Snook’s release would “present an unreasonable risk to the community,” the Parole Board of Canada concluded Friday. The two-judge panel issued its oral decision after a mock hearing based in Abbotsford, BC, where Snook is believed to be serving his 18-year sentence. “You have a psychological risk assessment that suggests that with full compliance with all the conditions — and there are many — your risk would be manageable in the community,” board member Catherine Dawson told Snook in making the decision. He was assessed as a low risk for general reoffending and a moderate risk for sexual reoffending, according to his parole officer, who supported his application for day release. “However, the council remains very concerned about the seriousness of your offences,” Dawson said. “Your release plan, in the board’s view, is not adequate to manage your risk at this time.” Snook, 50, showed no reaction behind his COVID-19 mask.
Refused 2 years ago
The board concluded that Snook did not have a good understanding of his triggers, the cycle of crime or the skills he could use to manage his risk to the community. Much of his plan was based on avoidance, Dawson noted—avoiding everything from public restrooms where he might encounter boys to TV episodes of Little House on the Prairie featuring lots of boys. This is the second time his application has been rejected. Two years ago, the parole board reached the same conclusion, that he would “pose an unreasonable risk.” The former head of the youth ministry has been in custody since 2013. He was sentenced after pleading guilty to 46 counts of child exploitation involving 17 boys as young as five over a 12-year period. His crimes included sexual assault, creating child pornography and extortion. Eighteen years was “one of the longest sentences ever handed down in Canada” for such a case, the Crown prosecutor told reporters at the time. Snook was also sentenced to an additional three months after pleading guilty to three counts of child exploitation involving a boy under the age of 14 in his native Newfoundland and Labrador. His sentence does not end until November 2030, but he became eligible for day parole in December 2018 and full parole in June 2019, the parole board previously said.
Sorry “not cutting it”
“I could say ‘sorry’ all day and it doesn’t cut it. It’s not enough,” Snook told the parole board Friday. “I have to prove that I won’t hurt another boy again and that I recognize the harm I did, the harm I caused them when I laid my hands on them. “Well, yes, I’m sorry, but more than sorry. Everything inside me regrets what I’ve done.”
“A level of cunning we don’t often see”
The panel peppered Snook with questions throughout the hearing, interrupting him at times and questioning some of his answers. Board member Carol-Ann Reynen asked Snook how he justified his “abhorrent” actions while committing them. “I told myself that this was something that was pleasant, caused no harm,” he replied. Reynen said she had a “hard time” with that explanation. “If you thought it was true, then why hide it?” Snook, a former Saint John councilman and youth pastor, told the board that he has “worked hard to be honest with [himself] and with others… and to be ready for release whenever that happens.” (CBC) Snook, he said, showed a “level of guile that we don’t often see.” He “adjusted [his] whole life to offend’ and chose particularly vulnerable victims. Snook said that was a fair statement. “It’s appalling that I covered it up to the extent that I used helping vulnerable children and religion to do it.” Porn helped to “normalize” his behavior and he became addicted, he said. “Enough was never enough. …It became this feeding frenzy, just a loss of complete control.”
‘Never again’
There is “an ever-present sadness and regret” about his actions when he looks in the mirror that, at some point, he would try to “exorcise,” he said. But “allowing them to exist, for me, is what prompts me to say, ‘never again’.” Snook told the board that he “has worked hard to be honest [himself] and with others… and to be ready for release whenever that happens.” His release plan included staying in the Abbotsford area, living in a halfway house and looking for a “proper” job, possibly in the cleaning industry. His support network includes his sister, he said. “I look forward to taking the next steps in my life when given this opportunity.” Snook had previously received several escorted furloughs during his sentence, including a 2019 trip to St. John’s to attend his father’s funeral and several outlets in the Abbotsford, BC area to go to church.
