A trans-identified male in Quebec, Canada, has been found guilty of murdering his wife and two children in a grisly triple homicide that took place at a Brossard condominium in 2022. Mohamad Al Ballouz, 38, began identifying as a woman after being arrested and now calls himself “Levana.”
As previously reported by Reduxx, Al Ballouz was first arrested in September of 2022 after firefighters responded to an alarm originating from his 12th floor condo unit. Inside, they found a bonfire had been lit in the bedroom, where Al Ballouz was found lying on his bed beside the corpse of his wife, Synthia Bussières. Their two children were also on the bed, seemingly lifeless. First responders immediately noted that Bussières’ body had a number of stab wounds.
All four were rushed to the hospital, but Bussières and her children were declared dead shortly after. Al Ballouz had reportedly consumed windshield wiper liquid in an apparent suicide attempt, but he was placed under arrest after being treated for his self-imposed illness.
Al Ballouz was initially assigned some of the best defense lawyers in Quebec, but fired all of them due to disagreements. He represented himself in court, and delivered his closing arguments at the Longueuil courthouse in Québec last week. In his statement, he alleged that Bussières had tried to kill him after murdering their children, and that she had rearranged items in their home and stabbed herself to make it look like he had attacked her.
However, according to the prosecution, Al Ballouz stabbed Bussières repeatedly before suffocating the two boys with a pillow. Expert witness Maria Fiorello, a crime scene expert with 20 years of experience, testified that traces of Al Ballouz’s blood were found in many parts of the family’s condominium.
The accused killer’s blood was identified on the walls of the children’s bedroom, inside the shower, on the handle of the front door, on the handle of a mop, and on a box of garbage bags.
“The mop was still wet, so it appears it was used to clean up blood,” Fiorello said. She further explained that in her expert opinion, the location of Al Ballouz’s blood stains indicated he had been attempting to clean up the crime scene. Not only was the mop bloody, but the accused’s blood was on the washing machine, and he had changed his clothes.
While the exact motive of the crime remains unclear despite the trial, Bussières’ mother recently came forward to reveal that her daughter appeared increasingly troubled in the two years leading up to the murder.
“She had been with this man for 12 years, but in the last two years, she had changed. I didn’t recognize her anymore,” Sylvie Guertin told Les 2 Rives in September of 2023. She also said that she had seen Bussières in the weeks before her death, and had observed that her daughter looked frail.
“In August [of 2022], I saw that something was wrong, but I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to look like the mother who gets involved in something that doesn’t concern her,” Guertin said. “I thought she had lost weight.”
On Monday, the jury rejected Al Ballouz’ version of the events, finding him guilty of the second-degree murder of his wife, and the first-degree murders of their two sons. He is now facing life in prison without parole for at least 25 years.
Throughout the hearings, Al Ballouz attended court wearing a blond wig and makeup. There is currently no indication that Al Ballouz was experiencing a change in his self-perceived “gender identity” prior to the trial, suggesting his claim of being transgender followed his arrest.
The court “respected” Al Ballouz’ newfound identity. According to CBC, the prosecution had to “warn” the jury that several witnesses would refer to Al Ballouz as a man to preempt any concerns about “disrespect.”
Canadian media outlets covering the trial have similarly referred to Al Ballouz as a “woman” or by using feminine pronouns. Global News opted to only refer to Al Ballouz by his feminine “chosen name,” declining to use his birth name throughout their coverage. Once sentenced, Al Ballouz will be entitled to request housing in accordance with his gender identity under Canadian law.
Largely due to the efforts of the governing Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau, the category of “gender identity” was made a protected characteristic after it was added to the Canadian Human Rights Act via a controversial piece of legislation known as Bill C-16. The amendments granted men access to single-sex female spaces like washrooms, changing rooms, prisons, and rape shelters on the basis of their identity.
While the Canadian government claimed the bill had been assessed for its impact on women prior to approval, it has refused to release any details of the assessment’s findings. In 2020, a copy of the assessment was given to journalist Anna Slatz via an Access To Information Request but was 96% redacted.
Since Bill C-16 was enacted in 2017, a number of violent and sexually depraved male inmates have been transferred to women’s prisons across Canada.
As previously reported by Reduxx, one egregious example includes a trans-identified male who raped an infant before being transferred to a women’s prison.
Tara Desousa, also known as Adam Laboucan, sexually assaulted a three-month-old baby boy in Quesnel, British Columbia in 1997. The infant was so brutally injured by the attack that he had to be flown to Vancouver, 410 miles away, to undergo reconstructive surgery. After declaring a transgender status, Desousa was transferred to the Fraser Valley Institution for Women, where he is one of multiple trans-identified males with a history of sexual violence at the facility. Desousa is designated a “dangerous offender” and is considered such a risk to public safety that he is serving an indeterminate prison sentence.
