Local group’s meeting with fed justice minister called off

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SURREY (NEWS1130) – The family of a young woman killed by a drunk driver in Surrey is disappointed their meeting with the federal justice minister has been cancelled, with very little notice.

Markita Kaulius’s daughter, Kassandra, died in May of 2011.

Yesterday, she and other members of Families for Justice were supposed to meet with Rob Nicholson at a hotel in Downtown Vancouver to talk about sentencing laws for impaired drivers.

Hours before the meeting, the prime minister shuffled his cabinet and Nicholson moved into a new portfolio.

“We’re disappointed, feel a little let down by the justice system again. We hope that the new justice minister will make time for us,” she says.

“We’ve been waiting two years for this meeting and I have [another] mother who’s flown in from Calgary to attend this meeting and it will be all for nothing.”

That other mother is Sheri Arsenault, who lost her son to a drunk driver in Alberta in November of 2011.

Peter MacKay has been named the new minister of justice. Kaulius is hoping to meet with him.

“We hope that the new minister will make time for us,” she tells us. “I don’t know if we’ll have to wait another two years again to meet with him. Hopefully not.”

Kaulius says for every day that Canada’s drunk driving laws remain as they are, four people lose their lives and 174 are injured.

The driver who killed Kassandra Kaulius has already applied for parole, after serving only six months and one week in prison. Natasha Warren’s parole hearing will be held in November, less than a year after she was incarcerated.

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