Teen Committed

MONTREAL — Maor Attar, 19, was found not criminally responsible for murdering his sister by a Quebec Superior Court judge March 16 because he’s schizophrenic. He’ll spend an indefinite period at the Philippe Pinel Institute for killing Shirel Attar, 14, in their Côte St. Luc home last summer. He’s been held there since his arrest hours after repeatedly stabbing and bludgeoning the girl, obeying, as the court heard, voices in his head. He’ll be assessed annually to see if he’s fit for release. He had no previous diagnosis of mental illness.

Diplomat Speaks

MONTREAL — Israel’s first Bedouin diplomat, Ishmael Khaldi, spoke to a receptive audience of more than 100 students and teachers at Collège Laflèche in Trois-Rivières, Que., during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Although the school didn’t formally take part in IAW, there is campus support for boycotting Israel. Khaldi, whose visit was organized by the Quebec-Israel Committee, is a former deputy consul in San Francisco, one of the highest ranks ever held by an Israeli Muslim. Now an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman, he didn’t deny discrimination exists in Israel, but he said he’s proud to be Israeli.