Inquiry into 2005 Stabbing Death Highlights Need for Domestic Violence Strategy

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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The report regarding the inquiry into the violent stabbing death of Brenda Moreside, who died almost a decade ago, has reinforced calls for a national strategy on domestic violence. According to the recommendations made by Hon. Judge James in the report, “police services on a national, regional and local basis develop a domestic violence policy and thereafter advise the community and all necessary agencies of that policy and institute programs within their ranks to enforce such a policy.”

The recommendations were made in response the case in which a 9-1-1 operator and RCMP failed to act upon a call for help from Moreside, which sought protection from her drunk and violent common-law husband, Stan Willier. The distress call was made by Moreside on Feb. 12, 2005, when she was out drinking with Willier in celebration of her birthday. Thereafter, Willier reportedly left the bar at around 2 a.m. and returned to a residence occasionally shared with Moreside in High Prairie, Alta. Since Willier didn’t have a key, he removed plastic covering an already broken window and crawled through.

Moreside confessed that both, she and Willier, were intoxicated by the time she returned to the residence. Shocked to see Willier inside the residence, Morenside called 911 for help and demanded officers to remove Willier from the residence. During an interview in July of 2005, Moreside’s daughter, Cynthia Flaata, stressed that “had the officers come when my mom called, she might still be alive.”