Opening comments: More at the end.
Want to
KILL, let the Peel police show you how to get away with it; Her son was run over & killed in what should have been an open and shut case of traffic accident in which the driver was at fault but as it was handled by a member of the Peel police "There would be no charges. Not even a traffic ticket. Nothing." It was only after the media started to ask questions that the officer was charged with neglect of duty and "reassigned out of the traffic unit." Wow, talk about punishment for letting someone who has killed a child, go scot-free! Makes me wonder who got this get out of jail card and how. She tried to use the Justice system / process to do what the government, she has always paid taxes to, would not and again every effort was made to make unaccountability all she got. After all, to the Peel police she is a nobody, to be treated as a nigger in the deep south would be in days not too long ago and I {like many others} know how she feels.
Isn't Canada such a wonderful country? Canadians should not fear some terrorists in far away countries - fear those in our own government as they are more likely to harm, kill you or family members and it will be LEGAL!
Back up to;
Toronto Sun - June 17, 2007 - By Michele Mandel
Defeated by justice
Denise Walkem wanted punishment meted out in the death of her son.
Now, she's out of time
When Denise Walkem's 15-year-old son was struck and killed by a van,
she expected someone to pay. (Stan Behal, Sun Media)
At the corner where her only child was struck and killed last year, someone has tied a teddy bear to the lamp post beside her cross of red roses.
"RIP, Stanton," one of the boy's friends has written. "We miss you."
Oh, but not as much as she does. And that is why this mother cannot rest until justice is done.
But it seems her wait will last forever.
Denise Walkem squints in the bright sunshine and straightens the cross that had been tilting to the left. "This is where his body lay," explains the grieving mom, pointing to a horrific place on Brampton's Queen St. that only she can see. "And that is where his bike landed."
When her 15-year-old son, Stanton Ho, was hit by a van while crossing on a green light last May, she expected charges would be laid.
NOT SEEKING REVENGE
It was not that she wanted revenge. She just believed, like any parent would, that someone would be held accountable for taking away her precious boy.
Yet she and her husband, Ron, waited months to hear back from Peel Regional Police.
As Christmas neared, it didn't seem right that it was taking so long. After all, there seemed no dispute about who was at fault.
The police accident report said the driver "proceeded to turn left on green signal, striking cyclist who was riding south from north curb within pedestrian line markings."
An eyewitness at the corner of Queen St. and Lockwood told police the same thing. "The van collapsed the boy at the middle of his body causing him to drop to the ground and the van proceeded to drive completely over the boy's body with his bike."
The coroner's report found "the pattern of injuries suggest that the deceased was initially struck on his bicycle by the van, thrown off his bicycle to the road surface and then run over by the van before it came to a stop."
It was mother's intuition that sent her out looking for him that evening - Stanton should have been home from his bike ride and she simply knew that something was wrong.
She just missed the ambulance as it pulled away.
'IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD'
As Walkem raced after him into the trauma room at the Hospital for Sick Children, a doctor whispered, "It doesn't look good, mom."
There was nothing more they could do for her only child.
As they left the room, they gently urged her to keep talking to him. "The last voice he will hear is yours."
So she told her baby how much he was loved, how special he was to them. "He just passed away in my arms," she says with such agony that you cannot meet her eyes.
Last December, she called Const. Steve Kemley to find out what was happening.
His reply was as cold as it was shocking: There would be no charges. Not even a traffic ticket. Nothing.
She wouldn't accept it. She couldn't.
And so a mother's crusade began.
After she complained to Peel Police, the professional standards bureau was dispatched to investigate the handling of Stanton's case.
Yet the police's shoddy treatment continued. No one bothered to tell them what transpired.
Instead, it was only an inquiry from the Sun that discovered that the investigating officer on Stanton's case has now been charged with neglect of duty and reassigned out of the traffic unit. "There was misconduct in terms of how the investigation was handled," says Sgt. Taufic Saliba.
The police told them only that because more than six months had elapsed since Stanton was struck, charges could no longer be laid under the Highway Traffic Act.
She refused to believe nothing more could be done. "I decided to go full steam ahead and charge this woman myself."
After months at the Brampton courthouse chasing after lawyers in the halls and justices of the peace, she learned that she could file a rare "personal information" against the driver.
A SHOCK
Despite much resistance from Crown attorneys, she presented her case to a JP who agreed she could charge the driver with criminal negligence causing death.
An initial trial date was set for last Thursday.
Walkem's victory, though, was short-lived. A few days ago, the Crown withdrew the charge. According to a spokesman, "there was not a reasonable prospect of conviction."
So all her months of hard work were for naught.
And while the Crown originally told her that there still may be a way of laying a careless driving charge, that was ruled out last week as well because too much time had passed.
The driver who struck her son is free and clear. While she is reeling from shock.
"It all points back to Peel Police making a mess of the whole thing," Walkem says, her voice so defeated. "It's just disgusting for me and Ron. We're just heartbroken and numb.
"I guess that's it," she says wearily. "Stanton got no justice and I got no justice. Nothing."
Yet an innocent child is dead - why isn't someone being held responsible?
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