MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The federal government on Monday affirmed its zero-tolerance stance against "honour killing," declaring such "barbaric cultural practices" as "heinous abuses" that have "no place in Canadian society."

 

At a news conference at the Punjabi Community Health Service centre near Toronto, Rona Ambrose, the minister responsible for the status of women, said the government is taking gender-based violence "very seriously" and called on women's groups and members of the immigrant community to do their part in tackling these "heinous abuses."

The minister's announcement was apparently prompted by this weekend's release of a high-profile report focusing on the growing problem of the abuse of girls and women in Canada's immigrant communities.

The report, released by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, outlines 14 recommendations for Ottawa — including mandatory orientation sessions for male sponsors and sponsored women regarding gender-equality in this country.

Ambrose said the government is already working on some of the recommendations and is "looking at" others, including the launch of government-funded programs on local and national television that could be used to reiterate the consequences of abuse.

She also said the government is "looking at" adding 'honour killing' as a separate charge to the Criminal Code.

"If we have a different family dynamic at play, then we have to address that family dynamic," Ambrose said.

The notion of honour killings — which are carried out in order to 'cleanse' the family name and to restore the family honour, and are most likely to take place among the South Asian community — have recently made headlines in Canada, with a number of high-profile cases catapulting the issue into the spotlight.

In her report entitled Culturally-Driven Violence Against Women: A Growing Problem in Canada's Immigrant Communities, Aruna Papp, a Toronto-based social worker who deals with domestic violence, argues that honour killings represent a new type violence against women in Canada. She said it is a phenomenon that demands the attention of researchers, community leaders, and politicians.

"Most advocates and activists for female victims of abuse shy away from challenging the immigrant communities to examine their own traditions and cultural values in explaining the violence in their homes," she wrote. "Even the most well-meaning advocates for female equality tends to avoid any discussion of cultural values and traditions."

Papp, who attended the news conference and said Ottawa's latest announcement on the issue is a "good start," said it is up to all Canadians to bring to the fore an otherwise taboo subject.

Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=31392

Baldev Mutta, CEO of the Punjabi Community Health Services centre, said that while it is indeed important for all members of the community to take a stand against honour killings, it is the men who are most conspicuously lacking from the discussion. "There's an absence of men coming out against the killing," Mutta said. "There is an absence of male role models. Men need to be proactive and come out against this."

Papp's report said Canada has seen as many as 15 honour killings in last eight years — killings that she said must be distinguished from incidents of Western domestic violence.

Honour crimes, she explained, are perpetrated by the extended family against girls and women by male relatives, such as fathers, fathers-in-law, brothers, brothers-in-law, husbands, and occasionally sons, and often with the complicity of older females.

Last fall the federal government released a revamped Citizenship Guide for newcomers to Canada which explicitly condemned "barbaric cultural practices" such as honour killings.

On Monday a woman accused of stabbing her 19-year-old daughter multiple times, in what is being investigated as a possible honour crime near Montreal, was found fit to stand trial after undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.