Convicted killer attending McGill law school divides students over safety, 2nd chances

Students in McGill University’s law faculty say they are concerned about the presence of a convicted murderer on campus and at faculty events. 

The man, Jeffrey George Ewert, was convicted of second-degree murder and attempted murder for two attacks committed in 1984: he sexually assaulted and killed one woman and, less than six weeks later, beat and choked a 15-year-old so severely that she was paralyzed and disabled for life, according to a summary of his case in his parole board file.

Ewert is serving a life sentence and was granted day parole in 2025. He’s been attending law classes at McGill and going to faculty events since August.

His parole was extended for another six months in June 2026. While various clinical assessments ranked Ewert’s risk of reoffending as moderate to high, official parole documents say with close supervision at a halfway house and clinical follow-up, that risk “seems to fall more into the moderate risk category.”

Although Ewert’s case management team did not believe he posed an undue risk to society, the parole board did express concern about his interactions with and attitudes toward women. 

Some students, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, approached CBC after they learned of Ewert’s criminal past and are upset that the university did not disclose their peer’s violent history.

“For me, it’s really the lack of transparency,” said one of the students. 

Whether or not McGill was legally obligated to alert students, she feels the school had a moral obligation to let them know. 

“More than half of the students are women, we’re young,” she said, adding she feels Ewert’s presence places them in a “vulnerable and dangerous position.”

Another student also resented being left in the dark. 

“Not knowing made it more scary for us,” said the student, who pieced together Ewert’s past through their own research. “It got me worried and I was panicked.”

If the school had warned them and explained what precautions were in place, she said she would have felt safer and could have decided if or how she wanted to interact with him. 

The students told CBC they were aware other students had made a formal complaint to McGill’s administration.

University cites privacy laws

CBC asked McGill University whether the institution was aware of the nature of Ewert’s criminal past and current parole status and what security plans, if any, had been conducted before allowing Ewert to attend campus. 

In a statement, a university spokesperson declined to answer questions about Ewert’s specific case, citing privacy laws, but said that “criminal background checks are not typically part of Canadian universities’ admissions processes. 

“McGill would act quickly and decisively should concerning information be brought forward about a student’s background or behaviour on campus,” the spokesperson wrote. 

The statement continues by saying the university “would liaise closely with all relevant government bodies” and use the policy tools at its disposal “to remove the individual from campus” to ensure a safe environment. 

“The university would also actively review its admissions processes to ensure a similar situation never happens again.”

The students who spoke with CBC have not seen Ewert on campus since Oct. 6. 

Ewert declined an interview, but his absence at McGill was confirmed by his lawyer, Nora Demnati, who spoke on his behalf.

“He applied to McGill law with the help of many students, of law professors and McGill University was fully aware of his history and his status and where he comes from,” said Demnati in an interview.

Although Ewert had not disclosed his past to everyone at the university — and was not legally obligated to — Demnati said Ewert has never hidden who he is.

“He’s been very honest about his history, his parole status and his conditions,” said Demnati, adding she and Ewert are “completely in the dark” about what specific concerns were raised at McGill.

Although she understands some students are worried, she notes Ewert was in his 20s when he committed his offences. 

Now in his 60s, Demnati says he’s a different man and she’s “disheartened” Ewert was not given a chance to hold a meeting with students to address their concerns.

Parolees continuously monitored

The extension to Ewert’s day parole was granted under a variety of conditions, including not to enter a drinking establishment, to immediately report all sexual and non-sexual relationships with women and to allow his case management team access to all his telecommunication activity. 

The parole board added the latter condition because Ewert had been viewing women’s profiles on social media, starting discussions with them, and exploring a dating site without notifying his case management team. 

The McGill students who spoke to CBC question how closely the university or his parole supervisor can monitor such a condition. 

They say students often work closely on group projects and the teaching assistants — many of whom are also women — meet students one-on-one.

“It was more a fear of potentially women not knowing what he’s done in the past and then having interactions with him that could put them at risk potentially,” one of the students told CBC. 

While the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is unable to talk about the specifics of Ewert’s case due to privacy, it said in an email that supervising an offender “includes ongoing monitoring of their activities, including educational opportunities.”

This includes regular meetings with the offender as well as assessing their personal and professional environments. Social media use is also monitored.

“We carefully monitor all aspects and if an offender’s risk increases or there is a change in their behaviour or compliance with release conditions, we take immediate action, which can include suspending their release and returning them immediately to custody,” a spokesperson for the CSC wrote.

CBC was contacted by two other McGill students who supported Ewert.

They spent time alone with him and described the experience as positive. Both were aware of his past convictions and said they never felt threatened or unsafe.

“I think there’s a difference between feeling uncomfortable and being in danger,” said one student in reaction to other students’ unease. “I think sometimes those two things feel really similar, but they’re not similar.”

The student, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions, admired the efforts Ewert had made to improve his life and go back to school. She felt it would be unfortunate if his experience and perspective were lost.

Navigating reintegration can be difficult

Ewert’s day parole — first granted in February 2025 — was temporarily suspended in May 2025 because he had contacted and collected the phone numbers of multiple women, and after the counsellor at his community residential facility took issue with his attitude and behaviour. 

The parole board decision also noted that Ewert continues to assert that his interactions with women do not constitute a risk factor and that he denies a sexual element in his crimes, despite what court records say. 

Demnati says they may request his file be corrected to show “there is no evidence of a sexual offence.”

CBC found Ewert’s Instagram and Threads accounts, which he operates under a different name. CBC confirmed it was Ewert’s.

On the Threads account, Ewert is actively communicating with women, commenting on images of women, many of which appear to be altered or created by AI. Below one image, he commented “hotties like you drive us crazy.”

Demnati told CBC she was not aware of the specifics of what Ewert wrote on social media, but she said occasional breaches are expected after nearly four decades in prison.

She said she has countless clients with a life sentence who are working, studying and going about their daily lives.

“This is the choice we have made as a society, to believe in rehabilitation,” said Demnati, who is also the president of the Canadian Prison Law Association.  

Alysha McDonald, an assistant professor in the department of sociology at MacEwan University, said that, while she can’t speak to the specifics of Ewert’s case, this situation reflects a tension present in many reintegration cases.

McDonald said education can help offenders reintegrate and provide a “structure, purpose, and the chance to build a new social identity.” 

But as this situation shows, there is often no framework as to how an institution will navigate that reintegration and manage students’ concerns.

Universities “rarely have clear, consistent processes for how reintegration intersects with their communities and it needs thoughtful attention if we’re going to see real progress in people’s experiences with reintegration.”

Demnati said Ewert is still trying to settle into life as a student and adjust to the rhythm of taking classes, studying and tackling new technology. 

“Like give the man a chance,” said Demnati. “This is what rehabilitation is about and it’s not making people feel like they’re alienated from society and an outcast and they have to run around the city with something on their forehead saying, ‘Hey, I just got out of prison.’”

Neither the parole board nor CSC responded to questions about whether they were aware of Ewert’s current online activities.

‘He’s not the same person’

The details of Ewert’s crimes, reported by newspapers in B.C. at the time, recounted in various court documents and summarized in the parole board decisions, indicate that in a two-month span, he attacked two women. 

In May 1984, he met Corrina Lea Makiev, who was hitchhiking outside of a nightclub. He choked her unconscious, sexually assaulted her and beat her before dropping her in the Fraser River, where she was later found dead. 

On June 17 of the same year, Ewert arrived late one night at his adoptive parents’ home and found a 15-year-old family friend asleep on a couch. 

Ewert forcibly removed the teen from the home and beat her so severely that she suffered permanent serious brain damage and physical injuries that left her paralyzed. He left her in a ditch, but she survived. She has been unable to live independently since the attack.

He was convicted of second-degree murder for Makiev’s killing and attempted murder for the attack on the 15-year-old. 

Ewert first applied for parole in 2022 but his application was denied. The parole board concluded he still posed an undue risk to society. He challenged the decision, however, and won in Federal Court, when a judge agreed that the board had failed to consider Gladue principles — his Indigenous background and his traumatic upbringing. 

It was not Ewert’s first litigation. He has been involved in numerous lawsuits that deal with prisoners’ rights and the rights of Indigenous prisoners. 

Notably, in 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed with Ewert’s contention that risk-assessment tools used by CSC were not valid for assessing Indigenous offenders. 

Ewert also leads the Canadian Prisoners’ Labour Confederation, a group that advocates for labour rights for inmates. 

According to the Parole Board of Canada’s decisions about Ewert, he has partially attributed his past violence to his upbringing. Parole documents say his birth mother was Métis, but he was adopted by a white B.C. family. His adoptive father was an alcoholic and his mother was psychologically ill and, he alleges, abused him physically, mentally and emotionally. 

“He was such a broken individual at the time, full of self-hatred, who didn’t know love,” said Demnati. 

She said Ewert has worked hard to understand his triggers for violence and has been sober for decades.

“He’s not the same person… at all,” said Demnati. “We just need to remember that and maybe find some reassurance that he is not that broken person anymore. That he not only changed, but he healed.”