When he sentenced Aqsa Parvez's father and brother to life imprisonment without parole for 18 years Wednesday, Mr. Justice Bruce Durno said he hoped to deter anyone else in Canada from believing what the two conservative Muslim men believed: "That the family pride could at least be kept intact - or perhaps even enhanced - by having two grown men overpower and kill a vulnerable teenager."
Gender inequality fuelled that "twisted, chilling and repugnant mindset," the Ontario Superior Court judge said in sentencing Muhammad Manzour Parvez, 60, and Waqas Parvez, 29. On Tuesday, the pair pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the strangling death of Ms. Parvez, 16, a plea that carries an automatic life sentence. But a parole period of between 10 and 25 years remained at the judge's discretion.
Judge Durno cited a "significant" component of deterrence in accepting the relatively long 18-year period suggested by the Crown and the defence. But a stew of other aggravating factors also contributed to his decision, including elements of preplanning, archaic notions of gender and breach of a child's trust. Ms. Parvez, he said, "was a vulnerable victim with her life in Canada ahead of her.
"It's profoundly disturbing that a 16-year-old woman facing significant challenges adjusting to life in a very different society than her parents lived in could be murdered for the purpose of saving the family pride."
The youngest of eight in a family that had immigrated from Pakistan when she was 11, Ms. Parvez fought with her family over her desire to wear Western clothing, work outside the home and visit schoolmates. She ran away from home, but on the morning of Dec. 10, 2007, she got into a van driven by her brother. Thirty-five minutes later, her father called 911, saying he had just killed his daughter with his own hands.
As the judge read out their sentences, the patriarch of the Parvez family put his arm around his son. But the younger man remained stiff. "They've ruined each others lives," defence lawyer Joseph Neuberger said outside the courthouse. Judge Durno said he also weighed feelings of remorse expressed by pair.
Under the faint-hope clause, the pair could be released in 15 years if a jury decides they should face a parole board. By pleading guilty, the pair avoided a first-degree murder trial originally scheduled for January, 2011.
James Stribopoulos, an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, said the combination of factors Judge Durno faced in making his decision was uncommon. "It's very rare for a parent to kill a child, and it's rarer still to have a parent kill a child along with a co-operative sibling. And it's even rarer still to do it for this sort of motive."
"The idea that because she was a female, she should be acquiescing to the males in the household - that's pretty aggravating, to say the least," Dr. Stribopoulos said.
Ms. Parvez's mother, Anwar Jan, told police that when she asked her husband why he had killed their daughter, he said: "My community will say you have not been able to control your daughter. This is my insult. She is making me naked."
By avoiding trial, no one will know which of the defendants actually killed Ms. Parvez, Mr. Neuberger said. The pair accepted equal responsibility. Judge Durno noted that Muhammad Parvez "literally had her blood on his hands," and that Waqas Parvez was found with his sister's DNA under his fingernails.
News of the guilty pleas spread quickly between Aqsa's old friends and classmates on Facebook, said friend Dominiquia Holmes-Thompson, 18.
"We're all happy," she said. "They need to be in jail, and they should be in jail for a long time. She didn't deserve it."
With a report from Cigdem Iltan in Toronto