The Murder of Reena Virk Second Trimester Final Evaluation Situation

The Murder of Reena Virk
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In your booklet, read the
three texts about the
murder of Reena Virk.
PERIOD 1
Take notes about the
crime. Complete the
reading chart with
information for and
against each of the
convicted teenagers.
PERIOD 1
Group discussion and
evaluation
PERIOD 2
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Second Trimester
Final Evaluation Situation
Final Evaluation Situation
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In this evaluation situation, you will learn about Reena Virk, a fourteen year old Canadian girl
who was brutally murdered by her peers in 1997 in the city of Victoria, British Columbia. You
will also discover who the perpetrators were and the reasons behind this awful crime.
Period 1
Task 1 (77 minutes)
Instructions: Read the three texts included in this booklet. Take notes on the people involved in
the situation. Concentrate on the facts. Use the chart provided.
You must also gather information on Wallen Glowatski and Kelly Ellard, the two teenagers who
were convicted with second-degree murder. In the next task, you will act as a juror who has to
decide whether or not those two should be granted parole.
Parole: Early release of a prisoner
who is then subject to continued
monitoring as well as compliance
with certain terms and conditions for
a specified period.
Period 2
Task 2 (77 minutes)
Instructions: You are a group of 5 or 6 jurors who have to decide whether or not Warren Glowatski and
Kelly Ellard should be granted parole. You must discuss and come to an agreement for each of the two
prisoners.
Part 1: Warren Glowatski (35 minutes) - Discuss his case and decide whether you grant him parole.
Part 2: Kelly Ellard (35 minutes) - Discuss her case and decide whether you grant her parole.
Jurors in “Twelve Angry Men”
*** You should talk about all the different elements of the case before coming to an agreement.
*** Refer to the evaluation grid before moving on to the discussion.
Final Evaluation Situation
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Note Taking
While reading the texts, gather information on the following elements:
The murder
Reena Virk
Warren Glowatski
Final Evaluation Situation
Kelly Ellard
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Group Discussion - Evaluation Grid
Competency 1: Interacting Orally in English
A
Participation in oral
interaction
B
The student actively and
respectfully listens to what
others have to say.
The student respectfully
listens to what others
have to say.
The student gives his opinion
and responds to the opinion
of others.
The student gives his
opinion and responds to
the opinion of others.
The student asks questions to
his teammates.
The student perseveres when
unsure about a word or an
idea.
The student asks
questions to his
teammates.
C
The student listens to what
others have to say.
The student sometimes gives
his opinion.
The student responds briefly to
the opinion of others.
The student does not take risks.
D
E
The student does not
always pay attention to
the conversation.
The student
does not
talk.
The student does not
take risks.
The student sometimes
nods or shakes his head
to show agreement or
disagreement.
The student takes risks
while speaking.
He encourages others to
speak.
Competency 2: Reinvesting Understanding of Texts
Use of knowledge from
texts in a reinvestment
task
A
B
The student uses many different
elements from the texts to
support his ideas.
The student uses
information from the texts
to support his ideas.
The student is able to analyze the
situation from different
perspectives.
The student shows a good
understanding of the
situation.
The student is able to take
decisions based on his own
reflection.
The student is able to take
decisions based on his
understanding of the
texts.
C
D
E
The student sometimes
refers to elements from the
texts.
The student rarely
The student
refers to elements from does not
the texts.
talk.
The student shows a weak
understanding of the
situation.
The student shows a
poor understanding of
the situation.
Final Evaluation Situation
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The Murder of Reena Virk
A Case of Extreme Bullying
Reena Virk
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10
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Virk came from a large extended family who had emigrated
from India. An article in Saturday Night described her
immediate family as "a minority within a minority," as they
were of the Jehovah's Witness religion in the local East Indian
community of 3,000 which was predominantly Sikh.
Virk has been described as a girl who was desperate for
acceptance amongst her peers, but was taunted and/or
ostracized by these girls whose subculture was influenced by
Los Angeles street gangs. At the beginning of her adolescence,
Virk had become estranged from her family. She began to rebel
Reena Virk died at age 14.
against her immediate family and their strict religious beliefs. She
began to smoke, disobey family rules and spent a few days at a group foster home where she
first came into contact with the local youth gang culture to which she became attracted. There
also had been allegations that she may have been sexually abused by her father though the
charges (filed in January 1996) had been stayed in court and after leaving home for six weeks,
Virk returned home.
The murder
On the evening of Friday November 14, 1997, Reena Virk was
invited to a "party" by her friend near the Craigflower Bridge,
west of the city of Victoria, British Columbia.
While at the bridge, it is claimed that teenagers drank alcohol
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and smoked marijuana. Virk was subsequently swarmed by a
group later called the Shoreline Six. Witnesses said that one of
the girls stubbed out a cigarette on Virk's forehead, and that
while seven or eight others stood by and watched, Virk was
Craigflower Bridge in Victoria, BC
repeatedly hit, punched and kicked. She was found to have
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several cigarette burns on her skin, and apparently attempts were made to set her hair on fire.
This first beating ended when one of the girls told the others to stop.
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Virk managed to walk away, but was followed by two members of the original group, Ellard and
Glowatski. The pair dragged Virk to the other side of the bridge, made her remove her shoes
and jacket, and beat her a second time. It is believed that Ellard forced Virk's head under the
water and held it there with her foot until Virk stopped struggling.
The Murder of Reena Virk
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Despite an alleged pact amongst the people involved not to "rat each other out," by the
following Monday, rumors of the alleged murder spread throughout Shoreline Secondary
School, where Virk was a student. Several uninvolved students and teachers heard the rumors,
but no one came forward to report it to the police. The rumors were confirmed eight days later,
on November 22, 1997, when police divers found Virk's partially clothed body washed ashore at
the Gorge Inlet, a major waterway on Vancouver Island.
The coroner ruled the death was by drowning. However, an autopsy later revealed that Virk had
sustained several fractures, and that the head injuries were severe enough to have killed her if
she had not been drowned. Virk was 14 years old.
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Warren Paul Glowatski
Warren Glowatski was born April 26, 1981 in Medicine Hat,
Alberta. He was convicted in Virk's murder and sentenced to
life in prison.
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Glowatski and his parents moved around frequently prior to
their separation in 1996; he lived in Estevan and Regina,
Saskatchewan, and Castlegar, British Columbia.
In 1996, Glowatski and his father moved to Nanaimo, British
Columbia on Vancouver Island. By 1997 they had settled in a
trailer home near the southern tip of the Island in Saanich.
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The following year Glowatski's father married a woman he met
in Las Vegas, Nevada. Warren Glowatski decided to remain in
Saanich, living alone in the trailer and supported by money sent
by his father.
Warren Glowatski was convicted of
second-degree murder in 1999.
On the night of Virk's murder, for unknown reasons, Glowatski involved himself in the fight and
twice kicked the victim in the head. When the beating ended, Glowatski and Kelly Ellard
followed Virk. According to Glowatski, Ellard smashed Virk's face into a tree knocking her out.
With Glowatski's help Ellard dragged Virk into the water where Ellard drowned her.
In June 1999, Glowatski was convicted of second-degree murder and given a life sentence.
Because he was 16 at the time of the murder, he was eligible for parole after serving seven
years. In November 2004, he was denied his first chance at day parole.
The Virks did not contest the parole, because Glowatski expressed remorse and responsibility
for his part of the murder. In July 2006, he was granted unescorted temporary absences from
jail. By December 2006, Glowatski was eligible to apply for day parole again, which he was
granted in June 2007.
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During his incarceration Glowatski, discovered that he is Metis. This played a large role in parole
hearings as he asked the parole board to incorporate his elders into the process and various
The Murder of Reena Virk
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healing circles and other forms of restorative justice were used bringing Glowatski and Virk's
parents together. In receiving day parole he proceeded to hug every member of the parole
board and those present, including the Virks.
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Kelly Marie Ellard
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Kelly Marie Ellard assaulted and drowned
Reena Virk along with Warren Glowatski.
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Kelly Ellard, born 1982, was 15 years old when
she and Warren Glowatski assaulted and
drowned Virk. Ellard is the stepdaughter of
former Canadian national soccer team member
George Pakos.
Ellard has stood trial three times for the murder,
and been convicted twice. On June 12, 2009, the
Globe and Mail reported that the Supreme Court
of Canada had overturned the judicial ruling of
the BC Court of Appeals in an 8-1 ruling. Ellard's
third trial was judged to be fairly executed; she
has been denied bail and is awaiting a Supreme
Court sentencing hearing.
Ellard was initially convicted in March 2000 for second-degree murder in Virk's death. In
February 2003, this conviction was overturned and a new trial was ordered. The second trial
ended in a mistrial (as the result of a hung jury) in July 2004. A third trial was ordered and Ellard
was convicted again of second-degree murder in April 2005 and given an automatic life
sentence with no parole eligibility for seven years. In between her first and second trials (March
2004),
The Supreme Court ruled that her conviction stands despite the error by the original trial judge.
Possible motives
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The best-selling book about the case, "Under the Bridge" by Rebecca Godfrey, details some of
the motives that may have led to Virk's death. Two of the girls convicted in the initial beating
allege that Virk stole a phone book from Nicole Cook and started calling Cook's friends and
spreading rumors about her. Cook stubbed out a cigarette on Virk's forehead during the attack.
Another girl, M.G.P, was allegedly angry with Virk for stealing her boyfriend. Virk once lived
with the two girls in a youth group home. It is suggested she may have done those things in
order to assert herself as "tough."
The book also reveals that Virk was initially considered a runaway when her mother first
reported her missing to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Two Russian sisters, who lived in
the youth group home, were prompted to call the police upon hearing that Virk was most likely
dead.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Reena_Virk
The Murder of Reena Virk
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Trials of Kelly Ellard
CBC News
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10
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On Nov. 14, 1997, Reena Virk was swarmed and
beaten under a bridge in Saanich on Vancouver
Island, B.C., by a group of teenagers, mainly
girls.
Battered and bloodied, the 14-year-old
managed to get up and stagger across the
bridge toward a bus stop to make her way
home. Two of the original attackers dragged
her back and beat Virk again, leaving her in
Victoria's Gorge waterway. Police found her
body eight days later.
Kelly Ellard was found guilty of second-degree murder in April 2005
in her third trial, but the jury's verdict was overturned by an appeal
court. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Six girls — ages 14 to 16 — were sentenced in 1998 for their roles in the initial beating. Warren
Glowatski, who was 17 at the time, was convicted of second-degree murder a year later.
Kelly Ellard, meanwhile, has stood trial three times in connection with Virk's death. In 2000, she
was convicted of second-degree murder but, three years later, the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered
a new trial. That ended with a deadlocked jury.
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A third trial in 2005 again convicted Ellard of second-degree murder, but the B.C. Court of
Appeal ordered a fourth trial in 2008. However, the Supreme of Court of Canada upheld the
third conviction in June 2009.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/04/14/f-virk-timeline.html#ixzz0f4KJ7bCh
Trials of Kelly Ellard
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Hope for Change
By Rebecca Godfrey, author of “Under the Bridge”, a book on the Reena Virk’s case
On June 2, 1999, Manjit and Suman (Reena Virk’s father and mother) awaited the judge's
5
decision. "On the whole, Glowatski's evidence was conveniently incomplete and
improbable," Justice Malcolm Macaulay declared. "I conclude he helped drag
Virk, while she was unconscious, to the water, where Ellard probably
drowned her . . . and by dragging her and abandoning her near the
water, he was reckless as to whether death ensued. I find Warren
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Glowatski guilty of second-degree murder as charged."
Warren was sentenced to life, and Suman watched as sheriffs removed him from the
courtroom.
A week later, Warren was escorted out of a co-ed juvenile custody
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centre in Victoria. "I was strip-searched," Warren told me. "I got my
clothes back on. Got clinked up. Thrown in the back of a Correctional
Service van. They took me to the airport. From there, we got on a
'68 Cessna. It looked like it was going to fall apart, and it was driven
by an 80- year-old man who looked like he was about to have a
20
heart attack. I got dropped off at the Abbotsford airport and then driven to the prison. They
gave me an extra-extra-large jumpsuit. I looked like I was in kindergarten going to university.
They put me in the hole, segregation, because of overflow. It was scary as hell. I remember
crying in bed. I was scared of getting raped or killed. I was thinking, What did I get myself into?"
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AFTER A WEEK OF TESTS Warren was assigned to Mission, a medium-security institution in the
Fraser Valley. His neighbours would be pedophiles, rapists and other convicted murderers. Yet
Warren chose to avoid the violence and drug culture endemic to prisons and to seek out
positive influences, a choice that was not out of character, according to those who know him
well. For Under the Bridge, my book about the Virk case, I interviewed dozens of people, and in
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my conversations with Warren's teachers, ex-girlfriends, family members, fellow inmates and
guards, no one said a negative word about him.
Hope for Change
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Through the volunteer programs offered at his prison, Warren met people like Liz Elliot, a
criminology professor from Simon Fraser University, and Larry Moore and Cathie Douglas, a
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couple who facilitate a program called the Alternatives to Violence Project. "At first, he was
timid and shy," Moore recalls, "but he was a hard worker, and soon, he was volunteering to run
seminars and speak to at-risk teenagers."
During his incarceration, Warren grew closer to his father, who visited him from California, and
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learned from his mother that he had Metis heritage, a discovery that provided him with a sense
of identity, something he'd previously gained by emulating the ruthless behaviour of gangster
rappers, young glamorous men he saw boasting of murder and guns on MuchMusic. Now, in
prison, he spoke with Native elders, and underlined Gandhi quotations in literature. "You must
be the change you wish to see in the world," he read.
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How was it possible to "be the change" when he'd committed a brutal act and was despised by
most of society? This was where Restorative Justice came in. Influenced by Mennonite and
Native ways of handling crime, this increasingly popular approach offers an alternative to
shame and punishment and a path for a perpetrator who wants to change and make amends.
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It's not an easy or simple process, as it encourages the offender to address the true reasons for
their harmful ways, and to, ultimately, meet face-to-face with their victim. In Warren's opinion,
it was the first time he was forced to "really look at what happened and how much I tore
people's lives apart."
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When I visited him in 2002, he seemed more willing to accept
responsibility for his role in Reena's death. He acknowledged
that he had, in fact, not tried to stop Kelly from drowning Reena.
"I did my part," he said, and he spoke of the violence as a kind of
eruption: "That night I just went off. It was like a release." Of
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what, I asked. "All the negative shit I was dealing with: my
parent's divorce, having nowhere to live, just totally feeling
Hope for Change
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unloved for, uncared for, powerless. " A psychiatric report put this more clinically, stating that
Warren experienced "serious childhood trauma" which "determined his behavior at the time of
the incident in question." Occasionally other prisoners would offer Warren their take on the
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crime. "I heard you were going out with Reena, and Kelly was jealous," they'd say. He'd heard
rumours he killed Reena because he'd been a skinhead and targeted her. Warren knew racism
or jealousy might make more sense to those who wanted an easy explanation, but in truth, the
killing rose from his own inchoate rage and was senseless, meaningless, undefendable.
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In 2004, a turn of events involving Kelly Ellard, his co-accused, would test Warren's new ideals
of compassion and empathy. Kelly had been found guilty at trial in 1999, but a Court of Appeal
overturned her conviction, stating that she'd been improperly questioned by the Crown during
cross-examination. Warren had refused to testify at her trial, fearing inmates would see him as
a "rat" - the lowest of the low.
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Now, the Crown was preparing for a second trial, and since Warren was the only eyewitness to
the murder, they needed him to testify. At the same time, prosecutors were not offering a deal
in exchange for his testimony. People whom Warren trusted told him, "You should do it for the
Virks. That will help them heal." Others warned him he'd be ripped apart by Kelly's lawyers, his
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name would be back on the front pages, and he'd be threatened, even killed, if he co-operated
with the Crown. "I can't testify," he told me. "You think I want to walk around the rest of my life
worrying about getting beaten up by other inmates?” After many anxious months, though, he
told the prosecutor he'd reached a decision. He would testify, because, as he told the Crown, "I
feel I have an obligation to the Virk family."
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In June 2004, Suman and Warren found themselves again, together, in a courtroom. She was
struck by the change in Warren. He was no longer a sullen teenager in baggy clothes, but an
articulate 22-year-old with neatly cropped hair and a sombre manner.
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When he testified about her daughter's murder, he no longer said,
"I don't know. I didn't think." He admitted to feeling an "adrenaline
Hope for Change
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rush" when he joined in the first fight. He admitted that he'd helped drag Reena to the shore,
that he'd lied about trying to stop Kelly, lied because, as he put it, "I was trying to keep myself
out of jail." He admitted, weeping, that he'd done nothing as Kelly held Reena's head under
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water, as Reena struggled, as Kelly held her down until she died. "I think having him admit his
guilt was the biggest thing for me," Suman says. "Just to hear him acknowledge what he'd
done."
By contrast, Kelly continued to deny any role in the murder. She denied ever crossing the
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bridge. She denied that she had told friends she had smoked a cigarette while holding Reena's
head underwater and that she was "happy" Reena was dead. Though witnesses testified to
seeing her with wet pants on the night of the murder, she denied ever having gone into the
water, even when confronted with the fact that salt stains on her Calvin Klein jacket matched
water samples taken from the Gorge. She asked the
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court for anti-anxiety medication and kicked a guard
who caught her smuggling makeup in her bra. "My life
is ruined," she wailed at the prosecutor. "I did not kill
Reena Virk and I will repeat it and repeat it and I will
stick with that until the day I die! " she screamed
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defiantly.
A mistrial was declared because a single juror chose not to convict. A third trial was held in
2005, and this time KeDy was found guilty and given a life sentence, a verdict which offered a
promise of closure for Suman and her family. Eight very long years had passed, years in which
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she'd never heard a word of apology from any of Reena's eight attackers. Now, she thought,
she could finally put their faces out of her mind, and get back to raising her own children, taking
care of her own family.
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excerpt from MURDER and Mercy
Rebecca Godfrey. Chatelaine. (English edition). Toronto: Jan 2007. Vol. 80, Iss. 1; pg. 69, 7 pgs
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