The nursery was painted and the baby clothes were washed and folded. Arianna Goberdhan’s due date was 20 days away.

At about 6:30 p.m. on April 7, 2017, Goberdhan left her parent’s Ajax house and drove to Pickering, where her estranged husband, Nicholas Baig, was living with his parents.

A few hours later, the 27-year-old was dead. She had been stabbed 17 times, according to her parents.

“She was defenseless, she was helpless,” her father, Chan Goberdhan, said. “She couldn’t protect her baby.”

For the past two years, Chan and his wife Sherry Goberdhan have mourned the loss of both their daughter and their unborn granddaughter, who was to be named Asaara.

But in the eyes of the law, only one person died that day.

“When we cremated our child, our daughter, she was holding her daughter in her arms,” Sherry Goberdhan said. “And she was full term. And she was perfect. She was perfect in every way. So for the law to tell me that she's not a human being is totally wrong.”

Under Canadian law, a murdered unborn child is not considered a victim unless it has lived outside the body of its mother. The Goberdhans are hoping to change that and have started a petition, called “Arianna’s Law.” The petition calls on parliament to "pass legislation that recognizes that, when an assailant in a commission of a crime attacks a pregnant woman and injures or kills her pre-born child, then the assailant may be charged with an offence on behalf of the pre-born child."

Similar laws have been introduced in the past, but they’ve failed to make it through the House of Commons. There are fears that “fetal homicide laws” are ways to pave a path to restrict or criminalize abortion. But the Goberdhan say these are completely separate issues.

“The law has to be defined in such a way that it's a violence against women crime,” says Sherry Goberdhan. “It has nothing to do … with pro-life or pro-choice. It's specific to violence.”

While the Goberdhans focus is on “Arianna’s Law,” they are also setting up a charity to raise awareness about domestic violence. They say they knew their daughter’s relationship with her husband wasn’t perfect, but they had no idea about the extent of the abuse she was going through.

“The physical, verbal and mental abuse took place behind closed doors,” Chan Goberdhan said. “We didn't know.”

At times, they say they felt as though they failed their daughter by not spotting the warning signs. They say Arianna didn’t tell them what was going on and they wish she did.

“Don't suffer in silence,” is the message Arianna Goberdhan’s mother has for anyone experiencing abuse. “You need to speak up.”

Their daughter's killer, Nicholas Tyler Baig, will be sentenced tomorrow. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January. They know he will never be held legally accountable for the death of their grandchild, but they hope this legislation could help someone else's in the future.

“Arianna's already gone. Asaara's already gone. We can't bring them back,” Chan Goberdhan said. “But if this could prevent an assailant to think twice about doing what he’s thinking of doing, this may save a mom's child’s life, or a granddaughter’s life.”

On Thursday, they will face Haig for perhaps the last time. He faces an automatic life sentence, but it is up to the judge to decide when he should be eligible to apply for parole. The crown has recommended 20 years, while the defence suggested 12 to 15.

“There's not winners in this. There's losers,” Chan Goberdhan said. “ We're not going there to collect a prize. We aren't going to collect an award. It's not going to bring our child or grandchild back.”