Child Protection Agencies: National Post

Quebec Dept: Much has been said about the fact that, at the time, Quebec had no provincewide registry of the various agencies interventions. Would it have raised a red flag if the second team of social workers had known of an earlier intervention? This is far from certain; in Quebec at least, child protection agencies and the courts are extremely careful when it comes to removing a child from their natural environment. Breaking up a family and sending kids to foster homes can be much more damaging than keeping them in a dysfunctional household, according to Globe and Mail. These people were from Afghanistan, and they knew about the honour code. But even they apparently couldn t envision the monstrous scenario that would take place. A cousin of Zainab who lives in Montreal told the National Post that the worst he feared for her was that she would be forcibly sent to Dubai and their basic complaint was that they were afraid of their father. But how many teenagers growing up in repressive households aren t? Another complaint that they didn t have enough freedom was again typical adolescent behaviour. And two of the girls recanted their accusations again, typical behaviour from ambivalent immigrant kids caught in cultural and generational conflicts, torn between rebellion and submission, anger at and love for their parents. In any case, who could have foreseen that a father could coldly engineer the murder of three daughters? The only people who intuited that Mohammad Shafia might have criminal intentions were relatives of his first wife, Rona Amir, who had confided to her sister that she feared for her life, as well as relatives of his second wife, Tooba Yahya, who d testified they d heard him say that Zainab, the 19-year-old daughter, was a slut and that he wanted to kill her. They had personal contact with the family and knew about the oppressive atmosphere in the family home. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.