By Chris Ashfield
Whitewood Herald
Following the kidnapping and sexual assault on a 10-year-old area boy by pedophile Peter Whitmore, the parents of the victim, in cooperation with the Town of Whitewood, are now circulating a petition asking for the federal government to toughen laws and enforce better monitoring of convicted child molesters.

The petition went into circulation last Friday and has already seen overwhelming support throughout the community.

“We just put the petition out and within a couple of hours, some of them were already coming back filled with signatures,” said White-wood’s Mayor Malcolm Green.

The petition has also been placed in high traffic businesses in many neighbouring communites. Several are displayed in Kipling businesses.

The petition calls for the Government of Canada to make communities safe and secure for children by requesting changes to the justice system and legislation in order to prevent similar incidents from occurring. Asking for things such as harsher penalties and mandatory compulsory electronic monitoring of convicted pedo-philes, it is the hopes of both the parents and the community to prevent similar incidents from happening to other children.

“This not only affected the family involved but also the entire community,” said Green. “That is why we as a town decided to get directly involved in helping to distribute this petition.”

The petition is available throughout the community as well as at the town website at townofwhitewood.ca. Each petition requires fifteen signatures and then asks for it to be returned to either the Town of Whitewood or to local MP Ed Komarnicki.

Komarnicki will begin to introduce the petitions into the House of Commons very soon and he will continue to present more petitions once he has compiled a handful.

“Mr. Komarnicki has agreed to help us get this petition into the House and he plans to continue presenting the petitions in the House until something is done,” said Green.

The petition follows the kidnapping of a 10-year-old area boy on July 10 and an intensive two day manhunt which ended following a nine hour standoff on August 1 at an abandoned farm yard east of Kipling. During the two day ordeal, the young boy, as well as a 14-year-old boy from Manitoba who was kidnapped a week earlier, were repeatedly sexually assaulted by Whitmore.

Due to a publication ban, the identity of the victims or their families cannot be released.