Mr. Speaker, as it happens, Bob and Audrey Stewart never had the opportunity to present a victim's impact statement in that case. In fact today the prosecution in British Columbia is deciding as to whether or not the case will be appealed. If it is not, certainly we will be dealing with that immediately.
I want to provide the House of Commons and the Canadian people with a real victim impact statement from two parents who did not get the opportunity to present it: "Nothing prepared us for the early morning events of March 26, 1995. Two Courtney detachment RCMP officers came to our home to inform us that our son Aaron Michael Stewart was a victim of a stabbing incident at a house party in Langley. He had died within 15 minutes. Our nightmare began.
"In a single moment our lives were changed forever. Our grief was and is indescribable. Aaron was a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin and friend. We had done our level best to raise Aaron and we had nothing but pride in him. Life is very precious. We thank God for the 23 wonderful loving years we had with Aaron. We were truly blessed. Death is always very difficult regardless of age or circumstance.
"The violence surrounding Aaron's passing just increased the pain. Given his love of life and his youth, his death can only be described as a senseless tragedy. A tragedy of this magnitude happens to other people. Never do we imagine the possibility of it happening to us.
"We find it difficult to even remember the last 19 months. We were thrown into funeral preparations, courtroom appearances and media coverage, to say nothing of trying to deal with our own grief and that of our family and friends. Compounding this was the shock and outrage we all felt.
"We put our faith in the legal system fully expecting justice to prevail. The show cause hearing afforded the accused bail, a $10,000 surety and an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. We were appalled and addressed our concerns in writing to the deputy regional crown. A new prosecutor was named and we were afforded the opportunity to be a part of the process.
"On two occasions defence counsel requested a plea bargain to manslaughter. The crown advised us of these requests but we were assured the violent nature of the crime warranted the charge of second degree murder. The requests were rejected. The eight days of preliminary inquiry in December 1995 only increased our resolve. There were 30 or 40 statements taken on that morning and over 20 witnesses called by the crown during the inquiry. We were very grateful for the overwhelming support shown by family and friends. We were never alone to face this ordeal.
The next step in our attempt to seek justice was the trial, October of 1996. After three weeks of testimony our world ended, the jury handing down an acquittal. Justice did not prevail. Where do we go from here?"
I can only say to Robert and Audrey Stewart that we will not give up the fight for justice. We will not give up the fight for legitimate process through the judiciary. I think the Liberals should take note of what I have said here today and go back and think about all those victims out there and try to spend a little more time helping victims and not criminals.