SOREL TRACY | A 63-year-old woman whose daughter and grandchildren were allegedly killed at home on Montreal’s South Shore a year ago will demonstrate this morning in front of the Longueuil courthouse to denounce the legal delays, which she considers excessively long.
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“The government has to move because it doesn’t make sense,” complains Sylvie Guertin, who welcomed our representative to her house last Friday.
Yesterday was the sad anniversary of the death of his daughter Synthia Bussières, 38, and her “two little angels” Éliam, 5, and Zac, 2, who were killed on September 24, 2022.
Synthia Bussières, deceased. Taken from Synthia Bussières’ LinkedIn
That day, at the apartment near the Samuel De Champlain Bridge in Brossard, Mohamad Al Ballouz allegedly stabbed his partner of over a dozen years before drowning their two young children.
Mohamad Al Ballouz, defendant. Photo courtesy
Lack of understanding
The news was devastating for Ms. Guertin.
“If I hadn’t had the support of my family, I don’t think I would have made it,” admits the Sorel-Tracy resident, who has great resilience.
“I didn’t even leave the house,” she continues through tears. I can’t understand why someone would do this to my Synthia and my grandchildren.”
Although she was attentive to her daughter’s marital situation, the sixty-year-old could never have imagined such a tragedy.
“We didn’t see him much. A little earlier, I saw that my daughter had lost weight, that she was tired, but I was minding my own business,” she regrets.
Synthia Bussières with her children Éliam and Zac, her mother Sylvie Guertin and her stepfather Jean-Guy Durand. Photo provided by Sylvie Guertin
Since then, the sixty-year-old has been angry about the slowness of the court process because the system is so clogged.
Al Ballouz is incarcerated at Sorel Tracy Prison awaiting trial for these three murders.
Slow justice
“Nothing has been done yet. The preliminary investigation will take place in January 2024, regrets Ms. Guertin. He [Mohamad Al Ballouz] killed three people. We have the proof. Why is it so long? I don’t want to wait two years or more for justice to be served.”
“There is a shortage of judges and civil servants,” she continues, seeking answers at various levels of government. She particularly wants the missing actors to be hired.
To achieve this goal, the lady who has worked in customer service all her life organized a demonstration today in front of the Longueuil courthouse.
She invites the public to join her between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. Sorel-Tracy also has to leave a bus full of demonstrators to support his cause.
“My daughter died while she was alive. We never heard it,” says Ms. Guertin, determined to fight for the memory of her daughter and grandchildren.
“There are no words to describe how I feel like I can’t hold her anymore,” she says.
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