June19-2009-News-Pereira

June 19, 2009

Today Marks the 3rd Anniversary of Beloved Family Member’s Wrongful Death: Groups and Surviving Family Members Renew Their Call for a Wrongful Death Act

Family members of people killed due to the negligence of others continue to call for a Wrongful Death Act in British Columbia, a widespread concerted effort that is especially meaningful today for Beatrice Pereira, whose mother Theresa died exactly three years ago after falling victim to a devastating medical error.

As the Pereira family continues to suffer through personal loss and anguish, Beatrice has been volunteering time and energy as a representative of the Wrongful Death Law Reform Group (WDLRG), one of four organizations leading a call for legislative change. The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, Trial Lawyers Association of BC and the Coalition Against No-Fault are the other key group partners, but more than 100 organizations have signed on in support of their collective call to have the province of British Columbia put a Wrongful Death Act in place.

“Without question, the law needs to be changed,” said Beatrice. “Things get so much worse for family members of wrongful death victims after they find out the current laws in BC completely fail to help them. Many people are left hopeless.”
Beatrice is one of several family representatives working together for positive changes in legislation. The WDLRG members were organized with the help of Burnaby-based law firm Campbell, Renaud. Firm partner Don Renaud devotes time voluntarily to the cause, an effort that has been ongoing since the summer of 2005. “I’ve met far too many grieving family members and had to explain the sad realities far too many times,” said Don of the added toll a wrongful death takes on surviving loved ones. “In BC, the state of the law has always been tragic; it has existed far too long. For wrongdoers – that is, the people who cause fatal incidents to occur – it is far cheaper for them to kill than to injure. We need a Wrongful Death Act as a remedy to this terrible situation. Too many families have been forced to suffer further harm due to BC’s lack of effective legislation. Until it is changed, our legislation tells people that some of their family members – particularly children, the elderly, the poor and the disabled – are worthless in the eyes of the law.”

Unless new legislation is brought in, BC’s laws governing wrongful death will remain modelled after Lord Campbell’s Act of 1846, British legislation that totally fails to appreciate losses beyond direct financial impact. As a consequence, a countless number of families have been prohibited from seeking justice for the extent of their losses brought on by the wrongful deaths of their loved ones. Nothing has changed throughout BC’s history as a province.

The groups involved in this campaign for change continue to call on the BC Government to right this wrong by doing away with BC’s Family Compensation Act and replacing it with a proper Wrongful Death Act, the result of which would enable innocent families to seek justice.

The groups initiated a dialogue with the BC Ministry of Attorney General more than two years ago and their efforts are ongoing. Representatives from all four groups last met with ministry officials in May 2008. Prior to that, in September 2007, the ministry completed a consultation on the topic of Reforming British Columbia’s Family Compensation Act. That process indicated the government was seriously considering changes in legislation, but details of potential developments – or a projected timeline for change – have not surfaced or been shared with the groups advocating for new legislation.

Together, the groups are now seeking a meeting with newly appointed Attorney General Mike de Jong. They will, at every turn, repeat the call for a fair and effective Wrongful Death Act.

The groups propose that new legislation should include the following provisions:

A. The court, notwithstanding any other damages that may be awarded, may award damages generally to the decedent’s estate and /or survivors for:

1. solace and bereavement
2. personal anguish
3. emotional stress
4. loss of companionship, comfort, love and affection
5. loss of advice, counsel, guidance, protection and care
6. the decedent’s mental anguish, pain and suffering from the date of injury to death

B. The court may also award punitive damages to the decedent’s estate for wilful, wanton or reckless conduct shown by a preponderance of evidence.

CONTACT: Adelaide Goldberg, 604 435-6948, at the office of Campbell, Renaud.

NOTE: Beatrice Pereira works in Vancouver and resides in Surrey. The Pereira family’s tragedy is one of four personal stories chronicled in an anthology entitled: in their name – the call for a wrongful death act in BC, a special publication produced by the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities. The document can be accessed from www.bccpd.bc.ca and is also available at www.canf.bc.ca.

June4-09_news_wrongfuldeath-nationally.pdf

June 4, 2009

Wrongful Death Legislation Required throughout Canada: New Federal Legislation Should be Amended to Adopt the Made-in-BC Definition for a Proposed Wrongful Death Act

If justice is the goal, federal Bill C-35 is a step forward but leaves an enormous gap. Introduced in Parliament on June 2, the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act will become a hollow remedy unless amendments are made that provide damages for loss of life, as laid out in British Columbia by the proponents of a Wrongful Death Act.

“Bill C-35 highlights the outdated state of civil remedies for wrongful deaths,” said Robert Holmes, president of the Trial Lawyers Association of BC (TLABC). “Governments must bring in effective law reform. The federal bill should be amended, and the provinces and territories should enact Wrongful Death Acts that hold people who kill accountable for the damage they cause. We have long been pushing for real reform to bring the law into the 21st century. The dreadfully old common law concept that personal injury losses die with the person is wrongheaded and unjust. Family members should be permitted to seek justice for their losses, not just the direct financial impacts of a wrongful death. The time for action is now.”

The federal bill would eliminate the immunity sovereign states and their agencies have from civil claims for damages arising from terrorist acts they sponsor or support. It provides for the right to claim for injuries for those who survive terrorist incidents, but not for the estates and families of those who are killed. Terrorists responsible for killing instead of just injuring their victims should not be better off when claims are made against them. However, existing federal and provincial laws allow just that. Bill C-35 must be amended to correct this injustice. Otherwise, family members who suffer the profound loss of a loved one through criminal and other wrongful acts, including terrorism, do not have meaningful civil recourse.

Wrongdoers should be held accountable. At present, they often get off lightly in civil cases where they have killed someone as opposed to having their victim left seriously injured but still alive. The Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act is supposed to enable the federal cabinet to name sponsors of terrorism and expose them to lawsuits in Canadian courts. The aim is to provide recourse for those injured by acts of terrorism. But, while victims who survive terrorist acts may sue for their injuries, for those who die, their estates and their families, there is not any remedy.TLABC calls for the BC Government to bring in a Wrongful Death Act and for the federal government to reflect the same principle in Bill C-35. The proposal is simple and clear:

A. The court, notwithstanding any other damages that may be awarded, may award damages generally to the decedent’s estate and /or survivors for:

1. solace and bereavement
2. personal anguish
3. emotional stress
4. loss of companionship, comfort, love and affection
5. loss of advice, counsel, guidance, protection and care
6. the decedent’s mental anguish, pain and suffering from the date of injury to death

B. The court may also award punitive damages to the decedent’s estate for wilful, wanton or reckless conduct shown by a preponderance of evidence. TLABC’s call for a Wrongful Death Act is part of an ongoing campaign led by TLABC, the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, the Coalition Against No-Fault and the Wrongful Death Law Reform Group. The latter was formed by representatives of families who have suffered the loss of loved ones through wrongful acts. It was organized in 2005 by Burnaby-based lawyer Don Renaud, a governor and past-president of TLABC.

“Far too many personal tragedies have been made worse by BC’s lack of proper legislation,” Mr. Renaud explained. “The current state of the law is particularly hard on those suffering losses. It sends a message that some people – particularly children, the elderly, the poor and the disabled – are worthless in the eyes of the law. It is simply wrong for the law’s message to wrongdoers be that it is cheaper for them to kill than to injure.” Mr. Renaud concluded: “In addition to the families involved in the BC wrongful death law reform campaign, proper and effective legislation would have been helpful – for example – to the loved ones of Robert Dziekanski, who died after being hit repeatedly with a Taser by RCMP officers at the Vancouver International Airport in October 2007, and perhaps for the family of Orion Hutchinson, who died a year later in Delta, after he was struck and killed while riding his motorcycle in a case of alleged impaired driving.”

More than 100 groups in BC have signed on to support the Wrongful Death Act reform campaign. The groups started a dialogue with the BC Ministry of Attorney General three years ago. In September 2007, the Ministry concluded a consultation process on the topic of reforming BC’s Family Compensation Act, but a draft bill has not been made public and no timetable for action has been set out.

The stories of four families impacted by tragic losses are part of “In their name – the call for a wrongful death act in BC,” an anthology produced two years ago by the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities, with funding from a grant through the Law Foundation of British Columbia. It can be accessed at www.bccpd.bc.ca and www.canf.bc.ca.

8-October-08-CANFnews

October 8, 2008

Mother Still Calling for Justice 11 Years after Her Daughter was Killed: Wrongful Death Act Needed Now for Families in British Columbia

Family members of innocent victims of wrongful death continue to suffer due to British Columbia’s lack of a Wrongful Death Act, a reality that is particularly painful today for Catherine Adamson, whose daughter Heidi died in hospital 11 years ago after being struck by an impaired driver’s vehicle, weeks earlier.

The tragedy of Heidi’s death is multi-layered. The devastating details began with the horribly reckless actions of a teenaged driver on September 13, 1997 (the incident occurred at Stokes Pit, along the Surrey-Langley border), and continued for more than three weeks as Heidi was hospitalized and subjected to various surgeries. Many of the medical decisions and subsequent actions have been called into question, both before and after October 8, 1997, the day 17-year-old Heidi Klompas died.

“There is no compensation allowable for the pain and suffering of parents when they lose a child,” Catherine Adamson wrote in Heidi Dawn Klompas: Missed Opportunities, a book she published three years ago in her daughter’s honour. The book is a well-written but horribly painful chronicle of Heidi’s death. As Catherine explains in the book, she hopes the details of Heidi’s death will lead to meaningful changes with regard to medical treatment, legislation and legal rights.

At present, a large and growing alliance of groups is calling for a Wrongful Death Act to be implemented in this province. Catherine, a former school trustee from Langley, got involved with one such group a few years ago. It is made up of family members who have suffered the tragic loss of a loved one through wrongful acts and circumstances. They were organized in the summer of 2005 as the Wrongful Death Law Reform Group (WDLRG). Three other groups are on board with them, co-leading a call for change – specifically, they are calling for a Wrongful Death Act to replace BC’s terribly inadequate Family Compensation Act.

The other groups working in partnership with the WDLRG are the Coalition Against No-Fault, the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities and the Trial Lawyers Association of BC. To date, 96 organizations have signed on in support of this initiative.

“The law definitely needs to be changed,” says Surrey resident and WDLRG member Beatrice Pereira, whose mother died two years ago after a fatal act of medical negligence. “You can’t imagine how much more pain is caused for grieving family members when they find out that BC’s current legislation fails to provide them with help and, instead, leaves them hopeless.”

The personal tragedies suffered by Catherine, Beatrice and their families are two of the accounts contained within an anthology entitled in their name – the call for a wrongful death act in BC, a publication produced by the BC Coalition of People with Disabilities. The present lack of proper law is particularly hard on people with disabilities, seniors and other citizens who are often not able to rely on a regular wage-earning income. Funding to produce the publication was obtained through a grant from the Law Foundation of British Columbia. The anthology can be accessed from the following two websites: www.bccpd.bc.ca and www.canf.bc.ca .

Burnaby-based lawyer Don Renaud voluntarily devotes his time to the cause of the WDLRG members and the supporting organizations. As he explains it, “the state of things is tragic and it has been this way for far too long. For wrongdoers – the people who cause fatal incidents to occur – it is far cheaper to kill than to injure. We need a Wrongful Death Act that will end this dreadful situation. Too many families have been let down and further anguished by BC’s lack of fair and effective legislation.”

Until new law is put in place, the legislation in BC governing wrongful death will remain modelled after the archaic Lord Campbell’s Act of 1846, legislation that utterly fails to recognize or appreciate loss beyond its direct financial impact. The consequence of this failure has barred a countless number of families from seeking justice for their losses after the wrongful death of their loved ones. Moreover, nothing has changed throughout BC’s history as a province. That is why the groups are calling on the BC Government to right this wrong, to empower innocent families to seek justice after discarding of the Family Compensation Act and bringing in entirely new legislation.

The groups initiated a dialogue with the BC Ministry of Attorney General more than two years ago. Their efforts are ongoing. Representatives of all four groups have met with key representatives from the Attorney General’s Ministry. In September 2007, the Ministry concluded a consultation process on the topic of Reforming British Columbia’s Family Compensation Act. Though the process indicates the government is considering change in this regard, the groups have not been made aware of any timeline or potential developments.

The groups propose that new legislation should include the following provisions:

A. The court, notwithstanding any other damages that may be awarded, may award damages generally to the decedent’s estate and /or survivors for:

1. solace and bereavement
2. personal anguish
3. emotional stress
4. loss of companionship, comfort, love and affection
5. loss of advice, counsel, guidance, protection and care
6. the decedent’s mental anguish, pain and suffering from the date of injury to death

B. The court may also award punitive damages to the decedent’s estate for wilful, wanton or reckless conduct shown by a preponderance of evidence.
Go to www.catadampublishing.com for more information about Heidi and Catherine.

CONTACT NOTE:
Adelaide Goldberg, # 604 435-6948, can be reached at the law office of Campbell Renaud in Burnaby. Interviews with Catherine Adamson, Beatrice Pereira and Don Renaud can be scheduled through Ms. Goldberg.

LOCATION NOTE:
Catherine Adamson resides in Vancouver.
Beatrice Pereira works in Vancouver and resides in Surrey.
The law office of Campbell Renaud is located in Burnaby’s Metrotown area.