Harbhajan Posted June 22, 2005 Report Share Posted June 22, 2005 Latest News Father's parole eligibility set at 16 years in murder of daughter Broadcast News Wednesday, June 22, 2005 VANCOUVER - A father who murdered his daughter over an affair with a school friend will be eligible for parole in 16 years. A B.C. Supreme Court judge set the terms of Rajinder Atwal's parole in the 2003 stabbing death of his 17-year-old daughter Amandeep. The Kitimat man appeared on the verge of tears as sentence was passed Wednesday. He had objected to his daughter's love affair with school pal Todd McIsaac. Atwal was given an automatic life sentence for second-degree murder, leaving only the terms of his parole to be decided by the court. The Crown wanted Atwal to serve 20 to 25 years before he would be eligible for parole, while the defence wanted the period set at 12 to 15 years. © Broadcast News 2005 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harbhajan Posted June 22, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2005 No parole for 16 years for killer dad Camille Bains Canadian Press Wednesday, June 22, 2005 VANCOUVER (CP) -- Rajinder Atwal gazed down from the prisoner's box and appeared on the verge of tears Wednesday as a judge detailed how he repeatedly stabbed his daughter -- disfiguring her face even after she was dead. "This was a cold, brutal and sober attack of his completely defencelsss young daughter, carried out with the intention to cause her death," Justice Catherine Wedge told a sentencing hearing in B.C. Supreme Court. Wedge ruled that Atwal, who was convicted of second-degree murder in March, won't be eligible for parole for 16 years. Atwal's wife Kulwinder began crying as her husband was led away by sheriffs and her son Narinder put his arm around her. Amandeep Atwal was 17 in July 2003 when her father decided to end her life after discovering she'd been having a secret love affair with schoolmate Todd McIsaac. The discovery led to considerable conflict in the Sikh family, followed by a decision by Amandeep that she would leave her home in Kitimat, B.C., and move with her boyfriend to Prince George in central British Columbia. Court has heard that Atwal vehemently objected to the move but persuaded his daughter to accompany the family to the Vancouver area so she could tell relatives there that she was relocating to attend school. When Amandeep told her family she would be returning to Prince George, her father insisted on driving her there himself. It was during that trip in Atwal's car that he stabbed his daughter 17 times at a rest area near Cache Creek, B.C. "Amandeep remained in the car throughout the attack, still secured by her seatbelt," Wedge said. "Her final moments in life must have been terrifying." Atwal then placed his daughter's body in the foot well of the car and covered her with a blanket, continuing to drive for two and a half hours before taking her to hospital. "This was not the result of any confusion on his part, as suggested by the defence," Wedge said. "No parent could drive that distance with a dead or dying child without seeking help." At the hospital, Atwal presented himself as a grieving father and said his daughter had killed herself. "While he must have loved his daughter at some level, he permitted that love to be displaced by anger at her unwillingness to comply with his values or accept his view of the world and his plans for her future," Wedge said. "This was a selfish act of the highest order, beyond the comprehension of any reasonable person." In quoting Atwal's lawyer David Butcher, Wedge said Atwal's motive for the murder related solely to his daughter having begun to make her own choices that conflicted with his cultural conservatism. Outside court, Atwal's wife continued weeping as she was flanked by supporters. They included her son Narinder, 25, who said he was "very torn" about his father's predicament. "On the one side is my father, on the other side is my sister," he said, without commenting further. McIsaac, Amandeep Atwal's boyfriend, said he hadn't found the peace he was looking for after the sentencing hearing. "There's nothing that could ever give me back what I had, and her life back," McIsaac said outside court. He said Amandeep cared about her father but that he wouldn't ever trust him. Seeing the rest of her family in court was stressful, he said. "I'm not even sure how they feel towards me," McIsaac said, adding he doesn't see a day that he would even approach them. He described Amandeep as a "friendly, outgoing, beautiful, bright person," whose positive influence still guides him. A community activist, who didn't wish to be named, said outside court that the case is a tragedy for everyone involved. "It's a sad day," he said. "The family has lost a child and a father and a daughter and a sister. Todd McIsaac has lost his soon-to-be-wife." © Canadian Press 2005 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akali_Singh Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 canada is the worst place ever! take my word!! here punjabis try to bring punjab back here :roll: everyone hates apna's here man, everyone looks out for themselfs, no one wants to help anyone out unless theres money for it. theres no standards wats so ever here. canada made the biggest mistake of letting TOOOO many punjabis in. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unbreakable Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 .. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akali_Singh Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 nah jus stating how much canada sucks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amrikingh Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 calm down :roll: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyboy Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Calm down and try to think of doing something constructive. Cursing the father isn't going to help matters. He will get what is ordained by Waheguru. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranjana Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 This hideous crime isn't limited to Canada, similar occurences are sadly common place in the UK and US as well. The really sad fact is, however that people do make a much bigger fuss about Sikhi being on the down when it comes to matters such as eating meat, wearing keskis/dumalla/the "sinful" Kenyan Dastaars, eating from Sarabloh, wearing cholas and a whole host of comparatively non-issues, but can hardly be seen to tackle problems such as this face on. Its very easy to prescribe "more simran" or "more parchar to encourage being to take Amrit", but sadly such occurences can even be found amongst the Amritdhari community as well. Perhaps we need to take a harsh look at ourselves and really get down to the root cause of such matters, rather than the usual, oh it's "punjabi culture" (really? on what basis?) or "why did she date, that's so anti-Gurmat" blah blah... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranjana Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Hey Shaka Boom Boom, What suggestions do you have for addressing this issue from a grass roots level to higher up? Clearly one thing would be more open discussion of such items in Gurdwaras and within the community as a whole, to allow time for the issue to be actually raised, but beyond this? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyboy Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 another &^%^%#%@ remark!!!Cursing and condemning his behaviour is constructive as it is an explicit condemnation of a crime. To condemn a crime is a duty!!! condemning is constructive because one expresses one's disgust at the sin of kurimar and narimar. One should praise what is good and condemn evil, not just stand there and say: God we'll take care of it!!! I am not a Protestant or a Sunni!!! In battle it is the duty of the Khalsa to fight for the Guru, it isn't the Guru who fights for you. That's dishonorable. In the same way, when justified the explicit condemnation of such crimes is a constructive thing and in fact a duty. Millions of curses on all kurimars and narimars!!!! :roll: You really need to control your anger buddy and I resent the inference that because I don't choose to dirty my mouth by condemning people to hell then it means that I don't think it's a big deal. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singh47 Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I think that the father should definitely have not killed her. If his daughter was having sexual relations with a Gora even though he forbid it repeatedly, then he could have simply stopped talking to her, but killing her was the wrong answer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Lung Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Agreed. It was none of his business who his daughter was seeing, and as soon as he even brought that up in conversation his family (wife, son, etc) should have stepped in and put him in his place. I am hopeful that sooner rather than later these kinds of people will learn. There are laws. No place for them to hide. Others will teach them the hard way if they are slow learners.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singh47 Posted June 23, 2005 Report Share Posted June 23, 2005 Bruce Lung, what do you mean it wasn't any of his business? if his teenage daughter is having sexual relations (fornication) with a Gora, any Punjabi Mard with some sense of Anakh is going to get offended and damn angry. Yes, it was wrong for him to kill her, but objecting to your teenage daughter or sister from having illegitimate sexual relations with a Gora is not wrong speaking from the perspective of a rustic Punjabi. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beast Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 The thing is Singh47 is that the girl's brother had a white girlfriend who the family were fine with. Before this fact came to light, I got into a whole load of trouble on another forum for suggesting that even though the father's actions were disgraceful, the daughter was not exactly innocent either. She undertook an action that she knew would destroy her family.* *This obviously changed when we learn that it was acceptable for her bro to be able to do the same thing 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Javanmard Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 I believe in the religion of Love, whatever direction its caravans may take, for Love is my religion and my faith - Ibn 'Arabi 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niranjana Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 :roll: You really need to control your anger buddy and I resent the inference that because I don't choose to dirty my mouth by condemning people to hell then it means that I don't think it's a big deal. Gur Fateh! Bobby Boy, Whilst getting angry to the point where it clouds your vision and clarity of thought is clearly unwarranted in any situation, the point here is clearly that if one was to do a search on this forum alone (let alone more the hardline forums we all know about), there are many places where people have lost control of their sentiments and either become exceedingly angry or started crying over issues such as: -Eating certain foods -Wearing certain colours -Wearing a certain style of dress or garment -Having certain friends -Personal grooming (tying up beards, make up etc) Down to an individual's personal relationships, to the extent, I feel this is a point worth making that certain people, who are very well respected by large parts of the Community in Canada and the UK, I'll spare the names, HAVE found it necessary on many occasions to break into computers illegally, send vulgur and emotionally blackmailing e-mails, issue threats, stalk and harass, seek to BREAK UP marriages between 2 AMRITDHARI indviduals and families, whom they know diddly squat about ALL because of issues such as those mentioned above..WHY????? PLEASE TELL ME WHY???? These holier than thou fools can't NOW do something about chasing down evils such as Kurimar and Narimar in our community WHICH IS FAR MORE SERIOUS!!! Gur Fateh! Niranjana 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbyboy Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 Singh47 wrote: WOW Guru Gobind Singh must be so proud!!! Sikhi does not equal being pindu!!!! Burce Lung is right. She was in the age of sexual maturity, she had the right to do it and in any case who says that it was illegitimate? Maybe they did gandharva vivah which would legaly invalidate the objection of fornication. Anyone who defends this man commits the same sin as him!!! Stop justifying sleeping around. It's a sin for both the brother and the sister. The family are hypocries to allow the son to sleep around but take action against the daughter. Sikhi also doesn't equal sleeping around. It might be ok for your sister or daughter. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Singh47 Posted June 24, 2005 Report Share Posted June 24, 2005 Burce Lung is right. She was in the age of sexual maturity, she had the right to do it and in any case who says that it was illegitimate? Maybe they did gandharva vivah which would legaly invalidate the objection of fornication. Anyone who defends this man commits the same sin as him!!! What the heck? So you're justifying her indulgence into fornication? I don’t know how things are in Europe, but in Cananda most Punjabi people still have a sense of Sharam, most will not allow their daughters and sisters to indulge in sexual relations with Goray, whether you like it or not. And what the heck is a gandharva vivah? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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