EDMONTON — The family of an Alberta mother of five who was murdered by a former partner says the government is sympathetic to its call for a public inquiry into her death.
Colleen Sillito-Kruger was found fatally shot earlier this month on her driveway in Fort Saskatchewan, northeast of Edmonton.
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Sillito’s family said she was a victim of escalating threats and violence and had obtained a peace bond from the RCMP that was violated many times.
Joyce Sillito met Wednesday with Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley to talk about her daughter’s death and violence against women in general.
She said Ganley and Shannon Phillips, minister responsible for the status of women, were very supportive.
Sillito said her family was advised to write a letter to the chief medical examiner’s office to request a fatality inquiry. Such inquiries are not automatic.
“There is a process in order to get to a public fatality inquiry and they are undertaking it,” said Phillips.
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Ganley said the government needs to look at what it can do better, including reviewing deaths in the context of systemic violence against women.
“It’s for reasons exactly like this where a tragedy has occurred and we should be looking to ourselves to say, ‘What could we have done better to prevent this from happening?'” said Ganley.
“This was a really, really tragic circumstance. I think that it certainly indicates a need for government to perhaps review some of its processes, especially in light of the statistics in Alberta on these sorts of incidents.”
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Ganley said the government did not do a very good job of helping a person in need of protection.
With files from Global News.
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