The Governor General of Canada awarded Farhat Rehman, President of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women's Ottawa Chapter, with the Meritorious Service Medal on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.

Afghan Canadian Soleiman Faqiri died in Lindsay Correctional Facility in December 2016. His family wants answers. His brother, Yusuf Faqiri, will be in Ottawa on May 16 to discuss his family's fight for justice.

The Justice For Soli in partnership with Muslim Link and the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project is hosting this event on May 16 at 7pm at the University of Ottawa aimed at engaging people in Soleiman Faqiri's family fight for justice, as well as raising awareness about the crisis within Ontario's correctional facilities, particularly in terms of the treatment of people living with mental illness.

Register to attend the event online here.

Farhat came to Canada in 1969 to marry and raise a family. Like other immigrants of her age and background she had many aspirations and hopes for her bright children. But in February 2001, her dreams were shattered when her son, gripped by paranoid delusions due to an undiagnosed mental illness, stabbed his friend and mentor of many years who succumbed to his injuries. What began was a nightmare as Farhat struggled with guilt over her son's crime, heartache over the deterioration of her son's mental health, fear for her son's safety in the Ottawa Carleton Regional Detention Centre (RDC), and frustration with a corrections system she discovered to be seriously flawed. But in the process, Farhat became an advocate for the rights' of prisoners and their families and reached out to the support networks that she could find in Ottawa.