Canadian Justice Strains Credulity

A memorial to Paul Prestbakmo (inset) grew quickly on the median adjacent to where he died, after suffering stab wounds in the early hours of Aug. 16, 2019. The two teens convicted of killing him were in Vancouver law courts March 27, 2026 to appeal their life sentence. (Facebook/Peace Arch News files)

"I have no doubt that the brutality and senselessness of the crime in this case will cause some members of the public to view the overturning of the sentences as an injustice...the appellants committed a brutal murder, using knives to stab Mr. Prestbakmo forty-two times in the space of only 26 seconds."

"The wounds were scattered over Mr. Prestbakmo's upper body. The appellants stabbed him in the chest, abdomen, back, neck, left forearm, and elbow.

"The wounds were deep and unsurvivable. They included serious damage to Mr. Prestbakmo's pericardium, heart, both lungs, diaphragm and liver." 

"[But a court of law is] bound to adhere to the dictates of statutes and the interpretations of them by a higher court."

"]After the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in 2025], it is clear that it was not open to the trial judge to impose an adult sentence."

British Columbia Appeal Court Justice Harvey Groberman

Surrey RCMP Cpl. Elenore Sturko speaks at a news conference in Surrey on Sept. 19, 2019, to announce that second-degree murder charges have been laid against two teens in the Aug. 16, 2019, stabbing death of Paul Prestbakmo. At right, Sgt. Frank Jang of IHIT is next to a photograph of Prestbakmo. PNG

 

Pauly Prestbakmo was well known and liked in his community of White Rock, in Surrey, British Columbia.. The 45-year-old auto mechanic had a habit of taking out his household waste for regular municipal garbage pick-up in the early morning hours of the night and that's what he did the night of August 15, 2019. He wandered over to a nearby mall parking lot to smoke a cigarette before returning home. He failed to complete his intention, and his family never saw him alive again. Two youths, 15 and 16 named T.T. and H.B. respectively, for following court procedure, had just left a late-night party and when they came across this perfect stranger, they both pounced to attack him mercilessly.

 

The youths were tried and sentenced as adults by a Surrey provincial court judge in 2022. Given adult standing even  under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, in view of the  extreme violence and savage brutality of the  attack. Their identities, protected by court order reflecting their ages, appealed their sentences after being convicted of the second-degree murder of Paul Prestbakmo.  That appeal was based on the Supreme Court of Canada in 2025, issuing an edict that a "high standard of proof" respecting maturity and responsibility of youths must be adhered to in sentencing for serious criminal activities. Based on whether youthful criminals exhibited maturity and responsibility for their actions.

 

Only when evidence demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt that youthful criminals are possessed of a "level of mature thought and independence" demonstrating an "adult level of blameworthiness and responsibility" can youth be viewed as sufficiently adult in development and temperament to be tried as adults. Youth committing serious crimes that take place impulsively and without obvious planning, are to be continued to be tried under the youth act, in addition to which the conditions of their early childhood and teen-age experiences must be taken into consideration, should they have been socially deprived.

 

In the original sentencing, Surrey Provincial Judge Robert Hamilton took into account "resistance to rehabilitation and their apparent failure to genuinely accept responsibility for the senseless killing" by the teens to sentence them as adults. They had, he stated, set out with "a lethal intent to kill" ,when he sentenced them as adults. And while Justice Groberman said he is "not convinced" the trial judge erred, he also said: "That cannot, of course, justify imposing a sentence longer or more severe than authorized by law."

Delphin Paul Prestbakmo, known as Pauly, was found dying near Semiahmoo Shopping Centre in South Surrey on Aug. 16, 2019. Homicide investigators believe he was stabbed in an unprovoked attack. (IHIT)

"It must be definitively established that the level of maturity of a young person is so advanced that they should no longer benefit from the presumption that they are less blameworthy or culpable than adults", he wrote. However, at the time of the the 2022 trial, Justice Hamilton invoked the Youth Criminal Justice Act whose text allows for such heinous acts as the savage murder the two youths indulged in, to be treated and tried as adults, convicting them of second-degree murder, sentenced to life with eligibility of early parole.

Under the Act, minors can receive adult sentences should the presiding judge be "satisfied" that "the presumption of diminished moral blameworthiness of culpability of the young person is rebutted", and a youth sentence could not be regarded as sufficiently lengthy to hold the young person -- given the severity of the offence committed -- accountable. Reasonable in the extreme under such circumstances. But obviously not reasonable enough for the Supreme Court of Canada bitten by the bug of DEI and Critical Race Theory. 

Under these new constrictions to meting out justice to fit the crime, the two youths' new sentence represents the maximum permitted under the Youth Act: seven years, the first four in prison. Since their November 2022 incarceration, the new sentence will see them released from prison by year's end. Free to go on with their criminal career, their absent consciences remaining a tabula rasa. 

 

Angela Prestbakmo speaks to reporters about her brother, Paul Prestbakmo, in Surrey, B.C. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

 

"Our brother, Pauly, had a lot of different sayings. One, in particular, sticks out for our family here today that I would like to share."

"When things were not going so good or working out, he would say, 'hey, let's make it right. Do the right thing."

"On behalf of my family and our friends, we speak for our brother Pauly one last time ... make it right. Do the right thing."

Angela Prestbakmo