Forensic psychiatrist, cultural expert testify at sisters' murder trial

A forensic psychiatrist testified in an Ottawa courtroom this week that two sisters accused of murdering their mother in 2022 had been living in a chronic state of emotional distress before their alleged crime. 

Chau Lam, 59, and Hue Lam, 62, have each pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of their 88-year-old mother Kieu Lam in late October 2022. The jury trial began in June at the Superior Court of Justice in Ottawa.

Prosecutors have argued Kieu Lam gave her daughters life, only to have her own taken. They previously described the older woman as "sleeping defenceless" in bed when the sisters allegedly smashed her head with a hammer and strangled her.

The sisters don't deny killing their mother, but have said they did it to protect themselves from further abuse — abuse they say intensified after Hue Lam was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. 

Sisters were abused, psychiatrist concludes

The court heard evidence from Dr. Zeynep Selaman, who met with both sisters and reviewed other relevant material before being called upon by Chau Lam's defence lawyers to testify. 

Selaman said in her expert opinion, the sisters suffered long-term abuse that only worsened over time. Selaman said Chau Lam showed signs of a persistent depressive disorder as well as a pattern of "learned helplessness" stemming from her lack of autonomy growing up. 

Chau Lam had adapted to living in a state of high alert, her sense of hopelessness reinforced by her inability to improve her situation, Selaman said. Court heard previously that attempts by the sisters and other family members to relocate their mother to a retirement home had failed.

One brother, Minh Hyunh, testified their mother had maintained control over the sisters when they lived in Vietnam, and that she used violence, including hitting them with objects. The behaviour continued after the family moved to Canada, he said. 

Another brother, Chanh Hyunh, testified he was well aware of the difficult situation his sisters were in, living alone with their mother decades after the family came to Canada from Vietnam.

Selaman said the abuse had become "normalized," and said the brothers had grown "dismissive" of their mother's behaviour.  

Accused changed her tone: Crown

During cross-examination by the Crown, court heard how Chau Lam's initial statements to Selaman when they first met for an evaluation earlier this year described the abuse in milder terms — being called a "bad girl," for example.

Earlier, Lam spent three emotional days in the witness box detailing the abuse in much starker terms.

"It felt like mom had a knife and she would pull it out and slap me, and pull it out and slap me again," she testified earlier.

Selaman agreed Chau Lam's testimony was "perhaps crueller" than her earlier descriptions, but stuck to her professional opinion that the Lam sisters had been abused. She said it was possible Chau Lam had softened her initial descriptions out of shame or embarrassment.

Saleman disagreed with prosecutors that the sisters had exaggerated their claims of abuse during the trial, but did not entirely reject the possibility of malignancy.

"It does not change my overall diagnostic opinion," she said.

Cultural expert testifies

Earlier in the week, an academic expert offered court insight into Confucian family values and their influence on the roles of Vietnamese women, including obedience and caregiving responsibilities. 

The family arrived in Canada in the early 1990s and the sisters lived with their mother until her death in 2022. 

Danièle Bélanger, who studies global migration processes at Laval University, described the concept of "filial piety" — a moral obligation for children to care for elders — as central to family dynamics in Vietnam, explaining how daughters must demonstrate obedience and self-sacrifice. 

That obedience is instilled in children from a young age, Bélanger said, and reinforced through language and social hierarchy. 

Bélanger described how harsh insults can be used as tools of discipline in such a setting, and explained to the jury how unmarried women are often stigmatized in traditional Vietnamese culture. 

The trial is currently behind schedule, but the defence is expected to close its case next week. The jury is expected to begin deliberations before the end of next week.