Behavioural Cultural Norms Incompatible with Western Society

"She wanted him to drive her home from a party she'd attended. Rather than take her home, the offender drove her to an empty parking lot."

"He told her they would have fun. He parked the car and got into the back seat. He moved closer to the victim and forcibly kissed her. He put his hand under her dress and touched her vaginal area over her underwear."

"After he tried again to kiss her and she did not respond, he moved away from her."

"She asked if he would still drive her home and he said no. She got out of the car, and he left her in the parking lot."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario courthouse

The Ontario Court of Justice in Windsor.

In an attempt to avoid being deemed 'inadmissible' to Canada for 'serious criminality' by the Immigration and Refugee Board, Uber driver Sevan Halabi of Windsor, Ontario, a permanent resident of Canada, hoped to receive a lighter sentence to avoid deportation. Permanent residents of Canada, if sentenced to over six months in prison, according to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, can be regarded as inadmissible to Canada. What Mr. Halabi, through his lawyer, sought to persuade the presiding judge was to sentence him to six months less a day plus probation. 

"It would require me to cut the sentence nearly in half, solely to assist him in avoiding future penalties. I cannot do that", responded Justice Pratt. A young woman had engaged Mr. Halabi, an Iraqi Uber driver, to drive her home from an event she had attended on October 9, 2022. Rather than take his passenger on the trip she expected, the Uber driver subjected her to a terrifying ordeal of sexual harassment, the threat of rape and violence by implication, and finally abandonment.

 

The woman's attacker was a married man with two sons, age 14 and 10. Presenting himself as a family man, Sevan Halabi's attempt at sympathy was linked to appealing for a sentence of six months less a day to avert any potential immigration consequences. The Crown had argued that Halabi merited a year in jail, and then three years of probation.

 

Born in Iraq, Halabi emigrated from his home country with his family in 2018 to Canada. Halabi is a permanent resident of Canada as a result of the criminal charge impeding an application for citizenship. His wife and children did achieve Canadian citizenship. As for the charges brought against him, Mr. Halabi maintained his innocence during an interview with the producer of a pre-sentence report.

 

Justice Pratt was informed "he regrets what happened, has learned a lesson, and that this will not happen again", the decision in the pre-sentence report conveyed too the Judge. In response, Justice Pratt said: "The offence has hindered her professional life as a teacher and her personal life as well. She is fearful and angry. She didn't know if she would be raped or killed [in Halabi's car that night], and that fear continues to impact her life", responded the Judge.

 

To further appeal for sympathy from the court, Mr. Halabi who had not been held in custody prior to his appearance at the court before the Judge, lived as he would normally with his family and decided to bring his children along for emotional impact. For the sentencing submissions he arranged for his children to be present in court. "On that point, both children were visibly upset and crying during the proceeding", observed Justice Pratt. "Respectfully, I question why they were here in the first place. It was not a case where their father was in custody and so this would have been a rare opportunity to see him in person."

 

"[Halabi] has been out of custody throughout this case and only appeared virtually from Iraq. I cannot find they were brought into the courtroom to engender sympathy from the court, but given the offender's focus on how my sentence could affect his family, that is certainly an inference available to be drawn", the Judge concluded. 

"It is troubling that sexual offences committed by professional drivers are sufficiently common that they have created their own body of case law. But that is what has happened."

"In my view ... a sentence of six months less a day for this conduct would be unfit. It would prioritize the offender's personal circumstances over the need to denounce and deter his conduct and would not be in line with relevant case law."

"It would be an inappropriate and artificial sentence imposed only to avoid legitimate consequences created by Parliament."

Justice Scott Pratt, Ontario Superior Court

Mohamed Al Ballouz, who now goes by the name Levana, is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years for murdering a woman and two children. Photo by Court exhibit

 

This sexual assault case is but one of many where men from cultures where the place of women is subservient to that of men, religiously inspired and historically adapted into a culture of male privilege and female suffering, gravitate to another culture and system of law. Correctional Service of Canada recently completed an assessment of a convicted killer that decided against Mohamed Al Ballouz of Brossard, Quebec being admitted to a women's prison.

 

This man, convicted of murdering his wife Synthia Bussieres and their two sons -- five-year-old Eliam and two-year-old Zac in 2022, was sentenced to life in prison in December, with no possibility of parole for 25 years. While in custody, the man, also convicted of setting fire to the family condo, transitioned to a woman. With his new name of Levana, he asked that he be preferentially incarcerated at the Joliette Institution for Women, northeast of Montreal. Thankfully for the women at Joliette, the decision was that Al Ballouz remain in a men's prison. 

Synthia Bussières with her sons Éliam Al Ballouz, left, and Zac Al Ballouz. (Obituary)