La Loche school shooting survivor Charlene Klyne said her husband told her she was “just vibrating” when she heard the La Loche shooter is appealing his adult sentence and called the decision “unbelievable.”
“I don’t get to change the decision whether he shot me or not. He shot me, I watched him,” Klyne, a substitute teacher who was one of seven people wounded, told CTV News. “He planned this, to come into the school, and shoot people. And if the RCMP wouldn’t have got there when they did I wonder how many else he would have killed.”
Klyne was sitting at a desk when she was shot. She lost her eyesight and has limited mobility in her neck because she has pellets on her spine. She also has pellets in the lining of her heart and lungs and in her neck.
“I have to deal with the injuries he gave me. It’s just not fair,” she said.
The mayor of La Loche said the decision to file notice of appeal is a step back for the community when it comes to closure. Robert St. Pierre told CTV News he understands an appeal is part of the court process but that the move is still frustrating.
“It would be wrong of me to say that I wasn’t expecting it, but at the same time I was optimistic that they’d do the right thing and deal with the consequences for what he did,” St. Pierre said.
He said the community is trying to get to a place of healing and the teen receiving an adult sentence was a good start. He said the notice of appeal feels like a re-victimization.
“If you generally cared about the impact that you had on a community would you want to subject them to this again?” St. Pierre told CTV News.
The shooter was given an adult sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years last month for carrying out a mass shooting in La Loche that left four dead and seven others injured. He was a few weeks away from his 18th birthday at the time.
His defence lawyer filed a notice of appeal Thursday but wouldn’t comment on the grounds the appeal is based on.
“All I can say is that we have appealed the order that he be sentenced as an adult and will be asking the Court of Appeal to direct that he (be) sentenced as a youth,” Aaron Fox said in an email.
The notice, which was filed three days ahead of the cut-off date, isn’t accessible to the public under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. CTV News has applied for the document, but it must be released by a judge, according to the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan.
There is no date set for the appeal and a spokesperson with Saskatchewan Law Courts said it likely won’t be heard until the fall.
The shooter’s identity has remained protected by a publication ban under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. McIvor ruled the ban be lifted after the 30-day appeal period. Now that a notice of appeal has been filed, his identity will remain under the ban throughout the appeal process.
During the sentencing, Judge Janet McIvor said La Loche has been “abandoned” by a government that promised to help.
In a statement, the province said the education ministry is committed to ensuring the community has the services it needs. The government pointed to a number of supports that were put in place after the shooting, including two additional mental health and addictions staff who live in the community, three student counsellors and additional funding.
St. Pierre said he hadn’t heard from any provincial officials as of Tuesday morning. The province said contact was made with the La Loche mayor on Tuesday afternoon and Education Ministry Gordon Wyant plans to travel to the community this month.
