 Kamikar Singh Dhillon, right, is escorted into a Brampton police station in January 2009 after being arrested in the death of daughter-in-law Amandeep Singh. (QMI Agency file photo)
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BRAMPTON, Ont. - In his orange turban and burgundy tracksuit, Kamikar Singh Dhillon stood and pleaded guilty Friday to stabbing his daughter-in-law to death in a reprehensible honour killing.
"Just sorry," the murderer murmured through a Punjabi interpreter when asked if he had anything to say.
But Dhillon, 48, hardly appeared sorry at all.
In fact, after the New Year's Day murder in 2009, the unrepentant Dhillon insisted he was justified in taking the life of 22-year-old Amandeep Dhillon because he believed she was going to leave his son for another man.
"He maintained throughout all his interviews that her pending separation from her husband would disgrace the family name, which justified killing her," Crown attorney Steve Sherriff told the court in an agreed statement of facts.
"The defendant repeatedly told the police during the same videotaped interview that under these circumstances he had done the right thing by killing the deceased."
Even in death, her killer sought to malign her. Not only was there no evidence Amandeep was having an affair, he also claimed the young mother offered him sex but he'd turned her down.
"There is no evidence to support this assertion," court heard.
It's just one more sad example of the abuse Amandeep endured during her few short years trapped in her new home.
In 2005, her parents in Punjab paid an exorbitant dowry and sold her off in an arranged marriage to a Mississauga stranger with the expectation she'd bring them all to Canada.
It was an investment in a nightmare. The only joy in her life was her little boy, born here in '07, but he was sent to live in India against her wishes. Isolated and with her every move monitored, her world shrunk to working with her controlling father-in-law in the family's Indian grocery store -- and it was there she died.
Amandeep was found in the bathroom, her throat slashed and multiple stab wounds to her face, head and upper body.
Her father-in-law did a clumsy job of trying to stage a burglary: He stabbed himself and told police Amandeep was kidnapped by five masked robbers, but investigators found money in the cash register and the bloodstained knife hidden in the store basement.
The landed immigrant from India soon confessed. But he was so convinced he had every right to kill Amandeep he wanted police to tell the media it was justified because of "the imminent disgrace to his family name."
Dhillon will receive an automatic life sentence for second-degree murder.
In a joint submission to Justice Bruce Durno, the Crown and defence plan to ask on June 9 that he not be eligible for parole for 15 years.
"I think it's justice," the sombre Crown attorney said outside court.
Sherriff bristled at calling this an "honour killing."
"I think it is an inappropriate term for this terrible type of crime," he said. "There is no honour in this kind of conduct.
"That a man would think he was justified in committing murder is a very chilling concept that merits society's close attention because we have had other cases in this jurisdiction like this case.
"I would encourage community leaders to pay close attention to this case."
Because, even now, it doesn't seem the message is clear.
"He did something he deeply regrets," said his lawyer, Maurice Mirosolin.
But asked whether his client now understands there's no place here for honour killing, Mirosolin could only say: "I'd rather not comment."
In the courtroom, Amandeep remained as virtually alone in death as she was in life. There were two distant relatives and a pair of caring investigating officers, but no sign of her Malton husband or her parents, who remain in India caring for her three-year-old son.
"He keeps asking for her," said distant cousin Varinder Boparai. "He doesn't understand his mother is gone."
His poor mom kept quiet and sacrificed so much for her family's Canadian dream.
Undeterred, it seems her parents will still get their ticket here after all.
Just seven months after Amandeep's murder, her Punjabi family married off their younger daughter to a Brampton man in another arranged marriage.
She's about to have a child any day.
