Man convicted of child sex crimes fights in court for Bengali books, even after B.C. prison buys 10

An inmate serving time for child pornography and sexually assaulting minors returned a book about court rules to his B.C. prison’s library and borrowed another book, one in his native Bengali language, before he filed his lawsuit against the prison for not providing him Bengali books.

Tanzirul Alam, 34, has been in Matsqui Institution in British Columbia since shortly after he was sentenced in Calgary in 2017 for luring three underaged girls and sexually assaulting them, some of which was recorded on video and shared on the internet.

“I’m a victim of a system that is not perfect,” Alam told the judge at his sentencing hearing, complaining the government of Canada didn’t tell him child sex was illegal in Canada when he immigrated from Bangladesh.

Alam has been complaining about many things.

After filing a doomed appeal of his conviction, he filed a lawsuit in Federal Court in 2019 over his transfer from Bowden Institution in Alberta to Matsqui. Despite his loss, he argued and appealed over rules, schedules and timing until it was all dismissed last year.