Salim Touaibi, who killed Meriem Boundaoui in 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to minimum 25 years in prison.
A few more details about the circumstances are mentioned in this piece than we’ve seen before: Touaibi is also guilty of four counts of attempted murder, including a person who has lingering issues from the injury, and was on parole at the time it happened.
The hammer attack on a woman on Tuesday morning, allegedly by her own father, is being called an attempted honour killing because she was planning to marry a man who is not a Muslim.
Medhat Darwish is shown in several dramatic photos because he’s a martial arts expert, wearing a black gi, although his style is not specified. Chasing him down via Facebook, I find a page for Centre Samourai Koryukan, with the arresting headline “Controlling Aggression Without Inflicting Harm is the Art of Peace”.
This right here is why Montreal City Weblog is by far my favourite source of news about the city.
Cheers, Joey.
People like to say big cities have big murder rates, but if Montreal had St Anne’s murder rate for this month there would be 350 murders in Montreal this month. (This is a jab at stories about a small town murder that say small towns are safer unlike the big city, when the average murder rate is something like 0.1 per year, and so you need to look over a bigger time frame or bigger geography to compare numbers sensibly. I know this is not a great measure.)
Also it is weird these are called honour killings and not dishonour killings: the murderer thinks the woman (it’s always a woman) committed dishonour on the family and society thinks the murderer is dishonourable.
Nicholas, were there murders in Ste‑Anne this month?
I have known Medhat for about 15 years now. I trained at his school for roughly two years, within his lineage. He was teaching under an official license from Japan, representing a legitimate lineage in both Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu and Niten Ichi-ryu. He was praised by hundreds of practitioners.
Having practiced different martial arts and met many people throughout my life, I can say without hesitation that he has been one of the most inspiring figures to me over these past 15 years.
We attended concert together. We spent long nights talking about art and life, philosophy, family and spirits. He never said ANYTHING about religion for 15 years to me.
I saw him train people with mental disabilities. I saw him work with elderly individuals. I saw him support someone going through cancer remission. I saw him teach children with a genuinely open heart.
And I can tell you this: the people I speak with—those who have spent even more time under his guidance—are completely stunned by this situation.
I understand the reactions and the comments I’m seeing. I share some of the frustration, especially regarding how this is being framed in certain ways. But I still struggle to fully process the information.
I am not questioning that something serious has happened, nor the emerging understanding of what may have occurred. But like many who know him, my mind simply cannot reconcile how a person with such a big heart, such calmness, gentleness, intelligence, openness, and deep kindness could have committed something like this. Right now, it feels impossible for me to make sense of it. The only explanation my mind can even begin to grasp is that of an extreme psychotic episode.
We all know the victim—his daughter—and his wife. My thoughts are with them, and I sincerely wish them strength and healing through this incredibly difficult time.
I speak for myself, of course. But I also know that these words reflect what many others are feeling—people who have been positively impacted by Medhat Darwish over the past 30 years.
Sorry, attempted murder, tired today.
In her book Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, Kate Manne coined the term “himpathy” for disproportionately and inappropriately sympathetic reactions like Luc’s to male perpetrators of violence against women that tend to center the perpetrator’s reputation and shift focus away from the harm done to the victim.
People are complicated creatures, it is possible to have lived an exemplary life and then negate all the good one has ever done in a brief moment of madness. I read Luc’s comment as a person struggling to understand a horrific event that was at odds with the person he thought he knew.
Well put, dwgs.
Is it normal that the JDM publishes unsourced stories as facts? Other news outlets are saying much less about what happened and why.
They often do, MarcG. Their signature style is to imply they have access to police or other sources that other media do not.
I’ve rarely known them to be mistaken although it does happen (e.g. the time they claimed that a mosque made an objection to a woman’s presence in a work crew on the street outside on a Friday).
A brief “moment of madness” is not divorced from reality,
it is the explosion of reality that illuminates a “lifetime of good.”
@Luc your post reminded me of a killing in Texas maybe 15-20 years ago – IIRC a somewhat well known local musician had some kind of psychotic break after taking a dose of a smoking cessation drug (Chant) – he had also been drinking. Apparently uncharacteristically, he fought with his girlfriend and wound up banging on his neighbour’s door. This being Texas, the neighbour fired a gun through the door, which killed the musician.
@Deborah I understand the first phrase but you lost me with the ‘explosion of reality’.
The moment of madness reifies the underlying reality
So all those good acts that Darwish performed over the years were just a cover for his true evil self?
I don’t think we can say for sure. Darwish may have known he was sometimes prey to violent impulses, and found that martial arts taught him the discipline he needed to control them. Or he may have been one of those people who can compartmentalize his life, putting a wall between his demeanour in the dojo and his personality around his family. I suspect the latter but I’m writing about him now as if he’s a fictional character, as are we all.
the “madness” is not a departure from the person’s reality, but the sudden surfacing of their actual state which the “exemplary life” was effectively masking
Deborah, you can’t psychoanalyze a person remotely in this way. We do not know. Someone can develop a brain tumour or other physiological condition that completely changes their personality. I am not saying that this is what happened here, but you can’t know without an examination of the person. Making such statements as you have made here is not stating facts, but presenting a baseless theory.
I’m not claiming to know his medical state, but calling it a ‘moment of madness’ in an ‘exemplary life’ is also a theory—one that ignores how a disciplined mask often hides deep, accumulated conflict. Whether the cause is biological or psychological, dismissing it with a label like ‘madness’ stops us from looking at the actual fact of the violence
Beside the point, but I was curious what is meant by ‘Christian’, in this context, referring to the fiance. An actual church goer, or non-religious with Christian roots? Sounds like the former, but made me wonder…
A former Kahnawake Peacekeeper detoured from his route last week and saved five people from a duplex fire that took 55 firefighters to put out.
I was charmed by one witness’s “I was lying on my chesterfield when I heard a boom.” My folks used to use that word but I haven’t heard it in years.
This is also notable: “With no ambulances in sight, and wary of the medical charges he might have to pay if he used one, he drove across the Mercier Bridge to the fire hall in Kahnawake, where he knew medical coverage would be free.”
Earlier we had scuttled derogation, now we get chesterfield boom – fun with words!
The Lasalle hospital is closer to that home than the fire hall and probably much quicker when there’s bumper to bumper bridge traffic, which he said was the case at the time. Plus it has a (fully?) staffed ER. Not trying to blame someone with fight or flight going on, but it is useful to know where the hospitals are.
Yes, but I could see how he might want to go somewhere familiar after getting through a situation like that.
Chesterfield is very old school Canadian English.
School workers – mostly women in hijab – have received letters saying they must abandon their headscarves or be fired. But this is hardly news – we knew it was coming.
The CSSDM is about to lose 100 workers.
What a proud day for the racist garbage that runs this government of ours.
And in the French press – nothing. Well not nothing, a positive spin on ridding polite society of Muslim women – https://www.ledevoir.com/actualites/education/972275/droit-acquis-elargi-port-signes-religieux-ecoles – “L’adoption du projet de loi 94 visant à renforcer la laïcité dans le réseau scolaire aura-t-elle fait plus de peur que de mal dans les écoles de la province ?”
Just sickening.
Quebec has a shortage of anywhere between 4000 and close to 6000 teachers at the beginning of every school year. There are also close to 10000 “unqualified” teachers in the province (usually, people in teaching positions that may have subject knowledge or degrees but no degree in teaching).
Montreal itself is short about 1000 teachers every September. They just added 10% more to that problem.
My kids’ school just “imported” a teacher from France. She teaches, amongst other things, CCQ (Culture et Citoyenneté Québécoise), despite knowing very little about québécois culture (ex: she chastised kids for using the words “dégueulasse” and “wesh”, which are perfectly acceptable in québécois culture). You may think that she just has to follow the curriculum, but the CCQ program is quite new (having recently replaced the Éthique et culture religieuse program) and the teaching support material is pretty half baked.
I’m seriously concerned about future generations.
Wiktionnaire says wesh comes from maghrebi Arabic, and neither it nor dégueulasse are marked as particularly Québécois French. Odd that she would object to both.
Your kids are facing the same problem I had in high school decades ago. Our French teachers were all imports. The two I remember best were nice people, a woman from Algeria and a man from Hungary(!), but they didn’t speak the language we heard outside in the street. This was a standard big public high school and I don’t know why they wouldn’t let us be taught by people from here.
We have discussed this phenomenon before.
A new pair of peregrine falcons is living in the nesting box on the Université de Montréal tower, and they’ve already produced an egg. Live cam via YouTube (which also gives a nice view of the fog over the city, Thursday morning, but you may be greeted by a raucous commercial).
One of Christine Fréchette’s ambitious plans before October is to extend the Charter of the French language to adult and vocational education. Remember, we all must suffer to protect French.
I find it perplexing that the ‘ayant droit’ logic is being applied to adults. I guess university is next.
The CAQ is dead in the water, so it’s really up to the PQ as to whether this is a battle they want to wage if/when they come into power. I have my doubts, because on language issues the PQ has often been more pragmatic than we give them credit for.
There’s so many francophones attending the anglo universities — not to mention many prominent PQ leaders, including PSPP himself, whose entire university career was in English. Is that a door they’re willing to close for themselves?
A lot of PSPP’s English education was out of Canada, though he went to McGill. I suppose theoretically he could have eligibility for English schools.
If the PQ leader starts treating Anglo institutions with anything other than scorn because he himself benefited from them, he will quickly find himself replaced by someone more comfortable compartmentalizing/being a hypocrite. I have no illusions that a PSSP government will halt or even slow down the CAQ’s assault on Anglophone Quebec. Even Charles Milliard is advocating for continuing to use the notwithstanding clause pre-emptively to restrict the rights of English-speaking Quebecers. We are a long way from Lucien Bouchard delivering a speech at the Centaur.
Even old “money and the ethnic vote” Parizeau studied Economics in London.
Ethnonationalism is predicated on “rules for thee but not for me”.
Each use of the notwithstanding clause is a fiery declaration: they won’t join me, so I’ll beat them.
City blue collar workers blocked Sherbrooke Street near the Olympic stadium Thursday morning as part of their three‑day strike.
Hospitalizations for vaccine-preventable respiratory diseases have doubled since before the pandemic. Check the map, where vaccine‑averse Alberta Saskatchewan shows its colours.
Are you confusing Alberta and Saskatchewan? Alberta and our Quebec are tied. And anyway the entire range is small, only between 100 to 250 per 100k, not a huge difference anywhere.
And anyway, none of it is surprising. Lots of people don’t like being forced to do things. We pretty much forced everyone to inject chemicals into their bodies during the pandemic. That many have rebelled against that is basic human psychology.
(And for those with reading comprehension difficulties, I personally took and take vaccines, I’m speaking not of my own personal opinions.)
You’re right about Saskatchewan.
Fun fact: A decent percentage of these infections are acquired *while in the hospital*. Meaning, you go to the hospital for one problem, get infected with Covid/Flu/RSV, and then end up being re-hospitalized for that. Why? Because public health refuses to adopt the science of airborne transmission and implement clean air policies in their facilities.
P.S. I am writing this while enjoying a delicious cup of hot chemicals. Miam!
I wrote “you go to the hospital” but in most cases it’s really “you bring your clinically vulnerable infant or elderly family member”. I find it absolutely shameful that every tool isn’t used to protect them, but it’s not unprecedented for the medical community to resist new knowledge and practices. The story of Ignaz Semmelweis and handwashing is telling.
A woman was shot dead in a downtown condo building Wednesday afternoon, and a suspect was arrested at the airport, presumably about to flee the country.
In other news, a father was arrested for allegedly attacking his adult daughter with a hammer, early Wednesday morning in Ste‑Anne‑de‑Bellevue.
Simpson and Doctor P, wow – pretty ritzy femicide
“the victim, who is a police officer, ”
Yikes
It all goes to show that no matter their walk of life, women are consistently targets of male bullshit.
There’s little hope of saving the downtown YMCA and YWCA for public use.
The YWCA has already moved to its new location so it’s a moot point. And there’s no point in saving the building, which isn’t that remarkable architecturally and is apparently in terrible condition.
But I was under the impression that the YMCA on Stanley is a relatively new building, or at least one that was fully renovated not so long ago. I don’t see why it couldn’t be reopened.
As rain continues, flood zones around the edges of the island are bracing for trouble.
City blue collar workers marched Wednesday morning to demand better pay and more clarity over why the SMF administration is sticking to 11% over five years.
Protesters arrested during a pro‑Palestine protest downtown two years ago are standing on their Charter rights to expression and peaceful assembly.
The metal parasols installed in Frédéric‑Back park five years ago are being removed because they’ve started falling down.
Meantime, grade school students who had been forbidden to use the parks in Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve for sports and gym classes have been quietly let back in after nobody could figure out where the ban came from.
Actually, I can see having a ban throughout early spring, when the turf will be muddy and likely to be damaged if played on. But that’s not mentioned.
20 years, huh. I’m surprised they lasted this long, really – the wind shear must be intense.
Fortunate that this is now an Ensemble problem, I guess.
A pregnant woman fainted on the REM, but when other passengers pushed the emergency button, nothing happened. Eventually someone called 911. Pulsar’s spokesman says this was an “isolated case.”
Given that there’s no driver, where would an emergency button sound? There must be a manned central somewhere in the system. Had the operator stepped out for a smoke?
Pressing the emergency button on the train will cause a group of telephones to ring in the control centre in Brossard. The operator in the control centre can then talk to the passenger and even call up the corresponding CCTV camera to see what is happening inside the car.
This is what is supposed to happen. Obviously something went wrong in the chain of communication from the on-board intercom to the control centre telephone.
Thank you for the explanation, James.
Oh somebody needs to be on the other end for an emergency call to work. How were they to know?
What a clown show.
It works the same way as a 911 call Ian. Someone on the other end picks up the phone. Just be glad it isn’t AI or a call centre far away.
If nobody answers, the underlying functonality is moot, James.
I wasn’t on a train itself but I’ve had to use the Help button twice at the REM. Once to report a situation in the parking lot and once because I was having an issue with my Opus card. In both those relatively minor instances, it was fine. I hope they figure out what happened here.
I have wondered if REM stations have any staff at all. Like is there even 1 person behind the scenes. Just curious.
JP: Generally in the stations there is nobody behind the scenes (except at Gare Centrale where there is a customer service desk).
There are however staff that move around the network (either on the train itself or in vehicles) to fix problems and to help people in need. They are trained to be able to drive the train if necessary.
In most of the parking lots you may have noticed that there is a dedicated “REM” parking spot just for these rapid intervention situations.
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