PHILIPSBURG:--- MP Veronica Jansen-Webster told Parliament that an image depicting Justice Minister Nathalie Tackling as laughing during a meeting attended by the family of a fatal traffic collision victim may have given the public the wrong impression. The MP said she had also seen Tackling laughing while answering questions at the latest meeting on Thursday morning and suggested it could simply be the minister’s manner of speaking.
“I don’t know if it’s a nervous laugh,” Jansen-Webster said. She did not claim to know what Tackling was feeling or why she smiled.
But the MP’s principal concern was the family. Jansen-Webster recalled being told at the earlier meeting that the minister had not contacted them. In a small community, she said, grieving relatives should not be left feeling that nobody in authority cares.
She asked Tackling what contact the Justice Ministry has with families after a fatal collision or murder, who makes that contact, and how long it continues. She also pressed for clarity on whether prosecutors keep families informed during an investigation and before sentencing.
Jansen-Webster said families have told her that after an autopsy and burial, they struggle to obtain updates and often do not know whom to call. She asked whether the ministry directs them to Victim Support Services and whether police, the minister’s cabinet or another office is responsible for making that referral.
Her intervention shifted attention from the minister’s expression to a question the families need answered: When a loved one dies, who takes responsibility for keeping them informed? The transcript records Jansen-Webster’s questions but does not include Tackling’s response.
