Susan Clairmont: Double murderer George Lovie granted permission to live in own apartment part-time

Despite refusing psychological treatment, double murderer George Lovie has been granted permission to live in his own apartment four nights a week.

He also drives around in the car he bought and plays golf.

It is all part of a plan to reintegrate the 64-year-old convicted killer into society after spending 27 years in prison, says the Parole Board of Canada (PBC).

The Aug. 29 decision gives Lovie the most freedom he's had since 1991 when he was charged with forcibly confining and raping his ex-girlfriend Michele Edwards and then, a month later, arrested again for killing her parents.

When Lovie was first released on day parole in September 2019 in Sudbury, a special condition was imposed by the PBC for him to attend psychological counselling.

But the psychologist discharged you after three sessions as he felt you would not participate meaningfully," the PBC members wrote in their recent decision. He indicated that you told him you had only agreed to it so you could be released."

Not only were there no consequences for Lovie refusing to participate in his counselling, the PBC says it doesn't even consider that a breach of his parole conditions. In fact, when Lovie shirked counselling, the PBC simply removed it as one of his parole conditions.

Elsewhere in the same written decision, the PBC describes Lovie's crimes as planned and very violent" and says the harm that your offending caused is incalculable."

It also notes that he committed murders while he was supposed to be abiding by bail conditions.

You have since demonstrated your amenability to abiding by conditions," the board notes - except of course when it comes to getting psychological counselling.

At several past parole hearings where Lovie was denied his request for more time out of prison, he admitted to killing Arnold and Donna Edwards, but said it was Michele's fault. She drove him to it.

Yet, now he has freedom.

His most recent psychological risk assessment from February 2019 puts his risk for general recidivism as low to low-moderate and his risk for violent recidivism as low.

In February 1991, Lovie was arrested and charged with confining and sexually assaulting his former girlfriend at knifepoint. Police seized a rifle from the trunk of his car.

He was on bail on March 21, 1991, when he emerged from under Michele's porch in Glanbrook with a loaded rifle and a knife. She ran across the road to her parents' home.

Lovie shot Donna repeatedly through the door. He stabbed Arnold in the kitchen.

The forcible confinement and sexual assault charges against Lovie were stayed. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder. He was given the automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Lovie had an unblemished institutional record as he cascaded from maximum security down to his years at the minimum-security Beavercreek Institution in Gravenhurst.

In August 2019, he was allowed to move from there to a St. Leonard's Society halfway house on Larch Street in Sudbury.

During the pandemic, Lovie spent most of his time inside the house. PBC documents also say he had two surgeries (it doesn't say for what), researched small businesses, got his driver's licence and bought a vehicle.

In March 2020, Lovie had a three-day visit with his mother while he stayed at a local halfway house. He had daily phone contact with her after that until her death.

He works part-time as a starter at a golf course, plays golf and drives other halfway house residents to and from work.

Last month, Lovie got his own apartment. Now he is permitted to spend four nights a week there while returning to the halfway house for the other nights. This arrangement will be reviewed again in six months.

Lovie's remaining conditions imposed by the PBC include having to immediately report all sexual and non-sexual relationships and friendships with females" to his parole supervisor (documents say he is not currently in a relationship); to have no direct or indirect contact with the surviving victim or any of her family (including her brother, former Buffalo Sabres goaltender Don Edwards); and not to be in the areas of Hamilton, Waterloo, Haldimand, Halton, Niagara, Muskoka or Haliburton.

PBC documents say Lovie was raised in a prosocial family." His parents separated when he was a teen and then Lovie moved out at 17 and dropped out of school.

His criminal record started at 19 and includes two convictions for assault causing bodily harm and assaulting a police officer. Charges for failing to appear and another count of assault causing bodily harm were withdrawn.

Lovie has been in the system a long time. And he should stay there for a long time still.

Susan Clairmont is a justice columnist at The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com