Prisoner 'connections' site founder stands by decision to publish Luka Magnotta ad
He filmed himself killing and dismembering 33-year-old Jun Lin, defiled his corpse and then mailed pieces of his body to federal political party offices and elementary schools with hearts on the envelopes. But when Luka Magnotta recently joined an online dating service for inmates, he neglected to note these crimes and his first-degree murder conviction.
"It wasn't shocking that he didn't provide those details," says Melissa Fazzina, founder of the online dating service Magnotta used, Canadian Inmates Connect Incorporated. "Some inmates don't, for whatever reason. With Luka Magnotta, he quite possibly could've just forgotten to put that in. Or maybe he was under the impression that the world knows what he was convicted of, and just didn't find it necessary to fill in that blank."
Each online profile includes prison addresses for the inmate to receive mail, along with personal details, date of birth, expected release date and a paragraph listing what the inmate is looking for in a pen pal and potential mate.
"People can go on [my website] and if they're not familiar with somebody such as Luka Magnotta, they can just go onto the computer and Google these people and find out what they're in jail for anyways," Fazzina tells As It Happens guest host Susan Bonner.
Currently, Fazzina does not make it mandatory for inmates to provide details of their conviction. However, she says that after posting an inmate's profile online, she will reply with a letter asking them to fill in information about their conviction if they neglet to include it. She is continuing this practice with Magnotta as well.
"With Luka Magnotta, I haven't treated him any differently than any of the other inmates that have joined the website," she says.
However, following the attention received from Magnotta's profile, Fazzina is considering making the "Convicted Of" field mandatory.
Fazzina operates her website from Toronto and says she doesn't make any money from the service. She acknowledges that some may find her business unsettling, especially the victims of the inmates on her site.
"I do feel very bad for these families," she says. "Obviously with every inmate, it doesn't matter who it is, there's gonna be some sort of victim. I feel horrible for their loss and what they've gone through. But the bottom line is that this is a human right that these inmates are entitled to, they have a right to communicate through written letters with people on the outside. To me, it's all or nothing when it comes to these rights."
On her website, there is a disclaimer which notes that inmate information "is not verified by Canadian Inmates Connect Inc."
"Just like with any site that's out there for people to correspond or meet people, you have to be careful," she says. "You know that you're communicating with a federal inmate. You have to be careful. There are vulnerable women out there, but there's also inmates that are also vulnerable, too."