The 62-year-old victim of a machete attack by a drug and alcohol crazed teen last Boxing Day said she’s been “short changed” by the justice system that didn’t address the fact that it was a “hate crime.”“I don’t know how else to put it. The justice system sucks,” she told the Western Standard in an exclusive interview after her then-17-year-old attacker’s sentence was handed down by Calgary youth court Justice Nick D’Souza Monday.The machete-wielding indigenous teen — high on fentanyl, methamphetamine, and alcohol — screamed ‘F**k white power’ in a racist rage as he hammered vehicles, some with children in them. He charged fleeing people, hunting those hiding between parked cars in the crowded north parking lot of Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo. They were headed to Zoo Lights.“I believe it's a hate crime. I believe that the justice system and media will not talk about hate crimes toward white people,” said the victim who requested anonymity.She had been viciously condemned on social media for a post identifying her assailant as indigenous shortly after the attack. In fear, the already traumatized victim quickly deleted it.“I think that's a huge problem in our country and all over the world. They're pitting us all against each other. And yet those of us who happen to be white can't call out anything that’s been done to us by somebody being pissed off because you're white.”“It’s racism. It's ridiculous that they won't tell the truth about that. What makes me so mad is that there were things omitted (in court) and why.”It’s not that the victim — injured when hit on the lower back with the machete and still suffering emotional trauma — was surprised by the sentence. Or the fact that she wasn’t awarded $295 requested restitution for initial counselling and chiropractic treatment. She expected that because the teen “has no means to pay.”The teen who had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with a weapon and a charge of mischief, received a nine-month custody and supervision order, followed by 18 months on probation, and was ordered to take addictions counselling.He can’t be named under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.The Crown and defence agreed on six months of custody that was already served and then two and a half months of community supervision because it’s halfway through the month of July. D’Sousa held fast to three months of community supervision upon release, refusing to give him full credit for time served behind bars at the Calgary Young Offender Centre since his arrest Boxing Day.“To me, justice would have been telling the whole story, telling the truth about what happened, and it would have been giving my entire victim impact statement,” said the victim, whose husband was also a victim of the unprovoked attack.“Both my husband and I are feeling kind of short changed.”Court heard her partial victim impact statement. “I have never felt so much hate from another human being. What you chose to do, by assaulting me, has changed me significantly. I am now on guard for threats from complete strangers, where I was not before. My ability to focus at work has been impacted. Thankfully I don’t know who you are and I don’t want you to ever know who I am,” wrote the victim.The attacker stalked them as they ran and hid behind vehicles before hitting her on the back with the machete, slicing her jacket. She suffered pain and severe bruising.Her husband, who sat in court Monday, approached a prosecutor after and asked why all the facts weren’t presented.“He said ‘You didn’t give them all the facts.You didn't tell him that I tussled with the guy on the ground and that he hit me on the head with a machete. All that was part of the police reports.’ She said they presented what they were given.”The couple has conflicting emotions, in part, because the offender’s mother who was in court “looked like she’d been through a war … really old and run down.”At the time of the Boxing Day attack, the teen was on release for an Aug. 15 assault, which he had pleaded guilty to, on family members in their Calgary home. He stabbed one brother in the back, slashed another brother’s hand, and punched and kicked his sister.“We’re really torn because from the sounds of it, his family situation is disgusting. He’s certainly a messed-up kid.”D’Sousa warned the attacker, now 18, that if he decided to get into trouble again, he’d be headed to adult court and adult jail. “I’m surprised he didn’t kill anybody,” he said noting that the offender made rehabilitation efforts while in custody.His victim who is still in counselling continues to struggle with her “very mixed feelings about this traumatic event” and her own emotional healing.“I was going to a Stampede function last week with my work group and the day before we were going, I started to feel a little anxiety about being around that many people and not being in control of what those people could do.”“I have a really good team of co-workers and one co-worker in particular, I told her ‘When we're there, if you don't mind, I'm gonna hold your arm because it’ll make me feel more comfortable … I never would have been concerned about that before.”She held on the whole time.“It’s what rises up inside my body that’s the most anxiety. That’s the part I don’t like because I can actually feel it physically. It comes up like I’ve got major heartburn and I’m going to throw up kind of thing.”After the attack, she told the Western Standard she hoped the teen would be ordered into long-term addictions treatment “for the benefit of society and himself.” She also said that she now knew what it was like to be a “victim of hate.” Somehow, the hate part didn’t end up being a factor while the court sought justice.“In my opinion and my husband’s opinion, our assault was minimized from what we experienced. This young man did so much more than threaten us with his machete.”
