Man who killed Calgary RCMP officer in 1987 denied parole

CALGARY — The man who gunned down an RCMP officer on a rural road outside Calgary decades ago will remain behind bars.

The Parole Board of Canada on Thursday denied a bid for early release submitted by Andrew Kay, serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years for killing RCMP Special Const. Gordon Kowalczyk in 1987.

Kay had appeared before the Parole Board of Canada at Matsqui Institution in Abbotsford, B.C., seeking full parole. The decision means Kay must wait another two years before being considered again for parole.

Offenders granted parole while serving a life sentence are freed from jail, but remain under supervision and conditions for the rest of their lives.

But the man who supervised the investigation into Kowalczyk's murder and Kay's subsequent capture said the killer should never get out of jail.

"From my perspective, there's a father gone, a husband gone. Andrew Kay has not paid the penalty, as far as I'm concerned," said Keith Thompson, a retired RCMP superintendent.

Kay shot Kowalczyk during a traffic stop on a deserted service road near Calgary International Airport on Jan. 26, 1987.

The officer had pulled Kay over because the truck he was driving matched the description of a vehicle used in a $20 gasoline theft.

Kay was convicted in 1988 after a six-week trial in Court of Queen's Bench and was sentenced to life in prison without parole eligibility for 25 years.

His mother, Linda Marie Bowen, also was on trial for first-degree murder. But she was given a 13-year sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the shooting and to four armed robberies.

Kay's defence lawyer, Noel O'Brien, launched an appeal shortly after his 1988 conviction, basing it partly on a constitutional challenge of the Criminal Code section mandating an automatic first-degree murder charge in the killing of an on-duty peace officer.

O'Brien argued, unsuccessfully, the sentence was unconstitutional because the killing wasn't planned — one of the key criteria for proving first-degree murder.

The Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the sentence. O'Brien appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, but it refused to hear the case.