The Peel police Special Victims Unit has arrested and charged a 19-year-old Brampton man following the alleged sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in her Brampton home early Saturday morning Jan. 19.
In a release Sunday, police alleged the accused entered the victim’s residence near Williams Parkway and Creditview Road at approximately 4 a.m.
“The suspect entered the residence where he sexually assaulted the victim. Police were contacted and the suspect was arrested,” read the release.
Peel Cst. Iryna Yashnyk told The Brampton Guardian the victim’s parents were home at the time of the assault and the suspect was arrested at the scene after police were called. She said police do not believe the accused and victim knew eachother.
Marcus Owen of Brampton is facing one count of break and enter, one count of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference. He is being held by police and is scheduled for a court appearance on Jan. 21.
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HALIFAX — Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi may have hoped to quietly disappear from his sexual assault trial in Cape Breton, never to be seen or heard from again in Canada.
Instead, the 28-year-old man is attracting national attention from lawyers and advocates for sex-crime victims who are arguing measures must be taken to prevent this kind of escape from justice procedures.
In addition, there’s pressure emerging on Ottawa to officially investigate what role the Saudi embassy played in his disappearance — just the latest in what appears to be a series of mysterious departures by Saudis accused of serious crimes in North America.
Little is known of Alzoabi’s whereabouts, other than a brief note from a sheriff on Dec. 8 citing his lawyer saying he “fled the country sometime ago.”
But how did he disappear? Police had seized the former Cape Breton University student’s passport, expecting that would keep him in the country for his criminal trial in early January.
Lee Cohen, one of Halifax’s most experienced immigration lawyers, has said the likeliest scenario is that Alzoabi managed to obtain special travel documents from the embassy. Cohen says obtaining falsified or forged travel documents is also a possibility, but these documents are difficult to find.
The embassy doesn’t respond to emails and calls requesting comment. However, the Crown prosecution service indicates it has clearly has been involved with Alzoabi in the past.
Prosecutors say the embassy posted $37,500 of Alzoabi’s bail last year in relation to the alleged sexual assault, criminal harassment, assault and forcible confinement of a woman in incidents alleged to have occurred between Aug. 1, 2015, and March 26, 2017.
Alzoabi is also facing separate charges of dangerous driving and assault with a car in a December 2015 incident involving a Cape Breton man, and he has over 36 violations of motor vehicle regulations, with thousands of dollars in fines assessed.
Helen Morrison, executive director of the Cape Breton Transition House, said Alzoabi’s departure has been frustrating for advocates for victims of sexual violence on the island.
“This should be looked into. It’s an instance of the victim being let down … This victim came forward, which is difficult to do,” she said in a telephone interview.
“The message sent to victims out there is that if you’re powerful enough and you have enough money, you can elude and you can get away with very serious crimes.”
Meanwhile, Peter Edelmann, a British Columbia-based immigration lawyer, said the case could have future implications for whether other Saudis receive bail.
“I would note that if the Saudi (or any other) embassy develops a habit of issuing travel documents to individuals whose passports have been surrendered to the court, the surrender of passports for nationals of that country will eventually become a less meaningful indicator for the court,” he wrote in an email.
“A strategy of undermining court orders by an embassy might backfire by pushing the court to impose stricter conditions or not release nationals of that country at all in some cases if the surrender of a passport is meaningless.”
The message sent to victims out there is that if you're powerful enough and you have enough money, you can elude and you can get away with very serious crimes
Robert Currie, a professor of law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, has called the case “a flagrant violation” of Canada’s sovereignity.
It’s the second time he’s found himself commenting on this kind of case in the past 11 years.
In January 2007, a Saudi national charged with sexually assaulting two youths slipped out of Canada and returned to his home country, raising questions about how he left without his passport.
The Canadian Press reported at the time that Taher Ali Al-Saba, 19, was due to appear in Nova Scotia Supreme Court that month but failed to show up after being reported missing in August.
Police contacted the Saudi Embassy in Ottawa and were informed Al-Saba had returned to the Middle Eastern country, possibly in August.
He had been facing two counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual interference involving a person under the age of 14. The complainants, a boy and a girl, were from the same family.
Meanwhile, in the United States, there have been similar incidents in recent years.
The Oregonian newspaper has reported recently on the flight last year of Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Portland, Oregon, community college student who jumped bail in the hit-and-run death of a 15-year-old Portland girl and apparently fled the United States.
The news site reported it has found criminal cases involving at least five other Saudis who vanished before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence in the state. They include two accused rapists, a pair of suspected hit-and-run drivers and one man with child porn on his computer.
Currie says national governments and the courts are going to have to act to prevent these kinds of incidents from continuing.
Ottawa should investigate, and consider an official protest if there’s evidence of embassy involvement, he said.
It remains unclear just what, if anything, Ottawa plans to do.
In a brief comment to reporters Thursday, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said officials were “looking into” the case.
Meanwhile, the existing controls at the border to prevent people who are on trial from leaving vary, depending on what information the Canada Border Services Agency has received, said Edelmann.
He’s heard of instances of RCMP and CBSA officials being tipped off and actually boarding planes to arrest foreign nationals attempting to flee the country.
A spokesman for the CBSA, Allan Donovan, says it won’t comment on whether it knows if Alzoabi left the country, based on airline boarding manifests.
However, Donovan said in an email that with the coming into force of Bill C-21 in December, Canada will have the authority to collect basic biographic information on all travellers who leave the country by land and by air.
Regulations are being developed to enable the application of the bill, with the agency’s website saying there will be electronic passenger manifests received directly from the airlines that its agents can view.
Until then, the agency says it doesn’t “systematically collect exist information” for people boarding planes for foreign destinations.
However, Richard Kurland, an immigration lawyer based in Vancouver, says he thinks it’s just a matter of common sense, and he believes existing enforcement could have noticed a departure like Alzoabi’s.
“The embassy-issued travel document is not a ‘regular’ passport, so the airline can get a CBSA person to verify the document,” he wrote in an email.
“The CBSA person checks the computer and bingo! The person is caught in the act, in the departure lounge, attempting to breach bail conditions. He’ll go from airport detention to downtown lock-up.”
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'Local girls are put on the circuit from Windsor to Quebec and another circuit that extends up to Timmins and Cochrane'
It’s a dangerous game.
Human sex trafficking is the fastest-growing crime in Canada, and North Bay women are being enticed to give it a try.
Girls as young as 13 are being promised cash, pampering in hair and nail salons, as well as health and dental care, but it all comes at a cost – a steep one.
Last year, Victim Crisis and Assistance Referral Service helped 12 women. All had different stories, many horrific.
“Women forced to service their customers 10 times a day. Women are being threatened, beaten, brainwashed and housed in horrible conditions. They’re poorly fed and drugged,” said Carolyn Couchie, executive director of Victim Crisis and Assistance Referral Service.
One woman who confided in Couchie said she was housed in a basement with no windows for 10 days, only given water to drink, yet forced to perform for her male clients.
“Sure they’re treated well in the beginning, but they’re broken over a period of time. These pimps take away the women’s cellphones and their identification, and they’re isolated,” Couchie said.
“Many of the girls who I’ve talked to have no idea where they are, some don’t even know where North Bay is. Local girls are put on the circuit from Windsor to Quebec and another circuit that extends up to Timmins and Cochrane.”
Couchie said the girls are seen as a lucrative commodity, earning on average $280,000 annually for their handlers.
“Why sell a bag of weed or cocaine one time when you can sell a girl a number of times?”
Couchie and North Bay Police officer Sue Solman offered a glimpse into the world of human sex trafficking during the second of six Civilian Police Academy sessions at North Bay Police headquarters.
They shared stories of women who defied the odds and left the game while others are too scared to report their perpetrators to police.
Some of the stories came from police officers who infiltrated the game, reaching women who otherwise wouldn’t have had the chance to get help.
Undercover police officers go through online advertisements identifying girls who are being controlled.
Programs like Northern Spotlight perform what is known as knock and talks. Undercover police officers set up a date with a sex worker, and once they gain entry they explain to the woman her rights and ask if she needs help.
Following the chat, the women are given a tote bag with necessities like shampoo, pyjamas, safe sex products and underwear.
Couchie shed some light on the local situation.
She said opiates and cocaine are “rampant” in North Bay, and violent assaults and overdoes where police or emergency services are not called often occur.
“Non-local offenders are moving in and local girls are provided their drug of choice for sex work.”
Gangs like North Preston’s Finest, an East Coast gang which forces young girls and women to work in the sex trade, have infiltrated this area.
Couchie said women she’s spoken with are tagged or tattooed with slogan’s like “daddy’s girl” or “daddy’s money-maker,” which show ownership and control.
“Our goal is to build trusting relationships where they’ve had no trust,” Couchie said.
Solman said police have had contact with numerous girls, but they’re not willing to tell their story.
Organizations aiming to help the girls have their own challenges, such as wait lists for safe shelters and housing.
“We have to offer better than what their pimp is offering,” Couchie said.
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Federal officials are looking at how a Saudi man living in Nova Scotia may have fled Canada while facing sexual assault charges, along with other charges and unpaid fines. As Ross Lord reports, it's suspected the Saudi embassy in Canada may have played a role, and helped Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi slip through the net.
At Cape Breton University, where more than 1,000 international students have arrived to study, it’s the alleged departure of one student that has authorities puzzled.
Mohammed Zuraibi Alzoabi, a 28-year-old student from Saudi Arabia, graduated with a business degree in 2017. But, not before running into a lot of trouble.
He reportedly piled up $68,000 in motor vehicle violations and had his cars repeatedly impounded.
“He’d come in, leave my door open when he’d walk in here,” said Jessica Hines, who manages a Sydney, N.S. towing company.
“He’d come in snapping his fingers at me, yelling, cursing.”
Alzoabi is also charged with dangerous driving and assaulting a man with a car.
In an unrelated case, he’s charged with assaulting, sexually assaulting, and forcibly confining a woman.
But before he could be brought to trial, Alzoabi is alleged to have disappeared.
According to court documents, his lawyer says Alzoabi “fled the country some time ago,” even though he’d handed over his passport in order to receive bail.
Helen Morrison, executive director of the Cape Breton Transition House Association, says the case sends a horrible message to victims.
“For it to just all fall apart, and be almost up in the air about where it’s gonna go from here, how frustrating that must be and how devaluing that must be for that person,” she said.
The Saudi kingdom posted a large portion of Alzoabi’s bail.
Halifax immigration lawyer Lee Cohen suspects Saudi Arabia helped him skip the country, as happened with one of his clients two months ago.
“The only way he could get to Saudi Arabia from Canada without a passport is to be issued a travel document by Saudi Arabia,” he said.
The manoeuvre is thought to have been used in several other cases in North America, including a Saudi man charged with sexually assaulting eight-year-old Nova Scotia twins in 2007.
The Saudi embassy in Ottawa has not responded to Global News’ requests for comment.
But analysts call such manoeuvres a breach of international law.
Adding to the mystery is a question police and prosecutors are unable to answer for Global News: how long do they think Alzoabi has been gone?
Only now, more than a month after they learned he was missing, is Cape Breton Regional Police taking steps to add Alzoabi to the Interpol Watch List.
If he is indeed in Saudi Arabia, it’s important to note the kingdom and Canada don’t have an extradition agreement, which would be used to bring him back to Canada for trial......SEE NEWS VIDEO CLIP..............https://globalnews.ca/news/4864219/alzoabi-sexual-assault-charge/?utm_medium=Facebook&utm_source=GlobalHalifax&fbclid=IwAR27BauOcDOKdk9fz1d1nXEZ0AUHnC5Kmd6imzKG6JXOQ9rrH8Vq8O1kEx0&fbclid=IwAR074kSxgn3eNlPdsNpeH0r5rdKfv4Hxgjm2Nh9Zg8lxMMGd4BZkBZxDZfc ... See MoreSee Less
January 18, 2019
Moncton, New Brunswick
News release
A 54-year-old man from Moncton, N.B., has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for possession of child pornography.
Sam Barrett was charged with possession of child pornography and transmitting child pornography on November 10, 2016. He pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
The charges stemmed from an investigation by the New Brunswick RCMP's Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit that began in May 2016. A search warrant was executed at a residence on Lewisville Road in August 2016, and 52-year-old man was arrested.
In addition to jail time to be served on weekends, Sam Barrett will be added to the National Sex Offender Registry and will be required to submit a sample of his DNA.
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