On September 22, 2014, Gilles Pimparé, 60, was denied parole for the sixth time by the Parole Board of Canada following a hearing held at La Macaza Institution, a medium security penitentiary in the Laurentians. He first applied for parole in 2001 and has never succeeded in obtaining a release.
Gilles Pimparé and Normand Guérin
In 1979, which was the International Year of the Child, Pimparé and his accomplice Normand Guérin, killed Chantal Dupont, 15, and Maurice Marcil, 14, by throwing them off the Jacques Cartier Bridge in Montreal after having raped Chantal and strangled them both. The two men were found guilty of first-degree murder in 1984.
Guérin, also 60, was going to have a first parole hearing in 2005, but backed out at the last minute and finally applied for a supervised outing in 2015.
Chantal Dupont and Maurice Marcil
On the evening of July 3, 1979, the two young friends had decided to head back home before the end of a concert they attended because the featured singer was not really their cup of tea. They had split from their family and friends and were walking the familiar route to their neighborhood which included crossing the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.
The fatal encounter that was going to end their life was with an entirely different set of friends: Pimparé and Guérin were thugs from the wrong side of the tracks who had already left a trail of victims in their path.
Pimparé had already been imprisoned and after his release, had hooked up again with his bud Guérin. The duo had committed at least five violent armed robberies, thefts, assaults and rapes. The bridge was their ideal hunting ground because it had a lower unlocked gangway where they were able to bring their prey without attracting attention.
Armed with a knife and a starter pistol, they intercepted the teens and robbed Maurice Marcil of $2. He then had to sit on the edge of the platform with his legs hanging down while the two men raped Chantal. After the sexual assault, the teens were strangled and thrown off the bridge.
This crime sent shockwaves in the province because of its gratuitous, cold blooded and sadistic nature.
Chantal Dupont
15-year old Chantal was very close to her loving parents and older sister who had accompanied her to the concert. She was raised by a stay at home mother and a professional father who worked for a Canadian airline company as a mechanic. Her tight knit family could easily be described as salt of the earth, deeply religious and conventional.
On that fatal evening, this lovely girl smiled at her parents in the doorway, and told them a warm goodbye which would be her last. When her body was found floating in the river one week after she went missing, her parents had the painstaking task of identifying it. This indelible image remained imprinted in their mind and they had to constantly struggle to try to replace it with sweeter memories of their younger daughter.
After Chantal failed to come home, they knew something was very wrong because she always called to let them know if she was going to be late. She was never a rebellious or wild child.
I could not help noticing the irony of the fact that Chantal’s last name means bridge in French. Even if not inclined to believe in destiny, it is the kind of detail that makes one wonder about the whole symbolism of this very unusual story.
Maurice Marcil
Maurice Marcil
Maurice was only 14 when he faced a cruel and unusual death on that dreary night. According to his father, his son’s trajectory in life had already been marred with tragedy. When his wife was pregnant with him, they got involved in a serious car crash and when he was born, the boy suffered from a type of cerebral palsy that left him slightly paralyzed with a limp on one side and difficulty walking.
He consequently decided to direct his entire energy in intellectual pursuits because the physical ones were out of his reach, and became chess champion while excelling at school.
He was a kind soul who suffered when his parents decided to separate. His dream was to reunite them. His father could not help concluding that his tragic death managed to reunite the family after all.
The fact that his son begged his killers to strangle him first so he would be unconscious before being tossed off the bridge, was the last manifestation of how tortured his path had been from the start. Only Maurice would have thought of methods to facilitate his own death. As if his very existence had been about finding ways to soften the blows.
It is a small consolation that the men granted him his last wish. Maurice was still alive when he dropped to his death and hit the water, but he was not conscious.
They afforded the same ‘courtesy’ to Chantal who begged them to let her go promising to never tell anyone. Apparently, she struggled way more than Marcel before losing consciousness. The cause of death in both cases was drowning so we can only hope they did not come around on the way down.
The thought of those two kids floating in the cold river water for over a week is chilling to the bone.
Gilles Pimparé
Pimparé
Pimparé who was 25 at the time of the brutal attack, already had a long history of violence. At 14, he had an explosive temper that kept escalating until it culminated in murder on July 3, 1979.
He was born and raised in a very poor Montreal neighborhood by abusive parents who beat him constantly. He was the oldest of the boys in a family of 6. His father was a floor layer who was constantly in a rage and taking his frustrations on them.
At 12, he burnt one of his sisters on the arm and threw a knife at another. He was the black sheep of a family living a vicious circle existence with a mother terrified of her husband and taking it on her children who would then take revenge on each other.
At 14, he decided to leave home. A total failure at school and at pretty well everything else he ever tried, Pimparé was sent to reform school after beating a teacher. They locked him up in a cell and after his release, this already dangerous delinquent went on a rampage.
This is when he and Normand Guérin met, and together, started to steal cars and rob corner stores. In 1975, he got caught, ended up in prison for armed robbery but managed to escape.
In October 1978, he was sentenced to 20 months, but 5 months later, he was released for good behavior. His parole officer trusted him and had high hopes for this young man who went on to live with his parents and started selling encyclopedia in the hope of turning a new leaf.
After meeting his old buddy Norman Guérin again, he reverted quickly to his old ways. According to Pimparé, the fact that his friend now had a car was enough to convince him to renew with his life of crime.
In June, the two men were spending time on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge looking for victims. They robbed nine people aged 16 to 65 and raped two women. Their life of truancy exploded on July 3, during their final encounter with Chantal Dupont and Maurice Marcil.
Gilles Pimparé was high on drugs and alcohol the whole time, but Normand Guérin apparently did not need to be under the influence to commit such atrocities.
Normand Guérin
Guérin
Norman Guérin also came from a very modest background, but did not suffer beatings and abuse like Pimparé. He had a twin brother he was extremely close to and 3 other siblings. His brother, during an interview, remembered feeling everything his identical twin would until one day, the visceral connection ended when Normand had to have his blood transfused because of pernicious anemia.
To this day, Guérin seems to blame his behavior on the fact that he lost his father at a young age and ended up creating new ties with the wrong friends after feeling totally lost and unloved. His mother had to give him an ultimatum: choose between his family and the lousy company he kept. He chose Pimparé over his own blood; maybe because they had removed it all during the transfusion.
When he was arrested, his twin brother suffered immensely from being compared and mistakenly identified as his twin. He was harassed everywhere he went and even did a short stint in jail where he was hoping to hook up with his blood brother. But he learned his lesson and came out a new man.
Their poor mother cried for months and must now live permanently with this terrible burden. At first, she refused to talk to her son, but her maternal instinct took over and made her support him no matter what. And by some divine intervention, her son was forgiven and appeared to repent for his crimes.
The arrest
Jacques Cartier Bridge
After the police finally realized that Chantal and Marcel were no runaways and their bodies were found floating in the river, it did not take them long to catch the two culprits.
The two felons had maintained their reign of terror on the bridge and some of their victims pointed them out rapidly.
Not too long after his arrest, Normand Guérin started to sing and the jig was up for both of them. He gave a full confession that some so called reporters practicing yellow journalism jumped on, and printed in its entirety in their rags. Sadly, the parents of the victims had not been informed of the specifics yet and had to read word for word, the gory details of their child’s demise in the newspaper with the rest of the population. It almost became a double victimization for the Dupont and Marcil families. This high profile case now belonged to the media.
The trials
Considering that Guérin confessed and Pimparé tried to commit suicide twice, their trial was a slam dunk. The way it was recounted left no room for doubt and they were sentenced to 25-year to life for first-degree murder.
They were tried twice because of a reversal due to a technicality and during the second trial, Pimparé’s lawyer presented special circumstances because unlike Guérin, he was intoxicated and high on drugs during the commission of his crimes, but it did not make any difference to the jury who came up with the same sentence.
During the proceedings, Pimparé’s behavior was very arrogant, but Guérin kept a low profile.
It came out during the investigation that on the night of the murders, they had robbed another victim who was 70-year-old, by breaking into her home. Pimparé wanted to kill her, but Guérin put a stop to it because he was unwilling to kill three people in one day.
They had already committed at least five brutal rapes and had attacked and tortured two young boys for about an hour on that same bridge.
After robbing the elderly lady, the boys stopped for pizza, but fortunately for investigators, they forgot at the scene of the break in, the rope used to detain and strangle their victims.
So it was not a complicated case for the jury to decide considering the circumstances.
They were going to prison and for a long time if not for life. The media and the population at large were outraged, and it was not going to die down anytime soon.
But what happened next is short of a miracle.
Forgiveness
The Dupont family
The victims’ parents had a long and painful road ahead and the media did not pave the way for any conciliation. Imagine reading about your children’s torture in the papers. Some details should remain private and sensationalism is never a remedy to pain.
The Dupont family became a lightning rod in this whole sordid story and a ray of hope and light in the darkness, but the media did not welcome their serenity and dignity with open arms.
Forgiveness does not sell newspapers or boost ratings so their personal journey into understanding, love and pardon was even mocked by some journalists whose own Neanderthal instinct would not allow them to ever forgive or forget the person who hurt their child; they were almost implying that the Dupont were idiots.
The Dupont were genuine Catholics and true believers who read scriptures and believed in practicing what you preach. So during their hour of need, they found solace in reading the Bible, which enlightened them and represented a source of courage to find rhyme and reason in this tragedy.
They decided to offer their daughter’sacrifice to the Lord and chose the hard way by not becoming hateful individuals enticing the population to throw the first stone.
They started by telling the parents of Guérin and Pimparé they had forgiven their sons. Normand Guérin’s mother was so shocked that she could not find the words to thank them, but it helped her survive the ordeal. She ended up meeting them privately.
They also wrote to the murderers and offered them help and forgiveness. It was a long process and it took 10 years before they finally met Normand Guérin. The encounter took place in prison where they embraced and cried together. A cathartic moment for the parents of the victim eager to heal the broken link that led to their beautiful daughter’s demise.
They met Pimparé a few times, but he ended up cutting ties with them because he could not understand or receive their forgiveness. He admitted that he would not be able to forgive someone who would kill his own daughter so he wanted out of this circle of love and indulgence. He could not fake it.
Chantal’s older sister became a nun and also forgave them. She strongly believes that they could not love anyone else because of their self-loathing.
Maurice’s father
The Marcils reacted differently. Maurice’s mother moved to Europe to put some distance between her life and this tragedy and his father opted for forgetting but not forgiving. He could not go there, but he respected the Dupont’s decision. His brother and sister decided to also forgive.
It did not mean that the Dupont wanted them released, but it signified that they wanted to help the two men find their way back without having to carry the burden of their hate and revenge. They understood the power of love and the need for every human being to receive it.
It made a world of difference for Guérin who did not apply for parole and tried to understand the source of the tragedy and expressed regrets. Both men seemed to have zero self-esteem and were on a quest to destroy everything that was wrong with their world. In his own words, Guérin said that the purity and innocence of Chantal made him want to snuff it out of her because he felt like such a loser. He wanted to keep her all to himself.
The movie
Denis Boivin
Denis Boivin directed a movie about the case called Forgiveness/Le Pardon that won several prizes. It was produced by Films Dionysos, viewed in several countries and is still being distributed.
Every time Gilles Pimparé appears in front of the parole board, it reignites interest in the media and serves as a reminder that these guys still exist and are the product of our societal problems.
The reaction to the movie is quite interesting; some are impressed by the generous gesture of the Dupont, but others basically call them gullible, weak and even dumb.
It seems that religion is the excuse offered by naysayers, as if forgiveness only came from religious beliefs or weakness. In fact, many non-believers feel the same way and support their decision.
The media
They published the awful details of their children’s demise without any care in the world . They expressed hate and anger and tried to organize a lynch mob instead of respecting the wishes of the family. The Marcil might not have reached the same level of mercy as the Dupont, but they were human and moderate in their approach.
One journalist even claimed that it was acceptable for the police to have leaked them confidential information about the case because of its gruesome nature. I will respectfully disagree with this deluded notion; it is even less acceptable to do so when the details are that sensitive.
If the families were not going to huff and puff and raise their fist in the air, they were going to do it in their place. They fanned the flames of hatred and extinguished any sentiment of love and forgiveness to further their career.
How disrespectful towards the victims and these wonderful people who took the high road in spite of their suffering.
I am convinced that it was not easy for the Dupont to embrace the killers of their child, but it was a true example of restorative justice. A perfect teaching moment, but instead, some decided not to go along for the ride.
The movie was a great initiative and it is still in demand. Viewers from different countries are commenting on its content and some are in awe of this powerful civic lesson.
Pimparé with reporter
Pimparé has been turned down 6 times by the parole board and it does not sound like he has learned his lesson or accepted complete responsibility for his actions. His behavior has improved, but there is too much doubt to take a chance on him. He still maintains that it was Guérin’s fault and that it was never supposed to be a murder.
Pimparé might have been telling the truth after all because Guérin finally admitted during therapy that he is the one who wanted to kill the two teens in 1979.
For the first time in 2015, Normand Guérin asked for a supervised outing to spend a few hours with his mother, but it was flatly denied. He does not intend to ever ask for full parole because in spite of his regular psychotherapy treatments, and even some hormonal therapies, his sexual fantasies about teen boys have not subsided. He spent time at the Philippe-Pinel Institute for compulsive sexual treatment, and followed all protocols prescribed.
His personality disorder and the fact that he was diagnosed as a sexual sadist will keep him incarcerated for life as a dangerous offender.
Unlike Pimparé, he has been very transparent about his situation, and it might be because of the love and forgiveness that the Dupont family gave him so freely. He is fighting his demons.
Mrs. Dupont passed away peacefully and her husband lives on still convinced they did the right thing. Marcel Marcil’s brother works with dying patients to try to give back to the community and his family always wanted what is best to protect society; and this does not include releasing Pimparé or Guérin.
To err is human and to forgive is divine, but be ready to stand alone if you do. Let’s hope that this monstrous tragedy coupled with the most amazing act of forgiveness might serve a purpose. If this incredible colliding of dark and positive forces does not lead us to bridge the sanctity of life with forgiveness, what will?
I don’t know how anyone reading this can not be touched by this story. The absolute horror of such an unthinkable act, followed by such a genuine act of goodness. This really is a testament to the power of forgiveness and restorative justice. Not just for the act of forgiveness for the perpetrators of the crime but the power of healing for the victims’ family members that were able to forgive them.
Beautifully told. A strong message of rising from despair and anger to being able to forgive and in so doing help yourself as well as giving these young men the chance to decide for themselves if they will try to atone for their mistakes. It sounds like one has… A true object lesson that all societies can benefit from.
I agree Lori. Absolute horror touched by greatness. Another example of the media’s influence in a high-profile case.
Every time I look at the Jacques Cartier Bridge, it awakens memories of this horrendous crime. As a young person back then. I could fully relate to the spirit of youth that must have been with these two young victims, and for that reason it has haunted me ever since. I could see no difference between them and me. I have never seen the movie “Forgiveness”, but I will certainly look for it now. I was unaware that anything positive could possibly come from such a horrible event. Thank you so much for putting this summary together. It has enabled me to shed some of the burden that simple awareness of the event brings with it. Thank you.
Thank you for the comment. I can only imagine how haunting it must be have been to be associated in any shape or form with this tragedy. The two victims were so innocent and could have been a member of any family. They didn’t do anything to attract this type of situation.
The two killers were lost souls and even if I found out about the event much later, the fact that this family was so giving and forgiving kind of took away some of the horror for me. Just looking at the bridge and imagining this act is horrible, but now, I associate it with kindness and an attempt at redemption.
I wish the media would have contributed to the healing instead of instilling horror in everyone’s mind. The movie is very touching but also captures the sinister aspect of the crime.
As I’ve mentioned before, I was raised in Montreal. I was 8 (shhh, I fib about my age!) when this happened. I didn’t know anyone involved, though one of the victim’s families lived nearby. This case spooked me terribly as a child, especially since in those days parents let their children have a much longer leash (nowadays, if you let a child under 12 walk two blocks to the playground you risk arrest or at least your neighbours’ contempt.) My parents would say, “Things like that happen so rarely, that’s why it makes news,” and “The men are locked up now,” but I confess, I don’t think I left the house after dark after that. And I wouldn’t go near the bridge even in a car.
I was sent to boarding school in Alberta three years later, but—I’ve never been to that bridge since. I had never learned the rest of the story; I can’t recall my parents every discussing it, which was strange bc this is the sort of thing they usually followed. I wish they were still around so I could ask them. Thank you so much for writing this.
I cannot imagine how terrified the people in the area must have been after hearing this story. I know there are crimes where the victims are tortured for a longer time, but the idea of those poor kids being on the bridge knowing they will be thrown off tops the list for me. And if you were eight at the time, it is old enough to be terrorized for a long time.
This bridge is a very dreary place to start with. I love Montréal but it is more for its people than the urban scenery that can be old and haunting in certain areas.
It’s the kind of story that stays with you and the only light at the end of that dark tunnel is the goodness of the Dupont.
This story raises many moral and ethical issues, I’d like to point at two of them. I am not sure about my being right here since I am no expert in this slippery field, but I believe maybe they are worth thinking about.
First is about forgiveness. Forgiving about someone close being killed seems to me limited to forgive one’s own pain, but I do not think anybody has authority to forgive the action itself. The only one who could do that is the murdered person, and of course that person cannot do it. We can only speculate, but never be sure.
As parents they are entitled to forgive the pain caused to them, but as close as their kids could have been to them, they were different persons with their own self, which belonged to none but themselves. Nobody can forgive the damage inflicted to another person, no matter how close and loved that person be. We can only forgive the damage inflicted to ourselves. Otherwise we would be taking someone else’s voice as our own, which I think is not fair.
For instance, imagine a much minor damage: someone punches your kid in the face. You as a parent go to the puncher and say “I forgive you”. I imagine your kid would jump and say “Hey, I think that is MY prerrogative, not yours, right?”. The kid would be, in my opinion, absolutely right. We can encourage our kids to forgive, but we can’t forgive in their place.
The second is stance before forgiveness. Regarding both criminals’ attitudes, I cannot help feeling that Pimparé’s stance seems to me more ethical. He cannot forgive himself, and he seems to remind the Duponts that the only one who could forgive him would be their daughter who’s voice they can’t replace because no one can. Such is the terrible effect of causing death: the only person who could forgive that action is not here anymore.
That said, I fully share the despise towards massive hate fueling and easy outrage. Murder hurts everybody in different degrees: close relatives, family environment, friends, society. We all are entitled to forgive our pain, and maybe media should encourage us to do so; but remembering always that the action itself remains unforgiven for lack of the only person who could fix that.
…or so I wonder, who knows.
Interesting comment. Forgiveness is a complex issue. I personally think that it is fleeting and even if we sometimes are in a state of forgiveness, our mind often takes us in different directions. It is difficult to say OK that’s it, I forgive you, case closed. It takes a lot of time and soul searching.
In criminal cases, you often hear that the victim’s loved ones should forgive the perpetrator for their own peace of mind. I disagree. It is true to a certain extent but if you forgive someone, it is for their actions and to free them from some of the burden. It is not only for yourself.
Of course, a murdered victim is not there to forgive so the other victims are left with the burden. It is their right to forgive or not. They have been victimized also and they can forgive or hold a grudge.
This family is admirable because they wanted to forgive the two men so they would not carry this burden and try to rehabilitate. They did not do it for themselves only. It was a generous act.
Pimparé was honest. He would not forgive if someone killed his own daughter and these sentiments made him uncomfortable. He rejected them. It is his right. On the other hand, it greatly helped the other guy who in the end, had the courage to admit his dark thoughts and participation, and did not ask to be released. The forgiveness pact was probably helpful for the family and the inmate.
In some instances, offering forgiveness is a mean to an end which is peace of mind. For the ones with a conscience, a crime is a heavy load to carry and means that you will be shun by society and your peers. If given a chance, humanity can win at times.
I also despise massive hate and the mob mentality. As I am not a religious person even if I have worked with prison chaplains, I prefer the model of some prisons in highly civilized countries who see inmates as human beings to be rehabilitated and instead of bringing God to the mix, they study the brain, the amygdala function, the circumstances of a life of crime, and think of ways to rehabilitate and retrain instead of chastising for life. When you look at Pimparé’s genetic and social background, it is not hard to understand why he ended up in this situation. And the twin seems to be plagued with a very deep rooted sexual problem.
I agree with your pointing out that forgiveness is something done for the benefit of the harming part rather than the harmed. In fact I think it is a confusion of cause and consequence: peace of mind is what you achieve before forgiving, it is what enables you to forgive. Is peace of mind what brings forgiveness, not the other way around.
Another detail of this story is the blood transfusion and its effect on the twin brother, it’s really curious. I’ve heard about twins’ connection but never thought it could be a blood thing. I tend to mistrust genetic explanations for criminal behaviour cause I believe the concepts of right and wrong, good and evil are learned through experience and social interaction rather that coming already imprinted in our genes, but it could be a complex combo of mixed influences, I don’t know. Twin brothers share exactly the same genes as far as I know, can criminal behaviour be triggered by a blood change? Sounds baffling.
Your blog got me hooked, it’s a source of interesting info but moreover an example of good sense and careful approach which proves that interesting reading doesn’t have to be (in fact shouldn’t be) simplistic in reasoning or emotions.
In my opinion, the blood transfusion was simply an interesting tidbit. There will come a time when they will take into account all the elements that made someone commit a crime. In many cases, it is socioeconomic. In other cases, it can be physical. More and more research is done on the subject. Not to mean that prisons would not exist, but to have better ways to treat human beings who end up being incarcerated.
I don’t know if you watched Dr. Daniel Riesel video called the neuroscience of restorative justice. We cannot keep putting people in small cells without windows and wonder why they do not have a better conduct. The prisons in North America have become a parking spot for mentally ill people or drug addicts as well as young delinquents. There has to be a better way.
I agree that people are a mixed combo of mixed influences and when they fail as human beings, the system that awaits them is way too dark and punitive. And that business of life without parole is dispensed way too often.
Even if our society has to have good and bad values in order to function, our reasoning does not have to be simplistic. When we look at the actual results, it has not been working too well so far.
I was raised in Montreal and still living there when these murders took place. Yes I did know Normand Guerin , I was several years younger than him and We local kids would see him and his brother almost daily, walking outside and around. His brother was soft spoken and kind he was always smiling, he never gave anyone a problem. Normand the killer was pure EVIL, all the kids were terrified of him, when we saw him coming down the sidewalk we all would change sides, he would scare us, say nasty things to us, threaten us , hurt us when ever he felt like it which was when ever he came within arms reach, he would glare at us with the most evil eyes filled with hate, he was like FREDDY Crouger!! Yes he was that evil! We lived in a complexe it was 24 buildings on 2 different streets, each building had 12 apartments 4 on each floor, this was in Tetreaultville in the east part of Montreal. Normand’s father was the Painter that took care of each of the 24 buildings so we saw him around a lot, his boys were often with him. Again these twin boys looked exactly alike, there was no difference EXCEPT their SOULS. One boy’s soul was as dark and nasty as Satin himself, he would always be glaring and snarling and had the darkest meanest eyes, he looked at you with killer eyes with all the hate in the world, the other boy was polite friendly and pleasant, their father was always dressed in painter clothes and was polite and professional. The boys father died of a heart attack, he was in my building on the 2nd floor painting and dropped dead, he lay there sprawled on the hall floor and nobody was doing anything to help, one of my girlfriends came to tell me and I didn’t think it was true so I went to see and sure enough there he lay with a couple of bystanders looking at him, I was a kid, I wish I could of helped. Normand should never get out of jail, he is a monster and will never change. I heard on you tube about how he rapes guys in jail, there’s a girl that has put a story together about him on you tube. I looked into the eyes of that KILLER and to this day his look haunts me, I cant imagine being trapped on that high bridge with that pure evil sadistic MAN and his partner that was just as bad as him. I was early 20’s when he killed them, hadn’t seen or heard of him for 11 or so years, think of how much more evil he had time to become.
He has no desire to be released and admitted that he had a chronic problem. It is probably because the parents of one of his victims showed him kindness that he was able to face his problems. I don’t know how he was growing up, but I know that he committed gruesome acts, and tried to repent. This story is about forgiveness. On another note, it is pretty tragic to hear about the untimely death of his dad who seemed to be a kind and hard working man. He stated often that it had a huge impact on him.
I was subject to the criminal activity spree of these two men although we (my date and myself) were lucky. Our only loss was money and jewelry (although the experience affected our mental health, especially in the short term). The incident occurred 10 days before the Jacques Cartier bridge tragedy. In retrospect, we were fortunate. I suspect we were spared because the robbery occurred in a different geography from the JC bridge, plenty of money and expensive jewelry was taken, and our physical presence was not insignificant (I was a 19 year old, 6 foot tall man at the time). But who knows the real reason.
This article brings back unpleasant memories, specifically remembering the emotional energy I felt at the time being so close to men with intense anxiety and tension in their souls. One could feel it and one could hear it in their voices.
We had guns pointed directly at us and I remember thinking “just give them what they want and stay calm”. There were poignant moments in the robbery interaction. At one time, one of the men put his hand on my date’s neck to see her jewelry. Thankfully, he backed off and simply demanded the necklace.
I remember at the end of the interaction one man turned to the other and said “what are we going to do with these two?”. For whatever reason, they decided to do nothing but given who they were (which we obviously did not know at the time), we were lucky.
I still think to this day of the horrifying experience of those two teenagers on the bridge. It is hard not to internalize and think how close we were to having a similar outcome. But the more important point is that the parents of those teenagers that forgave the two men is a symbol of hope for our society. Forgive but not forget. Justice needs to be served. Compassion is valued in an environment of dealing honestly with behaviour with the two men facing consequences for their abhorrent past criminal activity.