A Vancouver family lawyer has launched an online petition for a tougher child-protection law in British Columbia in the wake of the slayings of three children in Merritt and the stabbing death last year of a six-year-old Vancouver Island boy by his father.
Kathleen Walker said Friday she drafted "Cordon's Law'' to offer children better protection from violence.
Cordon's Law is named after five-year-old Cordon Schoenborn, who was found murdered in his family's Merritt, B.C., home almost two weeks ago, alongside his 10-year-old sister, Kaitlynne, and his eight-year-old brother, Max.
The children's father, Allan Schoenborn, was arrested in the Merritt area three days ago, following a 10-day search.
Schoenborn was arrested a few days before the murders at his children's school and charged with uttering threats.
He was released on bail later that day by a justice of the peace, over the objections of RCMP.
The case has disturbing similarities to that of Peter Lee, of Oak Bay, B.C., who killed his six-year-old son, Christian, his wife, and her parents before taking his own life last September.
Lee was scheduled to appear in court on domestic violence issues the day after the stabbings.
Walker posted her proposed new law on a memorial page dedicated to the children on the social networking website Facebook.
"Courts point their fingers at the police, police point their fingers at each other and the courts,'' said Walker's posting. "Everyone else doesn't know who to be angry at over the deaths. We must get together and better protect B.C. kids.''
She's proposed what she describes as "a special red-flagged, super-duper restraining order.''
Walker said the general principals of Cordon's Law include the one-stop restraining order of no-contact with the children from the mentioned adult.
There would be no more distinctions between civil and criminal restraining orders and, once the order is granted, it would be included in a database accessible to police, social workers, schools, hospitals and border guards, Walker said.
Only a judge, not a justice of the peace, will be permitted to decide whether or not to reject a request for a proposed Cordon order, she said.
"The standard of proof to obtain a Cordon order restraining contact with children would be on the balance of probability, not beyond a reasonable doubt,'' said Walker's proposal. "There would be a reverse onus on the person opposing the Cordon order sought by the prosecutor to show why it should not be granted.''
Several members of the memorial site said they planned to post the petition in stores and business around the Merritt area.
