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A longtime friend has identified the victim of a suspicious death earlier this month in Saanich, B.C., as a victim of intimate partner violence.
Laura Gover, a business professor at both Vancouver Island University and Camosun College, was identified as the person who was killed on Jan. 5.
Kelsea McLaughlin, who knew Gover for 25 years, said that she wants the 41-year-old to be remembered as a devoted mother to her two young daughters.
McLaughlin has set up a fundraiser to provide for the two children, who are seven and 11-years-old and are facing a future without both of their parents.
“There’s overwhelming sadness at losing someone who’s, you know, an amazing friend, an amazing mother,” McLaughlin said. “She’s an incredible teacher, her students loved her.
“But the other feeling that comes up is anger because this felt so needless, and it’s just a needless tragedy.”
Saanich police have announced that Muhammed Basar has been charged with second-degree murder in the death that happened on Jan. 5.
The case has been designated a “K file,” which indicates it is an alleged case of intimate partner violence.
Police were called to the 1600-block of Blair Avenue that day and took Basar into custody that same day. His next court appearance is on Jan. 21.
McLaughlin identified Basar as Gover’s ex-husband, and said that the issue of intimate partner violence was on the Gover’s friends’ radar, and the 41-year-old had spoken to them about the issue.
She said that Gover had educated her friends on how there was more to intimate partner violence than physical abuse.
“There’s a, sort of, a silent component with intimate partner violence that can look like financial control, control over someone else’s autonomy, isolating them from family and friends and things that are just sort of more difficult to identify from afar,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin’s fundraiser has raised nearly $110,000 as of Tuesday evening, and she said the funds would be held in a trust for Gover’s daughters to provide for them going forward.
College expresses shock
In a statement, Camosun College said that Gover joined the university’s business school in the fall of 2021 and had a decade of experience in post-secondary education and management training.
“Laura’s untimely death comes as a terrible shock to students, faculty and staff at Camosun College,” reads the statement, attributed to college president Lane Trotter.
“Her passing leaves a profound sense of loss within the college community as well as those who were fortunate enough to know her.”
The college said that grief counselling supports would be made available to staff and students after the death.
There has been a series of calls for a more fulsome response to the issue of intimate partner violence, particularly in cases that involved women who were killed despite having protection orders in place.
Last month, B.C.’s attorney general announced the province would be setting up a provincial framework to guide those in the justice system and better respond to intimate partner violence.
The federal government has tabled legislation that would classify femicide — including cases relating to an intimate partner — as first-degree murder.
B.C. Premier David Eby was in Ottawa on Thursday, and one of the topics he raised with his federal counterparts is the need for bail reform and tougher action on perpetrators of intimate-partner violence. As Katie DeRosa reports, it comes as the family of a woman allegedly killed by her ex-husband in Kelowna calls for urgent reforms.
