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)

 

Beijing's COVID Bulldozing of Global Populations and Economies in Total Innocence

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney  (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

"I think the Chinese government played a significant role in the devastating public health and economic damage that is being experienced by the entire world."
"And I do not think we should just forget this and walk past it. There must be some kind of a reckoning, there must be some accountability." Western countries, including Canada and the United States, must have a reset in their relationship with China — and part of that reset, in my judgment, must be a deliberate effort to onshore production, particularly on critical supplies."                                                                    Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

"[There is a] large body of facts and data [ to prove that Beijing did not obfuscate the damaging effects of the novel coronavirus]."
"If Mr. Premier did not deliberately turn his head away, these facts and evidence are presenting themselves crystal clearly before his eyes. If there is a comparison between what he has done during the outbreak with what Wuhan has, he will not look smarter."
"However, we disdain to bring the details up, because attacking Mr. Premier was never one of our goals."
"You are based in Edmonton not in Ottawa. [Many Americans -- friendly or not to Trump -- have] profitable and unshakable business with China."
Chinese consulate, Calgary

"[The United States should form a partnership to sue China for damages caused by the pandemic]."
"This will allow us to share information and resources and ensure that any remedy sought takes into consideration our legal capabilities and the devastating impact the virus has had on our States."
Letter to Washington from 14 Republican attorneys general

Handmade face masks / MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP via Getty Images

Premier Jason Kenney took the unusual and justified step of speaking before a virtual roundtable hosted by the Washington-based Canadian American Business Council, to voice his outrage over Beijing's failure to properly alert the world community of a viral outbreak in Wuhan. Where the Chinese Communist Party chose instead to silence, threaten and arrest, then force to recant Chinese physicians trying to warn their colleagues and the outside world of the worrying appearance of a strange pneumonia causing respiratory failure and death in a growing number of patients.

Beijing chose to give incorrect and alert-damaging information to the World Health Organization, whose purpose is to warn the international community of the emergence of any new health threats certain to cause pandemics. A failure to advise that resulted in the WHO giving credence to China on the global pandemic status of SARS-CoV-2 which emerged in Wuhan, overwhelming its health-care system, in a frightening emergency that went on to replicate a similar exploding disease and death-count worldwide.

Canada's federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has chosen to downplay Beijing's role in failing to warn the world community which resulted in close to five million infections globally and approximately one-third of a million deaths due to COVID-19. China's abysmal level of transparency is entirely responsible for the prolifterating number of cases besetting an unready world community. One that is adamant that China must be held accountable for its dire failing.

The state of Missouri has taken steps to sue China for compensation, filing a 47-page lawsuit with its attorney general Eric Schmitt stating China had clamped down on information regarding the virus, including the arrest of whistleblowers, playing down the contagiousness of the virus. COVID-19 has killed over 85,000 Americans. And there are many more seriously considering bringing lawsuits against China. Beijing sneered at Australia for its temerity in casting blame for the severity of the epidemic, by telling Australia it is nothing but the gum on China's shoe.

Cases overview

Canada

Confirmed 78,072 +1,232

Recovered 39,228

Deaths 5,842 +105

Worldwide

Confirmed 4.79M +100K

Recovered 1.78M

Deaths 318K +5,340

Australia, the U.S. and all 27 nations comprising the European Union are adamantly demanding an independent investigation as well, in the awareness of the complicity of the World Health Organization in aiding China's suppression of vital COVID information. Canada has pointedly failed to join its Western partners in their determination to see that an independent investigation takes place both of  China's actions and that of the WHO.

"Ottawa can't seem to shake the tendency to flatter ... The facts argue that China was delinquent, that it was not transparent enough. That is not a conspiracy theory", pointed out a former Canadian ambassador to China, David Mulroney. The Liberal government of Justin Trudeau seems determined to bow down to China. Canada's position vis-a-vis China's world bullying is that of a unctuous lickspittle. A situation that serves China well, and has earned Canada the compliment of being described as 'calm' in the greater disorder of a sea of complaints against China.

That Chinese diplomats worldwide are increasingly arrogant and insulting toward the countries they have been dispatched to, blatantly and insultingly representing China's interests is intolerable. An appointed diplomat deploying verbal contempt aimed at an elected Canadian politician at the executive-governing level is unheard of and disgraceful. Such lack of diplomatic restraint and vituperation should qualify these diplomats for a swift exit from their international posts.

A medical staffer writes a note to communicate with a patient he is tending to, in the ICU of the Bassini Hospital, in Cinisello Balsamo, near Milan, Italy, Tuesday, April 14, 2020. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

 

Violence Committed Against Aboriginal Women : Whose Violence? The Solution to End it Lies Within

"When we're hunting moose, we're also looking for human remains because there are so many missing and murdered women along that highway. A lot of those logging roads we go down are exactly the same kinds of places where those women's remains are found."
"We got a moose that morning [In 2001]. We had been talking about the Highway of Tears [Highway 16, northern British Columbia] and Raven said, 'You know Dad, I wish there was a way that we could wipe away some of those tears'."
"Like a lot of guys in this country, I grew up in the home of a violent, alcoholic father. That's the story of so many guys who are in jail or who are struggling. When they were little, their dad would drink and beat them up."
"It's almost as simple as it gets for some of the domestic violence cycles in Canada."
Paul Lacerte, Yinka Dene, Carrier First Nation, northern British Columbia

"It's a reality for a young Indigenous woman like me that life is not as safe. I've heard the stories of murdered and missing Indigenous women all my life."
"Our family is close and connected. I knew that we could get together and make something happen and make a difference."
Raven Lacerte, northern British Columbia

Raven had been out moose-hunting with her father Paul when she was 16, seven years ago. They had been talking about the dread menace hanging over aboriginal girls and women of violence and violence that at times becomes lethal. The pair travelled along the infamous 'Highway of Tears', Highway 16, where the reality is that up to thirty Indigenous women are known to have disappeared, never seen again alive. And this tragic reality was in teenage Raven's mind while she was cleaning the moose they had bagged.

The thought occurred to her while cleaning the moose hide that it could be made into a symbol of a new awareness campaign they would launch. They called their campaign the Moose Hide Campaign and it couldn't have been more grass rooted in origin than in the mind of a 16-year-old haunted by the thought of psychopathic violence that harms, injures and kills women like herself. Raven and her three sisters cut the hide into small squares and set to work producing 25,000 cards they hand-lettered, explaining the significance of the hide squares.

Their campaign has swept into the consciousness of Indigenous people with its initiative to persuade boys and men, Indigenous and non-Native to commit themselves to taking a personal position to prevent violence against women. The Lacerte family recently brought awareness of their campaign to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, a yearly ritual. In the space of seven years they had managed to proliferate over 1.2 million of the moose hide patches distributed in over 350 communities.

They engaged with local Ottawa and area high school and post-secondary students, who set out to pledge themselves to upholding a day-long fast in a demonstration of their own commitment to see an end to violence committed against women. Their campaign led politicians, as they are wont to do, in supporting obvious public-good campaigns to show their 'progressive' bona fides, to come out in support of this initiative of awareness, education and commitment.

Raven Lacerte, co-founder of the Moose Hide Campaign, raises her fist on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 18, 2018. Photo by Alex Tétreault

And so, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Affairs Carolyn Bennett, addressed a crowd of several hundred on Parliament Hill, speaking of the inter-generational phenomenon of violence against women, and inevitably linking it to the legacy of the residential school system now a topic of incendiary condemnation against the-then colonialist 19th century government that had initiated a project to remove aboriginal children from their families and educate them in the ways of the white folk at custodial schools. Much like, in fact, the upper-crust British 'public' school system.

Absolutely everything recognized as First Nations troubles, from addiction to child neglect, criminal activity to an inherited welfare syndrome, all the malfunctions and dysfunctions of a people seemingly incapable of adjusting to ordinary life in a democratic system, to be responsible for their own well-being, to respect the law, to engage in generalized social life, to be gainfully employed, to be responsible for raising healthy, educated children -- is now attributed to the 'trauma' imposed by the residential schools system.

Sage Lacerte, national youth ambassador for the Moose Hide Campaign, on Parliament Hill on Oct. 18, 2018. Photo by Alex Tétreault

A trauma that has lingered and festered generation after generation, explaining why it is that more First Nations children are removed from the bosoms of their incapacitated family to be given shelter and presumably opportunities by public welfare agencies, and that aboriginals are over-represented in Canadian prisons in comparison to their numbers in the general population, and that alcohol and drug addictions consume too many First Nations lives, all attributable by default to their grandparents having been placed in residential schools.

The violence committed against Indigenous women is commonplace and horrendous. And although there is the prevalence of hostility and discrimination from wider society against First Nations people, a human rights crime in and of itself, much of the contempt in which they are held would without a doubt dissipate were they viewed as willing and able to integrate into general society. First Nations people have a proud past and they should regard that with pride and dignity. There is a way to fight bigotry and seek the justice owing them through their own efforts.

But as long as their communities, with the support of a sympathetic broader public continue to deny that most of the violence committed against girls and women come from within their own communities, not those outside them, and insist on attributing that violence to the lingering after-effects of the residential school systems and the degrading loss of self-esteem, nothing will be accomplished. They have indeed suffered viral discrimination. But they have also spurned opportunities to shed the past and embrace a presence as unhyphenated Canadians.

The transition from a dependent people insisting they represent an entirely different set of "nations" within the greater nation of Canada which does them no favours, is past due. Victimhood and resentment cannot forever mark their destiny, but it will unless they take the mature steps required to shed the dependency of federal handouts to finally assume their rightful place in the Canada that has prospered by absorbing people whose goal is simply to be Canadian and in the process take advantage of all opportunities that status offers them.

Our Goal is to end violence towards women and children. To help achieve this, the Moose Hide Campaign will distribute 10 Million Moose Hide squares across Canada.

• We will stand up with women and children and we will speak out against violence towards them.
• We will support each other as men and we will hold each other accountable.
• We will teach our young boys about the true meaning of love and respect, and we will be healthy role models for them.
• We will heal ourselves as men and we will support our brothers on their healing journey.
• We encourage you to Take Action, Make the pledge, and Stand up to end violence towards women and children.