Brantford Expositor
Susan Gamble
Tuesday September 19, 2023
Brantford's Ontario Court of Justice.
A young man who had a traumatic start to life in a Kenyan refugee camp was convicted of stabbing a man in the back in January.
Brantford Police were called to what assistant Crown attorney Alex Burns called an illegal cannabis dispensary on Erie Avenue on the afternoon of Jan. 27.
They found an employee there had been stabbed in the lower back just outside the business and three suspects had taken off in a blue Honda.
Those men were later located and arrested in a Windsor hotel.
“They were in a verbal altercation” on Erie Avenue, said Burns at a trial last month.
“(The employee) asked them to leave the store as they were not welcome there due to previous incidents.”
Burns said the worker pushed one of the three men and, while the employee’s back was turned, Ismail stabbed the man with an eight-inch knife, “creating a wide puncture wound.”
The man was taken to Hamilton General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
At the time of the incident, Ismail was on probation.
At the end of August, the charges against Ismail’s co-accused were withdrawn.
Ismail, who has criminal record and has been serving time in Maplehurst due to a conviction in Hamilton on breach of probation and threatening, agreed to plead guilty to the charge of assault with a weapon.
“He had a very difficult start in life,” said defence lawyer Andrew Confente, explaining that Ismail’s family fled turmoil in Somalia. Ismail was born and raised to the age of five in a Kenyan refugee camp.
“He experienced many traumatic and horrible experiences while in the camp that still have an impact today,” said Confente.
The lawyer said after Ismail arrived in Canada, settling in Alberta, he was subjected to bullying and racist taunts at school and suffered through serious family problems.
Confente said his client has cognitive and mental health issues but plans to live with his dad and work on his education once released.
Justice Gethin Edward agreed with the joint position of the equivalent of eight months of time already served on the single charge.
“You’re relatively young,” said the judge, ordering Ismail to provide a DNA sample and stay away from his victim.
Ismail was not immediately released from custody due to his Hamilton conviction.
[email protected]
@EXPSGamble