The honour killing trial that riveted the world has ended with all three of the accused being found guilty. Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammed Yaya and his son Hamed, 21, all of Kingston, were sentenced to the maximum penalty — 25 years in prison without the chance of parole. It’s fair to say that the cold-blooded and unnatural behavior of the killers has left the country shaken. One of those who died, Mohammed’s 13-year-old daughter Geeti, had been so concerned about her safety that she had asked police to place her in foster care. But that didn’t happen. Instead, a few months later the killers executed their plot to drown Geeti and her two sisters, as well as an older woman the girls looked to as a mother. Now comes the time when the national conscience will be examined asking how such a thing could happen in Canada. There should most certainly be a national debate — free from cheap guilt and long on practical action — about how best to detect and defeat this primitive behaviour.