Mother of Calgary man killed by drunk driver pleads for tougher sentences

Four years after her son was killed by a drunk driver, a Calgary mother joined two Alberta MPs to call for tougher sentences for those convicted of the crime.

Francis Pesa, 20, was driving on Metis Trail on New Year's Day in 2014 when his vehicle was hit by a drunk driver.

Kulwinder Singh Chohan, now 40, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in jail. He was released after serving five months.

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"Francis's killer is free," his mother, Grace Pesa, said Tuesday.

"I'm not a vindictive person. What I have been working on, and I will continue to work on until I die, is that this crime should have a fitting sentence across Canada."

Pesa, who had returned to Calgary just two hours earlier fromthe Philippines, suffered massive injuries in the crash and spent several days in hospital. He underwent at least four surgeries before he died.His girlfriend, who was also in the car at the time of the accident, survived.

Grace was joined by St. Albert-Edmonton MP and shadow justice minister Michael Cooper and Calgary-Confederation MP Len Webber at a press conference in Calgary to call for mandatory minimum sentences for drunk drivers who kill others.

"Francis was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," said Cooper, who called the three-year sentence "pathetic."

"It's an outrage because it clearly does not match the seriousness and gravity of the crime committed. What this case illustrates is that when it comes to holding impaired drivers accountable to the fullest extent of the law, Canada's criminal justice system is broken."

The group said they want to see mandatory minimum sentences added to Bill C-46, which is before the Senate.

"We're not doing this because we're being vindictive, we're not doing this out of anger or out of hate," said Pesa's brother, Hervin.

"We're doing this because of love, not even for our family, it's the love for everyone else that will be sharing the road. It's not about sentencing.... The bottom line is being able to change the perception so this is a crime, and people don't see this as an accident."

Cooper said four to five Canadians are killed each day as a result of impaired driving, and thousands more are injured each year.

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