DAD BLAMES JUSTICE SYSTEM FOR ADDICT SON'S DEATH

Shawn Douse would still be alive if the justice system had kept him in
jail and forced him into drug rehab, his dad says.

Shawn, 35, was found murdered in a forested area of Pickering on Dec.
8, the victim of blunt-force trauma. He had been missing for two days,
though police didn't confirm the body found was his until Dec. 17. The
body had been badly burned. There have been no arrests in the case.

Shawn had been released from jail in September. It was just another
stint in a long list of sentences served, his father, John Douse, 63,
said.

Shawn, a crack addict, should have been forced into drug treatment, he
said. And he should have been given more than a slap on the wrist for
his crimes.

"We're dying out here. The government makes things too easy," John
said. "You can't be soft. You've got to give tough love."

Shawn's widow, Melanie, disagreed.

"You can't force anything on anyone. They have to know that what
they're doing is wrong. I tried for 12 years," she said.

Because the investigation hasn't wrapped up, the province would not
comment on Shawn's case, said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the
attorney general.

Shawn, who lived with his two sons and wife, Melanie, in Keswick, had
been in trouble since he was 14, John said. He said he suspects his
son fell victim to drug dealers.

"He wasn't an angel. You live by the sword, you die by the sword," he
said. "I think he got caught up in the drug dealing thing.

"He was a very nice kid, we brought him up that way. It was just the
drugs," John said, choking up.

Anyone with info should cal1-888-579-1520 or 905-579-1520 ext. 2593 or
Durham Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).