A B.C. man who stabbed and killed his girlfriend in 2021 appears to have had his parole eligibility lowered partly due to his race.

Everton Javaun Downey was sentenced for second-degree murder after admitting to killing Melissa Blimkie by stabbing her 15 times in a stairwell at the Metrotown Shopping Centre on Dec. 19, 2021.

However, during the trial, he maintained that he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, because he lacked the specific intent to kill Blimkie.

Downey was convicted on Aug. 21, 2025, after a trial by a judge alone.

The sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison; however, the determination for parole eligibility can be between 10 and 25 years.

The Crown submitted that the period of ineligibility to apply for parole should be between 13 and 15 years.

The defence submitted that the period should be 12 years.

According to court documents, after Downey stabbed Blimkie in the stairwell and she lay dying, Downey made his way through Metrotown’s parking lot and the nearby neighbourhood, asking people he met to drive him away or let him into their homes and breaking into other homes.

“In the laundry and storage area of an apartment building he broke into, he hid the knife he had used to kill Ms. Blimkie,” the documents read.

“He also left his shoes and items of clothing, and dressed himself in boots and clothing that he took from that area. In the end, Mr. Downey stopped a person near Central Park who was walking with her grandmother and a dog, and asked her to call the police. When they arrived he told them that he was turning himself in.”

It was revealed that Downey has a “significant” criminal record that includes serious violent incidents, many involving weapons.

Most of his offences were in Ontario, where he grew up, and he was first convicted in 2007 at 18 years old for weapons offences and a breach. In 2010, he was convicted of armed robbery, forcible confinement, two firearms offences, and failing to comply offences, and received concurrent prison sentences.

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In 2013, he was convicted of three robbery offences and several related offences, including possession of a firearm or ammunition contrary to a prohibition order. Most of those offences resulted in seven-year concurrent prison sentences.

Downey was convicted in 2017 for possession of a weapon and sentenced to 60 days’ imprisonment concurrent to the sentences he was then serving.

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His first offence in B.C. was Blimkie’s murder; however, he also committed a bank robbery on Dec. 20, 2021, immediately after he was released on bail when he turned himself in to police for his girlfriend’s death.

He pleaded guilty to the robbery and on Sept. 21, 2023, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, which was then reduced by 934 days’ credit for pre-sentencing custody.

When determining parole eligibility, the judge also took into account the Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA).

That aims to “help the Court understand the systemic, historical, and social factors shaping the experiences of Black and other racialized individuals involved in the justice system, and those of Mr. Downey in particular,” the documents read.

“Mr. Downey is currently 35 years old, and was 31 at the time of the offence. He is a Black man of African Nova Scotian, African American, and Jamaican ancestry. He grew up in Toronto in predominantly Black and racially diverse neighbourhoods and attended racially diverse schools, and felt that he did not experience overt racism.”

However, that changed when Downey moved to B.C. in 2016, according to the documents.

“He found a much smaller Black population, and the cultural norms among Black communities felt unfamiliar to him, and contributed to feelings of disconnection and isolation,” the documents read.

“He also experienced racism in ways he had not previously encountered, both in the community and in the institutional setting.”

Downey’s mother, who was consulted for the IRCA said that her son had 30 home changes between the ages of one and 10 and was also exposed to violence in the home and his father was a victim of violence outside the home.

“Mr. Downey’s background, as described in the IRCA, included early exposure to violence, chronic instability, poverty, systemic anti-Black racism, and untreated mental health symptoms, such as hypervigilance, that may be trauma-related,” the documents state.

“The defence notes, in addition, that the IRCA situates Mr. Downey’s conduct within a life history marked by early exposure to violence, chronic instability, poverty, systemic anti-Black racism, and untreated trauma-related symptoms such as hypervigilance, factors relevant to Mr. Downey’s moral blameworthiness.”

Downey did apologize to Blimkie’s family.

“The aggravating effect of his criminal record is offset in part by the mitigating circumstances of his background, as detailed in the IRCA,” the documents state.

The judge ruled that the appropriate period of ineligibility to apply for parole is 12 years.

Angela Marie MacDougall with Battered Women’s Support Services, told Global News that IRCAs can have a role in the criminal legal system.

“They help courts understand how systemic racism, poverty, and structural inequality shape people’s lives and their interactions with the justice system,” she said in a statement.

“That work is important and necessary.

“At the same time, the use of an IRCA in a case involving the killing of an intimate partner raises serious concerns. When a woman is killed by a partner, the central issue must remain the lethal violence committed against her.

“The fact that this man was released after the killing and went on to commit a bank robbery the very next day is a troubling indication of how little urgency the Canadian justice system routinely places on violence against women.”

MacDougall said that for decades, advocates have warned that intimate partner violence is one of the most preventable forms of lethal violence.

“When the system treats these cases as routine rather than as the social and public safety emergency they represent, women and girls pay the price,” she added.

Montreal’s public health department says the proportion of young people who have experienced some form of violence — whether physical, sexual, or psychological — in their romantic relationships is on the rise.

As well, eight per cent of Montreal high school students aged 14 or older have reported at least one forced sexual encounter in their lifetime. That figure is higher than in two previous surveys, when the average stood both times at five per cent.

The percentage is higher for girls than for boys. In the most recent survey, conducted during the 2022-23 academic year, 12 per cent of girls reported at least one experience of sexual violence; four per cent of boys did.

The data is from the third edition of a survey on the health of high schoolers, for which more than 70,000 students across Quebec aged 14 and older were polled. Previous surveys were conducted in the 2010-11 academic year and the 2016-2017 year.

Results specifically from for Montreal were taken from 5,800 students from 92 schools between October 2022 and May 2023.

“We have seen an upward trend since 2010-11, which was the first edition of the survey,” said Salomé Lemieux, a research officer at the health department and author of the report.

“The figure of eight per cent is still worrying because … it refers to forced sexual relations, whether by a young person or an adult.”

In Montreal, 38 per cent of young people who had been in a romantic relationship report having been a victim of one or more forms of violence (physical, psychological, or sexual) from their partner. In 2010-11, the figure reported was 31 per cent.

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“This is also an upward trend since 2010-11, but it can be explained by various factors, such as the fact that technology is now increasingly present in our daily lives,” Lemieux said in an interview.

“Young people have new places where they experience violence: For example, digital surveillance, young people monitoring their social networks, or geolocation for the purpose of controlling the other person are phenomena that we are now seeing a little more,” she said.

As for why the numbers are rising, Lemieux points to the #MeToo movement, which has encouraged victims to speak out since it began in 2017 and has made it easier for young people to recognize and feel more comfortable talking about sexual violence.

“We can ask ourselves about these figures: Is this really an increase in cases, or could it also be an increase in reports of forced sexual relations?” Lemieux said.

She also noted the most recent data was collected toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, following a period of social isolation and when youth had reported a degradation of their interpersonal relationships. Other factors, such as low self-esteem, psychological distress, and problematic alcohol consumption, are associated with an increased risk of a young person experiencing violence or inflicting it on others.

The report indicates that intimate relationships marked by violence can have lasting negative impact on people’s mental, physical, and sexual health. Those who experience these situations are at increased risk of psychological distress, engaging in risky behaviours, and repeating the cycle of violence in their future relationships.

For the 2022-23 academic year, 43 per cent of young people in Montreal who had been in at least one romantic relationship in the past year reported having experienced or inflicted physical, psychological, or sexual violence. That figure has remained stable throughout the surveys.

“This is a fairly worrying figure, and we want to see an improvement in this situation. It’s extremely important,” Lemieux said.

The report mentions that in order to reduce violence in intimate relationships in the long term, it is essential to act early. It suggests interventions aimed at strengthening young people’s social skills.

“Ensuring that they know how to resolve conflicts in their friendships, for example. It’s important to start sending these messages early in childhood and to make sure that there are adults around, that there is a support network trained to know how to respond to (situations) and how to connect people to resources for help if they witness … violence in childhood or adolescence,” Lemieux said.

She emphasized the importance of talking about healthy, balanced relationships from an early age.

“And making sure they recognize violence if they experience it, and that they can ask for help as easily as possible,” Lemieux said.

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