Kiesha Garie and Umair Kasim. photo supplied
A protest held Sunday in Surrey was organized by a mom whose Coquitlam daughter was one of the victims in an unsolved 2022 murder.
The protest, organized by Christine Angelis, was held at RCMP headquarters to raise awareness about failures in the justice system.
Angelis is the mother of Kiesha Garie, who was just 31 years old when she and her fiancé Umair Kasim, 30, were found dead in a vehicle near Alpha Secondary School in Burnaby.
The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team took over the case, but no charges have been filed and Angelis said there has little communication from police since then – saying she has been “kept in the dark.”
“The pain of losing my daughter to murder has been compounded by the agonizing wait for justice,” Angelis said. “A case that should have reached a conviction in under a year has dragged on for more than three years. This delay is primarily due to the high threshold set by the Crown Council’s law, which demands substantial likelihood of conviction before proceeding with a case. As a result, alleged murderers remain free, posing a danger to our communities.”
The rally was also set up to raise awareness about the case of Devon Goodrick, 26, who went missing in Surrey nearly five years ago.
Angelis is recommending two courses of action by government: Revising the criteria for proceeding with murder charges, ensuring they are reasonable yet rigorous, with “built-in checks to protect against miscarriages of justice. Implementing supportive measures for investigators and prosecutors, such as grant access to additional resources and training for handling complex cases, is also crucial.”
Creating an oversight committee to review cases that have been delayed due to these stringent policies can help identify areas for improvement and ensure transparency, she added.
Angelis has started an online petition in an attempt to rally support for changes in the justice system. That petition can be found here.