WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
Clutching a teddy bear and trembling through her story in the witness box, a female former Afghan interpreter who worked for Canada in Afghanistan detailed the harrowing sexual abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a Canadian government employee.
For four days this week, the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, recounted to an Ottawa courtroom how the alleged abuse started when she was 17, shortly after moving to Canada in October 2011, and went on until 2013.
“He called me his sex toy, a whore and a bitch,” the woman said of her alleged attacker, whose family she was living with during some of the alleged abuse.
Isolated, thousands of miles away from her family in Kandahar, she said she couldn’t draw on support from her mother, father, siblings or friends. Coming from an honour culture, she said, meant that if word of the alleged abuse reached her father there would be dire consequences.
“He would kill me,” she said. “Its always a woman’s fault in Afghanistan.”
Galal Eldien Ali, who worked for the Canadian International Development Agency as a technical adviser in Kandahar from 2009 to 2012, is facing numerous charges. According to his LinkedIn page, Ali worked for Global Affairs Canada until May 2024.
A request to confirm Ali’s continued employment with Global Affairs was not completed by deadline.
The 64-year-old Ottawa resident’s charges include sexual assault, sexual exploitation of a young person, assault, uttering threats and extortion.
In a civil trial that will begin next year, the complainant is suing Ali for $1.75 million, seeking punitive damages for mental suffering and loss of future or past economic gain.
The woman also filed a suit against the Canadian government for more than $1 million, but that case was settled out of court this summer.
‘She is now your daughter’
The court heard this week that the woman, educated in a Canadian-funded school in Afghanistan, began working as an interpreter at Camp Nathan Smith in Kandahar when she was 15. At 17 she learned that she was eligible to move to Canada through a special immigration program for interpreters and jumped at the opportunity.
“My first, one and only, goal was to pursue post-secondary education in Canada,” she told the court.
Initially, the woman said, her father refused to let her go because she was young and he was concerned she would be vulnerable to sexual exploitation. She discussed her disappointment with Ali, who also worked at the camp. She said Ali told her he would speak to her dad.
During a meeting between the three of them, the woman said, Ali put his hand on the Qur’an and swore he would protect her in Canada.
After that reassurance, the woman said her father granted his permission. She said her father took Ali’s hand, put it on her head and told Ali that “she is now your daughter.”
‘He says to me I have to sexually please him’
The woman then travelled to Ottawa in October 2011 to live with Ali, his wife and their children, while she pursued her education.
Once in Ottawa, the woman says she asked Ali to help her enrol in university and claims that Ali said her English wasn’t good enough and she should try stripping. She alleges Ali told her because she was a petite virgin, she could earn $500 a night and that was the best way to help her family.
Determined to pursue her education, she said she needed to take a language test to determine which level of classes she would need to take to improve her English. But when she asked him to arrange the test, he demanded something in return.
“He says to me I have to sexually please him before he will take me to the test place,” she told the court this week.
‘I tried to push him’
The woman went on to describe how Ali would regularly walk into her room unannounced. She described in graphic detail, under questioning from the Crown, how on more than one occasion Ali groped and touched her sexually on top of and underneath her clothes, without consent.
She said that during one alleged assault in 2011, in the basement laundry room, his children, who were around the same age as her, were home.
“I tried to push him but I don’t have the strength,” she said, explaining that when she started to scream he carried her into another room with his hand over her mouth.
“There were two things going on in my head at that them,” she told the court. “I was going to get raped or I was going to die.”
After an alleged assault in her bedroom, she said Ali told her he had hidden cameras in her room and would send a video of the two of them to her father in Afghanistan if she told anyone. She said she was terrified and confused and knew that if her father found out, her mother and sisters would also be punished.
The woman told the court that she moved out of Ali’s family home Feb. 1, 2012, a few months after arriving in Canada, and then moved again several months later — on both occasions moving into accommodations where no men were present.
In the summer of 2013, she alleged Ali called her, saying he wanted to meet. If she refused the rendezvous, he would send a video of the two of them to her father, she told the court.
She says they met in the ByWard Market, she got into his car and he drove them to Montreal where he had arranged for a hotel.
She provided detailed descriptions of the prolonged sexual abuse she allegedly suffered at Ali’s hands in that hotel room, and his use of a camera to film what took place.
“I remember he had a black camera. I do remember it was a family camera, because I have seen that camera in their home as well,” she said.
Memories of assaults ‘hazy’
The woman alleges Ali then took her to a nearby shopping mall, bought her some purple lace lingerie and made her put it on when they got back to the hotel.
Ali then allegedly showed her pictures of himself shaking hands with former prime minister Stephen Harper, former defence minister Peter MacKay and former Gov. Gen. David Johnston. She told the court that Ali threatened her, saying that if she revealed what he did, he had powerful friends and influence to ensure her immigration status would be revoked.
The woman told the court that the photos looked fake. No photos of that description were entered into evidence.
On the way home from Montreal the next morning, Ali allegedly took her to the La Ronde amusement park, put her on various rides and took pictures.
During cross-examination, Ali’s defence lawyer took her through each allegation, asking her to provide precise details of the events.
Some of the alleged incidents lacked details on their sequence, detail, timing or extent. She said there were other incidents that she didn’t recall initially, but which came to the surface later.
She said that after the “Montreal incident,” she was so traumatized that her exact memory of the alleged abuse is “fuzzy” or “hazy.”
The woman explained she is coping with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been treated for depression.
Ali’s defence lawyer repeatedly challenged the woman, suggesting the incidents never happened. “It happened. That is why I am here talking about it. If it did not happen, I would not be here,” she replied.
After four days of testimony the trial was adjourned so the Crown and defence attorney could deal with a technical issue regarding the introduction of new evidence.
The woman’s cross-examination will resume at the Ottawa courthouse on Monday.
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
