Shelley MacInnis-Wynn asked senators to close their eyes for four seconds.
Before they did, she asked them to think of the person they see last thing before they go to sleep at night and first thing in the morning when they wake up.
Think of the person you plan to spend the rest of your life with, she asked them.
Now close your eyes, she said, counting to four aloud in a committee room.
“That’s exactly how long it took for Shawn Rehn to take away my husband. Four seconds,” she said.
MacInnis-Wynn was a witness appearing in front of the Canadian Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Thursday in Ottawa.
She was speaking to Bill S-217, sponsored by Senator Bill Runciman in the Senate. St. Albert MP Michael Cooper will be the bill’s sponsor if and when it makes its way to the House of Commons.
A similar bill was first proposed by former MP Brent Rathgeber last June. Both bills suggest changes so that a bail applicant’s full past record and any pending charges should be disclosed to the presiding justice of the peace or judge.
The bill has been championed by St. Albert MPs in light of the death of RCMP Const. David Wynn, who died after being shot at the Apex Casino in January 2015. He was shot by Shawn Rehn, who was out on bail at the time and whose record and pending charges weren’t disclosed in full at his bail hearing.
In an emotional testimony, MacInnis-Wynn spoke powerfully to senators about the loss of her husband and asked them to make this change to help ensure others don’t have to live through the grief her family has experienced.
“In those four seconds a constable was taken away from his community, a husband was taken away from his wife, a father was taken away from his three sons and a son and brother was taken away from his mother and sisters, in four seconds,” Wynn said.
“Changing this one simple word could save a lifetime of happiness for somebody else,” she said. The change would be to word the Criminal Code section to say the prosecutor “shall” lead evidence relating to the record and pending charges.
“Shawn Rehn should not have been on the streets. He should not have been let out after that bail hearing,” she said.
“Every day I wake up wishing that I could take those four seconds back, but I can’t, there’s nothing I can do to change that. And every day I have to live my life alone and not have Dave by my side,” she said. “Every day his children have to experience new things and new milestones without their dad. This Sunday is Father’s Day, they don’t have a father to spend that with.”
Her speech clearly had an effect on the committee members.
“That was perhaps the strongest testimony we’ve ever heard to change the law,” said deputy committee chair Senator George Baker. Runciman is the chair of the committee but was one of the witnesses.
“By any reasonable assessment of Shawn Rehn, the individual should not have been on the street at the time,” Runciman said during his own testimony, noting Rehn had several charges relating to failing to attend court.
MP Cooper also delivered testimony, and noted the profound effect Wynn’s murder had on the community of St. Albert.
It’s a tragedy anytime a police officer is killed in the line of duty, he said, but Wynn’s death is “all the more terrible and all the more outrageous because it was completely preventable,” he told the committee. He urged the senators to help close a loophole, and both he and Runciman said the change shouldn’t place any undue burden on Crown prosecutors or impinge on judicial authority.
Other witnesses included legal counsels for police services, the superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police and the president of the Mountain Police Professional Association of Canada, as well as a representative from the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness.
There were some concerns raised by the police about both the speed that records are updated and the possibility of extra work as a result of the change, but generally witnesses were supportive of the idea of the bill.
The committee did make one amendment, striking a clause at Runciman’s request, but decided to refer the bill back to the Senate for third reading.
Cooper said in an interview it was encouraging to see strong report in the committee room, and is optimistic it will pass the Senate before they rise for a summer break.
After that, it will head to the House of Commons, where it will go to the bottom of the order paper.
“It’s not a speedy process,” Cooper said, but added it was moving faster by going through the Senate first than if he had waited until his private member’s bill slot was available.
The wording of Bill S-217 is different from the bill originally proposed by Rathgeber, which contained language ensuring the bill would be called Dave Wynn’s Law.
While that language isn’t in the bill drafted by Runciman, Cooper said the bill is still referred to as “Wynn’s Law” and that he and the senator have been working closely with MacInnis-Wynn.
He was pleased MacInnis-Wynn had been able to come to Ottawa to speak to the committee.
“It was very powerful and impactful testimony,” Cooper said.
