WINNIPEG INDO-CANADIANS DISCUSS FAMILY VIOLENCE

Members of Winnipeg's Indo-Canadian community engaged in what they described as a first and difficult meeting Sunday night to discuss family violence in their culture. Community leaders, along with religious elders and counsellors, discussed sensitive subjects such as arranged marriages, spousal abuse and cultural pressures families may face after immigrating to Canada.
"We need to take responsibility if we become aware of it. And nobody wants to take responsibility because they're part of the problem," said Rubi Bedi, who attended the talks on Sunday. "Our elders, our priests ... our churches, our temples — they are all part of the problem. We are all part of it." The Sunday discussion came in the wake of the murders of a number of Indo-Canadian women this fall. In October, Navreet Waraich, 27, was stabbed to death by her husband in their Surrey home. Jatinder Waraich has been charged with second-degree murder.