I wouldn't want Allan Schoenborn ordering a latte next to me at Starbucks

The community outcry over triple-murderer Allan Schoenborn receiving escorted passes into the community by the B.C. Review Board (read the original disposition here: Link 1) appears to have abated as a result of Mr. Schoenborn changing his mind and withdrawing his request for such passes (Link 2).

The real issue, however, is how the Review Board ever concluded that Mr. Schoenborn was a candidate for escorted passes in the first place. The basic facts of Mr. Schoenborn's case are well known. But did the Review Board bother to read the Reasons for Judgment of Mr. Justice Powers in convicting Mr. Schoenborn? The reasons are available here Link 3, and they make for chilling reading.

While Mr. Justice Powers eventually found Mr. Schoenborn NCRMD (Not criminally responsible by reason of mental defect -- arguably one of the most needlessly obscure phrases in the Criminal Code), there were a host of other findings by the judge which surely would have put even the least curious of the Review Board members to oppose any sort of escorted release. These included:

• All of the evidence led to the inevitable conclusion that the killings were planned and deliberate.  Mr. Schoenborn understood what he was doing and intended to cause the children’s death.
  
• Mr. Schoenborn is a person that is extremely self-absorbed and self-centred.
  
• He sees himself as the major part of every event that goes on around him.
  
• He is a man concerned about himself and his feelings more than anything else.
  
• He lacks insight into himself and his illness...[h]e tends to downplay his own mental illness or to disguise it.
  
• [H]e will be almost impossible to treat [and] it will be extremely difficult to treat and know whether his illness is actually under control or whether he is merely suppressing the symptoms.

What is perhaps most disturbing is that these findings were made by the court on February 22, 2010, a mere 14 months ago. Did the members of the Review Board actually believe that Mr. Schoenborn had improved so dramatically in 14 months that he could transition from planned and deliberate murder to ordering a latte amongst members of the public? And if they did believe this, did they believe it enough to be the ones standing in the Starbucks lineup with Mr. Schoenborn?  A man who is "almost impossible to treat" and in whom it is difficult to tell whether he is "actually under control or merely suppressing his symptoms"?

The Review Board in this case didn't have a difficult decision if one went to the trouble of reading Mr. Justice Powers' judgment. Whatever other information the board received, that should have been enough.

Let's hope they consider that the next time Mr. Schoenborn needs a caffeine fix.