HALIFAX – The father of Rehtaeh Parsons says he is cautiously optimistic following news of two arrests made in connection to his daughter’s investigation.
Glen Canning says he got the call Thursday morning that arrests had been made.
“It was an awful powerful statement to hear after everything. It was just pretty strong,” he said.
Parsons took her own life in April. Her family says she was the victim of extensive bullying and cyber bullying, since an alleged sexual assault a year and a half earlier.
The family has publicly said that the RCMP dropped the ball on the investigation and doubted Rehtaeh’s story.
“It feels like there is just this big shadow that’s been constantly following me around. It feels like there’s a little bit of sunshine today,” he said.
Though he feels a sense of relief, Canning acknowledges that he wishes his daughter were around to see it.
“I’m not ecstatic or happy. It would just be hard to feel like that. Rehtaeh will never know justice and that’s the thing I think of,” he said.
He says that arrests in the investigation would have had a huge impact on his 17-year-old daughter.
“The difference this would have made on her life, if this had happened when she was alive, would just have been insurmountable. It would have made all the difference in the world to her,” Canning said.
Canning admits that he was doubtful that arrests would ever be made but says a new constable on the case seemed to turn it around and he hopes that creates a wave of change.
“I put my faith in the system again and maybe things will turn out better. I’m really hoping and praying today they’re going to.”
“I would love to see arrests and charges laid for sexual assault against Rehtaeh. And I think that would stick right in the face of everyone who called her a liar and everyone who doubted her story. That to me would not finish it emotionally for me, but that to me would be a completion of justice,” he said.
Canning adds that he recognized the names of the two men arrested.
“I wasn’t surprised. I knew exactly who it was going to be. I knew who it was going to be before they announced anything. I knew exactly who they were going after,” he said.
Ultimately, he hopes that changes come as a result of his daughter’s untimely death, in particular, a new piece of cyberbullying law that went into effect on Wednesday.
“There’s a message there to people who go online and decide to use that kind of freedom to terrorize other people…that they are not going to get away with it,” Canning said.
“They’re going to be be drawn before a judge and a court and the police will be at your door arresting you. And you will think right then and there what a huge mistake that was.”
So far, no charges have been laid. Police have 24 hours to lay charges once a suspect is arrested. Additional details are expected Thursday evening.
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