Politic?

Pity the Pitiless Murderer's Acute Anguish

"On Sept. 11, 2015, as shown on the surveillance video from the Alehouse, Catherine Campbell was expecting romance and affection on the evening she was murdered. She was vulnerable."
"For reasons unknown, Mr. Garnier punched her in the face, broke her nose, strangled her to death, and then, in an effort to hide his crime, treated her remains like garbage."
" ... Ms. Campbell’s death was not akin to a single punch that results in death, a quick squeeze of a trigger, or even the quick stroke of a knife. Mr. Garnier intentionally squeezed the life out of Ms. Campbell over a number of minutes, and such action was not merely a split-second lapse of self-control."
"[Though Garnier was] certainly subject to the coercive powers of the state [throughout the prolonged police interview], it is clear he never lost his ability to exercise his free will and to choose whether to speak."
Justice Joshua Arnold, decision statement

"Mr. Garnier not only murdered Ms. Campbell, he interfered with Ms. Campbell's remains. He demonstrated a callous disregard for Ms. Campbell, and made an attempt to cover his crime."
"The message should be sent that Mr. Garnier should forever be remembered as the person who stole Ms. Campbell's future for no reason, and then treated her remains like garbage."
"[Ms. Campbell died in a] gruesome way, in that it would not have been quick and immediate."
"Her nose was broken, the cartilage in her neck was broken. He moved her body and concealed numerous pieces of evidence, some of which was never recovered."
"He should be remembered as someone who tried to cover up his crime. His parole eligibility period should reflect the nature of the offence, his future dangerousness, and deterrence."
Crown lawyers Christine Driscoll and Carla Ball

"There are actual veterans who returned from war, or multiple wars, and they are killing themselves because they can't get help for the PTSD they suffer from through no fault of their own."
Reekie Wong, aunt of murdered woman, Facebook post

"The testimony of Dr. Hucker [psychiatrist] clearly indicates that there is a strong link between Mr. Garnier's illness and his interference with human remains; therefore, it should be considered a mitigating factor in his sentencing [on that charge]."
Defence lawyer Joel Pink

She was not in uniform, off duty, a Truro, Nova Scotia police officer looking to connect with someone that evening in 2015. At a bar in downtown Halifax, 36-year-old Catherine Campbell met a stranger by the name of Christopher Garnier. They had drinks together and they decided to leave the bar together. That was the most serious error in judgement that Catherine Campbell ever made in her life. They went together to a northend apartment. To become more intimately acquainted, to pass the night together, to make love and perhaps a friendship might come out of it.

It's hard to imagine what Catherine Campbell might have been thinking in the panic of attempting to save herself from the sudden psychotic attack by this strange man whom she obviously wanted to like. But she failed to succeed in either liking him or saving her life. It's always an uneven contest, a male's superior physical strength to that of even a well-conditioned and conflict-trained female. He throttled her to death. At trial, Dr. Matthew Bowes, Nova Scotia’s chief medical examiner, informed the jury it would take between two and six minutes to cause death by strangulation.

As it happens, and not surprisingly, Christopher Garnier's defence is that he has no memory of attempting to dispose of Ms. Campbell's body. And he is in the process of appealing his conviction on second-degree murder with the claim that the presiding justice should not have admitted his confession extracted through his second police statement. That pairs nicely enough with his declaration of post-traumatic stress syndrome, for which he requires medical treatment since of course, it interferes with the quality of his life.

While in prison for the 13.5 years he has been sentenced to, the man has been suffering; PTSD does that to those affected by severely traumatic, life-altering events they have been exposed to. Perhaps had Catherine Campbell survived the attack that meant to deprive her of her life, she too would be suffering from PTSD. That her murderer is claiming now to be in its miserable throes, insisting the onset occurred through distress he experienced while handling her remains after freshly murdering her, requires the intervention of medical expertise.

That the Department of Veterans Affairs has stepped forward to defray all costs associated with his treatment has not gone down particularly well with the public, much less with Ms. Campbell's friends and family, and certainly has caused extensive consternation among the veteran community in Canada, many of whom have experienced great delays in being treated for service-related traumas they were exposed to in conflicts abroad and other related items reflective of military service.

"While I completely understand people's frustration with this story these supports for family members [of military veterans] are not new -- they've been in place for many years."
"Even in the past few days, as people are reacting to this story, we've been able to connect more veterans and their families with mental health supports."
Seamus O'Regan, Minister of Veteran's Affairs

Mr. O'Regan's soothing reassurances that his department has succeeded in its outreach to suffering veterans and their families, because this is what Veterans Affairs does, in support of its members, extending service and assistance to all family members of veterans, somehow has failed to smooth the waters of roiling indignation, that in this instance, the family member of a veteran of 26 years' previous service, who just happens to be a convicted murderer is receiving treatment on the taxpayer's dime.