Almost 15 years after Lynn Kalmring was killed by her husband, a retired Summerland police officer, her family is furious and frustrated after her murderer was granted day parole by the Parole Board of Canada.
"I'm going to find every news reporter where he's staying, I'm going to send them a message saying there's a convicted murderer going to be released into your community," said Donna Irwin. "He's put my family through so much, and it just keeps getting worse, and the Parole Board is just a joke."
Keith Wiens was convicted in a trial by jury in 2013 of shooting and killing Kalmring, his common-law partner of seven years, for which he received a life sentence with no eligibility for full parole for 13 years.
Kalmring's family faced upset less than a year prior, after they were informed that the Parole Board was granting approval for unescorted absences into the community for Wiens.
Irwin pointed to how Wiens had only recently admitted to what people already knew, that he had placed the knife in Kalmring's hand after he shot her to try and claim self-defence, and that his admittance had nothing to do with actual guilt but was just to earn a sympathy vote as he finally approached parole eligibility.
She said that despite the family and all the opposition to Wiens' release, including the Parole Board's own assessments of his danger, it seemed to make no difference.
"We all poured our hearts out about what he's destroyed in our lives," said Irwin. "Even though they said that he was a very high risk to reoffend in any intimate partner relationship, just make it so that he has to say if he has an intimate partner relationship, that'll fix everything."
Following the September hearing, the Parole Board granted approval for a six-month day parole for Wiens, which will be done out of a halfway house in Ontario where he has family willing to support him.
For Irwin, the pain is amplified by the concerns that Wiens will go on to hurt someone else's family the way he did hers.
"We're the family that's left in the dirt. We're the family that's been devastated," said Irwin. "He's destroyed the family. And he gets to just walk out and around and act like he's a churchgoing, bible-thumping guy and that he's learned his lesson. Well, we know the truth."
The Parole Board decision did note the response from Kalmring's family, in a brief portion of the 11-page document.
"They were clear in their desire that you should not be released into the community on day parole and the fear they felt that you would reoffend, causing tremendous pain to another family," reads that section of the decision. "One victim shared a poem they had written that captures the trauma experienced as a result of your offending."
It was Irwin who penned and shared the poem the Parole Board cited; however, she said that it, along with what the other family members were able to say, wasn't close to expressing the totality of how they felt towards Wiens and his request for parole.
Irwin also pointed to questions as to how Wiens was able to go from maximum security to low security within a few years of his life sentence.
The ongoing coverage of Kalmring's death, resurfacing over the years between the trial coverage, Wiens' defeated appeal of his trial, his abandoned appeal of his sentence, and finally the Parole Board's decisions, has continued to frustrate the family.
"It's like a scab, every time his name comes up," said Irwin. "Life [sentence] in Canada is 25 years, so this could go on for the next 11, and we have to keep pouring our hearts out."
