Six weeks ago, in two adjacent Barrie courtrooms, two men convicted of manslaughter were each sentenced to seven years in prison.
The only witnesses to both court proceedings were the two judges who passed sentence, lawyers, court officials, two working news reporters, members of one deceased man’s family in one case, and the family of both the accused and deceased in the other.
That’s because that victim, a 47-year-old Ramara woman named Wendy Lahay, was killed by her eldest child, Michael. Her family was in court to both support Michael and remember Wendy, who, by all accounts, was a wonderful wife and mother. She had just become a grandmother when she died.
Michael Lahay, 34, walked out of prison on Friday, having met the threshold for release based on his pretrial custody. His sentence was rubber-stamped by Justice Jill Cameron in Newmarket a day earlier. (Most of the court proceedings in the case had taken place in Barrie.)
The other man, Steven Martel, was sentenced in Barrie by Justice Michelle Fuerst on Dec. 12. He will soon reach his date for statuary release and will also likely be free.
Martel stabbed Ron Peterson-Brennan after he accidently spilled his drug stash on Family Day weekend almost two years ago in front of a church on Collier Street. Martel then chased the victim, who managed to make it into a Dunlop Street diner before collapsing.
Martel’s co-accused, Jordan Szyperski, had his charges withdrawn on the same day Martel was sentenced. Released after 22 months in custody, Szyperski died four days later.
Both Lahay and Martel had significant mental health issues and originally faced more serious murder charges.
Their respective seven-year sentences were joint submissions and were taking place at the same time at the Barrie courthouse.
The lone difference was that Fuerst passed sentence on Dec. 12, while Cameron adjourned the matter until Jan. 23, when it was determined Lahay could be freed a day later.
Two lives gone forever, seven years for each perpetrator. Per statutory sentencing law in Canada, but also because of enhanced credit for time served before pleading guilty, Lahey and Martel will serve a shade less than four years.
To most members of the public, the sentences would seem outrageously light.
Me? In three months of covering the courts full-time after occasionally dipping my toe in it, I’m starting to become numb to how our justice system is out of touch with how the average citizen would feel.
That gulf between those in and near the justice system and those who never venture into it can be good — would you want angry citizens deciding the fate of your loved one? — but that doesn’t mean the gap in opinion shouldn’t be narrowed.
After all, we no longer slap the wrists of drunk drivers. A second offence is an automatic jail sentence. Impaired driving convictions that cause death or serious injury now come with lengthy prison terms approaching what Lahay and Martel received for stabbing people to death.
Crimes against intimate partners are dealt with more harshly as well. This week, I witnessed two area men receive four- and five-month sentences, respectively, for relatively minor assaults on their former girlfriends.
But seven years and out in four for killing someone?
The time doesn’t fit the crime, whatever the circumstances, nor does it come anywhere close to what the public would want. And by continuing to pass such sentences, isn’t our society telling its citizens it doesn’t place the same value on a life lost than it does for those who snuffed out other human beings?
Would it surprise you to hear Lahay and Martel were before the courts again? Put another way, would you, right now, be comfortable sitting next to Lahay or Martel in a restaurant, walking past them on the street, or in line ahead of you at the grocery store?
Nothing will bring Ron Peterson-Brennan or Wendy Lahay back, but our justice system needs to do a better job at punishing those responsible for their violent ends.
Human life must be worth more than the seven-for-four plan.
Peter Robinson covers the courts for Village Media sites including OrilliaMatters.
