Canadian Govt. considering separate Criminal Code change for honour killing

OTTAWA - The Stephen Harper government in Canada is looking to making honour killing a separate charge in the Criminal Code and urged men in Canada’s immigrant and religious communities to speak out against such incidents.

The Globe And Mail quoted Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services, Rona Ambrose, as saying that Canada is looking at making honour killing a separate charge in the Criminal Code, despite the Justice Department’s opposition on the issue, which had earlier said that there are no plans to make honour killings a separate crime in the Criminal Code.

Ambrose has urged community leaders, particularly men, to play a greater role in decrying violence against women.

“It’s something we’ve looked at and will look at, we will always look at ensuring that serious crimes get serious penalties,” Ambrose said.

“The real issue here is that a message be sent, not only from the government, but from community leaders, especially male community leaders, across all cultural and religious communities that this kind of so-called honour-based violence is not going to be tolerated in Canada,” she added.

Although she declined to reveal the figures of honour killings that took place in recent years, a July report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy documented 12 such killings in Canada since 2002. (ANI)