This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive.

Andrea Badger Says Alberta Could Have Prevented Her Sons' Murders

The boys' father pleaded guilty in their deaths.
GoFundMe

The Edmonton mother of two boys who were killed by their father testified in a fatality inquiry Monday that she feels their deaths were entirely preventable.

Andrea Badger said that her requests for the province to monitor Jason Cardinal's mental health and to impose supervised visits with her sons were ignored, reported the Edmonton Sun.

The bodies of six-year-old Caleb and three-year-old Gabriel Cardinal were found in their father's home just before Christmas in 2010. Jason Cardinal is currently serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the boys' deaths.

"He was going to do something. Hurt himself or others."

Cardinal told the inquiry on Monday that he suffers from a mental illness, and was only sporadically taking his medication at the time.

"It was deteriorating and he was being pushed like a rat in a corner," Badger said, according to CBC News. "He was going to do something. Hurt himself or others."

Cardinal refused to answer most questions at the inquiry, and was removed from the stand after he asked to be treated as a "hostile witness."

Worried about losing custody

Before leaving the proceeding, he called Child and Family Services "horrible," and said that on the day he killed his children, he was worried about losing custody, said the Calgary Herald.

The boys lived primarily with their mother and spent weekends with Cardinal. When she went to pick them up that December weekend, nobody answered the door. Police later found the brothers strangled to death, as well as Cardinal who was suffering from self-inflicted wounds.

Badger filed a lawsuit against Alberta and children's services in 2013. She contends that if Cardinal had been supervised, her sons' deaths may have been prevented.

The fatality inquiry isn't looking into how the boys died, but is seeking to answer why, inquiry lawyer Peter Duckett said.

With files from The Canadian Press

Also on HuffPost:

Cameron Thomas

Edmonton Cold Cases

Close
This HuffPost Canada page is maintained as part of an online archive. If you have questions or concerns, please check our FAQ or contact support@huffpost.com.