Robert Cadieux was sitting in the passenger seat last summer when his van was clipped from behind.
They were driving on highway 401, just east of Cornwall, Ont..
His wife Kristine was behind the wheel. Cadieux says the vehicle started to wobble, then flipped.
“When it started to roll, I had my hands,” he says. “I could protect myself. She had to hold onto the wheel and side before the van stopped rolling. I heard her gasp.”
Cadieux suffered a concussion, broken ribs and a fractured neck. His three children lost their mother.
The man behind the wheel of the other car was a 20-year-old from St-Hubert, Que. Felix Laframboise told police he’d fallen asleep, and was charged with careless driving.
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Cadieux planned on attending the trial and says he was told he’d be able to give a victim impact statement.
Instead, on Jan 12th, he went to the victim assistance office and was told the accused had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced.
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“I said, ‘How can this be?’ I said, ‘We weren’t even told.’ I said, ‘He was supposed to apologize.’ We have nothing now. Nothing.”
The next big shock came when Cadieux got his hands on the transcript of the proceedings he’d missed.
The Crown was represented by a paralegal and an articling student who didn’t understand most of what was being said.
The hearing was in French, and he couldn’t speak it. He also didn’t have the file with him, and didn’t know some basic facts.
Kristine’s name was never mentioned. At one point, she’s referred to as a “he”.
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Cadieux calls the transcript offensive, and the sentence a joke.
Laframboise was given a $2,000 fine. The Crown forgot to request a suspension of his licence.
On top of his frustration with prosecutors, Cadieux has also been left questions about the police investigation.
He doesn’t believe officers did enough work looking at what happened.
He isn’t aware of any drug testing, or whether Laframboise’s cell phone records were checked. Cadieux suspects he may have been texting behind the wheel.
However, because Laframboise pleaded guilty, there’s no trial.
“We haven’t seen one piece of evidence. There’s no witnesses, no exhibits, nothing. Nothing is entered. There’s no record of anything.”
According to investigators, Laframboise had already pulled over once at a truck stop to sleep. But he got back on the road. Cadieux says that shows he knew what he was doing was wrong.
“It’s not a case of ‘I accidentally fell asleep, I had no control over it,’” he says. “It’s ‘I knew I was tired and got behind the wheel, and I killed someone because I was tired.’ That’s criminal negligence. That’s not careless driving.”
It appears Cadieux will get his day in court.
The Crown is appealing he sentence. It’s trying to add a suspension of Laframboise’s licence, and will be in front of a judge Wednesday, Feb. 28th.
Cadieux will be on hand, along with his family and supporters. He’s created a group to fight for victims of crime.
He calls it VOICE — “Victims of Injustice Changing Everything.”
“VOICE is going to be organized so that victims and their families have support and knowledge,” he said.
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