Deportee is danger to society: IRB
On the night his wife died, Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham stood outside the house he shared with her with blood on his hands and her cellphone in his pocket.
Citing these “appalling facts” from a police report never before made public, a lawyer for the federal Public Safety ministry argued Thanabalasingham should not be released pending his deportation, even if the murder charges were stayed against him.
He was set to be released from prison when a Superior Court judge ruled last week that he had waited too long to be brought to trial, said Ewa Staszcewicz, but he was not acquitted of the murder of his wife, Anuja Baskaran.
At a detention review hearing on Thursday, a member of the Immigration and Refugee Board ultimately agreed that Thanabalasingham, 31, was a danger to society, and ordered him detained, this time by immigration authorities, for at least another 30 days.
The police report, dated August 12, 2012, spoke of the danger he could represent to the public, IRB member Stéphane Morin said.
“As much as I respect and know that one is not guilty until convicted, I still can accept a document that comes from a police service of Canada,” Morin said.
Morin also considered Thanabalasingham’s history of domestic violence. He was convicted of assaulting his wife three times before she was killed, including once with a weapon.
The Crown is now appealing a decision to stay the murder charges.
“I looked attentively at (his) history of domestic violence here in Canada,” Morin began in English, while his words were translated into Tamil. “He is married 17 April, 2011. Eight months later, on Dec. 5, 2011, is the first complaint — Madam was hit 10 times on the head. One month later, Jan. 2, 2012, the second complaint to police. Madam was hit many times. Five months later, 30 May, 2012, breach of conditions and domestic violence incident again. Detained (for four months), then stays one month at his brother’s place and three months later, Madam is dead. So clearly a number of occurrences in very short period.”
Another member of the IRB, who ordered him deported last week, days after the murder charges were stayed, also cited the fact he did not deny killing his wife. When asked what weapon was used in the killing of his wife, he replied: “Why don’t you ask my ex-wife.”
(Thanabalasingham was granted refugee status a year after arriving in Canada from Sri Lanka in 2004. But he can nonetheless be deported to Sri Lanka, despite his fear of persecution there, because of “serious criminality,” defined as being convicted of a crime for which the maximum sentence is 10 years or more. That is true of assault with a weapon.)
Thanabalasingham is nevertheless appealing his deportation, and that appeal could take another three years or more to be heard. The IRB has to determine whether he should remain detained for so long in the meantime or whether there is a reasonable alternative to detention.
The alternative presented to Morin on Thursday — staying with his brother and his brother’s wife — was not reasonable, Morin concluded.
When questioned by Staszcewicz, Thanabalasingham’s sisterin-law, whose name and address are subject to a publication ban, didn’t seem to know why he had spent five years in jail until his release last week.
When asked why he had been arrested previously, or was detained now, she repeated several times, “His wife always causing problems and calling the police.”
She didn’t seem to know that Thanabalasingham had been convicted of a crime, or accused of killing his wife. She didn’t know how his wife died.
But she said she had no problem putting up a $50,000 lien on her house as a guarantee for Thanabalasingham. Asked how long he could stay with her and her family, she said, “forever.”
Thanabalasingham’s brother seemed similarly oblivious to the serious nature of the crimes he committed and the accusations levelled against him.
The alleged murder of his wife was the first murder trial in Quebec halted as a result of the Jordan decision issued by the Supreme Court, which requires that people accused of crimes be tried within 30 months of their arrest.
Thanabalasingham had waited 57 months. His trial was set to begin last Monday. Part of the delay in bringing him to trial was the result of the Crown prosecutor trying to change the second-degree murder charge to one of first degree murder — Baskaran was stabbed in the neck in her own home.
Asked through an interpreter whether he thought Thanabalasingham’s wife was right or wrong to call the police when she was assaulted, Thanabalasingham’s brother said “She is wrong . ... She then begged the judge to bring him home . ... According to my knowledge, he didn’t do anything wrong.”
Morin concluded staying with these two people, who seemed to have no understanding of Thanabalasingham’s criminality and offered only to look into anger management courses for him, was not a suitable alternative to detention.
“It doesn’t mean that (an alternative) does not exist. This board will always be open to alternatives, but the key word is that they must be reasonable.”
Thanabalasingham’s detention will be reviewed again May 11.