"Culture clash" an excuse for murder? Maybe in Canada

Walt expressed puzzlement, a couple of days ago, about what had happened in the Toronto murder trial of Peer Khairi, the Afghan-by-way-of-India immigrant who admittedly slashed his wife's throat so deeply that he just about cut through her spine. Agent 3, our "honour crime" reporter [as distinct from "honoured crime reporter" Ed.] has come through with an update.


Turns out that although the evidence was in, and closing submissions made by the crown and defence attorneys last week, the jury got a couple of days off, following which one member was excused for "persistent illness". Perhaps the horrific details of the crime made him sick. Anyway, they are starting deliberations this morning.

Their choice is between premeditated murder and manslaughter, so the key issue is not whether Khairi killed his wife -- that's admitted -- but what was in his mind [if anything. Ed.] when he did it.

In his closing address to the jury, Khairi's defender called for a manslaughter conviction, arguing that his client's mind was "clouded by mental illness" and "incapable of forming murderous intent".

The Crown, however, puts the whole ugly case down to culture clash, beginning when the family, originally from Afghanistan, were allowed to enter Canada in 2003, despite having been settled in India for more than a decade in India. Once a refugee, always a refugee?

Whether he was a refugee or an immigrant, Mr. Khairi was certainly one angry Muslim. The picture painted at the trial was of a man enraged at his wife's newfound desire for equal rights and her support for their children's increasingly Westernized behaviour, including late-night dates and non-Muslim dress.

"What Peer Khairi intended to do that day was crystal clear," said the Crown attorney. "He intended to kill the wife who had defied him, to kill the wife who was responsible for his children turning against his wishes, to kill the woman who had decided to leave him."

The defence takes a markedly different view. Khairi just lost control for a moment, his lawyer said. (Long enough, though, to pick up not one but two knives, says Agent 3.)

The defence attorney says if jurors can only remain "rational and dispassionate," they will see Mr. Khairi as a pathetic old man: "Not a dominating figure seeking to impose his will and values on his wife and six children, but in reality, a sad, even pathetic figure — an elderly man, an immigrant, alone and friendless, completely illiterate, of low-to-moderate intelligence at best; isolated by a total inability to master the English language and with few marketable skills, unable to obtain employment and to support his family as he had always done in the past."

In other words, your typical (if not ideal) refugee. And let not other prospective refugees ["immigrants", surely! Ed.] worry. Canadians believe in multiculturalism, tolerance and celebrating diversity. You are welcome to cling to your religious beliefs and cultural traditions, no matter how irrational and barbaric they may be. As for clashing with Canadian culture... What culture would that be?!