Thanks.
I'm just going to put the picture of my son here. This is my son, Christopher Mohan.
Honourable members of the justice committee, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be a witness as a victim of crime and mostly to be the voice of my son.
My name is Eileen Mohan, and I'm the mother of Chris Mohan. My innocent son was murdered on October 19, 2007, as he left our home to go to play his weekly basketball game. He was in his seventh season. When rival gang members came to murder rival gang members, along the way they met my son in the building and took his life because they saw him as a witness.
I had just spoken to my son an hour or so before he was murdered. Chris was my only son, the younger of my two children, the baby of our home, and he remains the light and love of my life.
Prior to October 19, I was, honourable members, Mrs. Eileen Mohan. Today I sit before you as Miss Eileen Mohan; my 28 years of marriage has ended. The brutal murder of my son took a toll on our personal lives and led me to take the role of an advocate for my son, while my wounded husband left to be on his own to ensure his emotional survival.
Life has certainly not been kind to my son or me, for I believe the safest place on earth is your home, but how do you know who your neighbours are when they portray themselves as innocent victims? Yes, we lived beside criminals who dealt with drugs, guns, and were members of prolific gangs. Little did I know how much danger these individuals represented until my son's life was stolen. It was like living beside a ticking time bomb, which exploded and caused the destruction of my entire family.
I have a daughter, Patrina, whose heart is in pieces, as is mine, because she was as close to her baby brother as I was. It took me a week and a half to prepare for my son's funeral, because I simply did not know what to do. How does a mother prepare herself to bury her own son, when I envisioned as a parent that when I was old and grey he would bury me? In our Indian heritage, honourable members, when we grow old our children look after us, and I was looking forward to getting old with my son and his children at my side. That enjoyment and pleasure and being witness to Chris's life was taken away from me and my family.
Today, I am not sure whether my daughter will ever get married, because she's so emotionally broken, seeing how in a split second the life of a brother was taken and the permanent damage that it caused her parents' marriage.
Honourable members, prior to October 19 I was a person who did Indian classical dance and who had started dancing in grade 2. Till October 19 I was on my way to getting the Indian classical dancer's certificate. I am a professional banker, registered with IIROC. After completing all my banking accreditations, I had spare time and I had a passion for fashion design and sewing. I put myself into school four days a week to take a fashion design course. I was into my second year at BCC when Chris was murdered, and today I don't have the passion for fashion design, sewing, or dancing.
On November 1, 2007, I buried my son, and from that day forward, I have organized rallies, anniversary masses, written to the Prime Minister and the justice minister, spoken at rallies, conferences, and workshops, and taken part in a gang awareness documentary to curb the freedom of these gangsters and bring awareness.
This gang violence, honourable members, has been fifty years in the making. This happened under the watch of the previous federal governments and provincial governments. Hells Angels grew from strength to strength. Today they have charter houses in each province, and no one can touch them. Seeing how they were treated in courts--they were given conditional sentences, house arrests, a one-day sentence, six-month sentences--paves the way for the gang members that we have today. Hells Angels are silent partners today of all these gang members because they are well organized.
I have a mission to touch these gangsters as personally and legally as they have touched our lives illegally. I have put myself into school, and today I am taking criminology classes in order to educate myself and to see how best I can support other family members who have gone through this tragedy and try to make policy changes.
At the same time, keep in mind, honourable members, that members of organized crime represent just a small fraction of our community. That said, we are currently spending millions and millions of dollars and many, many man-hours because our justice system has simply become a legal system.
How do we bring our justice system to represent the society at large from this legal system that today we feel represents only the criminals? How do we restore public confidence in our system? We need to balance the rights of the society and ensure the public safety, because today we feel that the rights of the criminals have been placed way above the society's rights and our collective greater good.
I believe that my son's murder and other murders could have been prevented and/or his murder case could have already been brought before the courts had the recent recommendations presented in Ottawa by our B.C. Solicitor General and Attorney General been fully implemented--and I fully support them too.
While studying criminology, I have--and it is in my list that you have with you--done research of remand credit, and the four individuals who were killed along with my son were given double-time credit and convictions that shouldn't have been given to them. I will let you read that part.
The second part is touching on what Steve Brown said. B.C. courts, contrary to Ontario and Quebec, have adopted the approach that the application of tertiary grounds during bail proceedings should only be in rare and exceptional cases. And I have given you an example: R. v. Bhullar. The public, the media, and the police have all asked why our criminals are walking the streets free. This is because they only apply the primary and secondary clause and not the tertiary clause. I've been studying that in my criminology class also.
Legal applications. The word “impracticable” should be removed from section 487.11 of the Criminal Code, which would therefore result in more practical processes of obtaining legal authorization from the justice of the peace for warrants. I'll leave you with that to read.
I have also given you the recent case of R. v. Ebanks, and that supports that.
Criminal Bench of B.C. Courts. I feel this is very important, because today there is a clear need for an institute of criminal bench in B.C. at the Supreme Court level and in each province in order to ensure that judges presiding over criminal crime trials, often for murders and violent offences involving organized crimes, are appointed from criminal law practice and therefore have the necessary experience to make a sensible trial decision and judgment. We are not seeing this in British Columbia, and there's a public outcry. Why are these people walking the streets? It's because judges appoint judges, and judges don't care what the public's opinions are. Because they're an entity of their own and they cannot be touched by the Attorney General--they can only be advised--they really don't get it in British Columbia.
I think we need more police. I've given you that input also.
I've given you my conclusion, but I also want to say that I am very encouraged by what I see today. Organized crime was 50 years in the making, and I believe we will not let another 50 years go by before anything is done or we let our grandchildren or children resolve this. I'm really encouraged that we have a committee here and federal and provincial governments that are ready to do something. All they need is support.
And we do need support from all parties. I believe all parties are represented here. Take this message to your own parties and say, “In British Columbia the bullets are flying. We are touched, and we need assistance, so please help.”
Thank you so much.