In this overly politically correct world, Justice Metivier should be commended for recognizing the crimes committed by these backward un-Canadians for what they were
Last week, Justice Monique Metivier of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sentenced a mother, Iqbal Bibi, and her son Khawar Saeed, to short jail terms for acts of violence committed against Bibi's daughter, Saeed's sister.
Bibi received a sentence of five months in jail while Saeed was jailed for seven months. What was interesting about this case was not so much the jail terms but the terms of probation the justice imposed on Bibi.
The family came from Pakistan in 2005. In 2011, the daughter, then 22, began working at McDonald's. She committed the most grievous sin the family could imagine--she fell in love with one of her co-workers; a non-Muslim white guy.
One night during the summer of 2011, the daughter arrived home late, dishonouring the family. Although an adult, she had been never been allowed to socialize outside of the family.
After she came home, her father, Mohammed Saeed, began punching and slapping her. The assault could have been worse but ironically, her brother Khawar stepped in, perhaps saving her life. Mohammed was charged with assault and uttering death threats and later pleaded guilty at a separate trial. He received a jail sentence of 10 months.
After the assault the daughter moved out of the house and lived with her boyfriend's family. It was at this point that Bibi and Saeed began their campaign of threats, intimidation and harassment.
The daughter, her boyfriend and his family were subjected to constant harassment. On some occasions other relatives of the family stood outside the boyfriend's house while Bibi yelled at her daughter to come home. Bibi threatened to kill the couple while Saeed sent her a series of threatening texts. One of them said, "If dad doesn't kill you, I will. We will be nothing when someone finds out."
The harassment also took place at the McDonald's restaurant where the couple still worked.
In January of this year, Bibi was convicted of two counts of uttering threats and one count of intimidation. Her son was found guilty on one count each of criminal harassment, uttering threats and intimidation. The sentencing was put over until last week.
The Crown had sought a custodial sentence of nine months so that these honour crimes do not become more prominent in Canada. Lawyers for mother and son asked for conditional sentences that would be served in the community claiming their clients were under the control of a dictatorial husband and father.
At the sentencing hearing on Sept. 22, Justice Metivier acknowledged the cultural pressure the accused were under but she rejected the notion of a sentence to be served in the community. The judge said such a sentence would not sufficiently deter the accused or others from committing such acts.
Metivier found mother and son shared a dangerous belief system that can and has led to violence against women and their crimes required significant denunciation that could not be realized by allowing the sentences to be served in the community.
Metivier found the cultural norms of the family were the opposite of Canadian values. The justice also found Saeed took advantage of his close relationship with his sister to manipulate her.
Metivier also placed Bibi and Saeed on probation. Bibi, 49, had been in Canada for nine years but never bothered to learn to speak either of the country's official languages. A term of her probation is that she must take English as a second language classes and in addition to learning English, Justice Metivier ordered Bibi to take classes to learn about Canadian cultural values.
There has been some criticism of the justice for not referring to the pair as "Muslims" when handing down the sentence. Under the circumstances, this criticism was unjustified.
Here is what the justice did not do. She did not refer to the crimes against the daughter as ordinary "domestic violence" as so many on the left are prone to do. Calling these honour crimes "domestic violence" makes as much sense as calling the 2009 attack at Ft. Hood or last week's beheading in Oklahoma as "workplace violence."
In this overly politically correct world, Justice Metivier should be commended for recognizing the crimes committed by these backward un-Canadians for what they were.
