A Jamaican pastor, Alton Farquharson, has been remanded into custody after appearing in a Canadian court on a second-degree murder charge in connection with the death of his wife.
Farquharson appeared briefly via video link in a court in London, Ontario, on Tuesday. He has been in police custody since last Friday following the killing of his wife, identified in court documents as Tasha Farquharson, 47. It was not immediately clear whether he has retained legal representation or when he will next return to court.
According to police, officers responded around 5:15 a.m. on Friday to a residential building at 297 Westminster Avenue after receiving a report of a death. A woman was found with what police described as a “traumatic injury” and was transported to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Police initially did not publicly identify the victim. However, CBC News reported that the woman was the wife of the accused and that Farquharson, 56, of London, Ontario, was arrested at the scene and later charged with second-degree murder. Court documents obtained by CBC News identified the victim as Tasha Farquharson.
In a statement issued Friday, London Police Service explicitly described the case as a femicide, noting that the term had not been used in earlier communications.
Court officials said Farquharson has no prior matters on file at the London courthouse. Under Canadian criminal law, initial court appearances following a remand in serious cases such as second-degree murder are typically procedural, focusing on issues such as legal representation and scheduling future hearings.
Farquharson is reportedly originally from Mile Gully in Manchester, Jamaica. A 2017 profile published in a Jamaican newspaper traced Farquharson’s transition from an engineering career into ministry at the Church of the Living God.
It remains unclear when the couple migrated to Canada or whether Farquharson continued pastoral work there. Online, he described himself as a pastor, and a TikTok account purportedly belonging to him features short sermon-style videos interspersed with personal content.
Farquharson is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday as the case proceeds.
