Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Best—Meechelle and Ron.
I want to thank you for your courage in coming here today and sharing your story with such incredible composure given the circumstances, and for your relentless advocacy and efforts to try to change Canada's bail system in the aftermath of the terrible tragedy your family faced.
In honour of Kellie, but with the focus on ensuring that other families don't face the same devastation that yours had to.... I know a bit about Kellie, and she was a wonderful human being with an incredibly bright future ahead of her. She did not deserve to have her life taken by a man who should have been behind bars. I am so sorry for the loss that your entire family has faced—for the loss of Travis, her fiancé, and for all of those who knew and loved her. Frankly, our entire community—my own town of Portage—was badly shaken when the news came out, and that turned into pure disgust with the circumstances of how this tragedy came about. Kellie faced the consequences of political decisions that put the rights of criminals above the rights of everyone else. Her death should not have happened.
The individual who killed your daughter was given bail three times within two weeks prior to this tragedy. How does it make you feel to realize that the system as it is currently set up seems far more concerned with his rights than with the safety of your daughter?