Why I’m Livid! - Let’s Start Here

Mar 2

Episode 01: Mar 2, 2026

Click Here to Watch the Episode on YouTube

On July 19, 2023 my whole life was irrevocably changed when Abbey was killed by an impaired driver. Becoming a victim of impaired driving is what it took for me to really and truly understand the utter senselessness of this crime and feel that injustice in my soul.

Her killer was going over 130km/h, well over double the speed limit. Having run several red lights, and in the process of fleeing another collision he’d caused just a few minutes earlier, he blew past a marked police car sitting at the red light and crashed into my daughter. Abbey died at the scene. He was driving while impaired, 3 times the legal limit. And just like that, she was gone, and I was never to be the same. What do I do with that?

At the time of recording of this episode, it has been over two & half years since she died, and while we are still working our way through the justice system processes here in BC. Abbey’s killer has yet to spend a single minute in prison. My patience for being a “good little victim” has run its course and so it is time I do something.

In the last few months, we’ve been preparing for a sentencing hearing, which compelled me to write a victim impact statement. As I sat to do this, I learned that unlike things one sees on television, a victim impact statement in British Columbia, Canada must follow certain rules, and there are things you can’t say.

I couldn’t say anything about the sentence I thought was appropriate.

I couldn’t make statements about her killer.

I couldn’t say how stupid I thought his actions were or how daft it was that she died because of selfish stupidity that continues to steal people from us despite decades of laws and warnings and publicity telling us just how preventable and unnecessary, and irresponsible it is to drive impaired.

I couldn’t talk about the collective impact to our society.

I could only talk about Abbey, and how losing her DIRECTLY impacted me. So as I composed that statement, I took all of the other ideas, outrage, curiosity, confusion, fear, and insult, and put them into a separate document. These arguments with nowhere to go have become this podcast.

This inaugural episode explains why I feel compelled to try to stop this nonsense. In short, it’s because I’m terrified. You should be afraid too. Listen as I explain why.