Abuse victim fights to change law

Donna Goler is trying to change Canadian law to protect children from convicted pedophiles. In the early 1980s she was one of a dozen children taken from a home in the Annapolis Valley as a result of repeated acts of incest and sexual abuse.

Goler says the Criminal Code fails to protect the young relatives of convicted pedophiles. She's fighting to change that, with an amendment that they must be supervised, and can never be with a child alone at any time.

"They can't babysit their niece, they can't babysit their cousin or their own child," Goler says. "They cannot be alone whatsoever with a child under the age of 14, unsupervised."

Goler was removed from the squalor of her family home when she was just 11. Her testimony helped convict her own father, among other family members. Today, her father is back before the courts once again, charged with the sexual assault of a child.

Goler believes lawmakers are ignoring the problem of convicted pedophiles who re-offend.

She has written hundreds of letters to members of Parliament, asking for their support. Nova Scotia Tory MP Peter MacKay has taken up the cause. He will introduce a private members bill on the matter.

Goler says if this attempt to change the law isn't successful, she'll try again.