Politic?

Casting Aspersions on Canadian Law and Justice

"When they came, I asked them, 'Why me?' and they say, 'Not only you; many people'."
"I said, 'Do you have clue like about why, for example, me?' Maybe they have clue. They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me anything."
"You don't want to do that ... but you have to say yes. They show you a picture [of the dead girl], to see what’s your reaction."
"We were working for a political organization [opposed to Saddam] underground [in Iraq] and we run away from there."
"I was nervous [when the investigators contacted him] And I’m sure I didn’t do anything. … This first time in my life I do this kind of interview or investigation. Never been in court or never even ask by police for anything in my life."
Ayub Faek, Kurdish refugee from Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Burnaby, B.C.

"I knew that, if they want, they're going to get an order from court or something, I don't know, to take it [DNA sample] from me, so that's why I gave it."
"I was thinking that maybe they just want to collect DNA from people from Middle East for future records. That’s what I thought. I still believe that. They said they’re going to destroy it, but I don’t believe it."
Ariyan Fadhil, Kurdish Iraq refugee, Burnaby, B.C.

"No doubt police are very alive to how delicate a balance this is."
"In other cases, we've heard in media reports people say the officer made it clear, 'You don't do this, we'll put you under a microscope'."
"If you're trying to build trust in communities to further your investigation, make this something people will find credible."
Micheal Vonn, policy director, B.C. Civil Liberties Association

IHIT investigators at Central Park in Burnaby looking for clues in the Marrisa Shen murder. - NOW FILES

British Columbia Civil Liberties Association is a busy outfit and latterly have declared their perturbation over a recent media report out of Burnaby Now newspaper outlining their findings that homicide investigators in the province deliberately in the course of a murder investigation targeted Middle Eastern men through a voluntary DNA collection "sweep" in a bid to find the young girl's murderer. The DNA dragnet, according to civil liberties watchers raises a red flag of racial profiling, coercion and targeting of vulnerable populations.

What's more, another disturbing element of the situation ostensibly is the opaqueness of the disposition of the DNA samples post-collection. This is an issue that dates back to July of 2017 when the body of Marrisa Shen, 13, was discovered in a forested Central Park area in Burnaby, British Columbia. Over 300 investigators were involved in a massive hunt for the murderer. The regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team announced in September of 2018 that 28-year-old Ibrahim Ali had been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Marrisa Shen Photograph By NOW FILES

The 14-month investigation into the murder saw police canvassing over 1,300 residents of Burnaby. Some 600 interviews had been conducted. And there were two thousand "persons of interest" who were identified and eliminated. The murder of the young girl was deemed to have been a random act of violence. The mystery remains of what exactly it was that led them to Ibrahim Ali now a permanent resident of Canada who arrived in March of 2017, a privately church-sponsored Syrian refugee. The young man was resident in close proximity to Marrisa Shen's home. She died four months after his arrival in Canada.

The local newspaper, Burnaby Now, had drawn the attention of B.C. Liberties Association when it published the results of their own media investigation into the police search for the murderer by pointing out that before the arrest of Ibraham Ali police contacted various men of Middle Eastern origin who were regional residents, asking whether they would provide voluntary DNA samples. The paper interviewed a number of such men and published their statements.

Mr. Faek, for example stated that he had been queried about his work and about his visits to the park, then shown a photograph of the murdered teen. He had agreed at the time that he would provide a blood sample from his finger. As did Mr. Fadhil who described being questioned in a van, during his lunch break, whereupon he too agreed to submit a blood sample. As for the DNA samples, both men doubted the police would destroy them once the investigation concluded. A rather strange, untrustful attitude to the justice system of the welcoming country.

"What I can tell you is that IHIT (Integrated Homicide Investigation Team) strictly adheres to Canadian law and RCMP policy with respect to the handling of DNA exhibits", responded Cpl. Frank Jang, spokesman for the unit, clarifying that it would not be proper to comment further while the case remains before the courts. "You should be able to take that to the bank", tersely commented Micheal Vonn, who felt that police agencies should provide written verification of samples having been destroyed to the people who provided them.

The sensitivity of civil rights groups to issues such as DNA sweeps and targeted groups in a murder investigation is misplaced when the police feel they have reasonable and reliable evidence to enable them to pursue a course of action leading to a suspect. Groping about in the dark and hoping by chance to find evidence without having to take assertive action to discover what evidence might be had through techniques that request the public for assistance isn't guaranteed to solve murder mysteries. Invariably, some group will be affronted by techniques that draw them in as suspects.

The alternative might be to simply allow a murder of an innocent person to go unchallenged, leaving a murderer free to repeat the atrocity. That those of a certain ethnic, religious, geographic profile were targets in this case may have been the result of insider information received by the police, supported perhaps by the earned reputation of some groups whose societal culture leaves them prone to both violence and contempt for women. Kurds don't fall naturally into that category. But in the final analysis it was a man whose background did equip him as a suspect.

Justice will be seen to be done because it will eventuate, under Canadian law. In this instance, it just happened to be a Syrian refugee to Canada who has been identified as the suspect. That fact is not an indictment of the entire Syrian refugee population in Canada. Portraying it as such by the actions that the police investigation service undertook, as suggested by the newspaper report and the civil liberties groups does neither the Syrian refugee population nor Canadian law and order groups any true justice.

"I was happy at first when I heard they arrested somebody. But I realized the accused is a former Syrian refugee and I was so shocked."
"I realized that this news had become national, so I started calling all my Syrian friends across Canada to put together a statement of support for the Shen family and condemn the crime."
"We think there should be an organized response from the [Syrian] community to such a horrible and shocking incident."
"If people want to know what the Syrian community thinks, we will be in front of the court … with a message of unity, hope and humanity."
"We are people just like any other people. We have good individuals and we might have bad individuals."
"I demonstrated against the dictatorship and was sent to prison where I was tortured. I was a medical student, but once I was sent to prison the third time I had to decide whether to stay and hope I would not be arrested again. I didn’t want to risk my life again."
"Now I am in the best nation on earth, I have learned the language and I am a very active member of the community. The vigil to me shows the true Canadian values of acceptance and diversity."
Mohammed Alsaleh, Syrian refugee, Burnaby, British Columbia