Call for maximum sentence


Instead of shining a spotlight solely on a prolific sex offender, a Vancouver-based activist is targeting a B.C. Supreme Court Justice who will rule on his fate.

Holly Dignard, has spearheaded a 1000-plus signature petition calling on Justice Austin Cullen to sentence confessed sex tourist Kenneth Klassen to the maximum penalty for 15 counts of sex offences carried out in Cambodia and Colombia.

"When you let the people in charge know that everybody is watching, they're pressured to - ideally - make the right decision," she explained. "We want the maximum sentence of 12 years."

Dignard, founder of Caleb's Hope, a non-government organization focused on micro-enterprise in Northern Uganda, said many fail to fully understand the severity sex crimes have on victims.

"At the end of the day, I think people are just far too lax on these types of crimes," she said. "They don't take it seriously. Even if a man were not to re-offend in his community, why should he be able to walk free?"

Her work with young victims of violence abroad has illustrated the amount of time needed for children to recover.

"I know that with some of the kids I work with that traumas they experienced when they were younger are coming up now in their teen years: Panic attacks, anxiety attacks or attracting people who are violent," she said.

"It becomes a really bad cycle."

Despite the severe consequences of Klassen's acts, Dignard refuses to let the man consume her efforts to raise awareness.

"Klassen doesn't become my life's work," she said. "The cause of women and children is a life's work. I don't think you can pick one particular person and put all your energy into them because then it becomes a really twisted and exhaustive form of vengeance.

"Klassen is an example of what the community can do if they choose to work together in a proactive way."

 
 
 

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