Opinion: Will somebody finally listen?

Opinion

Let me be clear. Tyler Scott Goodman killed my daughter Jordyn Reimer on May 1, 2022 when he drove impaired and recklessly crashed into her vehicle.

He was impaired and driving more than twice the speed limit, while Jordyn was 100 per cent sober and doing the 50 km/h speed limit, being a responsible designated driver to make sure her friends made it home safely.

Yes, I am a grieving parent, and I am a layperson. I am not a politician. I am not a police officer, Crown attorney, defence lawyer, judge or, frankly, any person with power.

What I am is a person who understands right from wrong, just like every other moral layperson in Winnipeg who understands right from wrong. I am a person who could not save my daughter Jordyn Reimer, but I am a person who wants justice for my Jordyn, and I want to save other people’s loved ones.

I am a person who knows that change must not be ignored when it comes to the crime of impaired driving, because there are solutions to save other people’s lives. There are solutions to save families and friends the catastrophic life sentence of grief that results from this avoidable crime. What is needed is for someone to listen.

What I have learned so far is that no matter how many letters I write, no matter how many people I reach out to, I have not yet met that person.

That person with empathy, an unwavering moral compass, and that person with the courage and power needed to help make change.

As part of the Manitoba provincial political parties’ election platforms in the fall, I could not help but notice that “Tough on Crime” discussions did not involve impaired driving in any party’s campaign.

While I recognize the importance of the other crime issues, I cannot help but wonder why the important issue of impaired driving was absent. Where does the violent crime of impaired driving causing death fit in? Impaired driving is the leading cause of violent death in Canada. The leading cause, and yet impaired driving causing death is not considered murder under the Criminal Code of Canada.

Why does it have its own category to treat it more leniently, as a lesser violent crime? The end result is the same — death.

There are so many things wrong in this criminal justice process that I cannot begin to review details of them all here.

One small example to consider is that if you have a gun licence and you shoot someone, whether you kill them or not, do you get your gun licence back? No, because that would be ludicrous. But if you kill someone with your car (your weapon of choice) during the criminal act of impaired driving, the law and Manitoba Public Insurance allow you to regain your driver’s licence after a designated suspension time.

We listened with disbelief in court when that seemed to be the No. 1 issue for clarification when it came to sentencing.

Unfortunately, I doubt our experience with the judicial system as victims is unique.

I feel changes are warranted at every step of the process, from the laws around leaving the scene of the crime, to the bail conditions and enforcement of those conditions, to the modifications of those bail conditions, to the lack of victim participation in the charges to be dropped or for charges to be laid, to the plea deals, to the lack of victims’ rights to face the accused and have them hear every single person’s victim impact statement that wished to be heard in court, to the final act of sentencing.

The Canadian justice system says the fundamental principles of sentencing state that sentencing must be proportionate to the gravity of the crime and the degree of responsibility of the offender.

We attended court on Nov. 22 for the final sentencing decision.

With sick feelings in the pits of our stomachs, we had previously heard in court the defence and the Crown argue between 4.5 or six years for the so-called fair and just sentence for the impaired driving crime that took Jordyn’s life.

For those people, who are like our family and had no idea before this nightmare, the reality is that this criminal will be eligible for parole after only one third of the sentence. And in this case they gave him six years for impaired driving causing death so that means he gets two years’ incarceration.

I need someone to explain to me how that is commensurate with the gravity of the crime — Jordyn’s death? Jordyn is the ultimate victim here. Where are her rights? Where are the rights of Jordyn’s family and friends as victims of this crime?

It is hard to have faith in these proclamations of justice when time and time again this does not happen.

This is revictimization and it is from our own Canadian justice system — the very system that we erroneously and with blind, misplaced faith thought would be there to support us and help us through this unimaginable nightmare. Are these overt lies, placating empty promises designed to mislead the average person into a false sense of faith in the Canadian judicial system?

After all, the Canadian judicial system makes these claims… all of which we have experienced in our fight for justice for Jordyn to be untrue.

With misguided — or stupid — renewed optimism and hope we awaited Judge Kael McKenzie to be the one, to be the one that got it and would say enough is enough.

We had hoped he would set precedent with his sentencing for the man who took our sweet Jordyn’s life, but again we were crushed with the legal rhetoric that said sentencing must be harsher and changes to legislation in 2018 had argued the law now supports maximum sentences of life in prison for those horrible crime and then …blah blah blah blah garbage. Case law says…status quo is…blah bla blah …her life is worth a six-year sentence — or two years behind bars.

When something is wrong and everybody knows it, why is it not being fixed? Historically we have learned hard lessons as Canadians and there have been moral people who have stepped up to stop the wrongs of our country. Residential schools are one very important example. Other examples include slavery, segregation of races, burning witches at the stake, gender inequality to vote and work and on and on.

The societal impact of impaired driving causing death is somehow ignored and swept under the rug. It is not acknowledged as the heinous crime that it is.

Time and time again, new innocent victims (four per day in Canada) are killed by impaired drivers.

Yet, this falls on deaf ears with any efforts to make changes both proactively and reactively limping along at a snail’s pace.

Honestly, I say shame on you to the Crown, to the defence, and especially to the judge.

My cry for help is simple: that somebody listen. That someone with that moral compass, moral character and power, finally listen.

Karen Reimer is Jordyn’s mom.

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