Victims murdered by Daljit Singh Dulay in 1991 in Calgary, (from left) Gurdawr Singh Dulay, Kulwinder Dulay, Mukesh Kumar Sharma

He is serving life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in the 1991 honour killings in Calgary, Alberta of his sister Kulwinder Dulay, 20, her husband Gurdawr Singh Dulay, 28, and, Mukesh Kumar Sharma, 28. Sharma was a close friend of the couple and their employer. The six-page written record of Dulay’s parole hearing on April 24, 2013 is the most detailed expose to date of the chilling motive that drove him to murder. It documents the widespread conspiracy and encouragement of family and community in the murders and a plot to aid Dulay’s escape from justice. The revelations contradict the protestations of other honour killers in Canada and the defence arguments that they have presented during trials in an attempt to convince judges and juries that honour killings are not a growing threat in Canada fueled by widely-held traditional beliefs.

According to a 2006 psychological risk assessment, your understanding of the index offences remained shallow. You admitted that your actions were wrong but also noted that the murders maintained the status of your family in their community.

- excerpt from April 2013 parole decision

Dulay’s family lived in Vancouver when his sister moved to Calgary. The strict Sikh family grew up in an area of India where long-held cultural traditions about the honour of families were drilled into him. Dulay’s sister had eloped with a man who had grown up in the same village, an act that the Dulay family considered shameful and one that they believed required her death to restore the family’s honour in the eyes of the wider community.

You noted that, after negotiations with your sister and elder members of the family failed, you understood your family to ask you to do “whatever it takes” to maintain family honour. You confirmed with the board that the beliefs associated with honour killing motivated you to commit three murders, and that these beliefs could be considered risk factors in your case. With persistent questions, you noted that honour killings may be conducted for reasons other than a forbiden intimate relationship. However, until it was raised by the board, you did not mention honour killings involved concepts such as domination and control of women.

Dulay hired a private investigator who tracked his sister to Calgary. Dulay followed her there. He bought an AK-47 assault rifle and a car. He stalked the couple to a video store where they worked and when they emerged and began to drive away, he rammed their vehicle and sprayed them with bullets. Mukesh Kumar Sharma, who was a friend of the couple and their employer, attempted to flee. Dulay shot him in the back. Dulay hid out with family members for five days before turning himself in to police. In 1992, he was convicted but in 1996, he attempted to escape, part of a scheme to flee to India, back to the village where he was raised, where friends and family would shelter him.

You claimed that you were acting in conformity with your religious beliefs in committing the murders, and that you would not be considered guilty of any crime in India.

Dulay claimed in his parole hearing in April this year, as he did in 2007 in a failed bid to seek earlier parole, that he has renounced honour killing.

You stated several times during the hearing that honour killings were wrong and stupid, and that you were very ashamed and remorseful for your actions.

Although Dulay has been out of prison several times on escorted temporary absences, the board expressed concern about the influences of family and friends. In 2006, a psychiatric assessment concluded he was a low risk to reoffend but noted “there were differing versions on file about your family’s influence on you at the time of the murders.”

The psychiatrist also had concerns about your request for ETAs to the Sikh Temple as some members of your community viewed you as a hero.

In 2010, Dulay was granted escorted temporary absence passes for family contact and to visit a Sikh Temple. The parole board now appears to be grappling with changing accounts from family members about whether they supported the murders and encouraged Dulay to carry them out. As part of the process of determining whether Dulay can be released into the community, family and friends are interviewed by Corrections staff. In 2011, interviews revealed that some people “indicated that they were more accepting” of the murders. In the past, family members had openly condoned Dulay’s actions. In recent assessments, people interviewed appear “less sympathetic” about the murders.

The authors of a [community assessment] completed in January 2013 on family members concluded that the contacts said “all the right things” but the authors were unsure of the genuineness of the contacts’ comments.

Dulay told the parole board that, if released, his goal was to “educate [his] younger family members with respect to honour killings.”
He could not explain, other than saying ‘No,’ how he would stand up to family or community members who might pressure him to continue to endorse honour killings.

Dulay is subject to a deportation order to India that was imposed in 1993. If he is granted unescorted passes or day parole, he could be immediately removed from Canada. Dulay is not subject to stricter immigration and parole rules that came into force 11 years ago. A killer sentenced after June 2002, and who is subject to a deportation order, is not eligible to seek release on unescorted absences or day parole. Most murderers are eligible to seek those two forms of freedom three years before their full parole eligibility. In the case of a murderer like Dulay, who is serving life with no parole for 25 years, it meant he was eligible to seek unescorted passes and day parole after 22 years behind bars.

Here is the complete written record of the parole hearing held April 24, 2013:

Note: The document embedded here contains a typo made by Parole Board staff. On page five, the document states that Dulay “completed six years of family contact UTAs.” These were, in fact, ETAs, escorted temporary absences and not Unescorted Temporary Absences.

On a mobile device? Click here to read document.

The buyer has agreed to give up on efforts to finalize the deal at the lower price, according to a lawyer quoted by the newspaper.

“The buyer, though convinced of his right, has preferred to settle by paying a slightly higher price agreement yet reached, to avoid charges, fees, risks and delays,” said his lawyer, Alain Mongeau. “He nevertheless remains convinced that it is a good deal and wants to turn the page of this unfortunate incident.”

Shafia also had another buyer on the hook previously and, when that deal collapsed in a dispute over price, a lawsuit was filed by the would-be purchaser. According to Les Affaires, that dispute has been resolved.

The deal might finally give Shafia the cash he needs to pay three criminal defence lawyers who defended him and his wife and son against murder charges. Sources tell me that lawyers Peter Kemp, who represented Shafia, David Crowe, who represented Shafia’s second wife Tooba Yahya and Patrick McCann, who represented Shafia’s son Hamed, are still owed substantial amounts of money for the work they did defending the trio. Shafia is paying the tab for all three lawyers. Shafia, Tooba and Hamed were each convicted on January 29, 2012 of four counts of first-degree murder. Shafia’s daughters, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti, 13 and his first wife in a secret polygamous family, Rona Amir, 50, were found dead June 30, 2009, inside a car discovered at the bottom the Rideau Canal in Kingston, in eastern Ontario. Prosecutors established at the trial that Shafia orchestrated the mass honour killing in a bid to restore his family’s tarnished honour. He believed the girls and Rona had shamed him through disobedience and promiscuous behaviour.

The three have maintained their innocence and claim that the victims died in a joyride that ended tragically when Zainab drove the car into the canal. They have appealed and the lawyers representing them are now completing a document that will set out the grounds of appeal in detail. Once the document, a factum, is filed with the Court of Appeal for Ontario, a date will be set for a hearing.

Victims Feroz Mangal (left) and Khatera Sadiqi

During Sadiqi’s trial, witnesses testified that he was angry that his sister, Khatera, 20, planned to marry Feroz Mangal, 23, and had moved in with Mangal’s family, without consulting her father, from whom she was estranged. The Sadiqi and Mangal families immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan. Sadiqi believed his sister’s actions had shamed the family, the trial was told. An expert witness called by prosecutors, University of Toronto professor Shahrzad Mojab, testified that in some conservative cultures, the perception that a woman or girl is defiant or disobedient is considered by some families to be a grave dishonour to its reputation in the wider community and could prompt the family to kill her.

“Purifying through the spilling of blood shows men are in control,” Mojab testified at the 2009 trial. “Restoring the respect of the family is more important than the sacrificing of the life of a woman who is disobeying.”

Khatera and Mangal were shot to death on September 19, 2006, while they sat in Khatera’s car in a parking lot in Ottawa. Earlier that evening, they had been out to dinner and a movie with a group of people, including Khatera’s brother Hasibullah. Khatera and Mangal drove Hasibullah to his car in the parking lot at the end of the evening but before they could drive away, Hasibullah pulled a .44-calibre handgun from under the seat of his car, walked back to Khatera’s car and shot the pair. Hasibullah claimed that he “exploded” in a rage after incendiary comments by Mangal related to disagreement over Khatera’s insistence that she would marry who she chose, without consulting her father. Hasibullah claimed that Mangal said:

Fuck you, fuck your father, fuck your sister. I’ll bring your sister’s dead body to the wedding before I ever let her talk to your father. Fuck you.

Hasibullah said that he had no recollection of what happened next, until he found himself driving away from the scene of the shooting. He acknowledged that he had argued with his sister that night.

A central component of Sadiqi’s appeal was his complaint that the trial judge should not have permitted Mojab, the honour killing expert, to testify. But the Court of Appeal concluded that there was nothing prejudicial in her testimony and that she was an “appropriate” witness who gave “balanced” evidence. The appeal court decision noted that Mojab acknowledged she did not have any information about the case.

Like the trial judge, we think it important in assessing the potential prejudicial effect that the expert offered no opinion on the facts of the case. There was no danger that the jury would cede its fact finding responsibilities to the expert.

Mojab (inset right) also appeared as an expert witness at the Shafia murder trial that concluded in Kingston, Ontario in January 2012. As in Sadiqi, Mojab did not testify about the specific facts of the Shafia case and she was not asked if she thought the case appeared to be an honour killing. She testified only about the concept of honour codes and the behaviour seen in some strict, traditional families. Mohammad Shafia, 59, his second wife Tooba Yahya, 43, and their son Hamed, 22, were each convicted of four counts of first-degree murder. Sisters Zainab Shafia, 19, Sahar, 17, and Geeti, 13, and Rona Amir, 50, were found dead on June 30, 2009, inside a submerged car. Prosecutors established that Shafia was enraged by what he considered defiant behaviour of his daughters, who he believed had dishonoured him because they were consorting with boys and dressing in clothes that he considered revealing. Rona, who was his first wife in the polygamous family, had asked for a divorce and sided with the girls.

Like Sadiqi, the Shafias are claiming in their appeals that Mojab’s evidence was prejudicial and she should not have been permitted to testify at the trial. The Shafias have not yet filed their detailed appeal documents, but the brief notice of appeal already submitted to the Court of Appeal on behalf of Hamed complains that Mojab’s knowledge of honour killing was mainly anecdotal and her evidence was not objective. The Shafia trial judge conducted a lengthy hearing on the debate over whether Mojab should be allowed to testify, and issued a written ruling explaining his decision.

The Shafias are expected to file one joint factum that will set out detailed grounds of appeal on behalf of all three convicted killers. The notice of appeal already filed by defence lawyer Patrick McCann also alleges that the trial was “unfair” because Tooba Yahya, who testified in her own defence, was subject to “abusive” questioning by a Crown prosecutor. The notice also complains that the trial judge should not have admitted evidence concerning statements made by the victims to teachers, social workers, family members and police officers. A date for a hearing will be set after the defence files its factum.

Here’s the complete decision by the Court of Appeal for Ontario in the Sadiqi case:

On a mobile device? Click here to read the document.

» All of my coverage of the Shafia trial

» Details on my next public appearance, at a panel discussion on honour-based violence, in Montreal May 2, 2013

In a decision in 2010, the Canadian Human Rights Commission ordered Corrections Canada to pay Collins $9,500 for pain and suffering and special compensation. The government appealed and in 2011 a federal court judge permitted Ottawa’s request for a judicial review of the human rights decision. Collins appealed that decision, and this week, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the 2011 decision, ruling that “there was no basis justifying the judge’s intervention.” In 1983, Collins, then 22, had escaped from a detention centre in the Ottawa area, shot and killed 38-year-old police constable David Utman (inset right) at a shopping mall. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. He was smug and defiant at his sentencing in 1984, according to a report in the Ottawa Citizen. According to the newspaper’s account of the hearing, Collins refused to stand when he was being sentenced and told the judge: “I don’t want to.”

The murder of Constable Utman was cold-blooded, according to this account by the Ottawa Citizen, published in 2010 and based on the recollections of retired Nepean police chief Gus Wersch.

As Utman sat in the Gourmet Fair coffee shop at around noon, his back to a wall, Peter Michael Collins, 22, shot at the officer’s head. The bullet missed and Utman, drawing his nightstick, walked out of the café and into the hall to keep members of the public out of the line of fire. “One could easily call it an act of heroism,” Wersch said at the time. Witnesses said Utman tried to talk Collins into giving him the gun, coming within two metres of him. “I guess I’ll have to kill you,” Collins said. He shot Utman in the chest. Utman died 90 minutes later.

In 2012, Collins was denied parole. He is British and is set to be deported to England if he is released from prison in Canada.

Can’t see the video? Try this link.

Have info about the Vaulter? Contact the York Regional Police Hold-Up Unit at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 6630, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-tips, leave an anonymous tip online at www.1800222tips.com or text your tip to CRIMES (274637) starting with the word YORK, or call your local police.

The parole board’s description of Ramage, in its February decision to lift the driving ban, is glowing, noting that he is a 54-year-old first-time offender.

You have been on full parole since May 1, 2012. You are described as accountable in the community, have abided by the conditions of the Board and remain totally engaged in your Correctional Plan. Your continued transparency both with those that supervise you and in your openness to the community as it relates to your index offence are to be commended.

In January, the parole board also lifted a requirement it had imposed previously, requiring Ramage to undergo psychological counselling ordered by his parole supervisor. The decision to lift that requirement was made because the clinician had terminated treatment.

The latest psychological report dated September 12, 2012 states that you have been totally compliant during treatment and have, since beginning your initial day parole release, presented in a postive, cheerful and optimistic manner and have been candid in discussing personal life challenges as well as alcohol and the consequences of your offending.

Ramage was first released from prison on passes in March 2011 and he was granted day parole in May 2011, after he had served just 10 months of his four-year prison sentence. He remains on parole in the community until July 2014, until he completes the sentence. At the hearing in May 2011, Ramage was grilled by parole board members about his spotty memory of events of Dec. 14 before the crash. Ramage and Magnuson attended the funeral of another former NHLer and then went to a reception. They also stopped at a beer store at 11:30 a.m., bought a six pack and drank in the parking lot inside their car.
“I don’t really remember going in there,” Ramage said. He described the parking-lot episode as “totally out of character for both of us.”

A toxicologist concluded that Ramage had 15 to 20 drinks in the hours before the crash, yet no one at the reception recalled that he seemed impaired, suggesting he had developed a tolerance for large quantities of alcohol. Ramage told the parole board he is a social drinker, not an alcoholic, although alcohol caused problems very early in his marriage.

“That’s a mystery, as far as my tolerance level,” he told the parole board. Ramage said he does not remember how many drinks he had at the reception. “A tragedy did happen,” Ramage said. “I take full responsibility. I wish I could recall every detail of that afternoon.”

Ramage landed a job as a scout for the St. Louis Blues, a National Hockey League team, according to an August story in the London Free Press newspaper.

Ramage has been giving speeches and making public presentations, like this one in September 2012, a “Recovery Breakfast,” held in London, Ontario and sponsored by several community agencies that deal with addictions.

The parole board has granted him other special privileges since his release, permitting him to travel out of the country for medical and employment reasons. Ramage’s destination in the U.S. was withheld in copies of the parole board documents released publicly.

Ramage played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League, including two in Toronto, during which time he served as captain of the famous franchise.

Below is the February parole decision lifting Ramage’s driving ban:

On a mobile device? Click here to read the document.

Below are three decisions of the board, from October 2012, January 2013 and early February 2013:

On a mobile device? Click here to read the documents.

» All coverage of Ramage’s case on Cancrime

Since 2000, at least 15 people have been victims of violent honour crimes in Canada that led to convictions, according to my research. Another high-profile case concluded in Toronto in November last year, when Peer Khairi was convicted of second-degree murder in the honour killing of his wife Randjida in 2008. It is likely that many cases of honour-based violence in Canada are undocumented because many front-line responders still have little to no training in identifying this complex problem.

Murder isn’t the only concern. It is one outcome on a continuum of violence and domination. Forced marriages and extreme control over the social habits of young women are signals that a family subscribes to an oppressive honour code. Youth protection agencies in Montreal have acknowledged that they did not understand or recognize honour-based violence at the time that the events unfolded in the Shafia case. Police and prosecutors who handled the Shafia killings had no experience with honour crimes before the case.

There have not been any concerted efforts in Canada to quantify the scope of the problem, as has been done in England. A nine-month pilot completed in 2007-08 in four jurisdictions covered by the Crown Prosecution Service uncovered 35 cases of forced marriage and other honour crimes. This research, and other efforts, has led to a co-ordinated response that recognizes the extreme vulnerability of victims who may feel highly intimidated. British authorities are now flagging all cases where honour-based motives are suspected in forced marriage, assault or other crimes.

According to my research, 16 people have died in honour killings in Canada since 1990 in cases that involve criminal convictions. It is likely that many other deaths in the period were not accurately categorized as honour crimes and so the total underestimates the scope of the problem.

Here’s the complete story, translated from French, published Sunday by Journal de Montreal

By Sarah-Maude Lefebvre

Severely criticized in the Shafia case, the DPJ swears it learned from its mistakes. Since the tragedy occurred in 2009, the Montreal Youth Centre was involved in 13 cases of adolescents at risk of becoming victims of honor killings.

“The story was terribly upsetting Shafia and painful for our stakeholders. Before the tragedy, the crime of honor did not exist in the imagination of Quebecers.Today, it operates much more quickly, ” says Suzanne Dessureault, assistant directorate of youth protection.

Mandatory training

The drama of the Montreal family of Afghan origin forced the DPJ to undertake a broad reflection on the concept of honour killing.

The organization has developed new tools that allowed it to intervene in cases where 13 girls were at risk of becoming victims of violence related to honor.

“I think we better detect cases before. The Shafia murder case opened my eyes to many, ” said one official who spoke to the Journal.

Since 2010, all stakeholders must DPJ mandatory training on ethnocultural diversity in order to “adjust their interventions with immigrant families.”

The “extreme” cases are forwarded to the Transcultural Clinic of the DPJ, consisting of psychologists and social workers.

“Sometimes there are situations that stakeholders do not understand or compare their values. We’re here to help, “says the head of the clinic, Martine Jacob.

“For a player, it can be a normal teenager 16 years so with boys. But not for some parents. We must find a balance between the two, although it is not always obvious. “

The concept of honor killing does not exist in the Act on the protection of youth.Each reported case is treated in an existing category, such as abuse or neglect.

Like other cases handled by the DPJ, reports of violence in connection with honor, if successful, may result in placement of the child. Stakeholders are responsible to educate families.

Rejected reports

June 30, 2009, Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17, Geeti, 13, and the first woman their father, Rona, 53, were found drowned in a car at the bottom of the Kingston Mills lock , Ontario.

Mohammad Shafia, Tooba Yahya his wife and their son Hamed, 21, have received a sentence of life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of these four women. The reason: honor killing.

During the trial, the DPJ was embarrassed when it was revealed that it had been warned twice the conditions under which the three girls lived in 2008 and 2009.

Batshaw Youth Center, which serves Montreal anglophones had closed the file during an initial complaint in 2008, when Sahar had recanted her story, fearing the reaction of her parents.

In 2009, the second report was received from the French side of the services that were never made aware of the first complaint. The file was closed again.

Neglect

“Today, we focus on the best situations,” says Dr. Dessureault. “Once you see an item resembling the violence related to honour an alert when a flag goes up. We improved it. “

Nevertheless, it remains a big “work to do”, as the DPJ in schools, believes Rachida Azdouz, a psychologist specializing in intercultural relations.

“This is a good start, but do not underestimate the phenomenon, she says. A person who dies of an honor killing is one death too many. “

(Note: This is a translation done through Google translate)

Here is a description, from court documents, of images found by investigators,

• Fully nude girl in sexual pose on bed with stuffed animal partially hiding her face.
• Nude girl in sexual pose with her eyes closed and arms bound together above her head with green rope.
• Nude girl in sexual pose while reading a book.

The woman caught with these photos, Debra Jean Eyerly, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison. Her husband, who admitted to sexually abusing the little girl, was sentenced to 30 year sin prison.

Let’s not forget that Flanagan, the former senior adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Wildrose Party in Alberta, said that he is gravely concerned that we put people in jail for looking at photos of children being tortured/and or sexually abused because, in looking at the photos, they “do not harm another person.”

If Flanagan had seen the images from the Eyerly case, particularly the photo of the nine-year-old girl naked, with her arms bound above her head, would he really have insisted that there was no “harm” in just looking?

» Court document source
» FBI news release on sentencing

“On the child pornography issue, since that was brought up, you know, a lot of people on my side of the spectrum, on the conservative side of the spectrum, are on a jihad against ah, pornography and child pornography in particular and I certainly have no sympathy for child molesters but I do have some grave doubts about putting people in jail because of their taste in pictures. I don’t look at these pictures but … the closest I ever came to it was at one point in my career, it’s a long story, I got put on the mailing list of the National Man Boy Love Association and I started getting their mailings for a couple of years so that’s about the closest I ever came to child pornography, so, you know, it is a real issue of personal liberty to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person…”

Child sexual abuse is a largely hidden yet pervasive tragedy that has damaged the lives of tens of thousands of Canadian children and youths. For most of them, their needs remain unexpressed and unmet.

There are other reasons to conclude rightly that viewing child pornography is damaging and criminal. There are many cases like the one involving Mark Bedford, a baby-faced predator who has admitted, since his incarceration, that his deviance began when he started looking at child pornography. He graduated to producing child pornography himself, including videos, by extorting young girls online with images and video he had captured of them.  In one case, Bedford (inset left) coerced a 12-year-old girl into simulating sex with her family dog, while he captured it on a webcam and masturbated. The FBI says such cases, called ’sextortion,’ are part of an alarming trend in the U.S. too, as abusers and pornographers exploit technology to prey on victims.

» My storify that outlines the first 24 hours of the Flanagan story