Dimanno: A collision of cultures and wives

[CHIMO]

KINGSTON—One husband, two wives and endless bitter rivalry, the jostling for favour.

Rona Amir Mohammad regularly drew the short straw, despite being Wife No. 1 to Mohammad Shafia. When unable to conceive, she was usurped by Wife No. 2, Tooba Mohammad Yahya, a younger woman of effortless fecundity — seven babies popped at a pace of nearly one per year.

The resentment was palpable and cut both ways.

Shafia and Yahya are accused of murdering Rona and three of their own daughters in what the prosecution asserts was a mass honour killing provoked by outrage over perceived family disgrace, cultural traditions transgressed and entangled loyalties. The couple’s 21-year-old son, Hamed, has also been charged with four counts of first-degree murder in what the Crown describes as a “staged accident.” Their trial began here this week.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1074041--dimanno-a-collision-of-cultures-and-wives
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1073106--dimanno-alleged-murder-plot-targeted-treacherous-daughters-court-told
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1072267--dimanno-a-bizarre-family-tragedy-or-a-quadruple-murder

[CHIMO]

1. DiManno: Shaky math adds to mystery in canal murder trial

Party of nine? Party of six?

Party of 10, actually, when departing Montreal for a motoring vacation to Niagara Falls in two cars. Subtract four on the family maniwfest — also take away one Nissan Sentra, carry the Lexus SUV and add a Montana minivan — upon returning home a fortnight later.

Gets complicated, the math, the logistics and the plot, a purported scheme both diabolical and dumb as cobbled together by the prosecution and presented thus far to a jury.

On the night they allegedly murdered nearly half their family — a quartet of females — Mohammad and Hamed Shafia, father and son, had trouble doing the head-count whilst renting a couple of rooms on the edge of town.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1075968--dimanno-shaky-math-adds-to-mystery-in-canal-murder-trial
DiManno: Position of bodies in canal baffled divers
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1075290--dimanno-position-of-bodies-in-canal-baffled-divers

Officer testifies car was pushed into canal
http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3347275

Plastic pieces key to case
http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3346376

[CHIMO]

2. Shafia family's story had holes, police say

Almost immediately after a police officer began interviewing three people accused of killing their family, he suspected they knew more than they were telling him, court heard Tuesday.

Court was shown videos Tuesday of police interviews with the family the day the bodies were found, and the detective is seen suggesting, especially to Hamed, that he may have witnessed something and isn't being truthful.

Det.-Const. Geoff Dempster confronts Hamed with the information that someone on a boat near the locks the night before heard a loud splash and also saw another large vehicle drive away.

"You mean that someone pushed them in?" Hamed asks.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/11/01/mtl-shafiatrialcontinues.html

[iverglas]

3. the question I had when reading the article in last Saturday's paper was ...

... how did this guy manage to import two wives?

You get to sponsor one spouse, not two. Exactly what process was used to get whichever one was defined by him as no.2 into Canada? Are we not kind of on the lookout for this sort of thing maybe?

I had a case when I was in practice ... a young woman whose family brought her to me. She would have qualified under the last remaining family member rule -- even if someone is an adult and thus not sponsorable by parents, if they are the last child left in their country of residence with no spouse or children of their own, they can be sponsored -- except she was married.

But aha. She was wife no.2 of a well-to-do Lebanese businessman with permanent residence in England.

In Canadian law, wife no.2 is not a wife. So I duly submitted my legal opinion on that point to the local immigration centre, that she was not married in Canadian law, with the supporting documentation about the marriages I suppose, and she was processed for landing within Canada.

And as soon as she got those papers, where was she? Why, in my office trying to sponsor her husband.

Tough bananas, sweetie. This was an either/or deal, and you picked either: not married. And trying this now could jeopardize your own status, so I wouldn't try it.

For all I knew, the whole thing, including the "marriage", was an arrangement between the family here (not wealthy) and the businessman to get him status in Canada, with the young woman just a trading card in the deal. In that case, it backfired, and she got the benefit, and hopefully would be in a better place, being in Canada. I have a vague recollection, though, that she went back to England ...

Anyway. It sounds to me like our immigration process failed these women somewhere, and I'd be interested to know where and how.

[CHIMO]

4. Canal victims' mother breaks down in interrogation

A Montreal woman accused of killing her three daughters and her husband's first wife told police in a videotaped interrogation that she was not aware the father of her children was going to kill their girls.

The police videotape was shown to a jury in Kingston, Ont., Wednesday, during the canal locks death trial where the woman, her husband and her son face multiple first-degree murder charges.

Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, Mohammad Shafia, 58, and Hamed Mohammad Shafia, 20, have each pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder.

They are accused of killing the family's three teenaged girls and the father's first wife.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2011/11/02/shafia-trial-in-kingston.html

Emotional reaction

During the afternoon viewing, Mehdizadeh is asking Yahya why she thought Zainab would take the Nissan in the middle of the night, along with her sisters and Rona, and put them in such a precarious situation.

Yahya begins to cry uncontrollably again in the video, prompting all three of the accused to cry in the prisoners' box.

http://www.thewhig.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3355847