Tougher laws needed, MMIW inquiry told: ‘These monsters keep getting let out’
MONCTON, N.B. — The mother of a 16-year-old Aboriginal girl murdered in northern New Brunswick made an emotional plea Tuesday to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls — Canada needs tougher laws.
“If you murder someone, you shouldn’t be allowed out,” Pam Fillier said at the start of two days of hearings in Moncton, N.B.
Fillier’s daughter, Hilary Bonnell, disappeared from Esgenoopetitj First Nation on Sept. 5, 2009, triggering an extensive search that gripped the Aboriginal community.
The girl’s 32-year-old cousin, Curtis Bonnell, was arrested on Nov. 8, 2009, and led police to her burial site the next day. He told police he sexually assaulted Hilary and killed her. He was later convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.