Well, if this is true (honour killing) - and also in light of Clifford Olson and just recently Curitis? Dagenais - it is pretty clear. Time to bring back death penalty.

Andy

Posted by: Andy at July 17, 2006 04:49 PM

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What bothers me about the death of a young woman like this is not the particulars of her killer's motivation. I could give a rat's fundament about sicko boy's mentation on the issue, if any.

No, what bothers me is the systematic denial of self defense options to young women such as Yasmin.

She can't buy a gun to defend herself against the man or men she undoubtedly knew wanted her dead. Orders of protection are not worth the paper they are printed on, as countless battered women know to their sorrow. Calling 911 is a waste of precious minutes better used running, a hail Mary prayer that a cop will be close enough and will actually answer his radio.

Carry a knife? Not much use against a larger, stronger attacker who is likely carrying a bigger knife AND gets to pick the time and place AND may be so stoned he can't feel pain.

Bottom line, if you're a chick in Canada, you're pretty much at the mercy of you're crazy boyfriend/relatives/random sicko creepos.

Bring back the Castle Doctrine and de-criminalize armed self defense outside the home. Let the bastards try some assault on chicks who can return fire.

Posted by: The Phantom at July 17, 2006 08:19 PM

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Hard cases make bad law, Andy. But, Steve, I'd make book you're right. Why? One of the photos showed a kind of free open sexuality that more consevative elements would look at as taunting and brazen: not the prescribed modesty backed by the segment that would do honor killings.

Posted by: Abu Nudnik at July 17, 2006 08:22 PM

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I dunno, Phantom. It only works for a small percentage of women. A lot of 'em are just too scared to even touch a weapon. In their minds, the attacker takes it and uses it on her and a lot of times she'd be right too. But you're right about the motives: it's the killings that matter. Some big shot, eh? Power over something soft and beautiful... and killing it! Wow! That's as sick as it gets.

Posted by: Abu Nudnik at July 17, 2006 08:29 PM

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Phantom: Guns ain't the answer, she's more likely to shoot her head off by accident than shoot a 'bad guy'.
She should get a stun gun, knock the guy unconcious, then call the police.

Posted by: Jonny_eh at July 17, 2006 09:27 PM

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I'm sorry, but I don't understand the logic of the argument that guns are no good because she'd probably hurt herself. Without some method of self defense she is DEAD. With some method (like a gun) what's the worst that will happen? No change. And what's the best that could happen? She's alive and her assailant has just received a .38 castration...
I think that most people would step up to the plate for those odds.

Posted by: Another Sean at July 17, 2006 09:49 PM

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Jonny,
Stun guns are illegal in Canada, too. May as well get a real gun. You know, "go big or go home".

Posted by: Another Sean at July 17, 2006 09:51 PM

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When speaking of the murder of total-innocents there are six men for every woman, six completely innocent males die for every completely innocent female. It's not an issue of women at risk, not at all. It is an issue of some people killing innocent people. We must remember that or we end up with very dangerous laws.

Most people who die by murder or manslaughter die as a by-product of their own involvement with crime, StatsCan are very clear on that. Somewhere around 90 females die every year who had no involvement with crime, they are innocent in all ways. For males its a bit harder to get numbers, but the range is between 500 and 600 who are innocent by-standers or intentionally murdered for no reason or murdered by their abusive wife or ... (Too many people forget that there are also a lot of abusive women out there, roughly 1/3 of the total number of seriously abusive spouses are women and their victims are men.)

How do we fix the problem? That is a tough one and I do not have a hard and fast answer. Self defense plays a part as does public pressure to get tough on violent crime. Cops on the beat help a lot.

I think that there is no one solution, rather there are a range of things which all add up to create the safer world we want.

Posted by: jw at July 18, 2006 02:57 AM

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Hey. Alarm bells just went off in my head when you started saying "So we have a Westernized woman, born of a clannish Muslim family, unmarried and living on her own instead of under the protection of her male relatives. Already flags go up. She is probably dating, perhaps even kissing, strange non-Muslim men. Maybe drinking alcohol. Allah knows what else." because to me, it seemed like pure 100% speculation, just because the victim was a muslim. I mean "clannish Muslim family", where did that come from? Then the alcohol, kissing, etc.. Anyways I know you do raise an important issue because like it or not this stuff does happen in Canada, but thankfully it happens infrequently enough that I don't think you need to speculate that it was an honour killing just because she was Muslim. To me it seems like due to the events of the last 5 years (and particularily right now in the middle east), Muslims seem to really be under a microscope in terms of their culture and religion. Honour killings also can happen in extremist Sikh culture or really in any male dominated culture (most of them!) whereever there may be any extremists around, and it has happened in Canada before in the past. Right now however anything that happens within the Muslim community seems to really be analyzed in terms of extremism with relation to things like terrorism, when we can all agree that the vast majority of Muslims are not extremists. Once again you do raise an important issue, but I do feel sorry for the Muslim community when all of them are tarnished with the same brush because of the actions of a few, I mean how many Muslims in Canada have implicated in nefarious or terrorist related plots? Maybe 100? And how many are generally not well integrated into Canadian society after living here for many years, probably a small small fraction of the 500k living here, so I would hope most people would do their best to keep in mind that it is far more likely that any random Canadian Muslim and their family, are more like us than they are like a Hezbollah terrorist or something.

Posted by: Meany at July 18, 2006 05:29 AM

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Jonny_eh: Guns ain't the answer, she's more likely to shoot her head off by accident than shoot a 'bad guy'. She should get a stun gun, knock the guy unconscious, then call the police.

Jonny_eh, you seem to be implying that women are unable to handle a handgun. With proper training women can handle a handgun as well as any man. In fact, in some cases, better because they don't think they're John Wayne. Also, the problem with stun guns is that you have to make contact the attacker. And don't forget many women are shoot by their male attackers, so stun guns or knives are worthless.

Posted by: L.J. Brooks at July 18, 2006 08:30 AM

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Steve, it seems the Islamofascist community is not alone in having a low opinion of women. Two posters here have stated that they think women are incapable of handling firearms safely and effectively.

You boys might want to reflect on the fact that your argument has been used to justify denying women the vote, denying women their freedom, and also used to justify denying the same things to Indians and Blacks.

Women are being denied the freedom to protect themselves by OUR Left-leaning government and stuck in a position of physical dependency. Think upon this, ladies and gentlemen.

Posted by: The Phantom at July 18, 2006 05:24 PM

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The Phantom said" "Women are being denied the freedom to protect themselves by OUR Left-leaning government and stuck in a position of physical dependency."

I'd be careful in using this logic. Most of the people who need protection are men, not women. We may argue that the government denies people protection ... I could easily argue both sides of that. The thing is, we must not go off with the feminist mantra as that leads to disaster. No person on this planet is more free & more safe than the Canadian female. That is worth paying attention to.

Posted by: jw at July 19, 2006 03:00 AM

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Nothing feminist about it JW.

Our government has de-legitimised self defense. It is a systematic process of banning all manner of weapons from firearms to knives, tasers, batons, what have you.

The courts do not recognize self defense as a legitimate reason to be armed in any fashion. The courts do not recognise self defense as sufficient reason for deadly force except under the most egregious circumstances. Anyone who ends up using violence in self defense will be financially ruined even if they manage to escape jail.

This applies to women AND men. I'm just using Yasmin's sad case as an example of what happens when government opresses people in the name of being progressive.

On average, women need an equalizer (read "gun" here) more than men do because they are smaller, not because they are dumber, more cowardly, more incompetent. Liberal governments in this country have seen fit to deny them this protection, while braying support Women's Rights(TM).

The hypocrtical nature of this is rather objectionable, but completely normal for the Liberals. And the NDP I hasten to add.

Posted by: The Phantom at July 19, 2006 10:10 AM

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