Thank you very much, honourable members of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Thank you for allowing me to be here today.
My name is Markita Kaulius. I am the founder and president of Families for Justice. I am here today representing thousands of Canadian families who have lost our children and loved ones, killed by impaired drivers in Canada.
On May 3, 2011, my 22-year-old daughter Kassandra was killed by an impaired driver. My daughter was driving home after coaching a softball game. She was stopped at a red light and had the right-of-way to make a left-hand turn. As she waited for traffic to pass, a white van came speeding down the curb lane. The stoplight for the van had already been red for 12 seconds. The van accelerated the last 500 feet of the intersection, got airborne over railway tracks and slammed into my daughter's vehicle. She was killed in a catastrophic collision when she was T-boned in the driver's side door. Kassandra was crushed to death by 3,000 lbs. of steel crashing into the side of her at 103 kilometres an hour. The driver then fled the scene of the collision. The driver was two and a half times over the legal limit to drive.
Sadly, instead of becoming the teacher she had dreamed of being, my daughter became another statistic of impaired driving. She lost her life because another impaired driver made the willful, reckless choice to drink and then drive while being impaired. My family and I received a lifetime sentence of being without our daughter. Sadly, Kassandra received a death sentence.
Impaired driving is the number one criminal cause of death in Canada. Each year impaired driving leaves a terrible trail of death, injury, heartbreak and destruction. From that point of view of numbers alone, it has a far greater impact on Canadian society than any other crime. On average, between 1,250 to 1,500 people are killed each year in Canada, and thousands more are injured. In terms of deaths and serious injuries resulting in hospitalization, impaired driving is clearly the crime that causes the most significant social loss to this country.
Since the legalization of marijuana in 2018 by the federal government, we have seen drug-impaired driving collisions rise by 43%. The percentage of Canadian drivers killed in vehicle crashes who test positive for drugs now exceeds the number who test positive for alcohol.
Criminal victimization of crime is a frightening and unsettling experience for thousands of Canadians, and the victimization is debilitating. The effects can also be long term and difficult to overcome. Not only do we suffer physically, emotionally, psychologically and financially from our victimization; we are also often burdened by the complexity of the criminal justice system.
I have spoken with hundreds of families who say they felt retraumatized after going through the criminal justice system. They never felt their needs were being addressed or listened to, which in turn made their grieving process last so much longer. Individuals who are killed never have a voice or get to speak of the trauma they endured, and their families are trying to seek justice for their loved one. The families wait for months, or even years, for the Crown to approve charges. Then they must go through numerous court proceedings, which can take years due to postponements with the lack of judges and court availability.
Then plea deals are made. Many times, charges are dropped down to a single charge altogether. When the accused finally gets to court, it doesn't seem like the accused is on trial. It seems like the investigation is on trial, and the accused has more rights than the victims. If the accused is convicted at all, they are sentenced by using case law from previous cases where a similar sentence was given out. Often these sentences are so low, the accused is back out in the community in just a few days or months. We have seen cases take longer to go to trial than the actual jail time given out, even when the offences were serious. Families feel revictimized, as the accused has paid little debt to society.
Canadians have begun to doubt not only the safety of their surroundings but also the fairness and efficiency of the justice system set up to protect them and their property. Canadians would like to see changes to Canada's criminal justice system. Canadians feel there are several justice issues, including confidence in the system, crime rates and parole. The focus should be on several aspects of the criminal justice system, particularly sentencing and correction issues and assistance for victims.
Canadians believe that the main purpose of the courts and our criminal justice system is to protect society, and Canadians believe that the system should act as a deterrent to criminals and should function to punish offenders who commit crimes against society.
Sadly, that is not the case in our Canada in our current justice system. Offenders are not being held accountable—