Screw-ups led to rapist fleeing to Pakistan
michele-mandel BY MICHELE MANDEL, TORONTO SUN
Moazzam Tariq talks on his cellphone outside a Toronto courthouse in August 2016. (SAM PAZZANO, Toronto Sun)
What a complete and utter screw-up on all fronts. And now a convicted rapist has managed to elude Canadian justice by fleeing to Pakistan.
How did this happen — especially, as it turns out, Moazzam Tariq has actually absconded once before? How is that none of the players in the justice system — from police to prosecutors — knew the Canadian permanent resident had also fled to his native Pakistan in 2010 after his arrest for dangerous driving?
According to CityNews, Justice Mara Green said she obviously would have revoked his bail pending his sentencing if she’d known his history. “He would have been in custody immediately,†the judge is quoted as saying. “On the record that we have, we didn’t know he had absconded with another Pakistani passport with a different serial number.â€
Convicted in October of plying a woman with vodka at a downtown club and then sexually assaulting her when she was unable to consent, the 29-year-old Brampton man surrendered his passport and was free on $10,000 bail pending his Dec. 1 sentence hearing. Now it appears he travelled on a second passport out of Montreal on Nov. 18. And there appears to be no system in place that would have flagged him before he boarded that plane.
Computer glitches abound in this sorry case. Tariq’s 2010 dangerous driving charge occurred in Peel, yet it was nowhere on his record. How did that happen? In this day and age of technology, how was it never inputted into the system?
When Tariq did return to Canada in 2011 and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, the Crown reportedly dropped his charge of failing to comply with his bail conditions. He was able to abscond with no repercussions. No wonder he did it again.
What are the chances that he will ever be returned? Slim to none. Canada does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan.
Unfortunately for his father, who conveniently forgot to tell the court that Tariq had skipped bail in the past, he’s the one left holding the bag. To maintain his son’s freedom, he had pledged $10,000 and promised to ensure the newly-convicted rapist abided by his bail conditions to reside with him and observe a 10 p.m. curfew.
Yet his father failed to report to the court that Tariq was no longer in his home as of Nov. 18. Instead, he came on the 24th to remove himself as his surety, saying his son told him he’d gone to Vancouver on business.
At the very least, Tariq’s father should be on the hook for the $10,000. Going forward, judges may want to reconsider continuing bail for convicted criminals facing jail time.
“Flight before trial and flight after conviction are very different scenarios,†wrote Justice J.C. MacPherson in 2000. “Before trial, an accused person might reject flight because of the role optimism and hope play in the decision-making process. However, once convictions are entered... the reality of lengthy incarceration must be a bitter pill to swallow. When optimism and hope recede, thoughts of flight might well advance.â€
And now a victim will not see the justice she deserves.
