Ten years ago, one of the most tragic deaths in Ontario occurred right in Woodstock. Eight-year-old Tori Stafford brutally raped and murdered by Terri Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty.
Just last year, Tori’s Dad found out Terri Lynne had been transferred to a healing lodge. This sparked an organized protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. A week after the November protest, Terri-Lynne was transferred back to medium security. Although it was a massive win for the Staffords, Rodney says he still has justice to serve.
“We made a little bit of a statement in November but, I don’t think we got the answers we wanted. So, we gotta keep pushing.”
One of the main reasons Rodney and the ‘Justice for Tori’ crew are going back to protest is to push for a new law to add to the legal system in Canada, named after Tori.
“We’re pushing to have Tori’s law which would be anyone that takes the life of a vulnerable person, whether that be a child, an elderly, or disabled person, that they be sentenced in the court room by a judge for twenty-five years in prison and they serve the whole sentence.”
The next protest is going to take place on April 8th. This date marks the ten-year anniversary of the day Tori was abducted and killed. Stafford explains how much more the protest is going to mean to him because of it being on the ten-year anniversary.
“It’s just going to mean that much more. Here I am a whole decade later still fighting for proper justice for Victoria. Yeah it’s just not right.”
This protest is planned to be louder and larger than the previous one. Stafford is ready to fight for justice and knows it will be more successful than the last.
“This protest has no choice but to be. There’s too many people that are angry and there’s too many people that are catching on. This wave is only getting bigger.”
There’s a simple message that Stafford wants to send to the government this time around.
“We’re not playing around. This is our country and we demand justice.”
Stafford has plenty of support for this movement and this fight for continued justice. That is one of the only ways Stafford says he is getting through this time.
“All the time, thank you very much to everybody for your continued support. I need the support in order to make these changes for all of us.”
The protest will take place on Parliament Hill on the morning of Monday April 8th.
WATCH BELOW: emotional video with announcement of the new protest
