like to be introduce, if at all. I received an apology letter from the head of the Parole Board of Canada for the distress they caused me that day, but that wasn't enough, I wanted change, and I wanted to make sure no one would ever have to go through what I experienced.
That person who rarely spoke of the murder of her father for two decades was long gone -I took my story to the media and it marked the first of four times I would be on the front page of the Toronto Sun. In 2014 a bill was passed in Parliament to change the policies and procedures of the Parole Board of Canada to better reflect the needs of victims of crime, specifically how they want to be addressed, or not addressed at all at Parole hearings.
When the Covid 19 pandemic affected parole hearings and stripped victims of crime of their right to attend hearings to present statements, but at the same time allowed offenders to participate by video link , I, along with Oshawa MP Colin Carrie and Quebecois Senate Pierre Hughes Boisvenu pushed back hard in parliament and the media for the Parole Board to include Canada's crime victims in this important process. After a lot of hard work and pressure, the Parole Board finally relented and included us. When the Parole Board moved Terry Porter to a prison less than 10 kms away from my sister's house and didn't inform me until 24 hours later, that was the precursor to my Bill (S-219) that was tabled in the Senate in December of 2020 by Senateur Pierre Boisvenu and Justice Critic Shannon Stubbs and MP Carrie, that would make amendments to the Corrections and Conditional Release Act to better inform victims of crime of the critical information they are due.
There is still a lack of support for those bereaved by homicide, and a lack of resources for crime victims outside of those published by the Parole Board. I am proud to say that I am doing my part to change that, by facilitating a Homicide Bereavement Support Group through York Victim Services, the first of its kind in Ontario. I am a return guest speaker in Criminology & Victimology class rooms and I have published a book; She Won't Be Silenced and a Work Book designed to help people write stronger victim impact statements. I am a national voice for Canada's crime victims but I am only in that role by standing on the shoulders of those who support me.
My father's murder has become two separate issues for me- to continue to keep a dangerous man in prison- Terry Porter is still incarcerated and was denied full parole in October 2020- and secondarily as the catalyst to help re-balance the system- beginning with greater transparency and greater respect for the needs of Canada's crime victims. I refuse to stand still in a system that continues to re-victimize and re-traumatize those who already carry so much. For this my father would be proud, even more so than I've kept his killer incarcerated for more than 3 decades, but that I have brought change and, in his memory, have made the path a little easier for those who follow me.