Electronic monitoring dispute keeps man in jail

A Calgary man granted bail has remained in jail for more than a month because the province won't give him an electronic monitoring bracelet.

A provincial court judge ordered James Alexander Parent, who is awaiting trial forcharges related to a 1987 sexual assault, released on bail on July 30 following a preliminary hearing.

His bail was granted under strict conditions, includingrequirements to answer his door, answer a land line at his residence, report in on a regular basis and wear an electronic monitoring device.

But his lawyer, Adriano Iovinelli, said Parent hasn't obtainedthe device.

"This is the only thing that is keeping him in custody is the inability to comply with the ankle bracelet, which the solicitor general will not provide him," he said.

Province refuses monitoring device

In a letter to Iovinelli, Alberta's Solicitor General's Departmentwrites that itput a lot of weight on the violent nature of the charge against Parent in deciding one of these devices is not appropriate. SpokeswomanMichelle Davio saidthe department has never had a request for the bracelet for someone awaiting trial.

"It doesn't prevent an offender from reoffending or from fleeing from supervision. In general, electronic monitoring bracelets are used for low-risk offenders serving intermittent or weekend sentences," she said, adding that they are also used in cases of people on parole.

Iovinelli said hewill now haveto ask a judge to drop the device from the bail conditions and his client will continue to remain in jail at the remand centre until that happens.

Chis Levy, a law professor at the University of Calgary, said the judge could drop the ankle bracelet condition or insist on it.

"That would be the constitutional question. To what extent do judges have the authority to insist on the government complying in this sort of way? The general rule is you cannot mandate the government to do something unless perhaps there is a constitutional ground, a Charter of Rights issue."

Case dates back to 1987

Police announced the charges againstParent a year ago.

The case dates back to April 6, 1987, when a masked man rang a doorbell in the southwest neighbourhood of Kelvin Grove at around 10 p.m. When a 30-year-old woman opened the door, the man forced his way inside, ransacked the home and sexually assaulted her, police said.

"Before leaving the home, the man threatened to kill the victim with a weapon and warned her not to call the police. The victim, who sustained trauma to the head, ignored the offender's threats and called 911," police said in a release.

Parent, a Calgary resident, is known to travel extensively throughout Alberta because he worked in the construction industry, said police.

He was charged with sexual assault with a weapon, sexual assault causing bodily harm, wearing a disguise, unlawful confinement, residential breaking-and-entering, uttering threats to cause death, and mischief.

In December 1988, Parent was acquitted on 10 charges inthe sexual assaults of seven women in Edmonton from October 1986 to August 1987. At the trial, none of the victims could identify their attacker because he wore a mask and covered their heads with blankets.

However, Parent was convicted of one charge of breaking-and-entering with the intent to commit an indictable offence and was sentenced to 3 years.

At the time, he had a previous criminal record of child molestation, indecent assault and attempted unlawful confinement.