Suman Virk, the Saanich mother turned anti-bullying advocate following the brutal murder of her daughter Reena, has died.
Virk died on Saturday, three days after she choked while eating in a cafe. Her airways were blocked for several minutes which left her brain dead. She was 58.
A private funeral is planned for this Saturday.
Her son Aman said the family is asking for privacy as they grieve.
Suman Virk and her husband Manjit channelled the pain of their 14-year-old daughter’s death into a decades-long anti-violence campaign. They travelled the country speaking to high school students and helped develop programs to combat bullying and violence in the school system.
For this, the couple was awarded B.C.'s highest honour for community safety and crime prevention, the Anthony J. Hulme Award of Distinction.
"I never thought we would be doing this type of work, but we felt very passionately and very strongly that we wanted others to learn from our tragedy," Suman Virk told the Times Colonist after she received the award.
On Nov. 14, 1997, Reena was swarmed and beaten by a group of mostly teen girls under the Craigflower Bridge. As she limped across the bridge after the attack, she was followed by Warren Glowatski, then 16, and Kelly Ellard, then 15. The two continued the assault, and then drowned Reena by holding her head under water.
Suman and Manjit sat through Glowatski and Ellard’s trials and had to endure what they called a “12-year legal quagmire” as Ellard appealed her second-degree murder conviction to the Supreme Court of Canada. The court’s 8-1 decision ended the prospect of a rare fourth trial for Ellard.
Ellard was first convicted in 2000. The decision was overturned on appeal and a new trial was ordered. Her second trial ended in a hung jury and her third jury found her guilty in 2005. That conviction was subsequently overturned by the B.C. Court of Appeal in 2008, but the Crown appealed it to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2009.
Criminal justice professionals remembered Suman as a kind, caring, open-hearted woman, according to a Victoria crown prosecutor.
Reena’s killing attracted international attention and inspired books and movies, including Under the Bridge, the book written by acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey. Manjit Virk also published a book about his daughter's life and death titled Reena: A Father’s Story.
Suman and Manjit heralded the power of restorative justice, as they sat across from Glowatski in July 2006 in a church basement in Mission and forgave him for his role in the killing.
“You don’t really want to sit down and talk to the person who has taken your child’s life,” Suman Virk told the Times Colonist in 2009. “Seeing what he had to say for himself, it doesn’t make things right or take away the pain, but you can let go of the questions you have and put it behind you.
“It gave us a voice to say whatever we needed to.”
The Virks were often called upon by politicians looking for feedback on criminal justice reform. In 2011, Suman Virk said she was contacted by the Conservative government and asked to speak in support of youth-justice provisions in the omnibus crime bill, C-10.
Suman Virk said at the time she supported aspects of the legislation, such as provisions that would make it easier to hold violent and repeat young offenders in custody while awaiting trial.
She also spoke in favour of better mental-health treatment and counselling for young offenders.
The family marked the 20-year anniversary of Reena’s killing last November at a ceremony next to the Craigflower bridge. Suman Virk, who had a heart attack last year, was not well enough to attend.
Last year, Suman expressed frustration at the news that Ellard was able to have a baby while serving her life sentence.
Just before Ellard was granted day parole in November, Suman and Manjit said they wanted to hear Ellard take responsibility for holding Reena’s head in the water until she stopped breathing.
Ellard, now 35, was released from the Fraser Valley Institution for Women to a residential treatment substance-abuse program. After the program was completed, she was expected to live at a halfway house with her young son.
