“The B.C. Prosecution Service won’t be commenting further on the circumstances of the case, or the number or nature of the pretrial applications while the matter is still before the court,” she said.

Crown spokesperson Alisia Adams said she couldn’t comment on the delays that have plagued Bacon’s case.

“The only thing that will cause change is if a judge’s or a politician’s family member experiences this kind of injustice. Then there will be change,” he said. “As cynical as it sounds, people like Ed Schellenberg are just acceptable collateral damage.”

“The courts have totally failed. They have lost control of this,” Brown said. “One of my thoughts about the court system is that it is designed for peacetime and it can’t handle war. Seriously, it is a gang war and these people are criminals and they are threatening our way of life.”

Wally Oppal, a former B.C. attorney general, judge and prosecutor, said a delay like the one in the Bacon case is extremely rare.

“It really impacts on the credibility of our system when it takes that long to bring something to justice, to bring him into a courtroom,” Oppal said. “We need to take a good look at ourselves to see if what we are doing is good enough and obviously it isn’t.”

Oppal thinks the Supreme Court of Canada did the right thing in 2016 when it imposed time limits on completing prosecutions. The court, in the ruling known as Jordan, said trials at the provincial supreme court level should be completed within 30 months unless there are exceptional circumstances. At the provincial court level, there is now an 18-month limit.

“I think the Supreme Court of Canada needs to be commended for prodding the system to move and I think the system needs to do that,” Oppal said. “I don’t blame the judges. The judges work hard. I don’t want to be misconstrued as blaming them. I think there is enough blame for all of us to share.”

Lawyer Ravi Hira said he couldn’t comment specifically on the Bacon case given that it is still before the courts. But he has first-hand experience in another B.C. case that took nine years to get to a first trial after the accused was charged.

Hira prosecuted the second trial of Rajinder Benji, who was eventually convicted of first-degree murder for the March 6, 1998, slaying of Vancouver businessman Michael Singh.

The Vancouver gangster was charged in September 1998, but his trial was repeatedly delayed after he filed 62 pretrial motions and fired 13 lawyers. His first trial ended with the jurors deadlocked. His second trial took only 13 days before the September 2008 guilty verdict.

“In terms of a murder case with a comparable delay, that is the only one that I can think of that is a case where a charge has been laid, but it has taken 10 years to get to the first verdict,” Hira said.

Vancouver lawyer Kevin Westell said it is hard to know why there have been so many delays in the Bacon matter because of the publication bans and closed hearings.

“We won’t know whether or not the actions taken on any side that led to this delay were reasonable or not until after final decisions are made,” he said.

But he said the public should feel confident that the lawyers on both sides are working hard in the case.

“There is no reason, despite how frustrating it must be for everyone, to think that the justice system participants are not doing their best to resolve this case in good faith and to the best of their ability,” he said.

A lot has happened to the key players in the Surrey Six case.

Red Scorpion founder Michael Le, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kill Corey Lal, is now out of jail after serving a three-year term.

Le’s friend Sophon Sek, who pleaded guilty to break and enter for helping the killers access the death suite, is up before the Parole Board of Canada next month seeking release.

Both Johnston and Haevischer are appealing their convictions. And both have filed civil lawsuits against the B.C. government, alleging their Charter rights were violated by unusually harsh treatment in pretrial custody.

Johnston got married while in prison.

His lawyer Brock Martland said the date for the Haevischer-Johnston appeal has not been set because of “some complex issues that have come about that involve the amicus curiae who has been heavily involved in this case for a long time.”

The amicus is a Toronto lawyer who has represented the rights of the accused during in camera hearings throughout the Surrey Six case. The reasons for the secret hearings have never been made public.

Martland said the Surrey Six case has taken its toll at times on many of those who’ve been involved.

“In our role as lawyers in a courtroom, I think we — out of necessity — find some detachment, engage and do our job in the courtroom. But I suspect that a lot of the judges and lawyers involved in these cases so intensively for a long time find it does drift into your thoughts at times and it can be pretty disconcerting sometimes,” he said.

He called Mohan, who has been a constant presence in various court proceedings, “a steadfast advocate for her son.”

Mohan sat through the entire Haevischer and Johnston trial.

Some of the evidence was unbearable — like the bloody crime scene photos and descriptions of how her son and the others were held on the ground at gunpoint before they were shot in the head.

She heard allegations that Bacon finalized the details of the nefarious plan to kill Lal at the World Gym in Port Coquitlam hours before the murders and while under police surveillance.

She heard that Johnston, Haevischer and the man who pleaded guilty in 2009 cleaned their guns with Windex and paper towels at Haevischer’s apartment in the Stanley, not far from the Balmoral.

She heard that the trio piled into a black BMW. She saw surveillance video of the car leaving the Stanley for the kill mission.

She heard how her son’s bad luck was timing — he was leaving for a basketball game as the killers were checking the hallway. He was dragged into suite 1505. Schellenberg, the Lal brothers and Bartolomeo were already inside. Narong arrived during the unfolding nightmare.

She is haunted by the terror her son must have felt.

“He saw his death coming. Can you imagine his last moments? If there is a judge out there listening, I want them to understand. Imagine Christopher’s last moments, what was going through his mind,” she said.

It would be hours before she would learn her son was dead. It would be weeks before her family began to crumble. And even after 10 years, Mohan’s pain is raw and constant.

She carries framed photos of a smiling Christopher in her car so that he is always with her. People tell her she should move on. She doesn’t understand how to do that.

“It is so damn difficult,” she said.

Brown, who worked with his brother-in-law in their own gas-fireplace company, said he confronted his loss every day after Schellenberg’s murder.

“Part of my job for about two years afterwards was to go to Ed’s customers and we would sit there and cry. I didn’t do any work. We would just sit there and cry. And they couldn’t say anything. I guess it was so cathartic. But that’s a lot, eh?” he said.

“Every day you just have to get through the day. That’s basically your goal. Just to survive.”

kbolan@postmedia.com

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