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Tag: Shafia family
Infamous honour killer father dies in prison
By Rob | February 27, 2017 | No Comments | Courts, Crimes, Documents, Domestic, Famous Cases, Murder
Muhammad Parvez, who strangled his 16-year-old daughter Aqsa (inset) to death because of his distorted belief that she had tarnished his family honour, has died in prison. His death comes nearly a decade after the murder that became a flashpoint for a national debate about cultural traditions imported to Canada by newcomers. "I killed my daughter. . . with my hands," Parvez said, in a 911 call placed minutes after the murder in the Parvez home in Mississauga, Ontario in December 2007. The Parvez case sparked a sustained and furious national debate about the spread of misogynistic and patriarchal practices that put women and girls at risk of violence and death, though there had been many such murders dating back decades before Aqsa's death. The debate intensified two years after Aqsa's death, when four members of the Shafia family were murdered in June 2009 in Kingston, Ontario in a mass honour killing – the case that is the focus of my true crime book, Without Honour: The True Story of the Shafia Family and the Kingston Canal Murders.
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Shafia honour killers lose appeal at Ontario's top court
By Rob | November 2, 2016 | No Comments | Crimes, Domestic, Famous Cases, Mass, Murder
Nearly 10 years after Afghan native Mohammad Shafia brought his 10-member family to Canada, Ontario's top court ruled that the controlling and abusive father got a fair trial when he was convicted, along with his second wife and eldest son, of murdering four family members. Shafia, his wife Tooba and son Hamed were not victims of prejudice and are not entitled to new trials, the Court of Appeal for Ontario says, in a judgment released today (Nov. 2, 2016). The three were each convicted in January 2012 of four counts of first-degree murder. Sisters Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti 13 and Rona Amir, 50, who was Shafia's first wife in the polygamous family, were found dead June 30, 2009, inside a sunken car resting at the bottom of a shallow canal in Kingston, in eastern Ontario.
Three reasons Shafia honour killing appeals likely to fail
By Rob | March 6, 2016 | No Comments | Crimes, Domestic, Mass, Murder
The three convicted Shafia family killers want new trials and Hamed Shafia, the youngest of the trio, wants to be retried or, at least, re-sentenced, as a youth. A panel of judges of Ontario's top court is grappling with these demands following a two-day hearing this week in Toronto at the Court of Appeal for Ontario. The judges reserved judgment. There's no timetable for a decision from the court. I think it's unlikely the Shafias will be successful, on any of their grounds, because, as with some of their outlandish claims during their murder trial, they just can't be believed.
Confounding Shafia family birthdate claim explained
By Rob | February 25, 2016 | No Comments | Crimes, Domestic, Famous Cases, Mass, Murder
Confused by the claim of the Shafia family that Hamed, one of the three convicted mass murderers, wasn't 18 at the time of the killings, in June 2009? The surprising claim, which I have written about several times, and which will go before Ontario's top court March 3-4, 2016, in Toronto, has left many people shaking their heads. To help explain it, I've created a short video (watch it after the jump), complete with a visual aid. I guarantee you'll come away with a clearer understanding of the claims and, you might be left with a firmer feeling about whether you believe them.
Shafia honour killing appeal begins March 3; secret application filed
By Rob | February 23, 2016 | 3 Comments | Crimes, Domestic, Famous Cases, Mass, Murder
Convicted multiple murderer Hamed Shafia has filed documents with Ontario's top court in a bid to establish that he was unfairly tried as an adult in the sensational 2009 honour killing case. The exact contents of the application to admit fresh evidence, filed Feb. 19, aren't yet known. It's being kept secret by the Court of Appeal for Ontario until a hearing is held on March 3-4 at the court in Toronto but, as I reported previously, a secret hearing was held in Kingston, Ontario last October, at which his father and co-accused, Mohammad Shafia, testified that newly obtained documents show that Hamed was not 18 at the time of the murders on June 30, 2009. Hamed must convince Ontario's top court to permit him to introduce evidence of the age discrepancy. He claims that his birthdate is December 31, 1991, and not 1990 as first believed. Next week's hearing also will consider the broader arguments of all three convicted family members. Mohammad Shafia, 62, his wife Tooba, 46, and their son Hamed, were each convicted of four counts of first-degree murder but they have appealed, claiming that their trial was unfair because of "overwhelmingly prejudicial evidence" and "cultural stereotyping."
Convicted Shafia killers seek new trial, complain of "cultural stereotyping"
By Rob | October 14, 2015 | No Comments | Crimes, Mass, Murder
A Montreal father, mother and son convicted nearly four years ago of murdering four other family members in an honour killing argue, in an appeal to Ontario's top court, that they were victims of "cultural stereotyping" and "overwhelmingly prejudicial evidence" that should not have been admitted at their murder trial. In a 110-page document filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, Mohammad Shafia, 62 (inset), his wife Tooba, 45, and their son Hamed, 24, claim they're entitled to a new trial. The document is a concise outline of the evidence and legal argument that lawyers for the three will present at a hearing scheduled for Dec. 14.
Five years after Shafia killings, legal process unresolved
By Rob | June 30, 2014 | 2 Comments | Crimes, Domestic, Famous Cases, Mass, Murder
Five years ago today, around 10 a.m. on June 30, 2009, Brent White, a constable with the municipal police department in Kingston, Ontario, received a dispatch instructing him to go to Kingston Mills, a scenic and secluded spot on the northern edge of the city's built-up area. At Kingston Mills, a series of ancient locks lifted boats from the level of Lake Ontario up to the level of the Cataraqui River. At one of the locks, a submerged car was spotted that morning by lock worker John Bruce. He had called police, beginning a chain of events that would reveal a horrifying quadruple homicide, Canada's worst mass honour killing, orchestrated by Afghan immigrant Mohammad Shafia (inset).
National data needed on honour killings, panelists agree
By Rob | March 10, 2014 | 1 Comment | Crimes, Domestic, Famous Cases, Mass, Murder, Writing
Missed me on TVO's program The Agenda with Steve Paiken on February 26? You can watch the entire program online (embedded after the jump). The segment, a panel discussion on honour killings, featured Deeyah Khan (inset), whose film about the honour killing in 2006 of Banaz Mahmod in England won the 2013 Emmy Award for best International Documentary. The panel also featured activist and educator Aruna Papp, a South Asian immigrant to Canada who wrote a book about her struggle against the oppressive honour and shame code to which her family subscribed, and Hafsa Lodi a freelance journalist based in London, England and Dubai, who is a former Ryerson University (Toronto) student who wrote a column about media coverage of honour killings in Canada, particularly the Shafia case.
Shafia murders
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Killers, rapists, thieves... Al Mezel, Yusuf Salam Allen, Christine Allen, Patrick Ambrose, Richard Armes, Terry Arniel, Jamie Aravena, Marcelo Atkinson, Rick Bagshaw, David Baltovich, Robert Barrett, Robert Bedford, Mark Bell, Laurie Bernardo, Paul Betesh, Saul Billyard, Robert Black, Conrad Boden, Wayne Bonisteel, Robert Boudreau, Penny Boudreau, Richard Bourdon, Rene Bourque, Justin Briere, Michael Brydges, Thomas Bursey, Carl Buxbaum, Helmuth Chen, Min Clancy, Francis Collins, Peter Conn, Tyrone Connor, Scott Cooper, James Crawford, John Danto, Erin Danton, Michael Davidson-Brown, Eric Demeter, Peter Dick, Evelyn Dion, Leopold Doherty, Dennis Dooley, Marcia Dooley, Tony Duffus, Teresa Dulay, Daljit Singh Egan, John Waudby Ellard, Kelly Erdodi, Joshua Evjen, Shawn Forslund, Robert Foshay, Gary Franche, Christian Freeman, James Friedrich, Melissa Gallienne, John Gardiner, Brett Garland, Douglas Gazley, Don Genereaux, Gary Giff, Jamie Guenther, Kristopher Hamelin, Phillipe Hector, Michael Hermiz, Imad Homolka, Karla Hutchison, James Jacobson, Walter James, Graham Johnson, Russell Joyce, Richard Karasek, Christopher Robin Katsnelson, Daniel Kellestine, Wayne Kelly, Patrick Kennedy, Terry Khairi, Peer Kribs, Robert LeClair, Steven Lee Lee, John Jr. Legere, Allan Li, Vince Luskin, Roman MacDonald, Peter MacNeill, Bill MacNeil, Freeman Madden, Basil Mailloux, Patrice Martin, Brenda Marquardt, Tammy Mather, Frank McArthur, Mitchell McBain, Kenneth McCorister, Earl McLellan, Daniel McClintic, Terri-Lynne McMaster, Greg Moore, Phillip Muise, Darren Munro, Craig Munro, Jamie Murdock, Ken Mushey, Dwight Olson, Clifford Pardo, Bruce Parvez, Muhammad Petralia, Gino Pickton, Robert Piovesan, Nicholas Pomerleau, Paul Power, Ralph Quinn, Katherine Rafferty, Michael Ramage, Rob Rice, Kevin Roberts, Eifion Robichaud, Thomas Roszko, James Royz, Emmanuil Rupert, Richard Sadiqi, Hasibullah Sand, Danny Sand, Robert Sandham, Michael Saunders, Robert Scott, Kevin Shafia, Hamed Shafia, Mohammad Sinclair, Stephen Sinnott, Robert Sleigh, Clifford Smith, Ashley Smith, Robin Squire, Lawrence Stark, Peter Subbiah, Selva Tabbara, Mohammad Jihad Taylor, Duane Terceira, John Threinen, David Tippett, Stanley Todorovic, Melissa Trudeau, Jordan Truscott, Steven Walker, Gary Wang, Guoxi Williams, Henry Williams, Russell Wills, Rick Wood, Andrew Wood, Derek Woods, Josef Yahya, Tooba Mohammad
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