A former Corrections Canada employee has been sentenced to four months in prison for assisting in the escape of a Bowden Institution inmate in 2015.
Red Deer provincial court Judge Jim Glass accepted a joint submission from Crown prosecutor Dominique Mathurin and defence lawyer Robin Snider Thursday in sentencing Peter Edgar, 62.
Last January, Edgar pleaded guilty to one count of permitting or assisting an escape in Red Deer provincial court.
Edgar told the judge on Thursday he did not know why he helped Sylvain Martin escape from Bowden Institution on April 16, 2015. Martin was serving a 10-year sentence for fraud in Bowden Institution’s minimum security annex at the time.
“I will have to live with this for the rest of my life,” said Edgar, whose wife was in court to support him.
Edgar worked for CORCAN, a rehabilitation program run by Corrections Canada, when he developed what co-workers called an “inappropriate relationship” with Martin.
Prior to Martin’s escape, Edgar smuggled a cellphone, $5,000 in cash and tobacco into the prison.
Edgar was out of the country when Martin escaped but did not report that Martin contacted him by phone, and later joined him in Quebec where the two spent time partying. In all, Edgar gave Martin $100,000.
Snider said Edgar denies he had any homosexual or inappropriate relationship with Martin and there is no evidence of that. After Edgar brought Martin money in prison, the inmate took advantage of the situation.
“From that point, he found himself being blackmailed and things just got of control,” said Snider.
Edgar has accepted what he did was wrong.
“This certainly was not only a mistake, but a serious criminal act, and he’s taken responsibility for that,” she said.
Martin was eventually arrested on a Canada-wide warrant and told Quebec police, in October 2015, about his connection to Edgar. After a lengthy investigation, Edgar was charged in October 2017.