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During the proceeding, before a five-member panel chaired by provincial court Judge Allan Lefever, the board heard numerous victim impact statements from the parents of those slain.

Lefever had imposed an interim publication ban on the proceedings but lifted it following submissions from lawyers for de Grood, Alberta Health Services and the news media.

Among the victim impact statements presented was one by Perras’s father, Gregg, who detailed the heartbreak he suffered, as did the parents of the other four people slain.

“How do you really quantify the loss of an entire life, of five lives? he asked.

“That is heart-wrenching for me and extremely unfair to Kaiti, to Josh, to Zack, Lawrence and Jordan,” Perras said.

“There must be some accountability for five lives lost and hundreds of more people affected deeply.”

“Life with the loss of Lawrence is a life of emptiness,” said Hong’s father, Lorenzo.

“I am afraid that the murderer might be in our lives,” Hong said, of the possibility de Grood might some day be reintegrated into society.

“Since we are not going to forget about the violence inflicted on our children, we will never stop being a proponent for public safety.”

Dr. Sergio Santana, who did an assessment of de Grood for the board’s consideration, said the killer had made progress, through medication, since his arrest following the killings.

“He’s going back to the Matthew that he was before the illness,” Santana said. “He’s not the same Matthew that they used to know.”

Santana recommended de Grood be kept in a secure medical facility and have his case reviewed in a year.

The board accepted the recommendation and de Grood will remain under secure care at either the Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre in Calgary or Alberta Hospital in Edmonton.

KMartin@postmedia.com

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