A 19-year-old highschool scholar, she fled to Winnipeg in 2017 to flee the ISIS gunmen who stormed into northern Iraq and compelled girls and women into sexual slavery.
She thought she was secure within the Manitoba capital, after which final summer season, she allegedly grew to become the sufferer of sexual assault by the hands of a pacesetter of her personal group.
The person accused of repeatedly making an attempt to drive himself on her behind closed doorways in a darkened room, Hadji Hesso, is the manager director of the Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba.
Hesso has rubbed shoulders with federal cupboard ministers and MPs, and attended an array of galas. The day after he was charged with sexual assault, he was noticed on the Mayor’s Ball.
“I hope he’s going to remain in jail,” the alleged sufferer advised International Information in a collection of unique interviews after the Winnipeg Police Service arrested Hesso for a 3rd time on Dec. 2.
After International Information first revealed his arrests, many have been shocked {that a} chief of a Canadian group that helps Yazidi victims of sexual violence had allegedly preyed upon certainly one of them.
Extensively praised for its work, Hesso’s group was an early advocate for victims of ISIS cruelty. In testimony to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, he described the trauma of Yazidis.
“Most of the girls and women who’ve arrived in Canada have been going via a tough time,” he stated. “It’s extreme, and it varies from individual to individual.” He urged the federal government to “resettle susceptible Yazidi girls and women right here in Canada.”
Now, he’s now accused not solely of molesting certainly one of them, however of then allegedly threatening her and breaching bail situations that required him to haven’t any contact together with her.
In the meantime, International Information has realized that his non-profit group has continued to function regardless of having been dissolved by the Manitoba authorities greater than a 12 months in the past for failing to file annual stories.
The alleged sufferer can’t be recognized because of a court-ordered publication ban. Hesso’s lawyer, Alex Steigerwald, declined to remark. Hesso has not been convicted and denies the allegations.
However in an interview at her household’s Winnipeg residence, the alleged sufferer advised her story of warfare, displacement and claims of re-victimization in her adopted nation.
“I simply need to inform the individuals simply be actually cautious,” she stated. “Don’t go exterior by your self and simply actually focus in your security.”
Yazidis flee to Erbil, Iraq after ISIS attacked the cities of Sinjar and Zunmar, Aug. 3, 2014. (AP Photograph through AP video).
Ten years in the past, the Yazidi ethno-religious minority of northern Iraq suffered one of many worst crimes in opposition to humanity of current instances.
Having declared themselves the rulers of an Islamic State, gunmen encircled the villages round Sinjar, the Yazidi heartland, and ordered residents to transform or face demise.
Widely known as a genocide, the assault was a part of the Islamic State’s try to wipe out non secular variety from its so-called caliphate.
The terrorist group executed hundreds of males, took boys away to be skilled as fighters and kidnapped girls and women to Syria, the place they have been compelled to service ISIS males.
Below ISIS, they have been subjected to “enslavement, torture, inhuman therapy, homicide and rape, together with via sexual slavery,” the United Nations reported in August.
The Winnipeg teen was solely 9 on the time, however she recalled the capturing, our bodies and blood as she fled on foot together with her mother and father, brothers and sisters.
“We ran to Kurdistan,” she stated. “And after that, in 2017, we got here to Canada.” She stated the household wished a “secure place” after Iraq.
Once they arrived in Winnipeg, native Yazidis helped them get settled. “They helped us to discover a home and a faculty and every little thing,” she stated.
The help got here from a newly-formed non-profit group: the Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba
Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba
Hadji Hesso, government director of Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba, at demonstration at Manitoba legislature, 2018.
The Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba was included in 2017, two months after the federal authorities announced it will resettle 1,200 Yazidi girls, kids and their households.
The founding administrators have been Hesso and two others, provincial authorities data present. The group’s registered deal with is Hesso’s residence in Winnipeg.
For the traumatized refugees arriving within the metropolis, who have been principally girls and women with little data of English, the group had a vital position.
“They have been instrumental in serving to resettle the Yazidis in Winnipeg,” stated Prof. Lori Wilkinson, the Canada Analysis Chair of Migration Futures on the College of Manitoba’s Division of Sociology and Criminology.
The co-author of a federal government-contracted examine on Yazidi refugees, Wilkinson stated the group wanted distinct help as a result of they have been arriving in Canada so quickly after the genocide dedicated by ISIS, also called DAESH.
“They have been captives of DAESH, after which wakened in Canada,” she stated.
“Most refugees have been traumatized indirectly, however for the Yazidi girls specifically, but in addition a few of the children, they have been introduced right here at a time psychologists would name an acute degree of trauma, it simply occurred.”
Testifying to MPs in 2017, Hesso said his group was working in partnership with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
“We offer socializing alternatives, transportation, medical care, and a very powerful is interpretation and integration into Canadian society,” he stated.
IRCC stated it didn’t present any direct funding to Hesso’s group however that the group “participated in session classes and conferences” about providers “for this susceptible inhabitants arriving in Winnipeg.”
“We now have no different relationship with the Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba,” a spokesperson stated.
In pictures on social media, Hesso is seen with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, two immigration ministers, Liberal and Conservative MPs, and members of the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP.
In 2022, his affiliation was recommended within the Manitoba legislature in a Ministerial Assertion that acknowledged its “management in offering help to Yazidi refugees.”
However in response to the Manitoba authorities, Hesso’s group was dissolved in 2023, after it did not file annual returns for 2 consecutive years.
“As of Dec. 9, 2024, Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba Corp. shouldn’t be lively on the Corporations Workplace registry,” a provincial spokesperson advised International Information.
The Affiliation didn’t reply to emails requesting touch upon the matter, nor did it reply questions on Hesso or its sources of funding.
Aurora Household Remedy Centre, a Winnipeg charity, stated in a press release to International Information it had partnered with the Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba and different teams “to ship enhanced and focused summer season programming to refugee kids and youth.”
“We weren’t conscious they have been struck off the company registry,” stated government director Abdikheir Ahmed. “We shall be amending our procedures on a go-forward foundation.
“Final summer season was the final 12 months of the venture and there aren’t any plans for a continued relationship.”
Alleged undesirable touching
Iraqi Yazidi girls mourn relations at commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photograph/Farid Abdulwahed).
The Yazidi Affiliation of Winnipeg had been a part of the alleged sufferer’s life since she arrived in Winnipeg, however over the summer season she discovered herself alone with Hesso.
“I used to be taking a look at him, he was taking a look at me, and I knew he was going to do one thing,” she stated. “He was making an attempt to the touch me, contact my face.”
“I didn’t let him,” she stated.
She fended him off however he persevered, she stated. “He was at all times touching my leg and telling me ‘give me your hand,’” she alleged.
The occasions allegedly occurred once they have been alone within the canteen of a group facility, with the door closed and lights out.
At his request, she stated she wouldn’t inform anybody, she alleged. However later, he allegedly texted her asking for an specific sexual favour, she stated.
She advised her lecturers of the alleged incidents, the varsity referred to as the police, and officers arrived to take her videotaped assertion.
On the identical day he was charged, Hesso was launched on an enterprise. The next evening, he attended the Mayor’s Ball, in response to the seating chart and pictures on his social media.
The Metropolis of Winnipeg stated company both bought tickets or attended via tickets “bought by an exterior group.”
Twelve days later, Hesso was arrested once more, this time for allegedly violating a bail situation requiring him to not have direct or oblique contact with the alleged sufferer.
A relative of Hesso allegedly went to her home and tried to steer her to drop her grievance, accusing her of being paid to make the allegations.
Hesso has denied the allegation that he despatched a relative to her home.
He was launched on bail on Nov. 28, however police arrested him once more on Dec. 2 for allegedly threatening the alleged sufferer and failing to conform together with his bail situations.
The most recent prices stem from an alleged encounter close to the teenager’s residence. She and her sister have been strolling once they heard somebody name out, “We are going to kill you at some point,” she stated.
“And I noticed him,” she stated.
He was driving and checked out her, she added. One other particular person was additionally within the automobile, she stated. She stated she will be able to’t be certain it was his voice, however she thought it was.
Wilkinson stated it was common for susceptible girls to turn into victims of sexual crimes.
“In each single group — the Canadian group, the immigrant communities — there’s at all times going to be some individuals who benefit from the scenario, understanding full effectively that what they’re doing is destroying any individual’s life,” she stated.
“And the actions of 1 man shouldn’t taint the general good work that this group has performed.”
The Yazidi Affiliation of Manitoba stated Hesso remained in his place, however the Ethnocultural Council of Manitoba has eliminated him from its board, saying it was “not appropriate” for him to proceed.
Hesso stays in custody. However the alleged sufferer stated she was fearful the Manitoba courtroom may launch him on bail for a 3rd time.
The Yazidi group had been sympathetic to her, she stated.
“Sure, most of them are supporting me, and they’re behind my again and serving to me,” she stated.
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