As a 19-year-old high school student, she fled to Winnipeg in 2017 to escape ISIS Gunmen who stormed into northern Iraq and forced women and girls sexual slavery.
She believed she was safe in the Manitoba capital, then was allegedly the victim of sexual assault last summer by a leader in her own community.
The man is accused of repeatedly trying to force himself on her behind closed doors in a darkened room. Hadji Hessois the executive director of the Yazidi Association of Manitoba.
Hesso has worked with ministers and members of the federal cabinet and taken part in a number of galas. The day after he was charged with sexual assault, he was spotted at the mayor’s ball.
“I hope he stays in prison,” the alleged victim told Global News in a series of exclusive interviews after Winnipeg police arrested Hesso for the third time on December 2.
First by Global News revealed After his arrest, many were shocked that a leader of a Canadian organization that helps Yazidi victims of sexual violence had allegedly taken advantage of one of them.
Hesso’s group was widely praised for its work and was an early advocate for victims of ISIS atrocities. In Transcript Before the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, he described the trauma of the Yazidis.
“Many of the women and girls who have arrived in Canada have gone through a difficult time,” he said. “It is serious and varies from person to person.” He called on the government to “resettle at-risk Yazidi women and girls here in Canada.”
Now he is not only accused of abusing one of them, but of allegedly threatening her afterwards and violating bail conditions that required him to have no contact with her.
Meanwhile, Global News has learned his nonprofit group has continued operating despite being dissolved by the Manitoba government more than a year ago for failing to file annual reports.
The alleged victim could not be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban. Hesso’s attorney, Alex Steigerwald, declined to comment. Hesso has not been convicted and denies the allegations.
But in an interview at her family’s home in Winnipeg, the alleged victim told her story of war, displacement and claims of re-victimization in her adopted country.
“I just want to tell people to be really careful,” she said. “Don’t go outside alone and really focus on your safety.”
Yazidis flee to Erbil, Iraq, after ISIS attacked the cities of Sinjar and Zunmar, August 3, 2014. (AP photo via AP video).
Ten years ago, the Yazidi ethnic-religious minority in northern Iraq suffered one of the worst crimes against humanity in recent memory.
After declaring themselves rulers of an Islamic state, gunmen surrounded villages around Sinjar, the Yazidi heartland, and ordered residents to convert or face death.
Widely recognized as genocideThe attack was part of the Islamic State’s attempt to wipe out religious diversity in its so-called caliphate.
The terror group executed thousands of men, abducted boys to train as fighters and kidnapped women and girls to Syria, where they were forced to serve ISIS men.
Under ISIS, they were subjected to “enslavement, torture, inhumane treatment, murder and rape, including through sexual slavery,” the United Nations reported in August.
The Winnipeg teenager was only nine years old at the time, but she remembered the shooting, the bodies and the blood as she fled on foot with her parents, brothers and sisters.
“We fled to Kurdistan,” she said. “And after that, in 2017, we came to Canada.” She said the family wanted a “safe place” after Iraq.
When they arrived in Winnipeg, local Yazidis helped them settle in. “They helped us find a house, a school, everything,” she said.
The support came from a newly formed non-profit organization: the Yazidi Association of Manitoba
Yazidi Association of Manitoba
Hadji Hesso, executive director of the Yazidi Association of Manitoba, at a demonstration in front of the Manitoba Parliament, 2018.
The Yazidi Association of Manitoba was founded in 2017, two months after the federal government announced It would relocate 1,200 Yazidi women, children and their families.
The founding directors were Hesso and two others, provincial government records show. The group’s registered address is Hesso’s residence in Winnipeg.
The group played a crucial role for the traumatized refugees who arrived in the city, most of whom were women and girls with limited English skills.
“They were instrumental in the resettlement of Yazidis in Winnipeg,” said Prof. Lori Wilkinson, Canada Research Chair of Migration Futures in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba.
Wilkinson, co-author of a federally commissioned study on Yazidi refugees, said the group needs special support because it arrives in Canada so soon after the genocide by ISIS, also known as DAESH.
“They were prisoners of DAESH and then woke up in Canada,” she said.
“Most of the refugees were traumatized in some way, but the Yazidi women in particular, but also some of the children, were brought here at a time when psychologists would describe acute trauma, it just happened.”
Statement to MPs in 2017, Hesso said His group worked with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
“We provide socializing opportunities, transportation, medical care, and most importantly, interpretation and integration into Canadian society,” he said.
IRCC said it has not provided any direct funding to Hesso’s organization, but the group has “participated in consultation sessions and meetings” about services “for this vulnerable population arriving in Winnipeg.”
“We have no other relationship with the Yazidi Association of Manitoba,” a spokesperson said.
In photos on social media, Hesso is seen with Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, two immigration ministers, Liberal and Conservative MPs, and members of the Winnipeg Police Service and the RCMP.
In 2022, its association was praised in the Manitoba Parliament in a ministerial statement recognizing its “leading role in supporting Yazidi refugees.”
But according to the Manitoba government, Hesso’s group was dissolved in 2023 after failing to file annual returns for two consecutive years.
“As of December 9, 2024, the Yazidi Association of Manitoba Corp. is no longer registered with the Companies Office,” a provincial spokesperson told Global News.
The association did not respond to emails seeking comment on the matter or answer questions about Hesso or its funding sources.
Aurora Family Therapy Centre, a charity in Winnipeg, said in a statement to Global News it has been working with the Yazidi Association of Manitoba and other groups “to provide enhanced and targeted summer programs for refugee children and youth.”
“We didn’t know that they had been removed from the company register,” said managing director Abdikheir Ahmed. “We will change our procedures in the future.
“Last summer was the final year of the project and there are no plans to continue the relationship.”
Allegedly unwanted touching
Iraqi Yazidi women mourn their loved ones at the 10th anniversary commemoration of the Yazidi genocide in Sinjar, Iraq, Aug. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Farid Abdulwahed).
The Yazidi Association of Winnipeg had been a part of the alleged victim’s life since she arrived in Winnipeg, but over the summer she found herself alone with Hesso.
“I looked at him, he looked at me and I knew he was going to do something,” she said. “He tried to touch me, touch my face.”
“I didn’t allow it,” she said.
She fought him off, but he persisted, she said. “He kept touching my leg and telling me, ‘Give me your hand,'” she claimed.
The events allegedly occurred when they were alone in the cafeteria of a community facility, with the door closed and the lights off.
At his request, she said she wouldn’t tell anyone, she claimed. But later he allegedly texted her and asked for explicit sexual favors, she said.
She told her teachers about the alleged incidents, the school called the police and officers came to videotape her statement.
The same day he was charged, Hesso was released on bond. The following evening, he attended the mayor’s ball, according to the seating chart and photos on his social media.
The City of Winnipeg said guests either purchased tickets or came via tickets “purchased from an outside organization.”
Twelve days later, Hesso was arrested again, this time for allegedly violating a bail condition requiring him not to have direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim.
A relative of Hesso reportedly went to her house and tried to convince her to drop her complaint, accusing her of being paid to make the allegations.
Hesso has denied allegations that he sent a relative to her house.
He was released on bail on November 28, but police arrested him again on December 2 for allegedly threatening the alleged victim and failing to comply with his bail conditions.
The latest charges stem from an alleged encounter near the teen’s home. She and her sister were walking when they heard someone shouting: “One day we’re going to kill you,” she said.
“And I saw him,” she said.
He was driving and looked at her, she added. Another person was also in the car, she said. She said she couldn’t be sure it was his voice, but she believed it was.
Wilkinson said it was not uncommon for vulnerable women to become victims of sex crimes.
“In every single community – the Canadian community, the immigrant communities – there will always be some people who take advantage of the situation, knowing full well that what they are doing is destroying someone’s life,” she said.
“And the actions of one man should not detract from the overall good work this organization has done.”
The Yazidi Association of Manitoba said Hesso remained in his position, but the Ethnocultural Council of Manitoba removed him from its board, saying it was “not appropriate” for him to continue.
Hesso remains in custody. But the alleged victim said she was worried the Manitoba court might release him on bail a third time.
The Yazidi community was understanding for her, she said.
“Yes, most of them support me and they have my back and help me,” she said.
