Legal Research

?Honour Killings? May Become Separate Crime

By Simon Fodden

Rona Ambrose, Minister for Status of Women, held a press conference today at the Punjabi Community Health Service Centre in Mississsauga, Ontario, during which she addressed so-called honour killings. The speculation — see the National Post story, for example — is that her publicity exercise was in reaction to the release last week of a report by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy entitled Culturally-Driven Violence Against Women. An executive summary is available here; and the whole 21-page report is available in PDF.

During the press conference, Minister Ambrose said that the government is considering creating a separate crime for honour killings. She did not address how such a move would do anything to lessen the likelihood of such murders. None of the fourteen recommendations of the report calls for the institution of a new crime.

According to the introductory material in the report, one of the difficulties involved in coming to grips with the killings of some immigrant women has to do with a reluctance to entertain an open discussion of cultural differences that may reflect “badly” on immigrant communities.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on July 12, 2010 (boomark / email).