Calgary police battle honour violence
Officers train, meet with social agencies to learn more
CALGARY – Honour violence may be grabbing headlines in other countries or other parts of Canada — but Calgary police are leading the way in combating these types of crimes.
Over the past year, city officers have been taking training, attending presentations and meeting with social agencies to learn how to recognize honour-based violence, how to ask the right questions and how to suppress it.
The Calgary Police Service is believed to be one of the only forces in Canada to take these steps.
“When we were doing our engagement with the community, we became aware that honour-based violence was happening in a number of cultures here,” said Staff Sgt. John Guigon with the force’s domestic conflict u nit.
“Between 30 and 40 incidents this year, we believe, qualify as an honour-based violence situation.”
Despite high-profile cases emerging publicly in other parts of Canada, most recently the Shafia murder trial in Canada, Guigon said these crimes are prevalent in Calgary, too.
Honour violence is the physical and emotional abuse victims face when perceived as bringing shame to the family because of social norms or belief systems.
It’s believed a March 1991 triple murder outside a city strip mall may have been ignited by a family’s anger over a secret marriage.
Kulwinder Kaur Dulay and her husband Gurdawr (Gary) Singh Dulay were gunned down on their six-month anniversary, along with Mukesh Sharma, who officiated at the couple’s secret marriage.
Kulwinder’s brother, Daljit Singh Dulay, was found guilty of two counts of firstdegree murder and one count of second-degree murder. Court heard the man plotted to kill the newlyweds, who eloped, to avenge his family’s honour. Witnesses say Dulay’s family didn’t approve of the wedding because Gary was raised in the same village in India as the bride and considered a cousin.
Calgary’s more recent cases have seen victims beaten, kidnapped, shipped off to their home countries to be married, and threatened to be killed.
Acts for which they are punished range from premarital intimacy, dressing provocatively, hanging out with friends of a different religious or ethnic background — even rumours of having done these acts.
Over the past year, at least 125 Calgary officers have attended presentations on the subject, including lectures by noted Toronto activist Aruna Papp, who escaped an abusive arranged marriage 26 years ago.
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“Clients … have been abused emotionally and physically”
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recruit class will also have had two additional hours of honour-based violence training tacked onto their regular domestic violence education.
And a poster campaign was recently launched in Calgary’s District 5 area urging residents to speak out if they are aware of honour violence in their communities. Posters were posted around restaurants, businesses and religious institutions and available in four or five different languages, Guigon said.
Although most cases in Calgary have involved victims of Middle Eastern, South Asian or African descent, Guigon emphasized the vast majority of people in those cultures do not subscribe to these kinds of “communal honour systems” where physical or emotional abuse against someone “dishonourable” is tolerated.
Most of the victims are female, in their late teens or early 20s, and normally unmarried.
Most domestic cases involve intimate partners and are usually spontaneous; but honour violence incidents are normally committed against family members and have some planning, Guigon said.
“From a risk-assessment aspect, honour-based violence is a significant risk to the safety of the victims as it’s a really significant predictor for future violence and even homicide,” he said.
“We know this now, and we need to take different (approaches]) to ensure the victims are not further victimized.”
The city police’s diversity resources team has also made inroads with different communities. And Acting Sgt. Simon Watts, with the domestic conflict unit, has been holding presentations and working in partnership with social agencies around Calgary to learn more about what police can do to help.
Didemerman, youth program co-ordinator with Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association, said about 20 per cent of her 350 clients have expressed fears of honour violence or have been victimized.
“I have clients who have been abused emotionally and physically. They are being threatened to be sent back to another country and get married. Or they are afraid they are going to be taken away from school,” she said, adding her clients are mainly immigrant girls and women 10 to 19 years old.
Many victims are too scared to seek help, and in some cases, they become further victimized by other predators taking advantage of their submissiveness and their fear speaking out, she said.
And despite common belief, not all victims are female.
Erman said some boys feel pressure from their families to treat girls and women a certain way and, if they don’t comply, become victims themselves.
Erman applauded city police for bringing honour crimes to the forefront. But she said social agencies also need to focus on developing more programs to help victims and survivors of honour violence develop confidence, self-esteem and work skills.
Religious leaders have also spoken out against honour crimes. Earlier this year, Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy issued a fatwa, an edict by a Muslim scholar, condemning honour killings and domestic abuse shortly after the Shafia murder trial.
Mohammad Shafia, his second wife Tooba Mohammad Yahya, and the couple’s eldest son, Hamed, were found guilty of first-degree murder in Kingston, Ont., for the murders of the couple’s three daughters and Shafia’s first wife.
“Those people who justify these crimes in the name of Islam, they are dead wrong,” Soharwardy told the Herald in February.
“There is no place for these crimes in our faith.”