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The Canadian Parvasi - Issue105

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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.

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