by Patricia Chisholm

About the author: Patricia Chisholm is a staff writer for Maclean’s, a Canadian news magazine.

The waterfront park where Reena Virk was viciously beaten and left to drown looks like a Canadian dream: clumps of trees dot one shore, while attractive middle-class homes line the opposite bank. Residents of Saanich, just north of Victoria, know the place as a handy getaway for jogging, boating and family outings. But like many suburban parks across the country, it has two faces. After dark, it becomes a haunt for restless local teenagers looking for a place safe from prying adult eyes. Here, kids can engage in the typical rituals of an adolescent Friday night—exchanging gossip, smoking, maybe having a drink or making out—usually without incident. So it probably wasn’t surprising...