Image Credit: RCMP

By James Peters

Two and Out

PETERS: Try as he might, Allan Schoenborn will never be forgotten

Apr 26, 2024 | 12:30 PM

WHEN HORRIBLE ACTS OF VIOLENCE take place, media are frequently criticized for primarily identifying the perpetrators instead of the victims.

As an example, no one who lived in or around Merritt in 2008 will ever forget the name Allan Schoenborn. They might blank on the names of the three children he killed — Kaitlynne, Max and Cordon.

Schoenborn would like you to forget his name, though.

At a BC Review Board hearing earlier this month, a witness noted Schoenborn has had his name legally changed.

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It’s not unlike the case of David Shearing, who killed six people in Wells Grey Park 40 years ago. Serving out his sentence, he changed his name to David Ennis.

Schoenborn was found guilty but not criminally responsible due to mental disorder, meaning he is not serving out a sentence, but rather being medically treated under confinement as part of the court-ordered conditions of his conviction.

We don’t know his new moniker, although that would be useful information for the public.

You see, knowing what he’s capable of, it’s very important we don’t forget who this person is.

Cruelly, he is the last one left alive in his family.

Schoenborn is petitioning the BC Review Board for more freedoms, and one day might get them. In order that the public, the justice system and the health system can keep tabs on him, we need to know whatever name he might be using.

In recent years, we’ve heard much about the so-called ‘right to be forgotten.’

The principle is, if your name was made public in relation to an offence and you are innocent of that offence — or you are guilty but pay your dues to society — you should be able to have your name scrubbed from all potentially incriminating records.

In other words, you can carry on with your life without that cloud hanging over you.

Complicating this principle is the permanency of the internet. Nothing is ever truly erased.

Regardless, Allan Schoenborn does not have the right to be forgotten. In any real and practical sense, he cannot slip from our memories and disappear into the ether.

It could be politicians or it could be judges, but someone needs to ensure the crime Schoenborn perpetrated against society by taking those three beautiful children away is remembered until he is in the grave himself.

It doesn’t matter what name that gravestone eventually bears.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.