Crown seeks stiffer sentence for B.C. caregiver in death of woman with Down syndrome

Family and advocates for people with disabilities gathered outside a Vancouver courthouse Friday, where prosecutors sought a stiffer sentence for the caregiver found liable for the death of a woman with Down syndrome that she lived with.

Florence Girard was found dead in Astrid Dahl’s Port Coquitlam home in October 2018, and weighed just 50.6 pounds when she died.

Last year, Dahl was convicted of failing to provide the necessities of life in connection to the death, and in September she was sentenced to a one-year conditional sentence, including 100 hours of community service followed by a year of probation.

1:32 B.C. woman who may have died from neglect, starvation remembered.

“I’m hoping she goes to jail, but I don’t have a lot of expectations. She should go to jail. She didn’t do what she was supposed to do. She failed Florence,” Girard’s sister Sharon Bursey told Global News outside the court.

“She doesn’t deserve to have a curfew or a conditional sentence. She should be eating three meals in jail that my sister didn’t get to eat.”

Former broadcaster and disability rights advocate Tamara Taggart was among those gathered outside the court to show support.

Taggart said Girard’s case made her think of the future her son, who also has Down syndrome, could face without sufficient protections in place.

“People in care are vulnerable and they need to be cared for, and there’s been no responsibility taken on Ms. Dahl’s part for what has happened,” she said.

“Anybody living in care should not die with somebody who is trusted to their wellbeing.”

0:47 Trial begins for woman accused in death of woman with Down Syndrome

At trial, the court heard the 54-year-old Girard had lived with Dahl for about eight years as a part of a residential home-sharing agreement, overseen by the non-profit Kinsight Community Society.

Girard had been in care for most of her life and required around-the-clock help, according to police.

The court heard Dahl didn’t give Girard her prescriptions or take her to medical appointments for a lengthy period of time, that her health health declined, she stopped eating and later died. The official cause of death was “malnourishment and starvation.”

In front of a three-judge panel at the B.C. Court of Appeal Friday, Crown prosecutor Christie Lusk argued Dahl should have been sentenced to between 18 and 24 months of jail time for the death.

Girard lost approximately 70 pounds in the months leading up to her death and it was “patently obvious she was deteriorating,” Lusk told the court, adding that Dahl clearly suspected she was dying in the weeks before she passed away.

The lower court judge, she argued, failed to accurately recognize the abuse of a vulnerable person or to give great enough weight to deterrence and denunciation in their sentence.

“Ms. Dahl was entrusted with the care of Ms. Girard, an extremely vulnerable woman who could not advocate on her own behalf,” she said.

“And when she was for whatever reason, that reason being unknown because of a lack of medical care, experiencing a decrease of appetite to the extent that visibly she lost weight –over half her body weight by Oct. 13, 2018 — Ms. Dahl took no action in terms of seeking medical care.”

1:36 Charges laid after B.C. woman with developmental disability dies in care

Defence counsel Glen Orris told the court that the conditional sentence served in the community was appropriate, arguing there was no malice in Dahl’s actions.

Dahl and Girard were close and had a loving, family-like relationship, he said, and when Girard became sick and began losing weight, Dahl had initially assumed she would recover has she had in the past.

Girard had expressed strong unwillingness to see doctors or dentists, and Dahl had been motivated by love and compassion in acceding to what she thought were Girard’s wishes.

Dahl also believed Girard was nearing the end of her life, and Kinsight Community Society had no end-of-life plan in place, he told the court.

“When you put it in context, it’s understandable … Ms. Girard loved to be with her family and loved to be with the people she cared about and knew cared about her. She had an aversion to strangers, she did not want to ever be in a hospital … so there was a real concern about getting other people involved, even at the end of her life.”

The trial judge had ruled this wasn’t Dahl’s decision to make, he acknowledged, but said nonetheless Dahl’s case was unique.

The appellate panel has reserved its judgement and it was not immediately clear when its decision will be unveiled.

“Hopefully they do what they should do, and if they don’t, I hope people learn from this and don’t let this happen again,” Bursey told Global News.

“It’s bound to happen again, there’s just not enough support for the homeshare workers.”