Langley MP introduces “Kassandra’s Law” into House of Commons

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LANGLEY (NEWS1130) – An MP from Langley is hoping to change the name of a criminal offence, with the hope that change will be the first step toward mandatory sentencing.

The idea for “Kassandra’s Law” came after the death of a 22 year old, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2011

Mark Warawa has introduced a bill into the House of Commons and if the bill is made law, the crime “impaired driving causing death” would get a new name: “vehicular homicide.”

He notes that’s really what the crime is.”A homicide requires a person to knowingly make a decision to take action that would cause the death of another,” adding the decision to drive drunk and end up killing someone falls under that.

Warawa is hoping having the term “homicide” in the wording will lead to stiffer sentences. “The government’s working on legislation that would require mandatory sentencing. Right now, the sentencing is quite lenient, and we want to make sure that the sentencing is much more appropriate for killing somebody.”

He’d like to eventually see a mandatory sentence of between five and ten years attached to it.

Kassandra Kaulius was killed when a van — driven by a drunk driver — hit her car in Surrey.

The driver, 35-year-old Natasha Warren, drank a bottle-and-a-half of wine before she climbed behind the wheel of her company van in May 2011.  She was traveling at more than 100km/hr on 152nd Street when she ran a red light at 64th Avenue and smashed into Kaulius’s car.

Warren was recently released after two years behind bars.

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