Assault victim left frustrated

Photo: Contributed

Mathew Blais after surgery needed following a swarming attack on him downtown Penticton in 2017.

A Penticton man is feeling let down by the criminal justice system after the only man charged in an unprovoked swarming attack on him downtown in 2017 was acquitted last week.

Mathew Blais was walking home with a friend after leaving the casino at the Penticton Lakeside Resort on Feb. 18, 2017 around 12:30 a.m. While on Main Street near city hall, the pair was confronted by a group of youth who were trying to pick a fight.

The youth, one of which had a baton, were distressed because one of their friends recently committed suicide.

As Blais and his friend walked away from the group, towards the Mule Nightclub in the parking lot at the rear of city hall, the two men were swarmed by a larger group Blais says got out of an arriving vehicle.

Blais fell while trying to flee and was stomped and hit with blunt objects, resulting in a foot broken in four places and a fractured shoulder requiring surgery. The attackers were eventually chased away by bouncers from the Mule.

Last week, 23-year-old Zachary Eden-Burke was acquitted of assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm.

“I can’t even really be mad at the guy, because I personally couldn’t identify,” any of the attackers, Blais told Castanet Tuesday.

Judge Michelle Daneliuk found Eden-Burke not guilty due to significant inconsistencies in the testimony of the bouncers, the only two witnesses that testified they saw Eden-Burke participate in the swarming.

“When it comes down to it, the courts have to do their job and that’s all the evidence they had,” Blais said. “To be honest, they probably made the right decision, legally. Because they don’t want to send an innocent man to jail.”

He is, however, very frustrated with how his case came to be so shaky and believes the RCMP did not initially take the attack seriously.

After being briefly visited by a constable in hospital, Blais said he called the Penticton RCMP for more than two weeks in an attempt to give a statement. Eventually, his wife wheeled him in a wheelchair into the lobby of the detachment and waited for the investigating officer.

“He came out, and his first words to me were, ‘I thought it was a bar fight and I didn’t think you were that hurt.’” Blais said. “Right from the get go, it was shown that they didn’t take this as a very serious matter.”

“This wasn’t a bar fight, it was a random act,” he added.

Judge Daneliuk, indeed, ruled in her acquittal that Blais was not in a consensual fight and was the victim of a group assault. 

The trial for Eden-Burke saw Blais and the other victim testify, alongside the two bouncers, the responding officer and Eden-Burke himself.

Blais says he is having trouble understanding how police were not able to track down the numerous other witnesses that were outside the Mule at the time.

He said he forwarded contact information of at least one additional witness to RCMP, “but from what I understand, they never contacted her.”

“This could have been completely, 100 per cent different. I’m lucky I can still work,” Blais said, musing the swarming could have been close to fatal had the attackers struck six inches higher, at his head, rather then his shoulder. 

He voiced frustration with a system that makes it difficult to secure convictions for group assaults.

“If you swarm someone and cover your face or they don’t recognize you, there is no chance you are ever going to get convicted,” he said.

In an email to Castanet, Penticton RCMP commander Supt. Ted De Jager said “a full and complete investigation was conducted which resulted in the approval of charges against the only identified suspect.”

“These investigations are more about being thorough than about speed unless there is an immediate threat to public safety.  As such it is not uncommon for investigators to take the required time to gather all necessary facts and evidence.”

“In this case, that was done and presented to the court. Clearly there were other witnesses, however, none could be identified other than those that testified,” he concluded.

De Jager declined to comment on why the judge chose to not accept the testimony of the witnesses.