WINDSOR, February 27, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) — In an open letter to the father of the unborn child murdered at seven months gestation along with her mother Cassandra Kaake, Essex MP Jeff Watson called for Parliament to revive and pass the Unborn Victims of Crime Act.
If Matthew Brush, the man accused of bludgeoning Kaake, 31, to death in December, is convicted, he will face punishment for a single murder, though Kaake carried an unborn child seven months along, already named Molly, who died also.
“As you have discovered since Molly’s death,” Watson wrote to Jeff Durham, “Canada’s Criminal Code stipulates that one isn’t a human being until he or she has fully exited the mother’s body. In the case of Cassandra’s murder, the Criminal Code doesn’t recognize Molly’s humanity. Thus, there is only the single charge – the murder of Cassandra.”
In 2008, Conservative MP Ken Epp's private member's Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, was quashed when Conservative Justice Minister Rob Nicholson introduced a watered-down version of the bill, ostensibly so as not to reopen the debate on abortion. The bill would have allowed for separate punishments for killing an unborn child in a violent attack on a pregnant mother.
Fellow Windsor resident Kim Badour has launched a petition on Change.org, called Molly Matters, asking Canadian legislators to pass a law making Bush’s crime a double murder.
“The accused Matthew Brush age 26 of LaSalle Ontario,” she wrote on the petition site, “known to the family of the victim will only be held accountable for one charge of murder – Cassies. Her tiny baby girl whom i'm more than certain would have survived being born at 30 weeks gestation will receive absolutely no justice and this sickens me.”
Badour's petition has been supported by almost 7,000 signatures so far.
“I applaud the efforts of those, including you, who have stepped forward to insist that parliament resurrect – and pass – the Unborn Victims of Crime Act. I, like you, believe we can right this injustice,” MP Watson wrote.
“To do so will take more than signing a petition or sending emails – though both steps should be taken,” Watson advised. “Rather, it will take those who grieve Molly’s murder to actively forge a strong consensus of Canadians – in all regions of the country – to demand justice for Molly; to overpower the strident voices of those who will seek to drag this call for justice into the quagmire of abortion politics; and to vault this to the front burner of parliamentarians.”
The petition urging MPs to reconsider and pass Bill C-484 is available here.
