The Anguish of Family Tragedy

It is always a tragedy of human relations of the most intimate and vital nature when a family is struck with the reality of dissolution of the unit of husband and wife, far worse when children are involved and mother and father must then negotiate for mutually agreeable terms of access to their children, terms which ideally will result in the least disruption in young lives already harmed by the inconceivable (to them) reality of their parents no longer together and ease of access to both, simultaneously no longer possible.

A young husband and wife must, when their relationship has come asunder, and if they are still capable of dealing with one another as intelligent, compassionate human beings, cope with the desolation of loss that their children view their parents' separation as. Children feel that their security has been shattered, their emotions have been torched with a live wire of misery and absence, and they also feel that they themselves must surely have done something dreadful to help cause the fissure in their family.

As though this burden would not represent sufficient turmoil in the lives of a young family, there is also the managing of personal relations with extended family, most particularly the children's grandparents on both sides of the parental equation. In small-town, Ontario, one grandparent, John Craig Cameron, 54, has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting of his daughter-in-law, 27-year-old Michelle Cameron.

While her estranged husband Rick Cameron was visiting with his parents in Parry Sound, with his two children in tow during March break, his father had quietly left his house, taking with him his rifle. At his trial, John Cameron testified his plan was to speak with his daughter-in-law, in Deep River, to convince her to come to some agreement, "some sort of solution", to the separation she had demanded from her husband.

She had left the family home in Chalk River with their three-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter, moving north to Deep River, a scant ten-minute drive apart. Her action had spurred her father-in-law to resolve to kill Michelle Cameron "only as a very last-case scenario". He took along with him on his trip to 'speak' with his daughter-in-law his Remington .308-calibre rifle and ammunition.

After John Cameron shot his daughter-in-law twice in her chest, once in her head with his semi-automatic rifle, he drove home, stopped at his wife's workplace to inform her what he had done, returned his own workplace vehicle, informing his employers that he had worked his last day there, then stopped by the Parry Sound Ontario Provincial Police detachment to inform them of his version of exactly what had occurred.

After the trial and the finding of guilt, Mr. Cameron spoke: "I just want everyone to know how sorry I am for their loss." Words that will provide small comfort to two children. His young grandchildren have suffered a loss that no amount of explanation can ever remediate. They have lost their mother, an utterly intolerable deprivation of horrendous proportions. They will look to their father to explain how their grandfather could have taken the life of their mother.

"We always felt this was first-degree murder (and) the jury agreed, obviously. Ultimately this was an execution (with) no justification", said Crown attorney Jason Nicol.