Drunk driver who killed Carrot River couple denied parole

By Susan McNeil

The man who killed Gord and Marjorie Classen in a motor vehicle collision in 2020 has been denied parole, but is due to be out of jail in months anyway.

Tyler Seeley had a blood-alcohol concentration of 184 mg, and had two empty containers and his four-year-old daughter in his truck when he collided with the Classens near Aberdeen.

In late July, the Parole Board of Canada denied his request for both day parole and full parole, and also changed the conditions of his statutory release, which should happen in January of 2024.

The parole board noted Seeley’s history, albeit limited, of substance abuse and bad decision-making when it denied his parole.

It also acted on the advice of Corrections Canada to deny Seeley’s request to be released early.

Seeley has previous convictions for driving while intoxicated and driving while disqualified, a past not lost on the family of the Classens.

“They wished for the Board to consider that the offender has no remorse, has previous DUI convictions and requested a special condition be imposed that he have no contact with any of the family members,” read the decision.

“The family emphasize that the offender has no integrity, keeps applying for parole and is not accountable for his actions.”

When questioned about the day the Classens were killed, Seeley told board members that he hadn’t been drinking and driving for a decade and that he was “careless” when he drove drunk with his daughter in the vehicle.

When presented with his full history of offences, including repeated licence suspensions, Seeley gave a different account of events and disagreed with the file’s information.

This is not the first time Seeley applied for parole. He did so in February of last year and was denied. He then appealed the day parole decision in August.

Seeley was given a sentence of five years and two months after being convicted of two counts of operation of a motor vehicle causing death and another charge of operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily harm.

Statutory release means he will serve two-thirds of the sentence in jail and the remainder under some sort of community supervision.

The parole board imposed several conditions on that release, including that he not consume, buy or have drugs other than prescription or over-the-counter medications.

He is also not to consume, buy or have alcohol and is not to have any contact with four unnamed members of the Classen family unless it is needed for legal purposes. Any such communication must go through another party such as his parole officer.

He is also banned from driving for 15 years after he is released from jail.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been corrected to note that the Parole Board of Canada was the body that denied Seeley’s parole.