Doug Campbell knew his daughter Jenny McKay and her husband Jason McKay were having problems. But he didn’t know how bad it was.
Living nearly 5,000 km away, Campbell, who now lives in Seafoam, N.S., had no idea that his daughter was desperately trying to get out of a dangerous situation.
Jenny had spent most of her formative years in Pictou County and attended school at Frank H. MacDonald and East Pictou High School before going to study journalism at Holland College in Charlottetown. Then she moved to Regina where she was living with her husband, far away from her parents.
Listening to a 911 call she made on Aug. 27, 2017, Campbell got a picture of what her life was like – the life that his daughter tried to protect her parents from finding out about. Frantically she told the operator that her husband was pounding on the door trying to get inside. If she let him in, she said, she’s sure he would kill her.
“We listened to the 911 call. It was horrible,” Campbell said in a recent interview with The News.
Around that time, Jenny reached out to an abuse shelter in Regina near where she was living at the time. She was told there was not enough room and was turned down.
“Her cries for help weren’t heard,” Campbell says.
On Sept. 6, 2017, Jason murdered her.
Campbell is a retired minister. He knows what it’s like to help people facing heartache. He’s done a lot of funerals. He’s counselled a lot of people. But what can prepare you to lose the daughter you love in such a violent, public way?
He says there was a general sense of “this doesn’t happen to you.”
“But it did happen,” he says and he and his wife endured the heartbreaking loss and the lengthy trial which eventually saw Jason McKay sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 17 years.
Campbell will admit, there were lots of times the “why” questions popped in his mind. They are questions he knows he will never really know the answer to. But he said his family’s faith carried them through those darkest days.
“We tend to look at is as her life was a gift to us,” he says.
And even as he watched her buried in the ground, he held firm to his belief that in Heaven he will be reunited with her.
“We believe we will see her again,” he says.
And that gives him hope.
If there’s one good here on Earth that comes from her death, he hopes it’s that it will help raise awareness about domestic violence and the plight of other women who find themselves in abusive situations like his daughter was in. To that end, he has published a book about the tragic ordeal his family went through. His wife Glenda has illustrated it. He’s based much of it on his journal entries from the time of Jenny’s death and the trial. Sprinkled throughout the book are poems his daughter wrote. He’s thankful that her words live on after her death.
“A lot of people never get that.”
He hopes the book will highlight the issues surrounding domestic violence and show how hard it is for a woman to get out of the situation like Jenny found herself in.
“There were people that tried to help her,” he said. But the system seems to be stacked against victims of domestic violence.
Campbell points out for instance that men who murder strangers tend to get on average 20 years in prison, but those who murder their spouse or partner they tend to sentenced to an average of 10 years.
He and his wife have tried to be a voice about areas they see for improvement to help victims of domestic violence and have reached out to politicians such as Central Nova MP Sean Fraser and Pictou West MLA Karla MacFarlane to advocate for change.
MacFarlane said domestic violence has been a topic she’s been passionate about working on solutions for and was grateful for the opportunity to hear the Campbells’ story. She’s worked across party lines to get bills passed that touch on these issues but believes there is much more work to be done. Personal accounts like the Campbells help motivate her.
“This one really touched home because they’re constituents of mine,” she said. “Having the opportunity to meet them directly was definitely a profound experience.”
She said the Campbells book is very honest and transparent. She appreciated the ideas they presented on ways governments can help to address issues of domestic violence.
“I was just overjoyed that they were so determined to allow themselves to heal through conversation and writing this book and to share this story.”
The Campbells are thankful for the response they’ve received.
“There's a lot of will to change things,” Campbell said.
Campbell’s book is called, Grieving Our Murdered Daughter: A Journey of Pain and Hope, and can be ordered on Amazon.ca.
