Parole hearing today for Hamed Shafia, convicted of murdering his sisters and woman

A man convicted of murdering his three sisters and another woman more than 17 years ago is set to have a parole hearing today.

It wasn’t immediately clear what type of release Hamed Shafia is seeking from the Parole Board of Canada.

Shafia and his parents were found guilty in January 2012 of four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his teenage sisters and his father’s first wife in a polygamous marriage.

The four bodies were found in a car at the bottom of the Rideau Canal in Kingston, Ont., in June 2009.

The trial judge had described the killings as being motivated by the Shafia family’s “twisted concept of honour.”

The family had immigrated to Canada from Afghanistan and settled in Montreal, where the father was a successful businessman.

After his conviction, the younger Shafia argued that he was too young to be tried as an adult in the case, but Ontario’s top court rejected his appeal.

The Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear the case in 2017.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2026.