On the afternoon of April 15, Adam Austen tried a second email, this one with exclamation points as the first got no response.
“Can someone confirm this is being looked into? What do we know? Is there an investigation? Who is the lead? Thanks!!,” wrote Chrystia Freeland’s parliamentary secretary, copying top level Global Affairs Canada staffers on his note.
The answer came four minutes later from the department’s communications head, Philip Hannan.
No one at Global Affairs had contacted the Saudi Embassy about whether it had helped one of its citizens, Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi, flee prosecution in Cape Breton on charges of sexual assault, assault, forcible confinement, uttering threats, criminal harassment, dangerous driving and assault with a weapon.
No one at either Global Affairs, Canada Border Services, the Department of Justice or the RCMP considered themselves responsible for finding Alzoabi.
No one was discussing how to end what appears to be a standard practice by the Middle Eastern kingdom of violating the sovereignty of local courts when its citizens fall afoul of the law.
“Justice are looking into whether they are in a position to respond regarding extradition, but my colleague is not optimistic,” responded Hannan.
“… Justice felt the other questions are ours to answer. However, no one in the department has engaged on the file. No contact has been made with the Saudi embassy in the regard. I’m advised (that Riyadh) has not engaged either.”
And in the 87 pages of heavily redacted internal government emails The Chronicle Herald obtained via an access to information request, no one appears to discuss the potential impact on victims of seeing the alleged perpetrators of their assault so easily avoid our justice system.
Without passport, likelihood of aid high: Immigration lawyer
In the months that followed Alzoabi’s bail forfeiture, The Chronicle Herald attempted to establish whether embassies helping their citizens flee justice in Canada is a more extensive problem.
Nova Scotia’s Public Prosecution Service and similar bodies in other provinces all replied that they don’t have a search field in their computerized record-keeping systems to find similar cases. We contacted every law school in the country and law societies in all 10 provinces asking for help tracking down similar cases and only heard interest from Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law.
Also from the weekend edition: Feds display pattern of ignoring sex assault victims
Also from the weekend edition: Feds display pattern of ignoring sex assault victims
By searching its own archives, The Chronicle Herald found two more cases — involving a Saudi Arabian and a Chinese man — where foreign nationals skipped bail despite the police here having seized their passports. Immigration lawyer Lee Cohen said at the time that without passports it would have been “virtually impossible” for them to leave Canada without having been granted travel documents by their embassy.
The Oregonian/Oregon Live newspaper found five cases in its state where Saudi Arabian nationals had been able to escape prosecution, potentially with the assistance of its embassy. They include two accused rapists, a pair of suspected hit-and-run drivers and one man with child porn on his computer. In the case of Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, U.S. Marshalls allege the embassy even arranged for a private plane to whisk the 21-year-old out of the country two weeks before he went to trial for killing a 15-year-old girl.
“This is a failure of the duty of government to protect its citizens,” said Robert Currie, a professor at the Schulich School of Law who specializes in both international law and extradition.
“That’s what infuriates me about this case. The breach of Canadian sovereignty sounds very abstract and the administration of justice is messed around with. But these are Canadian citizens who are entitled to a level of protection from their government.”
Two days after her parliamentary secretary sought answers on what the department was doing about the cases being raised by the media, minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about Alzoabi’s case outside a cabinet meeting in Sherbrooke.
“On that particular case, we’re looking into it,” she told reporters on Jan. 17. But internal emails from her own department’s communication staff that same day tell a different story.
“Based on the traffic I’ve seen there’s no proof of Saudi involvement,” Amy Mills, Global Affairs spokeswoman, wrote in an email copied to 16 high-level department staffers, despite the Crown prosecutor in Sydney having stated the Saudi embassy posted Alzoabi’s $37,500 bail.
“There’s talk of reaching out to ask but that would be a political call and I don’t think anyone recommends that at this time.”
To which the Global Affairs deputy director Brendan Sutton responded, “Well put Amy.”
www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/possible-saudi-aid-to-man-accused-of-cape-breton-sex-assault... ... See MoreSee Less
41-year-old man faces 18 charges including assault, sexual assault
Police have arrested a 41-year-old Ottawa man after a nearly year-long human trafficking investigation.
The man was arrested Thursday and the Touch Therapy Spa on Somerset St. W. near Booth Street was shut down in a joint operation between the Ottawa Police Service, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the City of Ottawa's bylaw department.
The spa was operating in an unlicensed commercial establishment, according to a Friday police release.
The man faces 18 charges including assault, sexual assault, and trafficking in persons. He has been remanded into the custody of the CBSA following a hearing, police said.
Ottawa police said they believe there are several more victims.
Anyone with information is asked to call the human trafficking unit t at 613-236-1222, ext. 5005 or 1-800-292-1168.
Anonymous tips can be submitted by calling Crime Stoppers toll-free at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), or by downloading the Ottawa Police Service app.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/man-arrested-spa-shutdown-huma-trafficking-1.5105268?__vfz=medium%3... ... See MoreSee Less
ONTARIO
Karen Bagshaw eventually agreed chats between her and a teenager were "occasionally" sexual in nature as their messages were highlighted Thursday during continued cross-examination of the former city educational assistant.
The 59-year-old has denied any sexual involvement with two teenage boys and testified Wednesday that their conversations were non-sexual as her trial continued in Peterborough Superior Court of Justice.
The former Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board employee faces two counts each of sexual exploitation, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, luring, accessing child pornography and making sexually explicit material available.
The alleged assaults took place between 2013 and 2015 against two former students, now 20-year-old men she first met when they were approximately 13 and 14. They cannot be named due to a standard publication ban.
On Thursday, assistant Crown attorney Lisa Wannamaker drew attention to a Facebook Messenger conversation between the Warsaw resident and her second accuser, starting in December 2011 when he was in Grade 8...........READ MORE.......https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news-story/9292429-defence-closes-case-at-karen-bagshaw-sexual-exploitation-trial-in-peterborough-court/ ... See MoreSee Less
Montreal police have turned to the public to determine whether a 47-year-old man charged with the sexual assault of a minor and sexual exploitation had other victims.
Police allege Jean-Sébastien Béland had at least four victims aged 15 to 17 between November 2014 and September 2017. The investigation found that Béland ran a modelling agency called B models Management that was renamed Diversity Model Management.
Investigators believe there could be victims in Montreal and other parts of Quebec going back as far as 2013.
Béland appeared in court on April 12 and remains in custody after being charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation of a minor under 16, inciting sexual contact and violation of conditions.
Anyone who believes they were a victim of Béland or has information is urged to call 911, go to their local police station or call Info-Crime Montréal at 514-393-1133.
montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/police-seek-potential-victims-of-sexual-assault-suspect-who-r... ... See MoreSee Less
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