For Roseleen Batalia, it’s the simple, day-to-day exchanges with her sister she misses most.
“I miss bribing her to do my housework. She always cleaned my room. There’s just silly things that sisters do,” she says, laughing through tears. “I miss her being at all our events. We don’t celebrate Christmas anymore because she used to put up the tree. It’s not the same.”
It has been two years to the day since Maple Batalia was brutally gunned down in the parkade of Simon Fraser University’s Surrey Campus, where she had been studying.
The young woman's tragic and violent death left her family, friends and the entire community at a loss.
Following an investigation, Batalia’s ex-boyfriend, 20-year-old Gurjinder “Gary” Dhaliwal, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, while 22-year-old Gursimar Singh Bedi was charged with manslaughter and accessory after the fact.
Both cases have not yet gone to trial.
A candelight vigil was planned for Saturday night to remember the young woman, who aspired to be an actress and model and was also studying to become a doctor.
She was only 19 when she died.
Despite the rain, many were expected to gather in Surrey’s Holland Park at 6 p.m. not only to commemorate Maple’s death, but the deaths of other murdered women including Manjit Panghali, Laura Szendrei and Poonam Randhawa.
“We just wanted to grow the event and turn it more into a bigger picture, which is taking a stance against violence against women,” Roseleen says. “These women were just every day normal women, and this can happen to anyone. Violence can affect anyone regardless of their situation and who they are.”
Ending violent crimes against women starts with education, she says.
“We need to focus more on how to improve relations, and how to teach men to respect women, and how to teach women to be in healthy relationships.”
The Batalia family is commemorating Maple’s life with bursaries for health sciences students, which they said have received wide support from the community and continue to grow.
“This is my aim,” says Sarbjit, Maple’s mother. “I [would] like to stop this killing, because I don’t want anyone to have the same pain I’m feeling.”
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
