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Proctor family continues to fight for change nine years after horrific Langford murder

Kimberly Proctor’s family still working towards change
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Monday marked nine years since Langford’s Kimberly Proctor was murdered by two of her peers and while her family still grieves, they have also taken the last nine years to help prevent similar tragedies from happening.

“As long as I live I’ll remember the emotion and devastation they caused,” says a Facebook post, written by Jo-Anne Landolt, Proctor’s aunt on Monday. “In the wake of Kimmy’s death we have made it a mission to prevent other tragedies and to put in place early intervention and treatment for our youth.”

Victoria lawyer Troy DeSouza partnered with the family to help form Kimberly’s Law, a group of seven proposals that the family is attempting to have enacted in Canada.

The law says schools should implement threat assessment protocols to identify students or others who have made threats or have engaged in threatening behaviour. It also says youths identified in the threat assessment protocol should be given mandatory counseling and treatment.

READ MORE: Tragic murder leads to positive change

Another one of the proposals says violent young offenders aged 16 or older who have been convicted of first or second degree murder should be transferred to adult court automatically.

“A 16-year-old possesses sufficient maturity, responsibility and accountability for their actions,” the proposal reads.

Kruse Wellwood and Cameron Moffat, the two Langford teens who are serving adult sentences of life in prison for Proctor’s sexual assault and murder will be eligible for parole next year. Experts who analyzed the teens after their guilty pleas found them unremorseful for their actions and unable or unwilling to recognize the gravity of their crime.

Two years after the grisly murder, SD62 began risk assessment training to teach educators to look for red flags in a student’s language, drawings, actions and behaviours. A restitution program that focuses on the culture within schools and how students and staff treat each other was also put in place.

READ MORE: Proctor’s killers troubled, angry from the start

During their sentencing hearing in 2010, the court was presented a picture of two troubled teens who began drinking alcohol around the age of 10, experimented with drugs and showed signs of violence towards peers. Some court experts said symptoms of psychopathy, combined with evidence of their sexual deviance, put them at high risk to re-offend and said they would likely remain a risk into their 40s.

The Facebook page, Kimberly’s Law, details several meetings Proctor’s family has had with members of the provincial and federal governments since the end of the trial in 2010.

From attending a Victim Roundtable in Ottawa to having met the federal government’s Victim Ombudsman, the family continues to be persistent in order to pass Kimberly’s Law.

“We will continue to fight, march forward and connect with stakeholders to support Kimberly’s Law,” Monday’s Facebook post read.

shalu.mehta@goldstreamgazette.com


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