

Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





A convicted pedophile is back behind bars after her long-term supervision order was revoked by the federal government, just days after Brampton’s mayor and council expressed outrage that she was allowed to settle there in the first place.

Peel Regional Police Const. Akhil Mooken says Madilyn Harks, 36, was brought to a correctional facility “at the request of Correctional Services Canada," on Friday.

Harks, who once said she victimized up to 60 young girls, allegedly breached a condition of her long-term supervision order, allowing the federal government to detain her for up to 90 days while police and the Crown consider whether to charge her.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said Harks, who was convicted of sexually assaulting three girls under the age of eight, violated unspecified conditions of her long-term supervision order, which allowed her to reside at a halfway house in the Main and Queen streets area of the city’s downtown.

“Correctional Services Canada (CSC) messed up; they put this monster in our downtown, next to the Brampton Library, next to Gage park, all around children,” Brown told CP24.

He said Harks was taken to Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener. Mooken said Peel Police are investigating but no charges have been laid against Harks.

Brown and other members of city council expressed outrage over the weekend when they learned that Harks, former known as Matthew, was allowed to move from Western Canada and settle in Brampton.

Her long term supervision order specified she could not attend pools, daycares, school grounds, community centres or playgrounds.

But Brown said Harks was allowed as much as four hours per day each day to spend in the downtown core unsupervised, something that greatly concerned him.

“(Downtown) would be absolutely the worst location in the city. Clearly the officials from CSC didn’t do their due diligence.”

Harks’ prison sentence ended in 2010 and she was put under a long-term supervision order.

Published reports indicate she was jailed again in 2016 for breaching terms of her long term supervision order.

Upon learning of her arrival in the city, Peel Regional Police issued a notice warning of her “elevated risk” to re-offend, but also reminding the public not to infringe on Harks’ constitutional rights out of fear of her.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale’s office replied to the complaints from Brown and others saying the conditions place on Harks are among “the toughest measures available to prevent high risk cases from re-offending.”

Breaching a long-term supervision order carries a punishment of up to ten years in prison.

Brown said he was not aware of which specific condition of her order Harks is accused of breaching.

In the meantime, he offered suggestions as to where Harks could settle next.

“If it were up to me I would put that pedophile in the arctic where they’re hundreds miles away from children.”