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MARGOT Van Sluytman and Glenn Flett presented a dialogue April 28 at the Clarke
Foundation Theatre in Mission, to observe National Victims of Crime Awareness
Week.
What is remarkable about this is that 31 years ago, Flett was one of two armed
robbers who shot and killed Van Sluytman’s father, Theodore, during a Brink's holdup at the Bay Store in Toronto's
Eglinton Square.
The event was sponsored by LINC (Long-term Inmates Now in the Community) Society
and the Pacific Region Victims Advisory Committee, and was funded by the
federal Department of Justice.
Flett encountered Christ while in prison. He also encountered Sherry Edmunds, a
teacher, and married her while still in prison. When he was released in 1992,
they founded LINC to help former inmates integrate back into the community.
They did exemplary work for a number of years, and Flett’s testimony appeared in the September 2002 BC Christian News.
However, in 2005, after a number of the people Flett was trying to help suffered
various tragedies and relapses, Flett himself suffered a breakdown, was
rearrested and was sent back to prison for 20 months. Flett apologized to
everyone he let down and has now returned to helping former inmates reintegrate
into the community.
Margot, meanwhile, had become a successful poet and creative writer, who taught
others how to mend emotional scars through writing.
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Flett had never had any contact with any of the Van Sluytman family, but when
Sherry sent a donation for Margot’s independent Palabras Press in 2007, Margot responded and asked to meet Flett.
They met for the first time July 14, 2007 at Westminster Abbey in Mission. They
hugged and cried, and Flett said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
They have met several times since. Margot’s latest book of poetry, Sawbonna: Dialogue of Hope, concerns those meetings and their dialogues via email. ‘Sawbonna’ is Zulu for ‘I see you.’
“Restorative justice speaks to hope and possibility,” Van Sluytman said. “This was a small miracle.” – Jim Coggins
June 2009
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