In December 2021, Everton Downey stabbed his girlfriend Melissa Blimkie 15 times in a stairwell at a shopping mall in Burnaby. She died. Downey was convicted of second-degree murder. In February, the British Columbia Supreme Court sentenced him to life in prison, the minimum sentence set out in the Criminal Code. The Crown sought no chance for parole for at least 15 years. But Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes decided on 12 years instead, in part because of “mitigating circumstances of his background,” as described in his Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA). The time to parole was reduced because of Downey’s experience of being Black. Read More



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