Hi. Thanks for having me. I don't have a huge report like the other two. I haven't been in the business that long. But I will relay my personal story, and hopefully this will shed some light on where I'm coming from.
In 2006, my son Jesse, 20 years old, a Douglas College student, was murdered by a ten-time convicted young offender. Most of his offences were for violence. He was released to a family that was described in court as the mother having her issues and the father being indifferent. And lo and behold, no one came forward with information that we found on Google—the 18-year-old brother, who was a cocaine addict at the time, was also out on bail for murder, for a home invasion in Burnaby that he did with his cousin. They released this boy to the custody of that dysfunctional family.
When I read the sections under pre-sentencing detention in the Young Offenders Act, I believe the language is already there. Why wasn't it carried out?
I probably have more questions than I have answers, but I can tell you it's been a nightmare for us because nobody seems to want to talk to us about these issues. We find that very disconcerting, that nobody wants to talk about a mistake that happened through the system.
If these kids were being assessed and evaluated properly, then they probably would be detained as well; therefore I don't think we would have to start naming kids who are on the border, who might fall through those cracks.
This boy who killed our son...it was random. As a matter of fact, 90% of the people at this house party didn't even know this kid. I don't know that naming them is going to do anything. On the issue of privacy and not naming these kids, I don't think that naming them is going to be the answer. I know one thing: privacy under the youth policy is being used to stymie my family. I cannot get my provincial government to discuss these issues with me. They've told me that he was a young offender and they won't discuss his issues or his family's issues.
If we can't find out why this boy was released, and nobody will talk to us, and the laws that are in place are not carried out, how would I think this new bill would do anything to help us? You're talking to a skeptic, at best. We've been dragged through this quagmire. It's a nightmare. We've had no assistance whatsoever getting through this mess. It's been quite an experience for us to go through the system and see all the things where the system broke down and dropped my family on its head. I think that's a sad state of affairs and a black eye to the criminal justice system.
In order for me to be able to speak with my provincial government, I would have to hire a lawyer. I would like to know why I have to be able to afford justice.
This boy has a medical history, by the way, and I couldn't find that out until I went to his detention review hearing. He was hit in the head by a vehicle when he was 8 years old and he has major frontal lobe damage. He was hit again by a vehicle when he was 10 years old and had a second frontal lobe damage.
He had 10 serious convictions by the time he was 16. He was kicked out of school at the age of 11, for violence. He was refused entry into an outreach program because of his violence; he was 13 at the time. I don't know what he did between ages 11 and 13 as far as education goes, but you can't help but think that he would be on the radar. I'm sure that most children in this country who aren't in school at that age are on the radar. At 13, he was found in possession of a stolen car. At 14, he had arson, times two, without regard to human life. He broke a liquor store clerk's hand with a baseball bat. He smashed a kid on the neck with a two-by-four-sized tree branch, at a sky train station, to rob him.
Now, do you think there might have been a few hints of escalation there?
My family and I have sat and had very many cheerful discussions about these issues. As far as we can see, the language is there that could deal with these kids.
It seems that there's a lot of confusion right across the country on how this whole system works. There seems to be a lot of issues on interpretation by different jurisdictions. The victims are just the meat in the sandwich.
That's about all I can really say at this point.
Thank you.