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Clifford Olson, the self-described ?Beast of B.C.? is dying of cancer, a painful end many Canadians can?t help but rejoice.
?I?ve waited 30 years for this,? said mother Terry Bizeau, whose daughter Terri Lyn Carson, 15, was strangled by the notorious child killer during his reign of terror across southern British Columbia three decades ago. "Once he is dead, justice will be done."
Other families of the 11 slain children expressed similar sentiments after learning earlier this week from corrections officials that Olson is on his deathbed.
Dee Johnston, whose 13-year-old step-daughter Colleen Daignault was also killed added: ?You raise (children) believing that you don?t wish him any harm, you don?t wish him dead, but deep down in our guts we do want him dead."
Sharon Rosenfeldt, whose 16-year-old son Daryn Johnsrude was Olson's third victim, said she was told he had been moved to a hospital in Laval, Que. near his prison in Sainte-Anne-Des-Plaines, where he has been serving a life sentence for the child sex murders.
?Once the cancer has metastasized. It could be in the brain, it could be in the bones, it could be in the pancreas ? but once it has metastasized that?s the final stages,? Rosenfeldt said Wednesday.
Olson went on trial in 1982 for killing eight girls and three boys between the ages of nine and 18 in B.C.
He's never expressed regret for the murders and said he actually killed more than 100. He dubbed himself the 'Beast of B.C.' and has continued to torment the families of victims, once trying to sell memorabilia of his crimes on a website.
?It has been most confusing to me as to how I?m supposed to feel,? said Rosenfeldt.
British Columbians took to the airwaves Wednesday morning, recalling the terror the child killer inflicted on the southern part of the province.
"The fire still came to my throat after all these years. He's (going to be) gone and now the universe will make him pay the price," a caller told CKNW radio station.
Olson?s crimes provoked terror among a community and sparked a national debate about the death penalty.
?It?s a travesty that he did not get the death penalty. He?s lived a lot longer in prison than any other of his victims ever did,? said Rob Anders, Conservative MP from Calgary who grew up in the Lower Mainland and remembers the fear that gripped the communities.
Indeed, Olson became the ?poster boy? for getting tough on crime; his name was brought up again and again in the debate about capital punishment, said Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd.
Boyd, who was a young criminology professor at the time, said the Olson case also became integral in the effort to eliminate the so-called Faint Hope clause and led to a change in parole eligibility for those convicted of first-degree murder.
?His constant applications for parole provoked outrage that somebody like him could even have the option. It was a kind of taunting.?
Olson, he said, was reviled as much inside prison as out.
?It?s difficult to imagine who could feel sad about his passing,? he added.
Boyd scoffed at the idea of preserving and studying Olson?s brain after he dies.
?Put him in the ground, burn him up and be done with it.?
Quotes by Clifford Olson
If it wasn't enough that he raped and murdered kids, Clifford Olson's words over the years continued to raise the bile of the Canadian public. Here are a few of the lowlights:
"My remorse was when I pleaded guilty," Olson said in Nov. 2010 interview. "All these parents whining and crying and using my parole as a platform ... f--- 'em. Get over it."
"What good is money to me? I got no use for it, if you get what I'm getting at. I guess I gotta make a will in case I get a heart attack or something.
Don't want these bastards getting my money," Olson said in a March 2010 interview about receiving Old Age Security.
"Most serial killers I know should never be paroled. That's just my opinion," Olson said in 2006.
"John, your (sic) a little late in reintroducing your private member's bill the faint hope clause. Soory (sic) sucker: Smile now," Olson wrote in a April 1996 letter to Toronto MP John Nunziata, who tried to repeal Section 745 of the Criminal Code, which allows convicted murderers to apply for freedom after 15 years of a life sentence. "The Beast of British Columbia Im (sic) coming back home August 12, 1996 and Not a f---ing thing you can do."
-with files from Kris Sims
Source: http://www.ottawasun.com/2011/09/21/serial-killer-clifford-olson-sick-with-cancer
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