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<strong>The</strong> International News Weekly Canada<br />
August 02, 2019 | Toronto 02<br />
Friends, co-workers mourn 4 members of<br />
same family found dead in Markham, Ont.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
Markham, Ont. : <strong>The</strong><br />
four people found dead in<br />
a Markham, Ont., home<br />
over the weekend came<br />
from three generations<br />
of what appeared to be a<br />
happy family, friends said<br />
Tuesday, as they mourned<br />
the victims of what police<br />
called a quadruple homicide.<br />
<strong>The</strong> dead were identified<br />
by friends as Malesa<br />
Zaman, her father Moniruz<br />
Zaman, mother Momtaz<br />
Zaman, and grandmother.<br />
Police haven’t named the<br />
victims, nor have they<br />
said what relationship<br />
exists between them or<br />
Menhaz Zaman, a 23-yearold<br />
who has been charged<br />
with four counts of firstdegree<br />
murder.<br />
Robin Islam, who<br />
called himself a long-time<br />
friend of the Zamans, said<br />
the young man who has<br />
been charged was the son<br />
of Moniruz and Momtaz<br />
Zaman. Islam said the family<br />
was a social one and enjoyed<br />
spending time with<br />
friends.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y were always<br />
very happy, nice and decent<br />
family,” the 45-yearold<br />
said. “We’d sit in the<br />
same corner and we’d talk,<br />
we’d go to family barbecues.”<br />
Islam said the older<br />
Zamans moved to Canada<br />
from Bangladesh in the<br />
80s, hoping for a better life.<br />
Moniruz Zaman and Momtaz<br />
Zaman were “very<br />
much” in love, he said, and<br />
recently celebrated their<br />
25th wedding anniversary<br />
with almost 200 friends<br />
and family last month.<br />
Menhaz Zaman made<br />
a slide show for the party<br />
and “said nice things<br />
about his parents,” Islam<br />
said.<br />
<strong>The</strong> family friend described<br />
Momtaz Zaman<br />
as a “charming woman”<br />
who was constantly smiling,<br />
who loved to cook and<br />
take pictures. Islam said<br />
Moniruz Zaman was a<br />
“very quiet, soft-speaking,<br />
polite gentleman.” Islam<br />
said they would often sit<br />
and discuss politics.<br />
News of the deaths had<br />
come as a complete shock,<br />
Islam said.<br />
“I’m just dead,” he<br />
said. “I can’t believe it. I<br />
cannot sleep, I cannot eat,<br />
I cannot walk. I feel like<br />
they’re still right beside<br />
me, they’re talking to me.<br />
It’s so scary.”<br />
A woman who created<br />
an online fundraiser<br />
to raise money for the<br />
funeral costs also described<br />
what happened as<br />
“tragic.”Afnan Alibaccas,<br />
who created the gofundme<br />
account, said she was a<br />
close friend of Malesa Zaman<br />
and had known her<br />
for more than 12 years.<br />
“We first met in the<br />
third grade and I’ve grown<br />
with her ever since. She’s<br />
been my go-to for as long<br />
as I can remember,” Alibaccas<br />
wrote on the site.<br />
“She had the sweetest<br />
heart and was always willing<br />
to listen and care for<br />
everyone she knew.”<br />
Emmera Riaz, a former<br />
basement tenant in the Zaman<br />
home, also said she<br />
had fond memories of the<br />
family and described them<br />
as very involved with the<br />
Bangladeshi community.<br />
“It was just a wonderful<br />
family,” she said.<br />
Meanwhile, Beck Taxi<br />
said it was “devastated”<br />
by the death of Moniruz<br />
Zaman, who had been an<br />
employee with the cab<br />
company since 2011.<br />
York Regional Police<br />
have said they were called<br />
to the Markham home<br />
shortly after 3 p.m. Sunday<br />
after receiving a 911<br />
call reporting possible injuries.<strong>The</strong>y<br />
said Menhaz<br />
Zaman opened the door<br />
to investigators and was<br />
taken into custody shortly<br />
afterwards.<br />
— with files from Lidia<br />
Abraha.<br />
Manitoba manhunt shows<br />
lack of resources for missing<br />
Indigenous women: advocates<br />
Women’s K4 500-metre<br />
team wins Canada’s<br />
first gold of Lima<br />
Pan American Games<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
WINNIPEG : Helicopters<br />
and a specialized military<br />
aircraft scoured from the<br />
air while armed police took<br />
to the ground over northern<br />
Manitoba in a hunt for<br />
two suspects of murders in<br />
British Columbia.<br />
Some advocates say it’s<br />
a stark contrast to resources<br />
applied to searches for<br />
missing and murdered Indigenous<br />
women and girls.<br />
“It is a little bit eyebrow<br />
raising because of<br />
the different response,”<br />
says Sheila North, a former<br />
grand chief and advocate<br />
for missing and murdered<br />
Indigenous women.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> effort that they<br />
are going through to try<br />
and find them … could<br />
trigger a lot of things for<br />
people who do their own<br />
searches.”<br />
<strong>The</strong> massive manhunt<br />
has gripped the country<br />
since Bryer Schmegelsky,<br />
18, and Kam McLeod, 19,<br />
were named last week<br />
as suspects in three killings.<br />
University professor<br />
Leonard Dyck and Australian<br />
Lucas Fowler and<br />
his American girlfriend<br />
Chynna Deese were found<br />
dead last month in northern<br />
B.C.<br />
North said it’s important<br />
the suspects are<br />
caught because they could<br />
pose a serious risk to the<br />
public.<br />
But she wonders where<br />
the same sense of urgency<br />
is when an Indigenous<br />
woman or girl can’t be<br />
found.North recalls the<br />
case of Jennifer Catcheway<br />
in 2008. She was last seen<br />
in Portage la Prairie, Man.<br />
on the night of her 18th<br />
birthday. When Wilfred<br />
and Bernice Catcheway<br />
notified police their daughter<br />
was missing, they were<br />
told she was probably out<br />
partying, North said.<br />
For more than a decade,<br />
the Catcheways<br />
have conducted their own<br />
search of rivers, lakes, forests<br />
and nearby First Nations.<br />
North says she’s also<br />
reminded of 51-year-old<br />
grandmother, Mildred<br />
Flett, who was last seen<br />
in Winnipeg in 2010. Her<br />
ex-husband has said it was<br />
difficult to get police to pay<br />
attention to her case.<br />
Flett was from the Testaskweyak<br />
Cree Nation in<br />
Split Lake, Man., where<br />
missing person posters of<br />
her remain. Schmegelsky<br />
and McLeod were spotted<br />
in the same community<br />
before a vehicle they were<br />
travelling in was found in<br />
nearby Gillam, leading police<br />
to focus their search in<br />
that area.<br />
North said there are<br />
more than 1,200 relatives of<br />
missing and murdered Indigenous<br />
women and girls<br />
watching as Mounties do<br />
everything they can to find<br />
the two murder suspects.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y may also be wondering<br />
why they couldn’t have<br />
received more help, she<br />
adds.<br />
“Families that do their<br />
own searches are feeling<br />
a little bit let down and<br />
not respected in the same<br />
way as these other families<br />
are,” she said.<br />
Darlene Okemaysim-<br />
Sicotte has seen many families<br />
struggle to organize<br />
searches as the co-chair<br />
of Iskwewuk E-wichiwitochik<br />
(Women Walking Together),<br />
a grassroots group<br />
that supports families of<br />
missing and murdered<br />
Indigenous women in Saskatchewan.Her<br />
cousin,<br />
Shelley Napope, 16, was<br />
murdered by serial killer<br />
John Martin Crawford in<br />
1992.Okemaysim-Sicotte<br />
says she supports efforts<br />
to find Schmegelsky and<br />
McLeod and that no life is<br />
worth more than another.<br />
But the manhunt for<br />
them has made it clear that<br />
there is the means, money<br />
and public support to conduct<br />
a large-scale search<br />
when needed, she says.<br />
Okemaysim-Sicotte<br />
hopes people will remember<br />
that the next time an<br />
Indigenous woman or girl<br />
is missing.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> world is watching<br />
it, she says.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> Press<br />
LIMA, Peru : Canada’s women’s K4 500-metre canoeing<br />
team brought home the country’s first gold<br />
medal of the Pan American Games on Sunday.<br />
<strong>The</strong> team of Alanna Braylougheed, Alexa Kaien<br />
Irvin, Andreanne Langlois and Anna Negulic finished<br />
in one minute 34.316 seconds.<br />
Langlois says that typically, her team debriefs<br />
after a race and points out areas for improvement.<br />
This time, she says, there’s nothing to critique —<br />
it was perfect.<br />
Mexico took silver 0.33 seconds behind the <strong>Canadian</strong>s<br />
and Argentina was third 1.29 seconds back of<br />
the winners.<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Canadian</strong> men finished just off the podium<br />
in the same event, 1.765 seconds back of the gold<br />
medallists from Argentina.<br />
Cuba was second and Mexico took bronze, just<br />
0.765 second ahead of Canada’s Dominik Crete, Eric<br />
Ellery, Marshall Hughes and Jarret Kenke.