Within 10 days, two pedophile child killers were given temporary passes to leave prison

A protester outside the provincial courthouse in Surrey, B.C., during the preliminary trial of Shane Ertmoed, who was later convicted of killing 10-year-old Heather Thomas. Photo by Jason Payne/Postmedia

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In just a little more than a week, the Parole Board of Canada granted to two B.C. men jailed for murdering children temporary passes to leave prison.

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Both men are pedophiles who committed their crimes in the early 2000s, and whose victims would now be in their 30s. Both men are believed to have been freed into the Victoria area, but their releases were not accompanied by public warnings.

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Shane Ertmoed was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2000 abduction, rape and murder of 10-year-old Heather Thomas.

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In a Sept. 2 decision, the parole board granted him 60-day unescorted absences from prison.

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Scarcely more than a week later, on Sept. 11, the board then granted the exact same concession to Douglas Lambier, a repeat child sex offender who strangled a nine-year-old boy to death in 2005.

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According to a report by the Windsor Star, Lambier is being released from William Head Institution, a minimum-security prison on the outskirts of Victoria, B.C., that has occasionally been dubbed “Club Fed” due to its scenic coastal location and generous amenities, such as an amateur theatre program.

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Lambier will be spending his 60 days at a Salvation Army residential facility.

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The prison holding Ertmoed was redacted from parole board documents, but Ertmoed was also held at William Head Institution as recently as 2025.

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Although both Ertmoed and Lambier were given life sentences, it is standard practice in Canada that even pedophile child murderers will be given unescorted absences from prison, as well as early parole, as part of a program of eventually granting them full release into the community.

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In one particularly notorious case, child killer Harold Smeltzer is currently out of prison despite his 1980 abduction and murder of a five-year-old girl who was walking to kindergarten.

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Smeltzer began receiving day parole as early as 2008, 27 years after the crime – and would continue obtaining new rounds of parole despite instances of him admitting that he was encountering children in public, and was attracted to them.

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Despite receiving a 25-year prison sentence, Ertmoed has been receiving temporary releases since 2021, and his most recent Parole Board decision made reference to his eventual plan to become a plumber.

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“At sentencing, the judge described your offence as the most horrific crime known to our law, ‘the killing of a defenceless young girl.’

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The judge noted also that you had no remorse,” read the decision, which also noted Ertmoed’s history of “deviant sexual behaviour” leading up to Thomas’s murder.

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Heather Thomas with her mother. Photo by File

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Nevertheless, the two-member panel decided that Ertmoed’s “risk to re-offend will not be undue,” citing his use of “arousal reducing medication.”