Teller involved in bank robbery at risk of deportation and should get lesser sentence

D_Accord

Legacy Member
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/teller-involved-bank-robbery-risk-221239758.html


A bankteller who helped her boyfriend and his friends rob a Calgary BMO is hoping her deportation concerns will mean she won't receive as stiff a sentence as others who committed the same crime.

Kenza Belakziz, 22, worked at the BMO in the southwest neighbourhood of Mission when she provided confidential information about the bank to her then-boyfriend Saleem Nasery, who, along with two others, robbed the institution in November 2014.

Initially police arrested the three robbers, believing Belakziz was a victim before they realized it was an inside job. She was arrested in December 2014. Last week, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a robbery.

Belakziz gave Nasery a list of employees who would be present during the November 2014 robbery, the layout of the bank, information about the silent alarm, the locations where money was stored and details on bait bills and dye packs.

On Friday, Belakziz's sentencing hearing was interrupted so the lawyers involved could address the judge's concerns that the proposed sentence of six months in jail was too low.

"You are asking me to impose a sentence that is, I believe, unfit," said Court of Queen's Bench Justice David Gates. "This sentence appears to be tailored for immigration factors."

"I am not a rubber stamp.... I'm not satisfied you're even in the range."

Belakziz moved to the U.S. with her parents and siblings from Morocco when she was two years old and then to Canada in 2010. When the rest of her family obtained Canadian citizenship, Belakziz didn't bother.

A sentence of more than six months means she's at a higher risk of being deported to Morocco, where she no longer has family.

Gates noted the starting point for a conviction of conspiracy to commit robbery is five years in prison, but mitigating factors can bring that sentence down significantly.

During a break in court, Belakziz approached her friends in the gallery of the courtroom and said: "Five years? What the f--k."

A handwritten robbery plan

Key evidence against Belakziz came from a handwritten robbery plan police discovered in the car of one of the robbers. It was partially written by the bankteller and also had her fingerprint on it.

In the days before the crime, Belakziz abandoned her plan to rob the bank and tried to convince her boyfriend to do the same, according to the agreed statement of facts.

But Gates noted Belakziz didn't call police or stay home the day of the robbery.

"It seems like a pretty weak abandonment," said the judge. "It would be a much stronger argument if she'd actually taken some positive steps to stop this from happening."

"She betrayed her friends and work colleagues."

Traumatized hostages

Four of the bank employees who were held hostage wrote victim impact statements describing how the robbery traumatized them.

Several of the employees whose wrists were zip tied together wrote about always looking over their shoulder.

"My life will never be the same," wrote Andre Deslauriers. "I'm terrified someone might be out there to harm me."

Marlene Martins said her peace of mind has been stolen and she suffers from nightmares, anxiety and stress.

When Nasery, Lucas Windsor and Matthew Valdes entered the bank, they were armed with a gun, their faces were covered with black neck warmers and they zip tied the doors to the bank closed.

They turned off the lights and ordered the employees to "follow instructions or you will be hurt."

The robbers said they wanted the "pretty" tellers to get them the money, so Belakziz and another employee were ordered to use their codes to open the safes.

Belakziz used her code incorrectly in an effort to thwart the robbery, according to the agreed statement of facts.

When the trio of robbers left the bank after 20 minutes with about $12,000 in two bags, police had already set up outside.

All three were arrested within minutes.

Robbers got 5+ year sentences

​Defence lawyer Greg Dunn said the collateral consequences of the threat of deportation are significant enough that Belakziz should receive a six month sentence.
---------------------------

wow just wow...
 
La moindre criminalité ça devrait être déportation automatique, ça nous aurait évité du villanueva...
 
Villanueva c'est un patriote pour les grands chef bandit. Son frère c'est même un martyr.
 
Made it a whole 4 years in this country before starting shit up, amazing. Just ship her back to Morocco tomorrow after seizing all her assets if she got anything with value or a bank account with any money in it. Stop wasting taxpayer's money on human garbage criminals coming in this country to start shit up.
 
Made it a whole 4 years in this country before starting shit up, amazing. Just ship her back to Morocco tomorrow after seizing all her assets if she got anything with value or a bank account with any money in it. Stop wasting taxpayer's money on human garbage criminals coming in this country to start shit up.

Motherfucking this.
 
^^ pretty much.

We're too soft on people as it is. You f*ck around, you get f*cked. Period.
 
Un pays qui t'accueille, peux tu svp pas faire de marde, sinon retourne par chez vous en faire à place, ici ça nous intéresse pas.

Envoyé de mon SGH-I337M en utilisant Tapatalk
 
So they've gotten to sentencing and have seen that the case clearly isn't going their way and are pulling every last card possible? Not exactly a big surprise.

So immigrants need to be treated more harshly in the eyes of the law than "native" Canadians? Great way to create separate classes of citizens. That's always lead to great outcomes in the past.
 
So immigrants need to be treated more harshly in the eyes of the law than "native" Canadians? Great way to create separate classes of citizens. That's always lead to great outcomes in the past.

Nobody asked to treat them as second class citizens... but they know the consequences of their act being immigrants "On probation" for a lack of a better term.

No excuse.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect welfare.

Straight back where you came from.
 
Nobody asked to treat them as second class citizens... but they know the consequences of their act being immigrants "On probation" for a lack of a better term.

No excuse.

Do not pass go.

Do not collect welfare.

Straight back where you came from.

No one asked but that's exactly what you're all proposing. So when does probation end? When you get PR/Citizenship?

How do we prosecute tourist? Just kicked them out of the country also for their crimes? That's real justice!
Just deport them so that they can face justice in their home country? What happens when that home country doesn't recognize the act as a crime? Spousal abuse isn't a crime anymore in Russia.

If your justice system is going to determine their innocence or guilt it should also administer the consequences.

Deportation in itself isn't justice. If your argument is that we're wasting taxpayer money jailing them in Canada and we should rid the country of this burden, then why even go through the process of trial just deport any immigrant that's been accused.
 
Deportation in itself isn't justice. If your argument is that we're wasting taxpayer money jailing them in Canada and we should rid the country of this burden, then why even go through the process of trial just deport any immigrant that's been accused.

Again, you are adding things that are completely useless and unrelated. You are grasping at straws trying to debate something and look like a fool doing so.

Nobody said they should not get a trial.

I'd have to re-read the article, if they are at the sentencing part, trial is done and she was convicted most likely i'd guess.

Their defense as labeled in the article is NOT that they did not do the crime, its that they think the punishment is too severe given it will trigger a deportation process for her.

Let that sink in for a second... She is asking that we should lower a sentence BELOW the minimum recommended level by the criminal code of this country so we can keep an alleged and soon to be convicted criminal in Canada? This is your idea of immigration and keeping good citizens in the country so we can grow as a nation? Special treatment much?

How about I rob a bank and ask the same thing because... I have a kid/relative/dog to take care of and I dont want him to end up in a foster home? That's cool too right?

Cant wait to see what kind of liberal gymnastics you are going to pull trying to justify this...
 
Again, you are adding things that are completely useless and unrelated. You are grasping at straws trying to debate something and look like a fool doing so.

Nobody said they should not get a trial.

I'd have to re-read the article, if they are at the sentencing part, trial is done and she was convicted most likely i'd guess.

Their defense as labeled in the article is NOT that they did not do the crime, its that they think the punishment is too severe given it will trigger a deportation process for her.

Let that sink in for a second... She is asking that we should lower a sentence BELOW the minimum recommended level by the criminal code of this country so we can keep an alleged and soon to be convicted criminal in Canada? This is your idea of immigration and keeping good citizens in the country so we can grow as a nation? Special treatment much?

How about I rob a bank and ask the same thing because... I have a kid/relative/dog to take care of and I dont want him to end up in a foster home? That's cool too right?

Cant wait to see what kind of liberal gymnastics you are going to pull trying to justify this...

How is it unrelated and useless? You clearly state your agreement with CRKNY's position that it should be automatic deportation on the basis that it's wasting taxpayers money, I'm simply further questioning your rational as to where that line of thinking ends.

You still haven't answered any of my questions, why should we spend money determining their innocence or guilt but not spend the money administering the punishment?
How do you propose we treat tourist who commit crimes?
In the instances where their country of origin doesn't recognize their actions as crimes do you still propose they be deported and not face repercussions for their crimes?

Literally, the 1st sentence I wrote in this thread is that it's a desperation move by the defense and you'd be a shit defense lawyer if you didn't try everything to get your client the least time possible.

Where in any of my comments have I said or implied that I don't agree with the Judge's position that 5 years is an appropriate minimum sentence and that deportation proceedings could/should be initiated after her prison sentence?

You're the one that comes out looking like a fool, you've made a series of assumptions on my views about this case simply because I defended the idea that justice needs to be administered equally to everyone or else you're creating seperate classes of citizens.

In case you care about what I actually think instead of the liberal persona you've constructed for me: She should get the 5 years and be deported if the government deems it a deportable offence, I don't give a shit if she ends up being sent back to morocco.
 
In the instances where their country of origin doesn't recognize their actions as crimes do you still propose they be deported and not face repercussions for their crimes?

You lost all credibility as a CANADIAN citizen right there. Maybe you should move to one of those countries where you can rob people and beat your wife as you mentioned up there. I'm sure they will be happy to respect your freedom of speech and let you talk like this.

You are in Canada, you play by the Canadian rules and laws. You break the rules/law, get a fair trial like this girl was given and face the consequences.

End of story.
 
You lost all credibility as a CANADIAN citizen right there. Maybe you should move to one of those countries where you can rob people and beat your wife as you mentioned up there. I'm sure they will be happy to respect your freedom of speech and let you talk like this.

You are in Canada, you play by the Canadian rules and laws. You break the rules/law, get a fair trial like this girl was given and face the consequences.

End of story.

That's great! The consequences in this case is 5 years minimum in a canadian jail, why are you then advocating for automatic deportation?
 
That's great! The consequences in this case is 5 years minimum in a canadian jail, why are you then advocating for automatic deportation?

Because, according to our Canadian immigration laws, being convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 6 months is ground for automatic deportation. It's actual LAW.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2013_16/page-1.html

Bill C-43 changed that from 2 years to 6-months AND removed many provisions for appeals over appeals, closed alot of loopholes, The Villanueva case among others was used in making those changes.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/backgrounders/2013/2013-06-20a.asp

Have a good read.

Edit: small correction, any conviction is ground for deportation however if the crime carries a sentence of less than 6 months you are eligible for an appeal.
 
Last edited:
Because, according to our Canadian immigration laws, being convicted of a crime and sentenced to more than 6 months is ground for automatic deportation. It's actual LAW.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/annualstatutes/2013_16/page-1.html

Bill C-43 changed that from 2 years to 6-months AND removed many provisions for appeals over appeals, closed alot of loopholes, The Villanueva case among others was used in making those changes.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/backgrounders/2013/2013-06-20a.asp

Have a good read.

Actually according to Canadian law, the default is still a jail sentence, deportation is a possibility not the defacto outcome and only applies to foreign nationals and PR not immigrants that have obtained citizenship.

I'll ask you again, why should Canadians face a minimum 5-year jail sentence while immigrants (however you may define them) should default to automatic deportation?
 
Actually according to Canadian law, the default is still a jail sentence, deportation is a possibility not the defacto outcome and only applies to foreign nationals and PR not immigrants that have obtained citizenship.

I'll ask you again, why should Canadians face a minimum 5-year jail sentence while immigrants (however you may define them) should default to automatic deportation?

Canadian criminals, we are stuck with them. We happen to have plenty to deal with.

Foreign/immigrants criminals, given the option, why keep them here? Why should the tax payers pay for those people? Why give them an extra chance on top of welcoming them with open arms until they decided to back stab us, Canadians, by committing crimes in our country? It's not like it's fucking complicated to respect the laws here, 99% of it is "Dont be an asshole". Robbing a bank, yeah, dont care where you are from, that's a criminal offence. Fuck this noise, we dont need this in our system, they are not part of our already very inclusive Canadian values.

In her case, it's even more of an issue since she's been here for 4 years and yet she DID NOT EVEN START her process to become a Canadian citizen, she was too lazy and "forgot" about it.

For people like that, good riddance.
 
Actually according to Canadian law, the default is still a jail sentence, deportation is a possibility not the defacto outcome and only applies to foreign nationals and PR not immigrants that have obtained citizenship.

I'll ask you again, why should Canadians face a minimum 5-year jail sentence while immigrants (however you may define them) should default to automatic deportation?

I would honestly deport the other guys who committed the act of arm robbery too, whether they're citizens or not. If you're in my country, you don't do sh!t like that. I don't really care if you're born here or not.
 
ok let's put her in max security for 5 years and then deport her. So that will be a 5 years of vacation and then free travel paid by us. Let's hope she doesn't sue the country for slow wifi in jail.
 
Back
Top