Ontario Premier Doug Ford is speaking out about the decision to grant a man convicted of raping and murdering a 14-year-old boy nearly 40 years ago unescorted temporary absences from prison.
Ford made the comment to reporters at Queen’s Park on Tuesday, noting that the decision to grant 65-year-old Darren Scott Ray three passes for 72-hour, unescorted absences from prison is proof that “we have to overhaul” Canada’s parole system.
Ray, then 26, was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of 14-year-old high school student Darren Pepin in Oshawa.
The first of Ray’s approved absences from prison took place earlier this month and he has since been returned to custody.
‘What is this country coming to?’
The Parole Board of Canada has said that the initial absence would allow Ray to attend a community-based residential facility (CBRF) in Oshawa, Ont., where he can become familiar with the facility, staff, and the community to support a gradual reintegration process.
“Just think of this, folks: a 14-year-old boy gets raped and murdered and he (Ray) gets a 72-hour pass. What is this country coming to?” Ford said on Tuesday. “They have to reverse that as quickly as possible. I don’t know if his (Peppin’s) loved ones or parents are still alive because this was a number of years ago, but he (Ray) should rot in jail. We have to overhaul the system so that if you rape and murder a little 14-year-old boy, you are in jail to rot for the rest of your life.”
No ‘undue risk to society’: Parole Board
In a written decision dated Jan. 5, 2026, and provided to CP24, the Parole Board of Canada said that it believed that Ray would not “present an undue risk to society” during the temporary absences and appears to be on “a pathway to rehabilitation.”
However, at the same time the board said that Ray does have “elevated assessments for general, violent and sexual recidivism, and for intimate partner violence.”
Ford brought up the decision as he discussed his government’s calls for the federal government to legalize pepper spray for self defence purposes.
“You hear about charter this, charter that to protect criminals. How about the charter of rights to protect innocent people that are being attacked,” he said.
At the time of his death, Pepin, the board stated, was a “vulnerable” young man who had run away from home.
Pepin’s body was found wrapped in a blanket in the garbage room of Ray’s apartment building, the parole board said.
“You endangered him with risky behaviours that included restraining him, sexually assaulting him, strangling and cutting off his air, and disposing of his body in a very disturbing way,” the board wrote in its decision.
