Honor Killings in Canada

Of course we Canadians have noted the ever increasing number of honor killings in this country in recent years. It's been looked upon as an abomination brought here by immigrants, seemingly by Muslims but not exclusively. What disturbed me very much was what I read in today's newspaper.

Rona Ambrose, an Edmonton, Alberta MP, made the statement that Ottawa was considering amending the Criminal Code to include so-called honor crimes. When a Department of Justice spokeswoman was questioned about this, she said that there were CURRENTLY no plans to do that. To me, that is a bright and brilliant red flag that we Canadians should be paying careful attention to.

Why in the world should we allow new Canadians with their archaic practices to change our laws to give (mainly) men leniency if they murder their women? Why would our government even give this a moment's consideration?

Apparently there have been 12 "honor" killings in Canada since 2002 and that is only what is known. How many Muslim females have suffered death or imprisonment in their homes that we don't even know about?

The latest "honor" killing happened when a 16 year old Muslim girl had the audacity to want a part-time job and to go to movies with her friends. Her own father and brother murdered the child and are now serving a life sentence in prison. Her mother made a plea for leniency in their sentence, saying her husband could die in prison. She had little compassion for her own child who had needlessly died at the hands of that same man.

It terrifies me that my government would dare think about putting the rights of women back hundreds of years. If anything, the act of murdering a woman in order to control her should be considered an especially atrocious crime and punishable by the most severe standards available.

It matters not what your country of origin or your cultural habits are. If they contravene Canada's criminal code, they should not be considered as any kind of defence. We must not allow our criminal code to be changed in order to appease any nationality or religion. We can't go back to the days when women were chattels or slaves.

Take heed, Canada, our way of life is at stake and the only people who will keep us informed is our free press.