Family and supporters of the family of Barbara Kentner marched Monday to the Parole Board of Canada’s office in Ottawa, asking for answers as to why her killer is walking free on full parole.
“Barbara was my sister, she was a mother, an aunt and a friend, she was loved, she had a family who needed her, we still need her,” said Kentner’s sister Connie. “And now we are being asked to accept a decision that allows Brayden Bushby, the man responsible for her death to return to Thunder Bay, a small community, on full parole.”
In Jan. 2017, Kentner, a 34-year-old woman, was walking along a quiet Thunder Bay street with her sister. Bushby, who was 18 years old at the time, threw a trailer hitch from a passing vehicle, striking Kentner in the stomach.
She died several months later from injuries suffered during the assault.
Bushby was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for manslaughter in 2021 minus time served. The ruling said his unlawful act significantly contributed to the victim’s death.
He was granted full parole in August, despite previously having his day parole revoked.
“We are forced to ask ourselves the question, what kind of considerations for victims is that? Our family is left feeling that once again we have been failed by a system that is supposed to recognize and respect victims of crime,” said Connie.
The Kentner family says they were not consulted or provided any information on the condition of Bushby’s parole and they have continued to experience injustice, including having to hear the details of the crime and explain their pain over and over again.
“Barbara Kentner is another statistic of murdered and missing Indigenous women. The murder and the killing of our women must stop,” Caludent Commanda, a supporter of the Kentner family. “Bushby walks free but Barbara’s family, they will continue to live a life sentence of sorrow, of sadness, of grief, of trauma. Canada’s justice system and the Parole Board of Canada must be held accountable.”
“As we continue to experience injustice, we have to hear the details again, we have to explain our pain again, when the parole board makes a decision like this, they are not deciding in a vacuum,” added Connie.
Bushby was previously granted day parole in 2023 which was later revoked.
At the time, the board said it found Bushby had violated several terms of his day parole, including a prohibition on consuming alcohol.
Bushby had failed a breathalyzer test during a traffic stop, the board said. He also had failed to remain at the scene after he reversed a car into another vehicle, and was a suspect in a car theft investigation, it said in a report.
He was returned to custody in 2024.
“There are Indigenous women and girls watching, there are families who are asking themselves whether the justice system will protect them and whether their voices will matter if something happens to them,” said Connie.
For now, Kentner’s family will be waiting for a response from the parole board and honouring the life of their sister who was a loving mother and friend.
With files from The Canadian Press
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