Arianna Goberdhan was 27 years old and in the final couple weeks of carrying her baby to the delivery date. We don’t know what the baby’s name was. We don’t know if it was a boy or girl. What we do know at this point is that they were both killed and that the individual accused of the crime was the man Arianna had recently married.
The media has been quick to quantify it under the “domestic violence” heading. This of course bothers me a great deal. Not because I have information that it is factually untrue, but because over the last two years I’ve had to watch as certain Canadian law makers claim that because this type of violence is usually “domestic” there is no reason to have additional charges against a person that murders a pregnant woman for the crime against the child she carried.
For two years I have watched and tried to understand Members of Parliament as they debated any such law. I did it because my daughter was murdered just like Arianna’s baby. I know that there is no accountability for this crime. I have experienced the trial process and for anyone to say that her baby will be a factor during sentencing is – at best – a demoralizing extreme exaggeration.
I continue to feel it every day – the absence of justice.
What about Arianna’s choice? What about Cassie’s? What about the reality of the crimes that their killers intended but will never receive penalty for?
Never mind “pro-choice” or “pro-life” – what about the common denominator that exists clearly in these circumstances?
Now, as I see and hear news of Arianna and her baby, I am at a great loss. I don’t know what to say. Some of the media is reporting this as if Cassie and Molly’s Law/Bill C-225 never took place less than a year ago. They’re reporting it as if Olivia and Lane and Bill C-484 never took place ten years ago.
Why are they neglecting the plethora of other Canadian women who were murdered with the babies they were carrying – sometimes because they were carrying them!?
The CBC has been reporting things like, “Police have yet to say whether Baig could be charged in the death of the unborn child or whether his charges could be upgraded.”
This error has occurred in both printed and CBC radio reports. It is likely still running in the hourly news loop as I write this.
Global News has also mistakenly supposed that there might be more charges because she was 9 months pregnant at the time of the murder.
In this clip the reporter states, “He can also face another murder charge because the baby did not survive.”
I believe that these national media outlets know definitively that the killer will not be charged with the death of the unborn child. So why is it being reported this way?
Is it an intentional diversion until it fades from a concentrated public scrutiny? Is it just an honest mistake?
Either way, it is careless. It lends to the confusion of the issue and the continued impotence of federal lawmakers to do anything about it. The news is supposed to report facts, not perpetuate ignorance exactly when these facts are an integral part of what they are reporting on.
Soon these main stream news stories will turn to debates about abortion. The controversy will be nurtured rather than demand for a compassionate and reasonable solution. It won’t matter that Arianna chose none of this, and it won’t matter that someone will get away with the egregious crime of non-consent of killing a woman’s unborn child. Controversy sells and drawing your attention away from the common denominator is what they’ll do next. I’ve watched very keenly for two years to know it.
For that, how many more families will suffer? How many more pregnant woman will die before Canadian law can see both the victims?
Rest in peace Arianna and baby – you are not just “another case of domestic violence.”
You both matter. You were both here and you existed on this earth, and we all could have done a lot better for both of you.
