The B.C. Conservative Opposition Critic for Public Safety wants a coroner’s inquest into the circumstances that led to Kelowna resident Bailey McCourt’s murder.
South Surrey MLA Elenore Sturko called it “horrific and unforgivable.”
"The system failed at every level, and that failure ended in a brutal, preventable murder,” she said in a media release. “This cannot be swept under the rug.”
On July 4, McCourt and another woman were attacked in the parking lot of Mill Creek Crossing by a man with a weapon. McCourt later died in hospital. The other woman suffered serious injuries.
McCourt’s ex-husband, James Plover, has been charged with second-degree murder. He is scheduled to appear in court on July 10. Earlier on July 4, Plover was convicted on three counts of uttering threats and one count of assault by strangling stemming from a June 23, 2024 incident. Court documents list the incident as a 'K File', which denotes intimate partner violence.
“This was preventable, Bailey did everything right,” Kelowna-Centre MLA Kristina Loewen, said in the same statement. "That is a catastrophic failure of justice.”
The MLAs said this tragedy shines a light on failures highlighted in the provincial government’s June 2025 systemic review of intimate partner violence.
The report found that survivors face discrimination, delays, and systemic barriers across criminal and family law, failures that in Bailey’s case had fatal consequences.
“Kelowna isn’t just grieving, we’re furious,” Loewen added. “This happened in broad daylight, after the system had every chance to intervene. Bailey’s daughters will now grow up without their mother because our justice system chose delay and denial over protection. That can never happen again.”
