Protestors lined the street outside of the Provincial Court of British Columbia on Wednesday, where Syrian refugee Ibrahim Ali is on trial for the murder of 13-year old Marrisa Shen.
Ali has been charged with first-degree murder in the brutal killing of the local teenager from Burnaby, BC.
Shen disappeared on July 18th, 2017 and her body was later discovered sprawled in the wooded depths of Burnaby’s Central Park. She was missing from home for only a few hours before being discovered.
On September 10, 2018, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Unit announced that Ibrahim Ali had been charged in the death of the 13-year-old girl.
It was revealed that Ali had arrived in Canada in March 2017 — just four months before Shen’s murder — as a Syrian refugee.
The protesters outside the Provincial Court were mainly composed of members from the Chinese community who were there voicing their discontent with Justin Trudeau’s immigration and refugee policies.
Many of the signs and chants named Prime Minister Trudeau himself. One man led the group in a chant with the slogan, “Trudeau out, safety back!”
Later he shouted, “Make Trudeau a drama teacher again!”
This wasn’t the first of Ibrahim Ali’s hearings to have sparked protests outside of the Vancouver courthouse.
During Ali’s first hearing on September 14th, protestors carrying many of the same signs made their presence known outside the courthouse.
There was an altercation between protesters and a woman clad in a hijab who threw hot coffee at a group of people. The attack was caught on camera, but no charges were ever laid.
This was the fourth time Ali has appeared before a judge since being charged with murder. His trial has faced several delays, while his defense attorney is waiting for over 10,000 pages of documented evidence related to the murder.
Ali’s next scheduled court appearance is on March 5th, 2019.
