Behavioural Cultural Norms Incompatible with Western Society

"She wanted him to drive her home from a party she'd attended. Rather than take her home, the offender drove her to an empty parking lot."

"He told her they would have fun. He parked the car and got into the back seat. He moved closer to the victim and forcibly kissed her. He put his hand under her dress and touched her vaginal area over her underwear."

"After he tried again to kiss her and she did not respond, he moved away from her."

"She asked if he would still drive her home and he said no. She got out of the car, and he left her in the parking lot."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario courthouse

The Ontario Court of Justice in Windsor.

In an attempt to avoid being deemed 'inadmissible' to Canada for 'serious criminality' by the Immigration and Refugee Board, Uber driver Sevan Halabi of Windsor, Ontario, a permanent resident of Canada, hoped to receive a lighter sentence to avoid deportation. Permanent residents of Canada, if sentenced to over six months in prison, according to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, can be regarded as inadmissible to Canada. What Mr. Halabi, through his lawyer, sought to persuade the presiding judge was to sentence him to six months less a day plus probation. 

"It would require me to cut the sentence nearly in half, solely to assist him in avoiding future penalties. I cannot do that", responded Justice Pratt. A young woman had engaged Mr. Halabi, an Iraqi Uber driver, to drive her home from an event she had attended on October 9, 2022. Rather than take his passenger on the trip she expected, the Uber driver subjected her to a terrifying ordeal of sexual harassment, the threat of rape and violence by implication, and finally abandonment.

 

The woman's attacker was a married man with two sons, age 14 and 10. Presenting himself as a family man, Sevan Halabi's attempt at sympathy was linked to appealing for a sentence of six months less a day to avert any potential immigration consequences. The Crown had argued that Halabi merited a year in jail, and then three years of probation.

 

Born in Iraq, Halabi emigrated from his home country with his family in 2018 to Canada. Halabi is a permanent resident of Canada as a result of the criminal charge impeding an application for citizenship. His wife and children did achieve Canadian citizenship. As for the charges brought against him, Mr. Halabi maintained his innocence during an interview with the producer of a pre-sentence report.

 

Justice Pratt was informed "he regrets what happened, has learned a lesson, and that this will not happen again", the decision in the pre-sentence report conveyed too the Judge. In response, Justice Pratt said: "The offence has hindered her professional life as a teacher and her personal life as well. She is fearful and angry. She didn't know if she would be raped or killed [in Halabi's car that night], and that fear continues to impact her life", responded the Judge.

 

To further appeal for sympathy from the court, Mr. Halabi who had not been held in custody prior to his appearance at the court before the Judge, lived as he would normally with his family and decided to bring his children along for emotional impact. For the sentencing submissions he arranged for his children to be present in court. "On that point, both children were visibly upset and crying during the proceeding", observed Justice Pratt. "Respectfully, I question why they were here in the first place. It was not a case where their father was in custody and so this would have been a rare opportunity to see him in person."

 

"[Halabi] has been out of custody throughout this case and only appeared virtually from Iraq. I cannot find they were brought into the courtroom to engender sympathy from the court, but given the offender's focus on how my sentence could affect his family, that is certainly an inference available to be drawn", the Judge concluded. 

"It is troubling that sexual offences committed by professional drivers are sufficiently common that they have created their own body of case law. But that is what has happened."

"In my view ... a sentence of six months less a day for this conduct would be unfit. It would prioritize the offender's personal circumstances over the need to denounce and deter his conduct and would not be in line with relevant case law."

"It would be an inappropriate and artificial sentence imposed only to avoid legitimate consequences created by Parliament."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario Superior Court

Mohamed Al Ballouz, who now goes by the name Levana, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years for murdering a woman and two children. Photo by Court exhibit

 

This sexual assault case is but one of many where men from cultures where the place of women is subservient to that of men, religiously inspired and historically adapted into a culture of male privilege and female suffering, gravitate to another culture and system of law. Correctional Service of Canada recently completed an assessment of a convicted killer that decided against Mohamed Al Ballouz of Brossard, Quebec being admitted to a women's prison.

 

This man, convicted of murdering his wife Synthia Bussieres and their two sons -- five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac in 2022, was sentenced to life in prison in December, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. While in custody, the man, also convicted of setting fire to the family condo, transitioned to a woman. With his new name of Levana, he asked that he be preferentially incarcerated at the Joliette Institution for Women, northeast of Montreal. Thankfully for the women at Joliette, the decision was that Al Ballouz remain in a men's prison. 

Synthia Bussières with her sons Éliam Al Ballouz, left, and Zac Al Ballouz. (Obituary)

 

How Goes Putin's Ukraine War in Russia?

"Russian people are able to distinguish between true patriots and scum and traitors, and simply spit them out like a fly that flew into their mouths."

"I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-purification of society will strengthen our country."

"I do not at all judge those who have a villa in Miami or on the French Riviera, who can't do without foie gras, oysters or gender freedoms."

"But the issue here is that many of these people are by their very nature, mentally located there and not here with our people, not in Russia."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

Putin with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, second from left, and Valery Gerasimov, head of the general staff of the armed forces, in Moscow. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin, obviously more than a trifle dissatisfied with the way his invasion of Ukraine has proceeded, and the reluctance of his military advisers to speak frankly with him about his prospects in anticipating a quick crumbling of Ukraine's government, is also obviously under great duress by his increasing isolation within the international community and the opprobrium that has fallen upon his decision to launch his 'special military program' on Ukraine. Russia requires 'purifying'.

Which is to say, the traitors that protest in the streets, the advisers and generals who fail their leader by allowing their fear of consequences to restrain them from pointing out the folly of his commands and demands and expectations. The Kremlin is facing a period of dislocated expectations and viral insecurity with the stressors and strains that exist of late between the dictator and his minions.

According to Western intelligence, Russian casualties, including the deaths of three generals and an admiral among the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 military deaths and huge numbers of casualties, not to mention the loss of armoured cars, tanks and planes to Ukrainian military moves in defence of their country has placed a strain on Mr. Putin's relations with his military staff. A purge appears to have resulted from these dramatic losses in so short a time.

General Roman Gavrilov, deputy head of Russia's National Guard, appears to have been 'demoted', among others in the intelligence community and military; commanders suddenly absent from duty. An angry Russian president, furious about 'traitors' in their midst, also speaks of the West's aspiration to destroy Russia. The presence in Russian society of milquetoasts who prefer decadent Western delicacies over supporting Russia in her 'hour of need' infuriates him.

 

A destroyed armored personnel carrier stands in front of a damaged by shelling building in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Marienko)

 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's explanation is that people simply "are disappearing from our lives by themselves". Resigning from jobs or leaving Russia. "This is how this purification happens", he said, speaking to journalists on a conference call; many people "show themselves to be traitors", at times of national difficulties. Antiwar protests in Russia has seen some 15,000 people detained since the invasion of Ukraine. Russia's new media law threatens prison terms up to 15 years for the spread of "fake news" on the military or sanctions.

The crackdown has spurred tens of thousands of Russians to leave the country, going abroad to escape the situation. Russians abandoning their homes and careers for shelter in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and Israel. As for General Gavrilov, he was reported arrested as a result of "leaks of military information leading to loss of life", or the "wasteful squandering of fuel"; take your pick. 

An enlightening thought from Christo Grozev, chief Russia investigator at the Bellingcat open-source intelligence reporting project: "It's doubtless that Putin recognizes the deep s--t this operation is in. It's so bad that he changes horses in midstream -- a big no-no during war". The head and deputy head of a FSB spy unit arrested over the weekend, responsible for pre-invasion intelligence in Ukraine.

"It looks like two weeks into the war, it finally dawned on Putin that he was completely misled. The department, fearful of is responses, seems to have told Putin what he wanted to hear", wrote Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, Russian journalists, who wrote an article for the Centre for European Policy Analysis, that Col.Gen. Sergei Beseda and his deputy Anatoly Bolyukh were arrested for corruption and intelligence failings.

Putin toasts with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev after talks in the Kremlin. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

"[Putin's language was] fanatical [and] hugely dangerous."

"There is a desperation that might make him consider a course of action we would view as very dangerous indeed. I'm deeply concerned about where his state of mind is at and how desperate he may become."

"[Developments within the Kremlin were evidence of] real discord [at the top of the Russian high command]."

James Heappey, U.K. Armed Forces Minister

The Face of Evil : Expunged

"Soleimani's martyrdom will make Iran more decisive to resist America's expansionism and to defend our Islamic values."
"With no doubt, Iran and other freedom-seeking countries in the region will take his revenge."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force commander, Qassam Soleimani, in an Iranian TV interview, October 1, 2019 (YouTube screenshot)

"With Soleiman dead, war is coming -- that seems certain; the only questions are where, in what form and when?"
"While America dominates the world in terms of conventional military force, Iran's advantage is in the asymmetric sphere. So rocket attacks, bombings, assassinations and even attacks like the missile assault on Saudi oil facilities in September 2019 are all possible responses. There really is no underestimating the geopolitical ramifications of this."
"His death will be perceived as martyrdom in Iran and will undoubtedly fuel some form of retaliation -- but not by a disparate terrorist organization, but one of the Middle East's most powerful governments, with an unrivalled and formidable asymmetric tool kit."
"Neither ISIS nor al Qaeda ever had the capacity to expel the U.S. from Iraq and Syria and end the counter-ISIS campaign there, but Iran and its supporters most definitely do. We've entered into very dangerous territory now."
"A single attack on U.S. positions could feasibly catalyze a military withdrawal and second abandonment of the Kurds [in Syria]. The death of Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis alongside Soleimani has just mobilized tens of thousands of PMU militiamen against America's presence in Iraq like never before."
Charles Lister, director, Countering Terrorism and Extremism program, Middle East Instituee, Washington, D.C.

Image circulating on line reportedly shows Iranian general Qassem Soleimani’s severed hand following his death in a US airstrike in Baghdad, January 3, 2020. (Social media)

"The most important military commander bar none in the Middle East [as well as a] mass terrorist [describes the decapitation of the Iranian general considered the second most powerful and influential man in the Islamic Republic of Iran]."
"Iran will avenge his death, we can be sure. The key from a U.S. perspective is how well Trump has anticipated and prepared for Iran's reaction -- in Iraq, in the U.S., throughout the region and across the globe."
Bruce Hoffman, senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

The antecedent to this event of course, is the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with the express purpose of removing former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power, as the Sunni Islam version of the Shiite Qassem Soleimani whose fate suddenly matched that of Saddam, both mass murderers, both enablers of terrorism, both convinced they were invincible, both relieved of their delusion of being beyond the reproach of violent justice. The reference to preparedness refers to then-President Bush having no back-up plan for post-invasion with the collapse of the Saddam regime.

The outraged and outrageous language of the 'moderate' Iranian President Rouhani speaking in one breath of Iran as a 'freedom-seeking country' and the United States' 'expansionist' agenda has brought language and meaning to Orwellian heights in its contorted new levels of disingenuousness and febrile delusion. Since its occupation of Iran in 1979 the Islamic Revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to power as a theocratic imperial state focused on jihadic conquest has seen a Shiite minority among Sunni majorities reverse ages-old power structures.

Iran's intention to subjugate the Sunni majority to his Shiite Islamist agenda, restoring a historic realm of power and influence, has led to mass murder and huge population displacements in Syria and Yemen, and permanently altered the character of Lebanon's society. The brutal horror of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that transfixed the world in amazement and fear at the depths of human depravity in the manner of the atrocious deaths visited upon their 'enemies', has its counterpart in the Shiite militias like Hezbollah, Iran's proxies.

Iraq, now completely in the thrall of Iran's web of intrigue and a willing satellite, has joined Syria, Yemen, Palestine and Qatar to counterbalance the Sunni Middle East states weight of majority, leaving the region in a state of suspense and destabilization. Iran's outreach to Africa has been equally disturbing and unsettling. Whatever territory that ISIL amassed and involuntarily vacated created a vacuum that Iran's Shiite militia proxies were swift to occupy, their intentions and violence similar to ISIL's.

Iran's malign influence has spread as far as North Korea and Venezuela. North Korea's Kim Jong Un without doubt is keenly observing events on the ground in the Middle East, to absorb a fuller understanding of American resolve that will have great meaning and consequences for his nuclear ambitions just as it has for Iran's. Perhaps he is weighing just how far he too can push America in the belief that he, like Soleimani and Iran's Grand Ayatollah Khamenei is also untouchable and there are no provocations too advanced, viewed as intolerable by the United States.