Missed chances,
lives lost

WARNING: This story contains vulgar language and details of abuse and may affect those who have experienced intimate partner violence or know someone who has.

Brian Sweeney opens the door of the modest white house that several generations of Sweeneys have called home. His daughter, Angie, lived in the Sault Ste. Marie home. She was murdered there, too.

Angie Sweeneys kitchen cabinet is still full of souvenirs marking personal milestones her daughters first karate belt, her sons football trophy, three little pink piggies crafted for a family cribbage tournament while the walls are decorated with inspirational quotes and reminders like, Use kind words, know you are loved, give hugs and kisses.

She was all about love, Sweeney said. Love and caring.

And it was love that defined her last act.

On Oct. 23, 2023, Bobbie Hallaert, the man shed just broken up with, kicked in her front door as she was folding laundry in her daughters room upstairs.

Sweeney says Angie heard him coming, closed the door, put her back up against it and told her daughter to hide under the bed.

And then he shot her through the door.

The 10-year-old stayed under the bed until Hallaert left, just as her mother had instructed.

She saved a little girls life, said Sweeney, who believes Hallaert wouldve shot his granddaughter if hed known she was there. We would have lost both of them.

Not even 10 minutes after shooting Angie, Hallaerts truck was caught on a surveillance camera near another former partners home. He shot that woman, critically wounding her, then shot and killed their three children. Finally, Hallaert turned his gun on himself.

But its not the first time intimate partner violence (IPV) has scarred small-town Ontario. Those left to mourn in Sault Ste. Marie cant help but wonder if recommendations made after a different set of murders couldve made a difference if theyd been swiftly adopted.

In just a few hours on the morning of Sept. 22, 2015, Basil Borutski killed three women at three separate addresses in Renfrew County west of Ottawa. Its considered one of the worst cases of domestic violence in Canadian history.

In June 2022, an inquest into the deaths of Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton made 86 recommendations to end IPV.

That was a year and a half before the tragedy that rocked Sault Ste. Marie.

Listen to the documentary Angies Angels on CBC Radios The Current:

You can tell a lot about who Angie Sweeney was in life by the friends whove rallied together after her death. Recently, they gathered at one of Angies favourite brunch spots in town, The Breakfast Pig.

Theres Amanda Bjornaa, who went to school with Angie and spoke to her almost every day for the last six years.

Next to her in the cosy booth is Renee Buczel. Confident and outspoken, she and Angie were friends for decades. Shes since become the chair of Angies Angels, a group formed by family and friends to end IPV in rural communities.

Lindsay Stewart and Angie had been friends since they were in diapers. Soft spoken and a little shy, Stewart wasnt afraid to voice her opinion about Angies relationship with Hallaert.

It was in March 2020. She had texted me and she said, I found the love of my life, Stewart remembered. And right away I told her, Run for the hills.

Stewart had heard Hallaert had a troubled past and issues with drugs. She was worried about her friend, and as the relationship progressed, she found she wasnt alone.

He was definitely abusive, but more so with his words, said Buczel.

He would mentally belittle her and put her down, and tell her she was fat and disgusting, and nobody would want her, and he could trade her in for, like, the skinnier Barbie version, she said.

He was really good at making her feel worthless without actually getting physical with her.

Until he did get physical.

In September was the first time that he did, like, actually hit her, Buczel said, recalling that Angie showed up barefoot at a friends house and stayed the night.

They hold space for their memories of Angie, grieving and trying to piece together their friends last days, including signs they or police mightve missed.

We all kind of blame ourselves, said Stewart. But really, where the change needs to happen is with the system.

Bjornaa struggled watching Angies relationship deteriorate, but didnt know where to turn for advice.

I was like, Who do you talk to about this? she said, adding she feels more could be done to lift the stigma around IPV, and to guide concerned friends and family.

Maybe direct me on things that maybe I should do to help.

Recommendation 23 from the Renfrew Inquest proposed public-education campaigns that get to the heart of Bjornaas questions and that would include information like warning signs and help for bystanders and friends. It also urged the province to focus on rural areas.

Angie finally broke things off for good with Hallaert on Oct. 20, 2023. She texted Bjornaa to say she was changing the locks and asked for help boxing up his things.

Earlier in the relationship, Hallaert had installed cameras around Angies house, ostensibly to ward off theft.

We went to her house and he still had his video cameras up, Bjornaa said. They believe he was able to see and hear them packing his things. So then it just sent him in even more of a rage.

Monitoring partners is part of a cluster of behaviours that fall under more subtle types of abuse known as coercive control, which is recognized as a form of family abuse in the Divorce Act. The behaviours can include threats, stalking, verbal abuse, humiliation and intimidation, which are used to control victims.

Renfrew Inquest recommendation 85 was to include coercive control as a criminal offence on its own or as a type of assault under section 265 of the Criminal Code. A private members bill that seeks to criminalize coercive control is working its way through the House, but its still at the committee stage.

Friends say Angie ended her relationship with Hallaert on a Friday. By the weekend, she had blocked him from all her social media and messaging apps because he was bombarding her with messages. Instead, he left notes outside her door in angry scrawls.

On Sunday morning, Bjornaa says Hallaert showed up at Angies house, harassing her and begging her to talk to him. She says Angie called the police.

Later, Bjornaa, who lives near Hallaerts parents, recalls driving past their house and seeing him, red faced and angry, talking with police officers.

She says Hallaert saw her and began screaming at her and calling her names.

So I pulled into my driveway and I called Ange and Im like, Oh my God. And shes like, Yeah, I had to call the police.

Bjornaa says Angie told her that after police spoke to Hallaert at his parents place, they escorted him back to her house so he could get his deep freeze.

Sault police say when relationships end they are often called to keep the peace when people retrieve belongings from a home. They say if there are known safety issues, then they dont escort anyone inside.

Lindsay Stewart wonders if police couldve taken that opportunity to take Hallaert into custody and connect him to some social services.

Maybe hooking up with a psychologist or some kind of therapy and talk him through his emotions, she said. I think that could have made a difference.

A number of the Renfrew recommendations focused on perpetrator prevention. Recommendation 32 suggested creating a provincewide hotline for men in crisis to call if they feel theyre at risk of hurting others.

Recommendation 33 suggested services and supports for perpetrators, including having different agencies work together to de-escalate those at risk of becoming violent by connecting them to mental health and substance use resources.

Hallaert didnt get any help that weekend.

By Monday hed discovered a way to message Angie outside of her apps.

That night, roughly an hour before he showed up at her home and killed her, he started sending her e-transfers for small amounts of money with angry messages attached. Including one for one cent that read, in part, Stupid bitch. I heard everything on the camera, you and Amanda, your last phone call.

Renee Buczel is upset that police didnt hold Hallaert that weekend, or at least check to make sure he didnt have weapons.

The cops know his history, right? We might not all know it, but the cops know the type of person theyre dealing with when they get a call for him, she said.

There was so much that was done wrong in this situation.

Renfrew Inquest recommendation 29 called for professional education and training for justice system personnel on IPV-related issues, including trauma-informed approaches like understanding why victims might be reluctant to co-operate with an investigation, and how to spot risk factors like stalking, threatening police, destruction of property and firearms access.

Sault Ste. Marie police Chief Hugh Stevenson clutches a coffee mug, leans forward a little in his chair. He says its impossible to say there wasnt a failure in this case.

Why didnt we see this, he wondered. Did we do everything we could to prevent something like this?

Stevenson is a big supporter of the Renfrew Inquest recommendations.

In the months that have passed since the murders, hes reviewed the case, including what police knew about Hallaert and how officers handled him leading up to that night.

We did what we were supposed to do. We fell within the rules, he said, noting police need reasonable grounds to make an arrest, and without a victim making a report, they have nothing to go on.

But thats where I think we need to think outside the Criminal Code and use more intuitive, proactive approaches to say What can we do for this victim?

Bobbie Hallaert had a record. Court documents revealed that hed assaulted police officers in two different communities and smashed the rear window of a squad car in another.

Sault Ste. Marie police confirmed he had a history of intimate partner violence, though nothing resulted in charges.

Despite his record and the fact he hadnt had a firearms licence since 2014, Angies friends say Hallaert seemed to have access to guns throughout their relationship.

WATCH | Brian Sweeney urges government to take action on gun bill:

Sault police had already seized two firearms from Hallaert in 2020, months before he started dating Angie. The Chief Firearms Officer of Ontario investigated how he got the weapons he used that night in October, but according to Sault police, the results of that investigation were inconclusive.

Stevenson has ordered a review of the Sault police records to see if they can be more proactive when a perpetrator racks up a certain number of domestic-type calls that dont result in charges, like reports that someone is yelling or wont leave.

His plan is to use that information as a trigger for police to discreetly contact women who may be at risk and connect them with victims services.

It may, in fact, be, You need a safety plan and you need to get to a shelter. We suggest you do it now. We will help you do that, Stevenson said.

Would it have helped in this situation? I dont know. My gut is it would, he said gravely.

At the Women in Crisis Centre near downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Norma Elliott swings open the heavy security door. Shes been here on the front lines of intimate partner violence for 40 years.

She says abusive partners should face consequences and notes that often, victims are held accountable for the behaviour of their abusers.

Instead of questioning why shes still here, why she hasnt left, Elliott says we need to ask questions like, Why is he hitting her? Why is he abusing her? Why is he stalking her? And why isnt he being held accountable for that behaviour?

She says what happened in October seems to have made women in abusive relationships more afraid. The centre has been a lot busier and Elliott is hoping that the province and the country are at an inflection point where serious action will be taken to end IPV.

Like many advocates across the province, Elliott attended the Renfrew Inquest. But then she watched a similar tragedy play out in her own community just a year and half later.

And I mean, the recommendations that came out of Renfrew, theyre not new either, unfortunately, she said, noting that over the years, shes read recommendations from many inquests resulting from IPV deaths.

I think first they need to declare IPV an epidemic, Elliott said. It doesnt cost anything, but it does send a message that we do take this serious and we are not going to tolerate this kind of behaviour.

She says doing this would force governments to invest in resources to make recommendations happen.

Declaring IPV an epidemic was the number one recommendation out of the Renfrew Inquest. Roughly 100 communities in Ontario have already done this, but Doug Fords government has refused.

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani has said he considers IPV to be an epidemic, but so far the prime minister has refused to make an official declaration.

Both governments say theyre working on implementing some of the recommendations.

WATCH | She was murdered by her ex. Here's how it could have been prevented:

In December, Ontario launched a multi-pronged program called STANDS, which it hopes will improve prevention and public education about IPV though many of the details are still being worked out. The province is also considering legislation that would allow police to warn women if their partners have a history of IPV.

The federal government says in addition to its support of Bill C-332, which would criminalize coercive control, its looking at how it can strengthen the way the criminal justice system deals with femicides.

Brian Sweeney believes governments can do more. In December he drove to Ottawa and Montreal for the annual cole Polytechnique vigil and introduced himself to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

I just told him that I thought Canada should be the leader to prevent this, he said. And if we show the rest of the world that were going to crack down on stuff, then maybe theyll follow the rules as well.

On a January evening at Sault Ste. Marie city hall, a large meeting room buzzes with nearly two dozen people, many wearing blue shirts that say Angies Angels.

Its been about three months since Angies death.

Renee Buczel calls the meeting to order. Next to her, Lindsay Stewart is busy on her laptop. Amanda Bjornaa also files in.

The Sweeneys are all here, too. Brian, his wife Suzanne, Angies brother, Brian Junior, and his wife, Sabrina. As they listen and plan, Brian Sweeney clutches his wifes hand under the table. Brian Junior occasionally rests his head on Sabrinas shoulder.

Tonights agenda is packed, starting with a conference call to Victoria NDP MP Laurel Collins, whose private members bill could criminalize coercive control. Then its over to Montreal for advice from cole Polytechnique survivor Heidi Rathjen, who urges them to define what theyre fighting for as a newly formed group.

Theres lots to do. They still need a website to introduce the group and what they hope to accomplish. They also have plans to drop the puck at an upcoming hockey game and to help push for the coercive control bill.

Buczel, who admittedly knew very little about IPV before Oct. 23, quotes from various inquests as though shes been studying them all her life. Everyone sitting at the table has been consumed by statistics, recommendations and questions about what might have changed the outcome of that night.

I think some of us are still living in between grieving and trying to put our lives back together, she said.

While Buczel believes many of them are still trying to process the tragedy, theyre working hard to make sure Angies memory doesnt fade and that her death can at least affect change.

With Angies Angels, she says, I think were making progress.

For anyone affected by family or intimate partner violence, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services. If youre in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.

Top image: Collage graphic by Ben Shannon/CBC | Photos submitted by Sabrina Sweeney, Amanda Bjornaa, Renee Buczel, Lindsay Stewart, Tressa Van Midde.

Editor: Tanis Fowler | Digital producers: Althea Manasan, Ruby Buiza