Abbotsford 'Faint Hope' Ruling: B.C. Judge Says 25-Year Parole Ban for De Jong Killers Is Unconstitutional

The De Jong family walked into a B.C. Supreme Court courtroom in Abbotsford on Monday morning expecting the final chapter. More than four years after Arnold and Joanne De Jong were murdered in their own home, the three men convicted of the killings were supposed to be sentenced. The family walked out with a constitutional ruling nobody expected — and months more waiting.

Justice Brenda Brown ruled that the Criminal Code provision barring multiple murderers from seeking early parole under the so-called faint-hope clause is unconstitutional — that a mandatory 25-year wait before even applying infringes the Charter's protection against cruel and unusual punishment. Sentencing has been pushed to February 2027.

For the daughters of Arnold and Joanne, who sat through every day of the trial with their spouses and dozens of supporters, the decision landed like a body blow. Heather Hoogland called it "like a gut punch." Her sister Sandra Barthel was blunter.

"How can people murder two people and then apply for reduced sentence?" Barthel told reporters outside the courthouse. "It's mind boggling, it's infuriating, and it just reiterates that we're the only ones with a life sentence here."

A murder that horrified the Fraser Valley

On Mother's Day weekend in 2022, Abhijeet Singh, Gurkaran Singh and Khushveer Toor — who had done odd jobs like pressure-washing around the De Jongs' home in the months before — broke in. Arnold De Jong, 77, died by asphyxiation, his entire head and face wrapped in duct tape. Joanne De Jong, 76, was bludgeoned and had her throat slashed. The men stole cheques, credit cards and a power washer, then paid bills and cashed the cheques into their own accounts. Justice Brown found at the May convictions that the killers knew the couple would recognize them — they had to die for the robbery to succeed.

"Because of this, they could not leave the De Jongs alive at the conclusion of the home invasion," Brown wrote in her judgment.

What the faint-hope ruling actually means

First-degree murder in Canada means life with no chance of parole for 25 years. The defence — including Vancouver lawyer Donna Turko, for Khushveer Toor — asked the court to strike down the Criminal Code section that blocks multiple murderers from applying for early parole through the faint-hope clause, which can let some killers seek a review of their ineligibility after 15 years.

The faint-hope clause is mostly a ghost of old law: Parliament under then-prime minister Stephen Harper abolished it for multiple murderers sentenced after December 2011. But Charter challenges have been chipping away at it. Turko herself won a 2025 ruling in the Luciano Mariani case — Mariani beat his ex-girlfriend Caroline Bernard to death with a baseball bat in Bowser in 2021 — arguing under Charter section 12 that mandatory 25-year ineligibility violated proportionality, a line of reasoning tracing to the Supreme Court's Bissonnette decision, which struck down stacked 40-year ineligibility for the Quebec mosque shooter.

Brown gave no reasons Monday — those arrive November 13 — and did not decide the remedy. Next, lawyers argue whether the breach can be saved under Section 1's reasonable-limits test. Crown counsel Dorothy Tsui laid it out outside court.

"Justice Brown ruled today that the section that prevents somebody who murders more than one person from applying for parole, potentially pursuant to the faint-hope clause at 15 years — that section is unconstitutional," Tsui said, according to Global News.

Why this case reaches far beyond Abbotsford

This case reaches far beyond Abbotsford. If the reasoning holds — that no parole hearing for 25 years, for any multiple murderer, offends human dignity under section 12 — every life sentence in Canada with stacked ineligibility periods is on borrowed time. Defence lawyers nationwide are watching this file closely.

And the family is watching it differently. "We remain fighters and we will still fight for our parents' name and justice that is due for this crime," said Kimberley Coleman, another of the De Jongs' daughters. Helen Leusink, Joanne's sister, said the family had waited years for a conclusion: "It just makes me more and more disappointed in our justice system and how it operates."

A faint-hope hearing is not a release: first-degree murderers who reach parole eligibility rarely walk out — the Parole Board of Canada grants day parole to a small fraction of lifers at first eligibility. Monday's ruling changes the right to even ask. For Heather, Sandra and Kimberley, that distinction is cold comfort. They got a life sentence the day their parents died. Nobody is reviewing theirs.

Sources

• CBC News (Kier Junos), "B.C. judge rules Abbotsford killers' Charter rights were breached" — fraservalleynewsnetwork.com (CBC/Canadian Press report), October 19, 2026 — ruling details, victim and family quotes.
• Global News, "Delay in Abbotsford double murder sentencing: 'Like a gut punch'" — via NewsBeep summary, October 20, 2026 — Crown counsel Dorothy Tsui quote, February 2027 sentencing date.
• The Canadian Press (Darryl Greer), "B.C. judge rules Abbotsford killers' Charter rights were breached" — October 19, 2026 — trial facts, theft details, sentencing timeline.
• CTV News, "'A gut punch': Family of B.C. murder victims react to ruling on 'faint hope' parole" — October 20, 2026 — family reaction coverage.
• The Globe and Mail, "Murder parole rules 'unconstitutional,' B.C. judge rules" — October 20, 2026 — independent confirmation of the ruling.
• Paul J. Henderson, independent B.C. court journalist — pauljhenderson.com, October 19, 2026 — Mariani/Bissonnette legal context, Section 1 process.

Photo: Downtown Abbotsford, British Columbia. Sonicwolf, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.