DURHAM—Relatives of a pregnant woman stabbed to death two years ago in Pickering are expressing disappointment with the sentence given to her killer.

“We did not get justice — plain and simple,” Brij Goberdhan, uncle of murder victim Arianna Goberdhan, said outside the Oshawa courthouse Thursday. “Who do we ask for justice?”

Moments earlier Superior Court Justice Jocelyn Speyer had sentenced Nicholas Baig, Goberdhan’s husband, to life in prison with parole eligibility set at 17 years. Baig pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder in the death of Goberdhan, who was nine months pregnant when he stabbed her 17 times at his parents’ home in Pickering on April 7, 2017.

Baig, 27, is a jealous and manipulative man who killed Goberdhan because he feared she was leaving him, Speyer said in her reasons for the sentence.

The second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. The minimum period of parole ineligibility for the offence is 10 years and the accepted range for domestic homicides between 12 and 17 years, Speyer noted. The Crown, citing the reprehensible nature of Baig’s offence, had encouraged the judge to go beyond that range and impose parole ineligibility of 20 years.

That number was what Arianna’s loved ones were hoping for, her mother, Sherry Goberdhan, said after the sentencing. Noting the number of wounds inflicted during the attack, Sherry said, “(Arianna) has been stabbed 18 times now with this sentence today.”

Goberdhan and Baig were married in November of 2016 and lived for a time with his parents in Pickering. In January of 2017, Goberdhan moved back into her family’s house as their relationship deteriorated.

Baig’s abusive attitude toward his wife was exemplified in “vile” texts he sent her, calling her a “skank” and a “lying b---h” among other epithets, Speyer said. On a few occasions, police were called, including a week before the killing, when Baig showed up at the Goberdhan home and broke a door when he was denied entry.

On April 7, 2017, Goberdhan went to see Baig in Pickering. At 9:42 that night she called 911; she did not speak, but an operator heard Goberdhan pleading with Baig to let her go home.

When the call ended, the operator called back. Goberdhan confirmed she needed police; she screamed and the call ended, court heard. Security cameras at the home recorded Baig leaving at 9:44 p.m. He got into Goberdhan’s car and drove away.

When police arrived, they found her dead, with a large knife beside her body.

Baig was arrested the next day.

Thursday Speyer said that Baig, who has been in custody since his arrest, still “lacks insight” into his actions.

“He describes what he did as a mistake that he cannot explain or understand,” the judge said. “He sees himself as a victim.”

Outside the courthouse following the sentencing, a group gathered for a demonstration in support of a petition begun by Goberdhan’s family, calling on federal politicians to implement laws to criminalize the killing of an unborn child during an act of violence against the mother.

Canadian law has no protections for in utero children.

Brij urged reporters to publicize the family’s plight and put pressure on politicians to bring about change.

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“The politicians need to get their heads out of their collective a---s,” he said. “If the justice system and politicians will not do it, who will do it for us?”

Sherry said that while she can do little about the sentence given to Baig for his crime, she will continue to strive to change what she sees as a void in Canadian law.

“It’s in God’s hands,” she said. “Our focus now is to change the law.”