Sue's Views on the News

Prostitutes take their desires to the Supreme Court

2012-01-23T18:43:00.005-05:00

(revised Jan 25, 2012)

Laws limiting prostitution protect most vulnerable

Prostitution has been decriminalized, although laws surrounding it involve illegal activity. That's what some prostitutes want to have changed. They want to challenge the laws that ban keeping a bawdy house, communicating for the purpose of prostitution, and living off the avails of prostitution and procurement. If they accomplish their aim of making these legal, then what's to stop poor people (young women) from being further exploited in society. Sure, some women may be in this career by choice, or as a temporary measure to pay off debts, but we have to think about how it will affect those with fewer choices in life who have virtually no alternative if they want to survive. Don't make this easy for those who see the prostitution as a legitimate, objective exchange of money for what should be seen as an intimate act. For the sake of our next generation, there needs to be a distinction between legitimate forms of employment and this.

Above is the letter I submitted to the editor of the London Free Press today, in response to 'Sex workers turn to Supreme Court' (see reference list). Letter posted to the LFP website Jan 23, published in The London Free Press on Jan. 25, 2012.

The news story came out in different forms at more or less the same time. My comments to the CBC report, submitted hours apart, were not published. No comments were published on the page following the article itself which contained selected comments, though the story itself was changed after a day or so to what you see there now, explaining that "roughly 76 per cent of 1770 respondents said 'Yes, activities like keeping a bawdy house and communicating for prostitution should be legal'." (CBC, Community Reaction).

While the CTV news site did not publish my comment (CTV, Sex-trade workers), 45 others were, before Comments were closed.

The Toronto Sun was more liberal, publishing mine in with 37 other comments (See Toronto Sun, Sex Workers, comments section).

This is a serious matter, and if the issues do not get the attention they deserve, then society will suffer - or should we say the poor in society will suffer.

Community reaction to sex-trade workers' Supreme Court appearance
By Community Team
CBC News
January 20, 2012
http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourcommunity/2012/01/community-reaction-to-sex-trade-workers-arguments-to-the-supreme-court.html

Laws limiting prostitution protect most vulnerable
By Susan A McPherson
LFP letters
London Free Press
Jan 23, 2012 (Jan 25 in the LFP hard copy).
http://www.lfpress.com/comment/letters/home.html?p=48457&x=letters&l_publish_date=&s_publish_date=&s_keywords=&s_topic=&s_letter_type=Letter

Sex workers turn to Supreme Court
By Kris Sims, Parliamentary Bureau
London Free Press
January 19, 2012
http://www.lfpress.com/news/canada/2012/01/19/19268456.html

Sex-trade workers take case to Canada's top court
By CTV News.ca Staff
CTV News
Jan. 19 2012
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20120119/sex-trade-workers-court-20119/

Sex workers turn to Supreme Court
By Kris Sims ,Parliamentary Bureau
Toronto Sun
January 19, 2012
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/19/sex-workers-turn-to-supreme-court#disqus_thread

The Occupy Movement: UWO's Klatt and Hammond, and other perspectives

2011-12-10T13:01:00.010-05:00

[revised Jan 12, 2012]

In November, 2011, Heinz Klatt, retired professor, wrote a piece for Western News (UWO, London, Ont), with the title 'Occupy movement may be most vapid of all,' Nov 24, in which he complained about the Occupiers, ending with a suggestion that they might, after all, be on the same side, against the 1%.

Klatt was critical of the Occupiers not being able to articulate their concerns well or comprehend their aims sufficiently. But we all speak from our own knowledge base - from ‘education,’ the media, our own experience, and elsewhere. If the Occupiers are pursuing a particular path (placing blame on the 1%) and still sorting out where their movement is heading, then we should consider that normal, under the circumstances. Which revolutionary movement ever strated out being well organized and knowing exactly what their aims were and how they could be accomplished. Take the women's liberation movement as an example of a movement that has been chaotic at times, with no clear direction or organization in its early years. Chaining themselves to gates and throwing themselves in front of horses may not appear to us to be well thought-out strategies for success, but look at them now. As the Occupiers continue to discuss, listen to others, reflect on what they want for themselves and society, and to organize, no doubt their movement will progress in achieving their aims and their ability to express them.

The media’s emphasis, Klatt’s, and Bernie Hammond's, whose Nov 17 piece was the instigator of this discussion, all claim that the 1% is the problem, not that there could be many reasons why social inequality is worse now than in recent decades. As the division between the classes widens, there is bound to be increasing disatisfaction among those lower down, while those at the top (eg top 30-50%) reap the benefits of the 'good life.' Yet this fact of life, that the struggle for scarce resources exists at every level of society, has yet to be recognized as a contributing factor to the problem of social inequality in general.

Feminism is one contributing factor - beginning with the women's liberation movement that formed in opposition to men's dominance in society, and which now is in many ways dominant itself, if not over men of their own class, then over men and women lower down in terms of economic standing. Unfortunately, the real numbers of good careers and jobs in society has not increased, even though many more women are now working alongside men, and marrying them, resulting in increased numbers of the well-off dual-career, dual-income family and their assumptions of entitlement.

Feminism has achieved much for women's independence, but not for all women. And while men used to be dominant, in general, that dominance is now shared with women. We no longer live in a world where the man is breadwinner with a wife at home. In fact, most young people do not understand the way things were. Nor do many in the middle classes comprehend (or perhaps would rather not admit) that there are many capable people out there being pushed out, while they edge their way upwards.

Don't shrug off the power of the Occupy movement
By Bernie Hammond
Opinion, Western news
November 17, 2011
http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/opinions/2011/November/hammond_dont_shrug_off__the_power_of_the_occupy_movement.html

Occupy movement may be most vapid of all
By Heinz Klatt
Opinions, Western News
November 24, 2011
http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/opinions/2011/November/klatt_occupy_movement_may_be_most_vapid_of_all_.html

Income inequality: deep, complex and growing
By Jeffrey Simpson
Globe and Mail
Dec 09, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/jeffrey-simpson/income-inequality-deep-complex-and-growing/article2264938/

The poor are doing better than you think [comments section]
By Margaret Wente [and concerned readers]
Globe and Mail
Dec 10, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/the-poor-are-doing-better-than-you-think/article2266245/comments/

What Justin Bieber and Gold Diggers Can Teach Us About Feminism

2011-11-19T08:49:00.006-05:00

or
What Justin Bieber and feminism can tell us about gold diggers

In this Huffington Post piece by Keli Goff, the incident involving Justin Bieber and his alleged paternity has introduced issues concerning feminist views on 'gold diggers. But as I see it, the situation Bieber was involved in is not the main issue. The phenomenon of gold digging is. And I don't see feminists sitting outside of that one. I see them as being as deeply involved as anyone else.

Kanye West's video about gold digging, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vwNcNOTVzY&feature=relmfu , came out a few years ago, before Justin Bieber made headlines over his 'women problems'. The term 'gold diggers' appears to have vague meanings, but rather than being strictly about situations such as Justin Bieber's, the term seem to be about life in general, about how some men and women conduct themselves in normal human relationships. As an aside, the girls in the video don't look as though their thoughts are on motherhood.

Gold diggers used to be seen as women who sought to marry a man for his money. Sometimes this seemed obvious, when the man was 80 or more and the woman in her 20s or 30s. I believe Hugh Hefner might fall into this category. of course, everything has changed now, since feminism has got women into the workforce in increasing numbers, many of them taking positions alongside men in a professional capacity. But to some extent, don't most women of today seek to marry men who can offer them the most, in terms of security and access to financial resources, even if the women themselves have a good career? Doesn't the thought of marrying well hold the possibility of an even more 'secure' lifestyle?

Years ago, say in the 50s and 60s, marrying a man for money might have been the only way a woman could be sure of achieving financial security, as so many women didn't work but relied on men as the 'breadwinners'. But today's world is different, thanks to feminism. In some ways, it seems as though the tables are turned. It used to be men who received encouragement and had more opportunities. But feminism has changed that. Their emphasis has been women, though of course, mainly on women from the middle classes.

I don't see 'gold digging' as mainly being about women who have sex for the purpose of getting pregnant, then getting the man to marry her, as has been claimed to be Mariah Yeater's aim. She now has a son, Tristyn, she claims to be Justin Bieber's. Any man should be suspicious of that kind of claim in today's world, now that contraceptives are generally available. That kind of claim might have worked years ago, in the 50's, before contraception became available, but no longer.

Nevertheless, good jobs and financially secure husbands may be hard to come by in todays's world, where unemployment is rife and feminism's impact has led to the dual-career, dual-income family doing well, on one side, and men and women struggling for subsistence on the other - the class divide.

Women in general, who have few other resources but whose sexual appeal is high (see video, Gold Digger by Kanye West), could well use that to get a man marry her, although basing a marriage on sexual attraction may not be the best way to go about it. But first has to acknowledge that men are often swayed by women's sexuality in order to accept this view. And then, the term 'gold digger' could be applied to that situation if the motivation for marriage was seen to be money, rather than compatibility, love, etc.

What I'm leading up to is this, that it is not just the overtly sexual woman with no college education who is seeking the best mate possible. In today's world, it's a fact of life that most women will seek to enhance their own assets, even if they have good prospects for a profitable career. Marrying a partner on his way up the corporate ladder may even help her own career. But is that seen as gold digging, or is that term kept (reserved) for the uneducated woman, who overtly displays her sexual assets, or who would have little opportunity to make her way in a tradtional career, or who chooses not to?

It isn't just women of today who are seeking partners with the most to offer. Men who need power on their side, and who desire a mutually-enhancing relationship, might also seek out a female partner based on their place on the income scale. After all,it is human nature to seek the best partner one can, under the circumstances, isn't it. So,. should the term gold diggers still be used, as it relaly applies to women of earlier generations who had so few choices in life?

Rather than look at Justin Bieber's experience as typical of 'gold digger' circumstances, I think it is not typical at all.

This is what I am suggesting the term 'gold digger' applies to, in general: Gold digging behaviour is surely more an accepted part of life that applies to all sort of women, from the poor, sexy uneducated young woman to the professional woman seeking the best partner she can acquire. Kanye West made a video about it not because it is unusual, but because it is what women do. And men love it.

Income, or personal assets, is one of the main criteria for choosing a partner. What if internet dating sites did not include these criteria as part of their set of 'characteristics,' to assist in selecting or excluding certain potential candidates from selection. What if people chose mates without taking into consideration their earning potential or material wealth, as so many of us did in the 60s?

Men and women marry for all sorts of reasons. In today's postfeminist society, men marry for a regular source of sex, or to have a trophy woman on his arm when he goes out, for companionship, for financial security, etc. Women marry men, not for sex, probably, but for financial security, and as trophies, too, and to have the good life - part of the dual career, dual income class in our society. It's what men and women do. 'Gold digging', if you still want to call it that, is one aspect of finding a partner.

What Justin Bieber and Gold Diggers Can Teach Us About Feminism
by Keli Goff
Huffington Post - Culture
Nov 15, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/what-justin-bieber-and-go_b_1094032.html?ref=daily-brief?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=111511&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Ageism, Class, and the Wealth Gap Between the Young and Old

2011-11-09T23:40:00.002-05:00

The only place in Huffington Post that the generation gap, or aging, or ageism, is being discussed is in the business section. And even so, this piece (the US Wealth Gap) written by Hope Yen could actually be about so many things, and not just about the division of wealth between the old and the young. It is a false division, more than likely intended to create division between the generations instead of explain it.

We all know there are seniors who are living in poverty, just as we know there are under 35-year-olds who have too much money to spend. Manipulating statistics to arrive at the conclusion one wants to isn't clever. It is devious, it is cunning, and it may even work (depending on one's agenda), but how can people have respect for such a person who writes this nonsense, or for the Huff Post editors who condone it, even encourage it. After all, isn't what counts the amount of reader interest, the number of comments (over 8,000).

Furthermore, why is there still a section called 'Women' in the Living category of this paper? Why isn't it called Gender? And how about one called 'Couples and Singledom'?

And why isn't there a category called 'Aging' or the 'Generation Gap'? Why are the differences between the young and the old all made to come down to money? I would like to talk about aging itself, and not simply about the differences in income between the generations that some writers are treating as the main issue.

The other piece referred to below is another piece of nonsense, placing the blame squarely on the high worth of the top 1% of households in the US. Yet the problem is not the top 1%. The problem is all around us. The problem is in the way some of the higher income earners in the 99% treat others in this immense category, which includes doctors, lawyers, service workers, and receptionists. It reflects the struggle of life, the quest for more, and the effort for some to stop others from getting even a small share fo the scarce resources our world has to offer.

The problem is not that the healthcare workers are overworked. It is that they spend their effort on taks that are non-productive, on trying to give more to some individuals and making sure others get less. The system is not so much overburdened with too may sick or old people. It is overburdened with too many who have health insurance making sure they get every dollar's worth, and then some.

I don't believe that 'generational warfare' was designed by the 1% to distract the rest of us from looking at class differences, as stated in 'One Percent.' The complexity of our world is such that different agendas collide as they pursue their own interests, and sometimes join forces to gang up on one group - usually the most vulnerable, and for the purpose for protecting their own interests. Get people to blame the 1% and they won't be so ready to place the responsibility where it lies - in the way boys and girls are raised, and indoctrinated, into pushing their way forward, seeking more money, and more power. What's more, the main divide isn't between the young and old; it isn't a generational divide. It's between each level of society, between those struggling for more and those who have it and are trying to keep it!

The One Percent Turns Class War Into Generational War
By Dean Baker
Huffington Post - Business
Nov 7, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-one-percent-turns-cla_b_1080141.html

U.S. Wealth Gap Between Young, Old Is Widest Ever
By Hope Yen
Huffington Post - Business
Nov 7, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/us-wealth-gap-young-old_n_1079372.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=110711&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle&utm_term=Daily%20Brief#comments

Widest-ever wealth gap between young and old in the US

2011-11-07T15:32:00.003-05:00

This very one-sided article has appeared in numerous newspapers' websites today. It places blame for economic disparity between the young and the old strictly on the shoulders of the old, regardless of income, home ownership, marital status, or work history.

One reason the economic division between young and old can be seen as increasing over the last 30 to 50 years is the effect of feminism and increasing numbers of women in the workforce - changing norms, in other words.

Whereas 50 years ago a wealthy man might have a wife who stayed home and did charity work, now, older men are sought out by women for what they have to offer - in the firm, or as an influential, hidden, character reference for other careers. Thus the household with the head at age 65 plus might have a 45year old wife with high earning power in today's world.

I am not surprised that whoever wrote this piece didn't want to include this probable effect. It's not something the middle class really wants to deal with. And as women continue to marry men with the best resources, how can we ever expect the situation to get better. One of the side effects of feminism. What's that called again - oh, collateral damage.

Another problem with this article - something omitted - is that many old people, particularly older women, live in poverty. They may not be in debt, and so would not be included in the 8% mentioned in the last sentence. But despite receiving old age benefits, many will be struggling to get by.

So often we see articles and blogs that onlty serve to create more antagonism between the generations. Would I be right in assuming that the author of this piece is under 40, and female, and has her own agenda?

One other issue is the comment made by Harry Holzer, labor economist and public policy prof at Georgetown University, who is quoted as saying "It makes us wonder whether the extraordinary amount of resources we spend on retirees and their health care should be at least partially reallocated to those who are hurting worse than them." Apparently he called magnitude of the wealth gap "striking."

Note that he, like the other 'experts' mentioned in this piece, places the blame on old people in general, when it is obvious that the ones who will lose out if money allocated for healthcare is taken away are those with limited resources. It will be the ones without private medical insurance who will have to try to make do with even less proper healthcare.

I don't know if we can assume that the situation is the same in Canada., regarding health care matters and more importantly, the gap between the old and the young, but knowing the effects that feminism has caused in Canada, it sounds as though it could be the same here as in the US.

This article is available through a number of sites. The only difference would be the comments made, if they are allowed at all.

U.S. Wealth Gap Between Young, Old Is Widest Ever
By Hope Yen, Associated Press
Huffingtom Post Business
Nov 7, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/07/us-wealth-gap-young-old_n_1079372.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=110711&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FeatureTitle&utm_term=Daily%20Brief#comments

U.S. Wealth Gap Between Young, Old Is Widest Ever
Hope Yen, Washington — The Associated Press
Globe and Mail
Nov. 07, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/wealth-gap-between-young-and-old-americans-widest-on-record/article2227903/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=World&utm_content=2227903

Gender, sex and aging: What do we owe our spouses?

2011-11-02T05:27:00.001-04:00

A trio of stories on the Huffington Post drew my interest recently, all related matters, to do with gender, sex, and aging. Sex was the drawing card in D A Wolf's 'Do We Owe Our Spouses Sex?', and is an inviting resource for anyone wanting to know what other readers think about sex between two people in a relationship. The comments section attracted an enthusiastic crowd, each one either telling their own personal story, or making one up, or simply letting everyone know what they thought about the subject of Wolf's piece.

But in the next piece on sex, the attitude of readers/commenters changed considerably. This one was about sex among the baby boomers, and for that reason, it appears, became the target of jokes and ridicule. Could it be that the approach was wrong, and not simply that older citizens are the target of jokes in this ageist society of ours? In an attempt to persuade the world that baby boomers can have sex just like anyone else, and enjoy it, the writers, whoever they were, may have been just a bit on the defensive. What formed the basis of the piece were myths that were then dispelled by the writers' claims. We don't hear who the writers were, and the format of the piece was awkward to read, being fairly short but, including the comments section, split up over 7 pages.

As with the first piece on the subject of sex, this second piece was also clearly about people within the state of coupledom. Those without partners had no real need to peruse the pieces, let alone comment on them, unless they still had hope, or at least intentions, to become half of a couple sometime in the future. This was my main objection to both these pieces, that single men and women were left out or left hanging on the margins, although in the 'ageless' couples and sex article, at least that was a topic many of us knew something about from previous experience. It doesn't seem to even occur to the writers of the boomers' sex piece that most older people aren't going to have casual sex, just for the fun of it (despite what the quoted lavalifePRIME says).

The final point about these two stories is that, as usual with such stories, there is little or no analysis of the society in which it all takes place. We all take for granted that we live in western society and that both men and women have certain freedoms, but there are still the remnants of traditional marriage present in our ways of thinking, as well as the modern ways of looking at our experiences through the eyes of feminism. Thus, women are seen (and speak) from both the perspective of not being equal with men in ways of dealing with sexual matters, as well as at times acting like men and taking on men's ways of dealing with sexual matters.

And that leads us to the last of the stories, also about the older generation, about women in particular. Once again, this piece incorporates aspects of old-fashioned tradition, of a woman being a homemaker, but about doing so after having had a fulfilling career. I think one aim of it was truly to justify and uphold the legitimate choice of women to be homemakers, but quite a number of readers comments were negative about the choices available to the writer, and particularly about the perceived uselessness of her choice, to stay home. At this point in our society, in which the economy has still not rebounded, if some women express the desire to remain at home to be homemakers and/or raise children, it doesn't help to treat them like pariahs. Just as some homemakers may not take their work seriously, or do a good job, so are there women in the workforce who aren't conscientious, or doing their work to the best of their ability. It isn't work per se that makes one person better than another. It isn't the paycheque that a person brings home, or the taxes they pay, that makes them better than someone else. It might lead them to be seen as different, to be living a lifestyle that's not the norm, in this society where occupation and financial resources are the determinants of a person's identity and worth. It's much easier to do after having a career, than rely on an ex to provide a reference, but it's still good to hear about women living this way, so that society does not forget how things were done in the past.

Do We Owe Our Spouses Sex?
by D A Wolf
Huffington Post Divorce
Oct 15, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/d-a-wolf/do-we-owe-our-spouses-sex_b_927484.html?ref=love--sex

Most Common Sex Myths About Baby Boomers
Huffington Post Fifty
Oct 29, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/the-most-common-sex-myths_n_1057479.html

Words With Friends and Back to Home-Ec
by Jamie Lee Curtis
Huffington Post Fifty
Oct 11, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamie-lee-curtis/50s-housewives-home-ec-_b_1006209.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=101211&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief

Serena Williams penalized at the 2011 US Open tennis finals

2011-09-13T01:19:00.001-04:00

The story of Serena Williams has dominated tennis news since Sept 11 when she railed against the umpire she suspected of having unfairly penalized her during the women's final at the US Open which was held over the last two weeks in New York. Serena let out a yelp, at the very moment her opponent was preparing to hit the ball back to Serena's side of the court. The umpire deemed the noise to be a 'hinderance' and gave the point to her opponent, Australian Samantha Stosur, at which point Serena let loose with a diatribe of accusations and insults against the umpire. Sam Stosur went on to win the match, and was already one set up at the time of the incident. Serena was fined $2000 for her outburst. Her earnings for participating in the US Open were $1.4 million.

Discussions were held at more than one newspaper site, with many viewpoints and sensitive feelings exposed. At this particular Huffington Post comment site (see below), I was surprised to see support for Serena from black people who placed blame on white people for Serena's outburst - a result of longstanding racist discrimination against her, one claimed. A heated discussion developed from such comments which I, among others, engaged in, but with no resolution. Try as I might, I could not get my point across about the concept of reverse racism. To me, Serena's comments reflected an antagonism towards the umpire that at the very least bordered on racial difference, discrimination, or intolerance.

It seemed that no matter how well off a black person became, or how successful, any perceived slight or insensitive remark could be interpreted as racist. Once again, in this sense, racism reverts simply to the colour of the skin and no other basis at all. On a wider level, racism is about denying opportunity to people on the basis of their cultural or national background or religion (or however you want to word it), but one can hardly say that Serena is still experiencing this level of racism, having reached the highest levels of international tennis tournaments. Yet here she is, letting loose on the umpire, in a similar vein as in 2009, against a linesperson.

Another aspect of the discussion was her behaviour seemingly taken out of context. Alone, with no explanation, her behaviour was described as a child's, yet Serena is a poweful woman, not just physically but in the world, having support from her family, friends, tennis support team, blacks in America no doubt, and fans of tennis eveywhere. So when a person holding such power oversteps the limit of decency and good behaviour, isn't that different than when someone with little or no power oversteps it. Are we expecting too much to want the people we admire and respect for their skills and talent to also engage in good behaviour? Do such people ever get punished to the same extent that powerless people do, or are the powerless punished more because they have no contribution to society to draw upon to excuse their bad behaviour?

So far, on this brief report alone, nearly 1800 comments have been submitted by readers. Many of them are very unhappy with her behaviour. Many others remain loyal to her. But at least people have had the opportunity, and the freedom, to give their views on this controversial incident.

Serena Williams Loses Cool With Chair Umpire In U.S. Open Final (VIDEO)
Huffington Post
Sept 11, 2011
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/11/serena-williams-loses-cool_n_957772.html

Memory stick loss at Western's clinic for children

2011-04-23T16:55:00.001-04:00

Personal information of clients - children - of a speech and hearing clinic at UWO, has gone missing. The data was being kept on a USB memory stick at an employee's desk, and was misplaced when office space was being re-organized. It has been said that when bad things happen, the main concern then is how people respond to it - what they do about it.

In this case, an attempt was made by campus security to locate the tiny stick, without success, and eventually, letters were sent out to the parents of the 4500 children involved. Various experts have given their views, from a health-systems management expert, a medical officer of health, university officials, and Ontario's information and privacy commissioner. Precautions the family can take have been suggested (Kids' personal info, April 19), while blame has been placed on 'technology' itself (Clinic security breach, Apr 19), and the actions taken by staff working with the data. Lastly, as so many people state when bad things happen to them, the University is determined that nothing like this will ever happen again, saying,

"Western is taking steps to ensure nothing like this happens again. We will conduct a complete review of this incident, reiterating patient privacy protocols with all of our health care professionals and their staff, as well as determine what additional steps we can take to improve our existing protocols, designed to ensure each client’s privacy in our clinics" (University statement, Apr 18).

One other piece of information I'd like to add to all this is that there is another way of looking at this incident, if you recall the case of Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in NY in 1964. At least a dozen persons living in nearby buildings heard parts of the prolonged attack but didn't report it to the authorities. People saw it as an example of apathy, that no one in her community cared. Later, social psychologists gave it the name 'bystander effect' and 'diffusion of responsibility,' whereby all involved think that someone else will make the phone call or ensure the data is secure, or do whatever is needed.

It's not that members of the staff may not care, and indeed, in this situation it was children who were involved, making it less likely that someone had intended to do harm. Mistakes happen all the time. It's just not that often that the potential for harm is as great as it is in this event. And often, rules and ways the organization functions may seem to be working just fine, until this kind of situation happens.

A few days ago, I was driving out of town, intent on following a lead for a medical centre that was accepting new patients, as I am new to London and don't have a family doctor. I passed by a woman and her vehicle by the side of the road, and a dog lying in the middle of the road, not moving at all. I slowed down, as other drivers did, and then drove on. It wasn't that I didn't care. Numerous reasons flashed through my mind as to why I didn't stop, and couldn't stop. I felt guilty, as I felt the eyes of the one sole concerned human being on me. And she was still there, with a police car, on my return trip. I might just as well have stopped, for all the good that trip did me. Diffusion of responsibility. Bystander effect.

The point is, it's not technology to blame, or lack of competence of the staff, or one person's mistake or forgetfulness. It's just the way things are as an organization grows larger and more complex. Add into that the division of labour, and one employee may not know what the other one does or is supposed to do, and may think that someone else will do the particular task that wasn't getting done, this day, that led to this catastrophe.

Security breach of kids' info raises alarm
By Jennifer O'Brien
London Free Press
April 19, 2011
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/04/18/18032821.html
(http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2011/04/19/18038951.html: Clinic security breach raises alarm)

University statement regarding H.A. Leeper Speech and Hearing Clinic
By Communications Staff
Western News, UWO
April 18, 2011
http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/stories/2011/April/university_statement_regarding_ha_leeper_speech_and_hearing_clinic.html

The London Slut Walk - The 'S' word should be SEX, not slut

2011-04-08T23:20:00.010-04:00

I was just about to post a comment this evening on an article in the London Free Press (Walker objects, Apr 8) when comments were cut off, after only 4 had been posted - all by men. The article was not the first on the local response to the apparent remark by a Toronto cop addressing law students, that 'women should avoid dressing like “sluts” if they didn’t want to be victimized' (What starts with an ‘s’, April 8, LFP).

Following is my comment, mainly in response to comments made by others.

I'm not sure if Jeff is trying to say there should be a Slut Walk? (Megan Walker doesn't like the idea, and Jeff doesn't approve of her kind of activism, he says, so I gather he's all for the Walk by that name). Are you sure you won't be tempted to refer to the marchers as Sluts, Jeff?

There must be a better way to handle this situation.

Mick, the word slut has different connotations according to gender. Men have always been allowed to be proud of their sexual exploits. Not so with women. Most keep quiet about them so they won't be judged.

That's all I wrote. And my response to the other article today by Kelly Pedro is also lacking, in part due to word limits placed on contributions. I would have liked to have added that the s word in question should probably not be 'slut' at all but rather, 'sex'. Focusing on the word slut is distorting the problem, taking the emphasis off a topic that really needs to be discussed, as demonstrated by the lack of understanding by more than one commenter.

It's too bad the comment made by one commenter got deleted. It illustrated some of the attitudes that need to be addressed, instead of women simply demanding their rights to dress provocatively without considering negative consequences. Removing the derogatory comments, what remains of his comment is this:

"Now if I pin money to my shirt,walk late at night and get mugged, can the 'it shouldn't be the way I dress' excuse work too??????"

Nowhere has it been mentioned that women's behaviour is also part of the problem. Being sexually provocative might also result in unwanted attention, just as their attire might. When it comes to sexual violence, it's not always the clothing that matters. If a woman appears vulnerable, or available, she might be more likely to be seen as a target.

One issue I have concern with, regarding the Value Women campaign initiated by Megan Walker, is that it's not inclusive of the idea of 'slut,' or at least of the idea that women are sexual (and may be seen as 'sluttish'). Pushing the problem away is not a solution, either, no more than the opposite, which appears to be that of embracing the notion of women as sluts, as in the Slut Walk.

When women dress in hot outfits, that is exactly what men are thinking of when they use the word 'slut'. And that's probably what the cop meant when he used it and got into trouble for doing so. The word is used so commonly that he obviously used it in the wrong manner, and definitely in the wrong place.

Men don't think like women in matters pertaining to sex. A woman can believe she has rights (as men do too, of course), but if they act as though no one can take away those rights, or that men 'shouldn't', by dressing as they have a right to, sexually provocatively, in the wrong place at the wrong time, they may be increase the chances of being noticed, and place themslves at risk. There is a difference between 'should' and 'what is', and women are being warned by the police that men don't always think or behave rationally when it comes to sex. and if men won't be considerate of women, in such circumstances, then women have to take precautions.

Feminists claim that men have always been in awe of women's sexuality and the power it has over them, so that's one reason why, in general, some men intentionally demean women by referring to them as sluts - putting them in their place, so to speak.

It probably makes some men angry just to see the attitudes of women participating in the Slut Walk. How does that help the problem of 'violence against women.' And how did the walk itself help educate the public about violence against women?

Campaign counters Slut Walk
By Kelly Pedro
London Free Press
April 8, 2011
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/04/08/17922886.html

Slutwalk: "Because We've had Enough"
By Thomas Cermak
London Fuse
April 10, 2011
http://londonfuse.ca/images/slutwalk-because-weve-had-enough

Walker objects to women being called 'sluts'
By Kelly Pedro
The London Free Press
April 8, 2011
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/04/07/17916251.html

What starts with an ‘s’ and divides women’s groups?
By Kelly Pedro
London Free Press
April 8, 2011
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/04/07/17914086.html#/news/london/2011/04/07/pf-17916296.html
-----------------------------------------------
added May 19, 2011

Sex and the SlutWalk (with comments)
by Agenda intern Andrew Lynes
TVO - The Agenda
May 6, 2011
http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/theagenda/index.cfm?page_id=3&action=blog&subaction=viewpost&post_id=15290&blog_id=323

Mature students: fast tracked though 'Prior Learning' programs

2010-12-09T20:32:00.001-05:00

Further to my previous piece on this subject (Mature Students: getting a degree, Sept 12), a few more insights have been mentioned in the press, in the UK, about the USA's innovations in the area of 'higher education.' In 'Older, wiser, jobless . . ,' a new program endorsed by City University of Seattle commends and rewards the older student who has gained experienced in life in various kinds of ways, apparently, though the article itself mentions only the valuable contribution of the older wiser person who has previously had a career.

It seems that the original meaning of 'mature student' that was familiar to many of us at Western, that of the older student who was permitted to register for a BA without having a graduation certificate, has now been changed, or gotten lost in the intricate application program that neglects to mention this aspect of 'mature student.' True, this article is about the United States, not Canada or Britain. And the emphaiss seems to be on the older person who has previously had a career and now wants a degree so she or he can use it to advance their career or regain one. The essential part of this process - the PLA or Prior Learning Assessment - is based on the candidate having an advisor. But I wonder how easy it is to get an advisor at university who could understand the value of one's life experience and want to see the student progress. I never had such a person, who was willing to take the time to understand and go through it with me, and despite having graduated from high school, and achieved a BA and MA, never got to either continue my education or have a career. This kind of mentorship is the foundation of the Prior Learning program in the USA.

It seems to me that the focus will be on only those students the advisor can relate to, can understand without it having to take up too much time or throught processes. That sounds as though a good many qualified individuals will be excluded, for not having the right network, or not living in the right neighbourhood, or having the right husband (not the mention not previously had the right kind of life experience - the career.) How do we know this isn't just another program created for the benefit of a certain segment in society, or certain individuals, so they can be fast tracked through the educational system, while their initial lack of qualifications stand a good chance of getting lost in the process.

In Canada, a related matter has occurred, whereby a student at the University of Manitoba was given a PhD despite not being able to handle certain situations during the educational process. If all PhD candidates' weaknesses and deficiencies are overlooked or forgiven, then what would be the state of those who get to educate the next generation.

What of favouritism in the higher eduational process? Is it what we want? Or if we are one of the favoured would we, too, look the other way. The comments sections following the articles 'Court battle' and 'Older, wiser, jobless' offer insights into what the people think.

Court battle over PhD
By Aldo Santin
Winnipeg Free Press
Oct 30, 2010
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/court-battle-over-phd-106366028.html?path=/local&id=106366028&sortBy=rank

Mature Students: getting a degree, or a lifetime of 'continuing education'
By Sue McPherson
Sue's Views on the News
Sept 12, 2010
http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com/2010/09/mature-students-getting-degree-or.html

Older, wiser, jobless: US adults drawn by degrees
By Jon Marcus
THE (Times Higher Education)
December 2, 2010
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=414424

University defends giving PhD to student who failed
By Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Press
Vancouver Sun
Nov 18, 2010
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/University+defends+giving+student+failed/3847406/story.html

Russell Williams: voices of authority and privilege dictating on his right to live

2010-11-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

News coverage of the Russell Williams murder case has been deemed to be appropriate (Majority feel, Globe and Mail, Oct 25). Viewers comments have occasionally been restricted, yet it is under the auspices of one of the national newspapers itself that the greatest injustice and perhaps even, crime, has been committed. Of the three pieces in the Full Comment pages recently, on the murderer and former colonel Russell Williams, only one expresses worthwhile ideas.

Barbara Kay has judged Russell Williams's sense of morality, based, I suppose, on her own scarcity of it. If we examine that piece in more depth, we realize it is not the fact that he killed that bothers her most, for she herself is advocating that he be killed; it is something else that concerns her. If not the fact that he committed murder, what it is it exactly that she objects to? She doesn't care for his manner of carrying out his crimes, with efficiency, premeditation, and lack of feeling (see Russell Williams deserves, National Post, Oct 25, 2010). In my comments on a different piece (Should we kill, NP, Oct 31, 2010), I referred to Kay's column on the subject as being similar to Hitler's sense of morality, a point of view that was not warmly received. Let me explain further.

It has struck me that there's something not quite right about someone using their position to advocate a certain position, and one that involves executing someone. Yet this is what Barbara is doing, and apparently with the approval of the National Post. If Williams is seen to 'deserve' the death penalty, then in Kay's view it seems it would be morally acceptable to execute him if done 'humanely.' If this is the case, how do you cause someone's life to end humanely? Is it best to sneak up on them and hit them over the head from behind, or not tell them that you're going to inject them with a drug that will end their life, as Harold Shipman did in England? Or should one place them on death row for years on end, so they will know for certain (almost) that they will never live a normal life ever again but must simply wait for the grim reaper, though when he does come, presumably the physical pain the death row convict will feel will not even come close to what his own tortured victims suffered. It is the physical pain Barbara Kay is concerned about, isn't it? Not the emotional pain of the condemned man, or possibly even that of his victims and the families of his victims. Is Kay's aim to see justice done, or to present her own views for others to consider, or to try to convince readers of her own beliefs, at the same time ridding herself of the emotional distress caused by hearing what this man Russell Williams did.

Kay refers to Williams as evil, thus deserving of capital punishment in her view. But who is she to decide who is evil or not, or even whether evil truly exists in our world or whether anyone is wholly evil. Which one of us is wholly evil, or wholly innocent? No one. Williams conducted himself well doing his job; in fact, he had a highly successful military careeer (Col. Russell Williams, The Record, Feb 13). Should this count for him, or are the bad deeds men do the only ones people should remember? Should a man who has committed such atrocities be given the death penalty so that others learn from that, or to rid the world of people like him, or because he is seen to be evil and morally inferior?

If anyone focuses on the weaknesses or moral frailties of any other person, is that acceptable? If we advocate death for that person, in a country where the death penalty is not lawful, and if we do so in a forum which is read by countless readers, is that permissable? Is that 'freedom of speech' or is using the power of one's position to pursue one's own agenda, one that involves the killing of another human being, an action that should be depored? Who, indeed, has the right to determine who should have to die (see Williams doesn’t, NP, Oct 27, 2010).

Russell Williams is being made a scapegoat, someone to take on all the hatred and emotional turmoil that can't be placed elsewhere, by people who have the power to address this situation rationally and sensibly rather than as something 'evil. The fact that his escapades involved sexuality, however warped and deviant people may see that, suggests that what we need from this man, and his family, friends, and colleagues, is as much information we can get so we can understand this better. Furthermore, setting up a dichotomy between execution and brain malfunction doesn't even make sense (Should we kill, NP, Oct 31, 2010).

Are Opinions' pages of newspapers permitted to present views that could incite hatred? How is it that individual writers or journalists are allowed to write on subjects they know nothing about, or are permitted to present their thoughts on important topics in a disoriented, or thoughtless, yet persuasive manner. If, as they might well claim, these are simply their opinions, why is it such a newspaper as the National Post pays them to promote such meaningless thoughts or possibly dangerous ideas? It seems what counts most is selling newspapers.

Col. Russell Williams: Who is this man?
By Raveena Aulakh, David Bruser and Katie Daubs
The Record
February 13, 2010
http://news.therecord.com/article/670127

Majority feel Russell Williams coverage struck ‘right balance’
By Jane Taber
Globe and Mail
October 25, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/majority-feel-russell-williams-coverage-struck-right-balance/article1771996/

Russell Williams deserves to die
By Barbara Kay
National Post Full Comment
October 25, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/10/25/barbara-kay-russell-williams-deserves-to-die/

Should we kill a serial killer, or does the fault lie within his brain?
By Paul Russell
National Post Full Comment
October 31, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/10/31/paul-russell-should-we-kill-a-serial-killer-or-does-the-fault-lie-within-his-brain/#more-16442

Williams doesn’t deserve to die
By John Moore
National Post Full Comment
October 27, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/10/27/john-moore-williams-doesnt-deserve-to-die/#more-16083

Jessica Dunkley: exceptional achiever and champion for women, Métis and the deaf, or a misuse of funds?

2010-09-24T14:42:00.002-04:00

Jessical Dunkley is a high achiever, a role model, and a champion for more than one social group. But is there a limit to how much money should be given to support her high career aspirations?

Jessica is an example to the deaf everywhere, and to Métis, having shown how well these groups can do in the educational system, and in the workplace, with the necessary support to help deal with their physical limitations. Within the category 'women,' many role models, champions and achievers over the years have made their way into the public sphere and are considered role models for their achievements and/or contributions to society. The deaf community and aboriginals, however, are fairly new in their quest for recognition within society, and acknowledgment that they, too, have the ability not just to succeed but to surpass achievements made by most Canadians.

A recent article on this topic appeared in the Globe and Mail (Skilled-interpreter shortage, Sept 22, 2010), followed by a discussion which is also available online. Since then, I have come across three websites online (see list following), which refer to Jessica's struggles and achievements as a deaf person and an aboriginal.

According to the Globe and Mail article, Jessica wants to be able to pursue her ambition to become a dermatologist, and is seeking funding to do so. What it fails to mention, however, is that Jessica is a physiotherapist (see 2008 Recipients). She has already trained and found herself a career, so what would be the advantages and disadvantages of her continuing.

As the article from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine informs us, "there are six Aboriginal students in this year’s graduating class, the second cohort since the inception of the program, whose goal is to graduate 100 Aboriginal students by 2020." If each of these students require funding, and are seeking careers, will any of them be disadvantaged by Jessica's need for training for a second career? It looks as though NAAF only provides the Métis award one time only (see Special One-time Métis Health), so all students get an opportunity to have one, and perhaps that is why the Globe and Mail article was written, to take the matter to the wider public and try and get support for it.

Read the comments at the link provided at the end of the G&M article to see what others think about the issue as it was presented.

I can't help but wonder if this is a matter for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF), rather than other groups such as the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS) or members of society in general. There are so many students seeking funding who don't get it despite their ability and need, and in fact, so many deaf people, probably, who never receive educational assistance, that it creates a real dilemma as to whether or not granting Jessica the money for a specialized signing interpreter throughout her dermatology program is a wise decision.

Certainly, having persons who can be looked up to, in the deaf community to in the Métis or aboriginal community, is a worthwhile cause, but at whose expense, and how many others? Jessica uses two sign languages, Quebec and American (see A glimpse at the class of 2010), and can speak English (see 2008 Recipients). The cost of having signing interpreters for her program could be as much as $250,000 a year (Skilled-Interpreter shortage). And what happens after that, when she is working with the public, we don't know. How much financial assistance a deaf person could receive due to her disability while working as a dermatologist is another issue.

On the other hand, would it be worthwhile for the deaf and for aboriginals to have this role model who will have exceeded even her own original aspirations when she has completed the degree, being qualified then not for just one, but two careers. If it would help bring down barriers to people with disabilities and to aboriginals, would it be worth the cost? Or would it better to finance more students, so more of them can achieve their goals, even if they are lesser? What does our country value more - helping one go as far as she can, or helping many so that they can work and earn a living?

2008 Recipients
Stacey Levitt Women And Sport Memorial Scholarship 2008
Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS)
http://www.caaws.ca/e/grants/levitt/2008.cfm
accessed Sept 24, 2010

A glimpse at the class of 2010
University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine celebrates 147 graduating doctors
University of Ottawa News Releases & Announcements
May 19, 2010
http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_1976.html
accessed Sept 24, 2010

Special One-time Métis Health Careers Award recipients 2009
National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF)
http://www.naaf.ca/node/211
accessed Sept 24, 2010

Skilled-interpreter shortage presents hurdle in deaf MD’s quest to become dermatologist
By Wendy Stueck in Vancouver
Globe and Mail
Sep. 22, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/skilled-interpreter-shortage-presents-hurdle-in-deaf-mds-quest-to-become-dermatologist/article1717651

Mature Students: getting a degree, or a lifetime of 'continuing education'

2010-09-12T00:21:00.005-04:00

A recent article in the Globe and Mail (Kickin' it old-school, Sept 3, 2010), about mature students going to university to get their degree, brought forth discussion about two kinds of education later on in life. Students are permitted to go to university after they have been out of school for a number of years, their life experience counting towards their acceptance into the undergraduate programs at many universities. The other kind of education for older, or mature students, would be for night courses and other types of 'continuing education' courses, often held at high schools or perhaps colleges as well as universities.

The 'mature students' you might run into at university, taking regular classes along with the younger students, might not always be mature, within themselves. Most of us at Western were not, as I recall, when I went there in the late 80s and early 90s. But we were older than most. Some of us might have had the proper qualifications, the high school graduation certificate, but it seems to me we were all lumped together, regardless.

The idea of 'continung education' encompasses all kinds of education that adults get into later on. It is, in fact, a concept that encompasses the cultural norm in Canada of being involved in education practically from birth to death. It is encouraged by one and all in our society to value education and to partake of it at every opportunity, especially as one grows older and has time on one's hands. To negate it seems to oppose all that we have been brought up to appreciate and believe in. But the reality is, don't expect that it will automatically improve your life. Mature students who return to get their higher education after years away from education may find it tough going trying to make use of their credentials afterwards.

Another recent newspaper article focuses on the new full-day kindergarten programs that are starting up in Canada, another aspect of the idea of 'continuing education,' this time, the decision being made by our government to introduce full-time education (or baby-sitting as some commenters wrote) for 5 year olds. Really, does anyone think our children need this? (See All-day kindergarten, National Post, Sept 8, 2010).

All right, so one more article is required at this point - on home-schooling, or 'unschooling' as some call it! (See More families are deciding, Globe and Mail, Sept 10, 2010). Viewpoints in the article and the comments section on both sides of the issue - worth a read, considering the cultural norm on education that currently presides in Canada. This article rounds out the discussion on education per se, as being of great value according to most people, though what the proponents of unschooling think of mature returners or continuing education classes I wouldn't know.

Finally, this article (The new girl power, Sept 9, 2010) from a British newspaper, The Independent, brings in gender, and youth. In these matters, there couldn't be that much difference between Canada and Britain. I agree - it is a young woman's world. That doesn't mean it's good for our world, and it may not even be good for women. If the women aren't working at what they're good at and enjoy, and if they're constantly struggling for something that's not going to happen - pay parity with men - will they ever be content with what they have achieved?

The baby boomers had better have something more substantial to tell the younger generation, other than the value of 'continuing education.' What have we achieved. What is our legacy? And what happens next?

All-day kindergarten is a waste of money
By Marni Soupcoff
National Post
Sept 8, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/08/marni-soupcoff-all-day-kindergarten-is-a-waste-of-money/#more-11052

Kickin' it old-school: The rise of the mature student
By Natalie Stechyson
Globe and Mail
Sept 03, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/back-to-school/kickin-it-old-school-the-rise-of-the-mature-student/article1694734

More families are deciding that school’s out – forever
By Kate Hammer
Globe and Mail
Sept 10, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/back-to-school/more-families-are-deciding-that-schools-out-forever/article1703185/

The new girl power: Why we're living in a young woman's world
By Alice-Azania Jarvis
The Independent
September 9, 2010
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/the-new-girl-power-why-were-living-in-a-young-womans-world-2074042.html

See, also, this article added Sept 15, 2010.

Not everyone needs a debt-financed university degree to be complete
By Matt Gurney
National Post Full Comment
Sept 14, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/14/matt-gurney-not-everyone-needs-a-debt-financed-university-degree-to-be-complete/#more-10914

Survey: can Canadian baby-boomers survive our health-care system?

2010-08-23T11:34:00.007-04:00

A heavy topic in today's newspapers. Each time the subject crops up the babyboomers are in for it again - taking the blame for the inadequacies of the system and the ageist attitudes of health-care workers, the media, and the government itself.

Following are three comments I have left in comments sections of various newspapers today, before I go off the local swimming pool to get some exercise.

1.
It's no wonder people surveyed see the babyboomers as the ones responsible for the problems of the medical system. It's the only perception of this important social issue that news and opinion articles impart to the public. I don't believe the CMA really wants a national debate (see article - "on the kind of health-care system Canadians want"). Why, otherwise, have they waited so long to say this. I became interested in aging while a student at university in the early 1990's. Even then, we could see there would be a problem at some point, if nothing was done. And so now, finally, when Canada's citizens are riled up from reading about the problems "caused" by the babyboomers, the CMA says it wants to hear what Canadians have to say? One thing that would help would be if health-care workers did their jobs to the best of their ability (and got them in the first place on that basis - that they were good at what they did). (Canadians bracing, National Post, Aug 23, 2010).

2.
Mary wrote "The health care system in Canada gives each patient a rating when admitted."

I had thought it was more informal than that, that it was the hospital staff, or the doctor's, who rated the patient according to the knowledge they had on hand at that moment. They must look at social ratings - does this person work, have children, a husband, own a home, or is well-established within the community. All these things count. Then, of course, we have to deal with the biases of hosptial staff themselves. If I break an ankle, can I, an older woman without a husband, a job, or home that I own, expect to be treated fairly by an orthopedic surgeon who got his training at a university in Libya? Not only am I dealing with ageist, sexist, and class-based biases from people who grw up Canadian, but I also have to deal with foregn attitudes of the medical staff.

Being able to walk and have the independence that allows is important for older people. To have that taken away at the whim of the medical staff, and other health-care practitioners, is the fault of the attitudes that actuallyu seem to be enouraged in our country. Canada is not a nice place to live, for many of us. (comment, Most Canadians, CTV, Aug 23, 2010).

3.
pkmills (8/23/2010 8:57:16 AM) has hit the nail on the head. Not just politicians, but anyone who is not liked, for whatever reason - the work they do, where they live, their beliefs - can end up having inadequate or dangerous decisions made about them by health-care workers. It's such an arbitrary process that some people without insurance can get what they need from the medical system, without paying extra, while others just won't get it no matter how hard they try. I'm talking about people such as unliked political figures, people who raise controversial issues about society, immigrants, the homeless, the unemployed, and so on.

What I would hope is that people who work in the medical system would do their job as best they can, and not let personal or political biases get in the way. For older people getting helpful treatment in the community is not always that easy, when ageism and other factors result in games being played that place obstacles in the way of their getting what they need. In the end, what causes an unecessary drain on the system is having increasing numbers of babyboomers who don't getr the proper information and so become less able to remain mobile and independent in their homes and out of them. (comment, Survey finds, G&M, Aug 23, 2010).

4. added Aug 28, 2010
Possibly there's something to this 'Charter for Patient Centred Care'. It might seem obvious to most of us, but to citizens age 30 and under it might not. Just as every new generation has to learn the basics, perhaps this generation of young men and women in docs' offices and hospitals also have to learn. Hence the 3 items listed in the article.

If all health-care workers followed these guidelines instead of current norms in society which enourage the playing of mindgames and language games, and using one's power in whatever way one chooses, hospitals and doctors' offices would be better places. When there's no religious beliefs to direct a person through their lifetime - a sense of alienation, Marx would say - anything can happen. Health workers have the the ability, knowledge, and skills for the job they are hired to do. So it's a matter of using them the right way to get the job done. (comment, Baby steps, Nat Post, August 26, 2010).

Aug 29, 2010
One of the ways people manage to silence the ones they wish would stop talking is to make life so hard that it becomes a real struggle to survive. Continuous obstacles set in one's path take up most of one's time and energy. Some cause one's health to suffer. Even those who should be on your side end up benefitting by making life harder for you. When they can't win by intimidating, or by skillful or not-so-skillful manipulation of the English language, they do so by lying outright, turning people against you and destroying your reputation. I know people this has happened to. Some commit suicide, some suffer silently, and some conform and laugh about it while in public. Some kill. But still the world carries on, blindly. Why doesn't anyone listen?

Canadians bracing for health-care system 'silver tsunami'
By Meagan Fitzpatrick, Postmedia News
National Post
Aug. 23, 2010
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Canadians+bracing+health+care+system+silver+tsunami/3429598/story.html

Most Canadians fear for health system: report card
By CTV.ca News Staff
CTV.ca
Aug. 23 2010
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStoriesV2/20100823/cma-health-report-100823/

Survey finds most fear boomers will cripple health-care system
By André Picard, Niagara Falls, Ont.
Globe and Mail
Aug. 23, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/survey-finds-most-fear-boomers-will-cripple-health-care-system/article1681662/

Added Aug 28, 2010

Baby steps to better health care, but still a long way to go
By Tasha Kheiriddin
National Post Full Comment
August 26, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/26/tasha-kheiriddin-baby-steps-to-better-health-care-but-still-a-long-way-to-go/#more-9955

Doctors and medicare
Toronto Star
Aug 27, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/853120--doctors-and-medicare

'You can’t be cured by an idea’
Toronto Star
Aug 28, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/853146--you-can-t-be-cured-by-an-idea

Immigrants and refugees - and Canadians: cultural norms and employment

2010-08-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

On the individual level, people from other countries can be lovely people, but what about our attitudes towards them in general, we - as self-perceived true Canadians, and what do they think of us and being in Canada? Furthermore, is it being foreign that matters, or is what matters what such travellers bring with them when they come - money, resources, access to culture in foreign lands, or important connections. Are foreigners disliked because we don't understand their culture or their goals in coming here, or are they disliked because they are strangers, a burden on our medical and employment systems, or just because they are different.

These are just a few articles I have linked to, below, some for the content and some for the comments.

Beware the colonizers
By George Jonas
National Post, Full Comment
August 18, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/18/george-jonas-beware-the-colonizers/#more-9296

Immigrants want success now, not tomorrow
By Ratna Omidvar
Globe and Mail
Aug. 04, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/immigrants-want-success-now-not-tomorrow/article1660760

Poll shows Canadians are nasty, anti-immigrant SOBs
By Kelly McParland
National Post, Full Comment
August 20, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/20/kelly-mcparland-poll-shows-canadians-are-nasty-anti-immigrant-sobs/#more-9523

Scenes from the Canadian gold mine
By George Jonas
National Post, Full Comment
August 11, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/11/george-jonas-scenes-from-the-canadian-gold-mine/

Cory McMullan: Belleville police chief victim of a violent incident

2010-08-13T09:06:00.002-04:00

Belleville, Ontario, police Chief Cory McMullan suffered a broken arm in an incident one week ago. She says she was the victim of domestic violence, but it is likely that it was simply an 'incident,' using police terms, and not the kind of violence against women that so many women in society have to endure, due to powerlessness in their home circumstances. One has to wonder what her retired 53-year old husband has experienced himself, in this new kind of society where men are more likely to leave work early, while the wife continues the family career.

Mrs McMullan apparently stated that, "given her position in the community, 'it is important to acknowledge that I am the victim' " (Belleville police chief victim, CBC, Aug 11, 2010). But it may well have been that there were two victims in this case. It is hard to believe that the husband, retired police officer Dave McMullen, would use violence intentionally to try to control his police chief wife. If this was a situation of domestic violence, it wasn't the traditional kind that many wives experienced before they gained financial independence in their lives.

In my comment submitted to the CBC online article, at 8:53 am ET Aug 13, I wrote the following:

Eliza Doolittle writes, "I suggest we wait until the other side of the story is told before jumping to any conclusions."

The problem here is that her arm got broken, and in our society, that kind of violence is usually the deciding factor in any cases of abuse. Psychological, emotional, sexual, or economic abuse is less likely to be recognized, particularly as is applies to men being victimized. Our society has changed so much in the last 30 or 40 years, with women often working past the time when their husbands retire. We don't know the situation here, but we do know how difficult it can be for any man who retires at an early age. The woman, Cory McMullan, has apparently stated, "it is important to acknowledge that I am the victim." Like many women of today, and men of yesteryear, it may be difficult for her to see that there might be another side to the story.
END OF COMMENT

See related story on my blog, June 9, 2010: Domestic Violence’ narratives: the murders of Lois Mordue and Dave Lucio. http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com/2010/06/domestic-violence-narratives-murders-of.html

Belleville Police Chief speaks out as a domestic abuse victim
Natalie Stechyson and Adrian Morrow, Toronto and Belleville
Globe and Mail
Aug. 12, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/belleville-police-chief-speaks-out-as-a-domestic-abuse-victim/article1671473/

Belleville police chief victim of 'domestic incident'
CBC.ca. The Canadian Press
August 11, 2010
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/08/11/ot-belleville-chief.html

Belleville’s abuzz over police chief as victim of domestic violence
Carola Vyhnak, Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
Aug 12, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/846418--belleville-s-abuzz-over-police-chief-as-victim-of-domestic-violence

Ontario police chief says she was victim of domestic abuse

By QMI Agency
canoe.ca
Aug 11, 2010
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/08/11/14989296.html

Public life, public victim
By Joseph Brean
Financial Post
Aug. 12, 2010
http://www.financialpost.com/related/topics/Public+life+public+victim/3388045/story.html

Added Aug 24, 2010

Belleville Mayor denies affair with police chief
Carola Vyhnak, Urban Affairs Reporter
Toronto Star
Aug 23 2010
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/851519--belleville-mayor-denies-affair-with-police-chief?bn=1

Belleville mayor denies having affair with police chief
By W. Brice Mcvicar, QMI Agency
Peterborough Examiner
Aug 24, 2010
http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2726196

Belleville mayor denies rumours of affair with police chief
By Adrian Morrow, Belleville
Globe and Mail
Aug. 23, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/belleville-mayor-denies-rumours-of-affair-with-police-chief/article1682780/

Motherhood, aging, and resentful adult children: Shirley Anderson's story

2010-07-30T00:07:00.000-04:00

Shirley Anderson is suing her adult children for support. An ancient law in Alberta regards this as the children's duty. The media has picked on an example of bad parenting, committed by Ken Anderson's mother and father when he was just 15 years old to support the argument of the four adult children being sued, that they shouldn't have to pay support (A bad mother's right, National Post, July 27, 2010).

Ken was left behind when his parents moved from Osoyoos to West Kootenay in BC - abandoned, as they describe it. Shirley Anderson took her second-youngest son, Darryl, with her, apparently against her husband Gary's wishes (What do we owe, Vancouver Sun, July 24, 2010). Shirley Anderson raised five children, developed lupus along the way (Payback time, MacLeans, June 24, 2010), and never worked. At age 71, she now has nothing. Gary, her ex, gave her alimony when they divorced, though his boss, Labbatts, needed encouragment to split his pension with her. He has since died.

Shirley went into debt with her credit card. Her attempts to get support have been going on for ten years now. Darryl has been in and out of jail and is not being sued. Ken is 46, married with children, not wealthy but hard-working, and resents the additional burden supporting his mother presents. Daughter Donna Anderson "breaks down in tears when she recalls her tumultuous childhood with the 'mother we never had' " (What do we owe, Vancouver Sun, July 24, 2010). She went to university and is raising two children.

Son Brian bought her a fridge once, in an attempt to build a relationship. Donna and her mother attended counselling together. But nothing worked, the children say. Keith hasn't talked to her in years. "She doesn't even know we're alive," he is quoted as saying (What do we owe,Vancouver Sun, July 24, 2010), though it appears she does. He adds, "She never worked and she's never worked at her family either."

It's suprising that she managed to raise such enterprising children - none got put into foster homes, only one in trouble with the law. They have educated themselves and worked hard, formed relationships and raised families. They also seem to have little tolerance for women of that era, who often did stay home with the children while the husband worked - cooking, cleaning, driving the children to school functions, community events, and to the doctor and dentist - shopping, sewing, mending, filling out forms for school, getting them their shots at the doctor's, putting on birthday parties, and so on. And she had five children to worry about! At the time Shirley was raising her family, the one-salary family was the quite typical, the man being the breadwinner, his earnings enough for the entire family. That changed, in the 70's probably, until we reached this time where it takes two incomes for a family to feel they have enough.

There is uncertainty about this kind of law, though Surrey, BC, lawyer David Greig says that a child must have means to pay support before they are made to (Payback time, MacLeans, June 24, 2010). Unfortunately, it's part of the human condition for people to always think they need more. And whether the reason the children are so critical of their mother is, in part, due to their not wanting to have to pay her, we don't know. Whether it should be the children's responsibility or the system's, is the larger question.

Shirley's lawyer, Donald McLeod, says "My interest quite frankly is to see that someone is treated right, and that's all I care about . . . I don't know very many people that would not be happy to support an aged parent. The duty to support and assist an elderly parent transcends everything else" (What do we owe, Vancouver Sun, July 24, 2010). And finally he says, "What kind of mother she was, or is, shouldn't matter. To engage in any analysis of who is at fault, I think that is a useless exercise."

"Do vengeance and vindictiveness have a place in the lives of otherwise decent people?" is the question asked in another piece on this subject (Forgiveness, Vancouver Sun, July 29, 2010). If Shirley was as bad as the children's stories suggest and this was not simply about money, the eye-for-an-eye retribution seems to be a little extreme. It is a symptom of our times - this hatred towards the older generation, especially women or anyone who is isolated and cannot defend themselves. Read the comments with the articles, for an idea of how our society thinks about them. It makes one wonder just how civilized we are.

A bad mother's right to support from her children
By Adrian MacNair
National Post, Full comment
July 27, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/07/27/adrian-macnair-a-bad-mothers-right-to-support-from-her-children/#more-7817

Forgiveness for an errant elder
By Catherine A. Mori
Vancouver Sun
July 29, 2010
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Forgiveness+errant+elder/3335593/story.htm

Payback time for parents
By Nancy Macdonald
MacLeans
June 24, 2010
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/24/payback-time-for-parents/

What do we owe our parents?
By Denise Ryan
Vancouver Sun
July 24, 2010
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/What+parents/3318018/story.html

What's wrong with the Pamela Anderson PETA ad: plus the Rylstone and District Women's Institute calendar and the female Czech politicians calendar

2010-07-19T21:06:00.000-04:00

The ad depicting bikini-clad Pamela Anderson as a piece of meat, the names of the cuts such as 'rump' and 'breast' displayed on her body, has been denied a public display by a Montreal agency. An animal rights group, PETA, had wanted to use the poster to gain interest in its cause, animal rights. On the basis of it being sexist, PETA was denied a permit, thus forbidding the group to use the poster, officially, in the launch of its campaign in Montreal at Place Jacques-Cartier in front of the City Hall (Pam poster, Globe and Mail, July 16, 2010). Instead, the launch is scheduled for a local restaurant.

Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, has argued that "true feminists should be more concerned about the plight of female livestock than an image likening Ms. Anderson to a side of beef" (Montreal agency rejects, National Post, July 14, 2010). But considering how women have historically been depicted as 'meat,' this was a poor way to gain attention for their cause. I should think that the problem is not that feminists are unconcerned about the treatment of animals but they are concerned about human females being treated objectively and referred to as meat. To start, do an internet search on 'meat and slang,' 'meat' being slang for a woman to be used for sex - a piece of meat.

Check out the double entendre in this McDonald's ad which illustrates its meat in a manner opposite to the way the PETA ad does (Piece of meat, Slang City, 2005). Ingrid Newkirk and the PETA bunch don't seem to have any regard for human females. If they did, they wouldn't use sex in this manner to draw attention to animal rights. Continuing to perpetuate the idea that women are pieces of meat in men's eyes is harmful to women - not to women who have the financial means and the support to remain safe but to the ones who have to rely on men for their survival and who have little power on their side.

It will be interesting to see how well the sale of the poster goes on the PETA website (http://www.peta.org). Will people buy it just because the proceeds go to PETA, or because it is a poster of a beautiful Pamela Anderson, or do they enjoy the joke behind it more, that women are often talked of as being pieces of meat for the sexual use of men and here it is, in a poster endorsed by PETA? This is not the time controversial images have been used by PETA (see PETA women-as-meat, Sociological Images, June 14, 2008). No doubt the poster will enhance Pamela Anderson's reputation, as the PETA site claims, giving her the opportunity to show off "her outer-and inner-beauty to promote a vegetarian diet and point out the similarities between humans and animals" (Pamela Anderson Shows, PETA, July 17, 2010). But it's not doing the rest of us any favours.

Scantily-clad women are all over the internet. Female Czech politicians have made the news recently, promoting their risqué 2011 calendar (Czechmates, Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2010) to highlight the presence of women in politics. One of the women who appears in the calendar is Marketa Reedova, a 42-year-old Prague city councilwoman now running for mayor. She says "Women's political influence is growing. Why not show we are women who aren't afraid of being sexy? . . . Czechs are open-minded."

Why not show it? Maybe because being sexy isn't simply about showing it. Surely it's closer to being porn than being sexual, if we see porn as something men seek for their own needs while women perform, while being sexy is more to do with the person and her partner. Nevertheless, Czechs are following the lead of the west, the article claims, resisting "the unglamorous trappings and enforced unisex treatment imposed by socialism" (Czechmates, Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2010). Taking steps to 'prove' they are sexual, in such a public manner, would surely be a sign of insecurity, nothing like the kind of behaviour shown by Pamela Anderson, who surely has nothing more to prove in that respect. For an update on how well the calendar is being accepted see Backlash Begins, New Europe, July 19, 2010.

A decade ago another group of women, members of the Rylstone and District Women's Institute, published a nude calendar (see http://www.seecalendargirls.com/). It was a magnificent success! I found the calendar to be a sensitive yet bold way of capturing older women's qualities and strengths (see Beer and Tea, July, 2001). A recent newspaper article tells how the calendar, still being published, has changed over time, and explores the effects of the calendar on various groups also using nude calendars to raise money for a cause. (Calendar girls galore, The Guardian, April 24, 2010). The motives vary, of course, and the ways of creating a calendar are diverse. It's not always easy to figure out why some appeal to us and others don't, or which ones we wish to support.

Pamela Anderson has said, "In a city that is known for its exotic dancing and for being progressive and edgy, how sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens" (Pamela Anderson's sexy, NY Daily News, July 15, 2010). Women's embodied presence can be a source of power to them. But it can also be exploited, and the images as well as the thoughts behind them might do harm to others. As society continues to deteriorate, under the guise of progress and freedom, one would do well to consider and reflect upon some of these issues.

References

Backlash Begins for Czech Calendar MPs
By Leos Rousek
New Europe (US edition)
July 19, 2010
http://blogs.wsj.com/new-europe/2010/07/19/backlash-begins-for-czech-calendar-mps/

Beer and Tea: Harmony and Contradiction Among Two Unlikely Counterparts
By Sue McPherson
July 2001
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/EssaysandWriting/2001BeerandTeaSueMcPherson.doc

Calendar girls galore
The Guardian
April 24, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/24/calender-girls-galore

Czechmates: These Political Figures Star in Their Own Racy Calendar
By Gordon Fairclough and Sean Carney
Wall Street Journal
July 9, 2010
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704334604575339011352332760.html#articleTabs_slideshow%3D%26articleTabs%3Darticle

Montreal agency rejects Pamela Anderson PETA ad as sexist
By Graeme Hamilton
National Post
July 14, 2010
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Montreal+agency+rejects+Pamela+Anderson+PETA+sexist/3278754/story.html

Pamela Anderson Shows That All Animals Have the Same Parts
PETA
July 17, 2010
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3205

Pamela Anderson's sexy body-baring PETA ad gets banned in Canada
By Kristie Cavanagh
NY Daily News
July 15, 2010
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/07/15/2010-07-15_pamela_andersons_racy_peta_ad_banned_in_montreal.html

Pam poster too sexist for Montreal
By Sidhartha Banerjee
Montreal — The Canadian Press
Globe and Mail
July 16, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/pam-poster-too-sexist-for-montreal/article1642017/

PETA women-as-meat demonstration
By Gwen Sharp
Sociological Images by Lisa Wade and Gwen Sharp
June 14, 2008
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/06/14/peta-women-as-meat-demonstration/

Piece of Meat
Slang City
2005
http://www.slangcity.com/realenglish/print/piece_of_meat.htm

Men's rights versus children's safety: BA deals with the possibility of perverts

2010-07-03T19:43:00.000-04:00

BA Airline has been in a spot of trouble for its handling of a delicate social issue. My response here is mainly to the National Post article on the subject - 'You’re male. You must be a pervert,' by Barbara Kay.

I almost didn't respond to this in the section following the article, but I did, in response to another commenter, then got drawn into the topic of discussion - men's rights versus children's. I found the title to be unsettling - an exaggeration of a social problem men don't like to discuss.

I thought this was worthy of telling about here as it is an example of men who cannot see beyond their own needs and their own egos.

It was also an example of how women (one woman - Barbara Kay) can dismiss anyone else's concerns in order that her favourite cause - men's rights - be upheld. I say, Good for the airline for doing what they can to protect children travelling alone!

Finally, it is an example of how rules should not always be followed blindly (though they are good as guidlelines, in certain circumstances, letting them go is best for everyone). There can be extentuating circumstances which following the rules leading. (I know; I came to Oshawa as a stranger and was treated like a criminal, a threat, as someone worthy only of second-class treatment, or less, often by people doing their jobs which means followng the rules without thought.) In this case, the man had been travelling with his pregnant wife and they had switched seats so that she could be more comfortable by the window. The flight attendant was either unable or unwilling to consider the situation in its entirety. He ordered the man back to his original seat.

According to the Daily Mail, the male passenger said "I was made to feel like a criminal in front of other passengers. It was totally humiliating. Neither myself or my wife dared to speak to the boy in case the cabin crew forced us from our seats. The poor child must have thought we were extremely rude and unfriendly."

The male traveller backed off, which was the only thing he could do without looking like a - well - pervert, demanding to be seated next to the unaccompanied child. He did the right thing, and was recompensed for it later, so I fail to see why the situation is still being treated as problematic. The rule itself was not the problem, but the way the situation was handled. He was lucky to be able to sue and recieve justice. There are many people in this world - in Canada - who get treated badly every single day, who dare not speak for fear they will be punished, or who get blamed for anything bad that happens.

The discussion itself raised another issue, of conflicting rights. Sometimes, one person's rights (or one group's) can be stepped on by another person (or group) demanding theirs. In the discussion following the article, one of the commenters argued that if he had been accosted by airline staff about sitting next to an unaccompanied child he would have loudly complained then and there that he was being discriminated against, for being a man, or as news articles have put it - a pervert. Quite a lesson for the boy travelling alone to have to contend with. The male passenger did the only thing he could - he backed off, and was able to sue later.

My final comment on the National Post article was one I had submitted earlier in the discussion but which had been ignored, the commenter accusing me of being a "feminist propagandist" and needing a psychiatrist. So I will leave readers with this.

"I don't know how much feminists have had to do with such rules being created, but there has been increased awareness in society of how boys and girls can be taken advantage of, sexually, when they are left in close quarters with men who are sexual predators. Do you have a better way that the airline can deal with this?" (Sue McP)

Businessman sues BA 'for treating men like perverts'
By Sophie Borland
Daily Mail UK
16th January 2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1243625/Businessman-Mirko-Fischer-sues-British-Airwars-treating-men-like-perverts.html

You’re male. You must be a pervert
By Barbara Kay
National Post Full Comment
July 2, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/07/02/barbara-kay-youre-male-you-must-be-a-pervert/#more-5616

Lost in Translation: theories of breasts and breast milk of Saudi women

2010-06-26T18:39:00.000-04:00

A story from Saudi Arabia has people amazed at responses of high-up clerics to the problem of women and their 'foreign' drivers in this land. Traditional law seems to state that the women shouldn't be on such a familiar basis with men who are not part of their family. In order to rectify this problem, a high-up cleric has issued a fatwa stating that by sharing her breastmilk with her driver, the women, who are not permitted to drive themselves, can ensure that all is on the up-and-up and not a matter of questionable behaviour, with a foreigner (stranger?).

In the Los Angeles Times, and in many comments online following the National Post article, the emphasis is on the right of women to drive themselves. Saudi women have taken the gist of the fatwa one step further and said they will breastfeed their drivers if they cannot be permitted to drive the cars themselves.

The AOL article refers to the discussion between the two Saudi clerics. Sheikh Al Obeikan, "adviser to the royal court and consultant to the Ministry of Justice", stated that the women "ought to give them their breast milk so they will be considered relatives". But another high-profile sheik, Abi Ishaq Al Huwaini, then apparently announced that "men should suckle the breast milk directly from a woman's breast."

At this point I am wondering if it is a matter of miscommunication, of something lost in translation, as it just doesn't seem to make sense that a cleric would advocate women allow men to suck at their breasts. More detail is given in the articles, but not specifically about what the clerics meant.

The second cleric, Al Huwaini, sounds as though he is stating hypothetically that, if a man is to be considered a member of the family, then the men "should suckle the breast milk directly from a woman's breast." I don't see that as a directive, or even a suggestion. It looks more as though he is discussing traditional laws and what they mean, and the significance of them - these were simply two scholars discussing the theoretical implications of women and family, and laws on sharing breast milk versus actual breastfeeding.

Women threaten to breastfeed drivers if they aren't allowed to drive
Los Angeles Times, Babylon & Beyond
June 22, 2010
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/06/saudi-women-use-fatwa-in-driving-bid.html

Saudi Clerics Advocate Adult Breast-Feeding
By Dana Kennedy, Contributor
AOL News
June 5, 2010
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/saudi-clerics-advocate-adult-breast-feeding/19504280

Saudi women threaten breast-feeding revolt
By Kelly McParland
National Post, Full Comment\
June 23, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/06/23/saudi-women-threaten-breast-feeding-revolt/#more-4581

Domestic Violence’ narratives: the murders of Lois Mordue and Dave Lucio

2010-06-09T22:03:00.012-04:00

'Violence against women' came to be a women's issue when feminists realized the term for violence between intimate partners - 'domestic violence' - did not acknowledge the differences from men that women who were abused experienced in their relationships. I first learned about this in the mid-eighties, doing women's studies at university, at UWO in London, Ontario. Since then, the subject of violence in relationships has arisen once more, in the context of two separate homicides, first of Lois Mordue, second, that of Dave Lucio, both of whom had been in an intimate relationship with their killer.

In 2005, I read about the homicide of Lois Mordue on August 8, 2005, had taken place in my hometown, Woodstock, Ontario. At that time I wrote letters to the editor of the Sentinel Review in response to the articles, giving my own views on the murder and on the subject of domestic violence in general. As time went on, I saw that it was being referred to as domestic homicide, woman abuse, and domestic violence, as Robert Alexander, Lois Mordue’s brother, increasingly became involved, claiming that “violence against women won’t stop until both sexes are involved.” (Moving forward, April 19, 2007).

More recently, an article in the National Post (Myths of Domestic Violence, June 2, 2010) brought to my attention another case of homicide, of Dave Lucio, in London, Ontario, on June 6, 2007, which may or may not have been ‘domestic violence.’ A second article reinforced the idea that Doug Lucio, the father of the victim, was referring to the killing of his son as domestic violence (Lucio vigil, June 7, 2010). “Violence is violence, whether it’s men or women. There is no difference” he was quoted as saying. Once again, I felt compelled to write in, to the comments section of the article, as much of what I was hearing, just did not ring true to me.

To summarize, these were two homicides, one male, one female, both killed by individuals with whom they were in intimate relationships but both of which had ended before the murders took place. In the Mordue case, one article refers to the victim's brother, stating "While the Crown prosecutes an alleged domestic homicide, Alexander is trying to find some answers to why domestic violence is happening." (In Honour, Dec 28, 2005). Doug Lucio, the father of Dave Lucio, the male homicide victim, not happy at the way the Police handled the murder case, has been quoted as saying, "there needs to be more equal treatment in cases of domestic violence" (Vigil, June 6, 2010).

Controversy surrounds the Dave Lucio/ Kelly Johnson murder-suicide, apparently due to the neglect of Chief Faulkner to name this a 'domestic' homicide (Myths, June 2, 2010). Erland Mordue, however, was apparently alleged to have committed 'domestic' homicide (In Honour, Dec 28, 2005), although whether that stuck or made any difference to local statistics is not known to me. As it happens, Erland had intended to kill himself also, making that a murder-suicide, but failed in his attempt. He was convicted of first-degree murder and is now serving his sentence.

Both these men - Doug Lucio and Robert Alexander - have turned to domestic violence narratives as a means of dealing with the trauma of the violent deaths of their family members. Yet I wonder how well the circumstances of the cases fit into any version of this narrative. The term narrative is used to suggest a theme, a cultural understanding or norm that is accepted in society as a way of explaining a social phenomenon. When survivors ask themselves Why?, they seek some kind of explanation, and domestic violence is a term that adapts fairly easily to a number of different situations. But I wonder how good the fit is.

Cases that are placed in this category due to the fact they immediately fulfil a basic definition of domestic violence will become subject to the wider implications of domestic violence - domestic abuse, for one, or 'violence against women', the kind of situation women have had to endure historically as the second-class person in the relationship.

Killing one's intimate partner might well be seen as an example of domestic abuse to the extreme - violence resulting in death. But if the relationship had not been abusive earlier, does the end result of murder make it fit the description, on looking back?

If one believes that power has a lot to do with it, and that abuse only happens if one partner has control over the other - financially, emotionally, psychologically, sexually - is it possible to determine whether or not the victims had previously been abused in their relationship, forced to comply with the wishes of the abusing partner? Seeing the misuse of power as the underlying basis of an abusive relationship, we can ask whether the perpetrator of violence, as seen by investigators, might actually be the partner fighting back from their position of powerlessness against a more subtle or insidious form of domestic abuse. Sometimes only the ones involved know whether coercion or other forms of abuse were being used as a means of control. If the killer had also planned to die, making it a murder-suicide, does that change the way they are viewed, as victims as well as victimizers?

Dying a violent death doesn't mean one has been a victim of domestic violence, except in a very narrow meaning - a police definition, or a statistic to be included in a particular set of stats. But on its own it isn't proof that the victim was in an abusive relationship. If domestic violence is used as an excuse - a reason for a murder taking place, the real reason it happened might not be being recognized. So when the victims are happy, fulfilled, independent and financially secure, and not noticeably vulnerable, one could look to other reasons for problems in the relationship and the end result of murder.

Violence against women came to be a feminist cause because any woman who was vulnerable in her relationship was at risk of being subjected to controlling, abusive behaviour from her partner if he didn't know how to act with maturity in the relationship, or chose not to. If not financially independent or holding down a job it might be difficult for her to leave. Now, in Canadian society, more women are working and able to support themselves. Staying in an abusive relationship would no longer be necessary if the man wasn't agreeable to changing abusive behaviour. Hence we have such programs as the White Ribbon Campaign and Changing Ways, for men.

The other side of violence against women has now turned out to be the growth of men's groups aimed at assisting men who are the victims of women's acts of violence in their intimate relationships. If this was a problem previously, it received virtually no attention, but since the growth of the women's movement, and possibly due to increasing numbers of women gaining financial independence and working outside the home, some men have become vulnerable to abuse by their female partners. The pendulum has swung from one side completely over to the other. Thus, as well as groups and programs geared towards assisting women in particular, there are now the same kinds of groups, etc, formed to assist men. One emphasis of such groups is on the legal side of it. Where once women needed feminist lawyers to comprehend and fight for their rights, now men need to have lawyers who can understand the issues addressing their particular circumstances.

But even where there is no abuse, unresolveable relationship problems happen. Not all problems get to be labelled abuse even if they are. If Kelly Johnson hadn't killed herself after killing Dave Lucio, no doubt she would have ended up serving time for murder. But it still would not have meant that Dave Lucio had been a victim of domestic violence, except in the narrowest sense of the term, apparently used in Police Department stats, according to Barbara Kay (London, Jan 28, 2010). Although the definition of domestic violence used by the London Police Dept indicates that a single act of violence by one spouse towards the other constitutes domestic violence, as well as multiple incidents, I wouldn't agree. One incident might be an indication that an abusive relationship has begun, or it might simply be one isolated incident.

There was no indication that the relationship between Dave Lucio and Kelly Johnson had been abusive. The 12-page report (Report, 2008) put out by the London Police Department does not suggest that the relationship between Dave Lucio and Kelly Johnson was characterized by domestic violence. That the two were both members of the London Police Department obviously has made a difference to the way their relationship and deaths were perceived. But any omissions or errors in judgment made by Police Chief Faulkner, or favouritism in treatment of his officers, cannot change that aspect of the relationship between the two involved in the murder-suicide, that it did not involve systematic abuse. One spouse committing adultery, making unreasonable demands regarding sex, work, community activity and friendships, spending, and /or committing repeated physical acts of abuse, are the kinds of behaviour that make a relationship abusive, not the extreme act of homicide only.

In one of the first newspaper articles, it was stated that there was no history of abuse between the Mordues (Murder investigation, Aug 11, 2005). Later, however, it was implied that Erland Mordue was abusive, at least on one occasion, the week before he killed his wife Lois, phoning her several times, according to Lois’s new boyfriend, Zeke Postma, so that he offered to drive her to the Police Station to get a restraining order (Tears flow, April 05, 2007). A separate article mentions what is possibly related to that same incident, one of information-gathering’ the only one on record (Mordue wrote, March 28, 2007). The suggestion is that Erland Mordue was an abusive, controlling husband, creating a threatening, unhappy environment for his wife who was powerless to change her circumstances and leave. Luckily, Lois was not affected greatly by his treatment of her and quickly began a fulfilling life, with a job she enjoyed, a new home purchased for her by her son, and a new boyfriend, resulting in a questionable assessment that she had ever been a victim of abuse during her relationship with Erland Mordue. Abuse generally has an affect on the one being abused. But Lois appears to have been a well-adjusted person (Mordue’s zest for life, Aug 12, 2005). Normally, if a person is lacking family or community support, the potential for abuse is greater.

The world is filled with abuse and violence. Abuse affects a person's psyche, but how can we tell if it's due to the pitfalls of everyday life, of doing a difficult job, unthoughtful colleagues or an uncaring community, or illness, isolation, unfulfilled dreams, or fear of the future?

There was some resistance from women’s advocates and local citizens to Erland Mordue being allowed out on bail, due to his propensity towards cold-bloodedly planning murder, apparently (Mordue granted bail, Feb 13, 2006; Justice System, Feb 28, 2006; Erland Mordue, Sept 19, 2006). But if it is being argued that Erland was guilty of domestic homicide, of murdering someone he was in an intimate relationship with, then that would reduce the likelihood of him committing further acts of violence while out on bail. Women’s activists seem to want men who kill women they are in relationships with to be treated the same as any other murderer (Debunking stereotypes, Mar 13, 2006), though I argued against that line of reasoning (Murder cases, Mar 22, 06). However, it does appear, from the murder-suicide case in London, that treating cases individually instead of generalizing towards them, regarding granting bail, for instance, might be a more compassionate approach. Had Kelly Johnson lived, I wonder if she would have been treated the same as Erland Mordue was. As it is, Kelly Johnson is being pictured as a troubled woman, rather than as a cold-hearted killer.

The references listed below, which are those I have mentioned in this article, are included in the longer Bibliography list, which will be available on my website but not on my blog. For readers interested in this subject of domestic violence, Statistics Canada provides online a document on Violence Against Women (see Measuring violence, 2006), which provides valuable information that goes beyond the purely physical aspects of domestic violence, and that may also be of interest to men who are victims. The Comments sections of some newspaper articles can provide insight from everyday readers in the community and not just journalists. Local news articles about the Mordue case may be available through the archives of the newspaper if no working link is available. Links to letters I wrote to the Sentinel Review - Compassion (2007), Murder cases (2006) and Domestic violence (2005) - are also included here. Academic Jessica Eckstein has done some relevant work in the area of abuse and intimate relationships, a link provided below to one on men who experience violence from women (Constructing gendered, 2007; Male Victimization manuscript, 2010). Lastly, by chance, an article just out now announces a program intended to help women become aware of abuse in their relationship, apparently, though it does make one wonder, not just about the controlling effect it will have on how women will start to think of themselves, routinely, but the effect on men in their lives (Groundbreaking, June 2010).

List of References

Compassion and Humanity (Response to 'Guilty', S-R, Apr 13, 2007, and 'Society . . . humanity', S-R, Apr 18, 2007)
Letter to the Editor
Woodstock Sentinel Review
By Sue McPherson
submitted April 20, 2007
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/LetterstoEditors/2007AprCompassionandHumanity.doc

Constructing Gendered Victimization: Examining the Narratives of Men Experiencing Violence from Female Partners
By Jessica Eckstein
Allacademic.com
2007
http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/9/1/1/7/pages191171/p191171-1.php

Debunking stereotypes
By Susan Houston
The Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Mar 13, 2006
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2083927

Domestic Violence: the Mordues (Response to 'In Honour of Lois', S-R, Dec 28, 2005)
Letter to the Editor
Woodstock Sentinel Review
By Sue McPherson
submitted Dec 28, 2005
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/LetterstoEditors/2005DecDomesticViolenceMordue.doc

Erland Mordue back in jail
Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Sept 19, 2006
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2085150

Family Violence in Canada: a Statistical Profile
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics
2000
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-224-x/85-224-x2000000-eng.pdf

‘Groundbreaking’ project helps abused women
By Kate Dubinski
The London Free Press
June 8, 2010
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/06/08/14314781.html

In honour of Lois
By Jon Willing
Woodstock Sentinel-Review
December 28, 2005
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2083435

Justice system in need of change
Letter to the editor
Woodstock Sentinel Review
Feb 28, 2006
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2083832

Lucio vigil meant to draw awareness to domestic violence
By Geoff Turner
The London Free Press
June 7, 2010
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/06/05/14280126.html

London, Ontario Police statistics on domestic violence show classic signs of abuse
By Barbara Kay
National Post, Full Comment
January 28, 2010
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/28/barbara-kay-london-ontario-police-statistics-on-domestic-violence-show-classic-signs-of-abuse.aspx

Male Victimization, manuscript
By Jessica Eckstein
2010
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/MaleVictimizationEck.pdf

Measuring violence against women
Stastical Trends 2006
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-570-x/85-570-x2006001-eng.pdf

Mordue granted bail
Woodstock Sentinel Review
Feb 13, 2006
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2083731

Mordue’s zest for life never surprised family
The Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Aug 12, 2005
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2082573

Mordue 'wrote it all down in letters'
By Carla Garrett
Woodstock Sentinel Review
March 28, 2007
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2086560

Moving forward
By Carla Garrett
Woodstock Sentinel Review
April 19, 2007
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2086746

Murder cases must be handled differently (Response to Debunking Stereotypes, Mar 13, 2006)
Letter to the Editor
Woodstock Sentinel Review
March 22, 2006
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/LetterstoEditors/2006MarMurderCasesResponsetoDebunkingStereotypes.doc

Murder investigation continues
The Woodstock Sentinel-Review
Aug 11, 2005
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2082563

Myths of domestic violence
By Barbara Kay
National Post, Full Comment
June 2, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/06/02/myths-of-domestic-violence/#more-2377

Report . . . on the deaths of David Lucio and Kelly Johnson
By Antoon Leenaars, Peter Collins, and Deborah Sinclair
for London Police Dept
May 28, 2008
http://www.police.london.ca/Newsroom/PDFs/luciojohnsonreport.pdf
Tears flow at Mordue trial
By Carla Garrett
Woodstock Sentinel Review
April 05, 2007
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2086649

Vigils marks Lucio death
By Geoff Turner
The London Free Press
June 6, 2010
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2010/06/05/14280126.html

View bibliography at:
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/EssaysandWriting/DomesticViolenceNarratives.doc

Myths about money and sex: who should pay for health-care, and who should be getting it

2010-05-28T18:37:00.000-04:00

The title of the article I have based this blog comment on is this, from the Globe and Mail - 'Make rich seniors pay for drugs, report says'. A secondary issue is the "cost-effectiveness" of the care given by doctors, which I don't believe is quite the same meaning as "improve the quality of patient care."

So, first of all, I would like to say this: There are certain myths in society that need to be dispelled. The idea that the wealthy are worth more, in their very humanity, than the poor, is one of them.

There are other myths in society that are just as commonly believed, or rather, simply not questioned, but first things first. Some people having more wealth than others is not a good reason why they should be treated better, though of course, in some circumstances, having money enables a person to buy better treatment and health-care.

The slippery slope of the myth of the greater 'worthiness' of the wealthy leads not just to more choices given to them, but also more advantages in their health-care, to the extent that all other things being equal, the wealthy will still receive better treatment than the poor, even when it is available to all, apparently, regardless of class or wealth. Why?

The myth is that the wealthy are internally 'better' in character, in work ethic, determination, decision-making, and all other traits that make for a better citizen in Canadian society. Thus, more is given to them, and more is taken away from the poor. This is how our just society works.

So, when this term 'cost-effectiveness' is used, it makes me wonder how this is being interpreted, by girls working in doctors' offices and Emerg, and in fact, by the doctors themselves, who appear to have some kind of standard by which to base their decisions. When I talk to a woman who had three surgeries done by an Orthopedic surgeon on her shoulder, while another can't even get one done, for pins in a broken ankle, it makes me wonder on what basis are these decisions are made.

Commonly, in society, women who conform the most, by forming relationships with men that bring them (the men) satisfaction, will be rewarded for their effort, or willingness. Ours is a heterosexual society first of all, and that, together with the accumulation of money and power, is what guides our society. Money and sex. Everything else adds to the complexity, so that practically nothing can be understood in its simplest factors. But we have to start somewhere, and this is it.

Some people in society have more care given to their needs. And some people have a greater ability to pay for the health-care of others. But what should they expect to get in return?

Make rich seniors pay for drugs, report says
By Lisa Priest and Karen Howlett
Globe and Mail
May 27, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/make-rich-seniors-pay-for-drugs-report-says/article1582236/

If Michael Bryant should be judged on his merits, shouldn't we all?

2010-05-26T22:50:00.002-04:00

The wealthy and powerful don't always get to know what is meant by the saying, 'life isn't fair,' or 'shit happens.' It's remarkable that the editorial board of the National Post still don't understand what is meant by this. They still seem to believe that bad things don't happen to good people, that sometimes - one more time - life just isn't fair.

And what is this language - militant cyclists? class warriors? Look who are the class warriors in this piece - the journalists, the lawyers and judges, and the politicians who enabled this decision to happen and who decided to blame the guy from the lower class in society and let the privileged one off.

"But no one’s career should be derailed forever by an incident such as this" write the editors of the National Post, as though this kind of tragedy, that forever alters the course of a person's life, doesn't happen very often at all, as though this is an exceptional circumstance, and that it just shouldn't happen. Life is fair, after all, and the good and intelligent always get what they deserve! Right? Wrong. It happens to people all the time - you just don't notice it until it happens to one of you.

Take note of the more than 500 comments on the Globe and Mail article by Christie Blatchford. Not everyone thinks Michael Bryant should have gotten off as liightly as he did - or is it that most people think justice shoould have been permitted to take its course, through a trial.

For Michael Bryant, an extraordinary kind of justice
By Christie Blatchford
Globe and Mail
May 25, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/christie-blatchford/for-michael-bryant-an-extraordinary-kind-of-justice/article1580911/

Michael Bryant should be judged on his merits
By National Post editorial board
May 25, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/25/judge-michael-bryant-on-his-merits/#more-1516

Justice in Michael Bryant case
Toronto Star
May 26, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/814268--justice-in-michael-bryant-case

Story of my life - http://samcpherson.homestead.com/StoryofMyLife.html

Robin Hood: when will stealing from the poor end

2010-05-23T01:48:00.005-04:00

Conrad Black writes: "If the richest Americans are to be enlisted in the fight against poverty, it should be in the form of private-sector anti-poverty projects that wealthy taxpayers could design and administer themselves. This would involve the best financial minds in poverty reduction and would give the wealthiest people an incentive to eliminate poverty, as the rate of tax would decline as poverty declined and would vanish when poverty, as reasonably defined, vanished."

Why does Conrad assume that the wealthiest are the smartest. How is it that myth persists?

Usually the wealthiest are those who conform the most, jumping through the hoops and doing whatever it is that our society wants, and values. Take Lady Gaga, for instance. She knows, as did Madonna, when she started her career.

On another level are the practically mindless folk who actually do attempt to 'shortchange' their customers. Getting their jobs because of some relationship they have formed certainly doesn't lead them to be grateful, it would seem. Stealing from the poor is the other side to all this - including money, careers, educational opportunities.

In 'Robin Hood or the Pope' Tom Cosgrove mentions Father Larry Snyder and the website about Poverty in America, http://www.thinkandactanew.org/ . One would think 'Reclaiming the dignity of work' is what our society needs, but I imagine that only works when the worker has earned the right to the job.

Conrad himself believes that "we must banish to the proverbial dustbin of history the heirloom of Fabian attitude that any benefit to society’s short-changed must be wrung from the sweat of the diligent and transformed into the penalization of success." Perhaps that statement would make sense if all the wealthy did actually earn what they were paid - according to the time and energy and knowledge they put into their work, instead of the value of work being based on some extraordinary needs of our society, with those who need it most being cast out as virtually unemployable.

Together with nepotism, favouritism, and a sexualized society, these excessively-paid celebrities, entertainers and some might add, politicians, do nothing to help turn our society into a fair and humane place for those struggling for something better.

The Lady Gaga guide to capitalism
By Conrad Black
National Post
May 22, 2010
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/22/the-lady-gaga-guide-to-capitalism/#more-1330

Robin Hood or the Pope: Who Really Cares About the Poor?
By Tom Cosgrove
Huffington Post
May 18, 2010
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-cosgrove/robin-hood-or-the-pope-wh_b_580417.html

Stealing From the Rich: Four Different Approaches
By Dave Kehr
May 21, 2010
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/movies/homevideo/23kehr.html

The real Robin never robbed the rich
By John Ridpath
National Post
May 19, 2010
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/05/19/the-real-robin-never-robbed-the-rich.aspx

Michael Ignatieff: leadership potential in Canadian politics

2010-05-21T18:04:00.011-04:00

Revised May 29, 2010

It's astounding that Michael Ignatieff is being treated the way he is, when you look at all he has to offer.

In our society, continuity is seen as normal, and better than discontinuity or separation. The lengthy, continuous career is looked upon as a model for a good work history, while travelling and working in diverse occupations, and in more than one country, can be viewed as a sign of flightiness. In reality, this kind of life can make a person 'more of a Canadian,' (a term attributed to Ignatieff in recent news articles), more understanding of different ways of living and working, more able to stand back and look at the entire picture, but it can be detrimental when one comes to trying for a new career in a country that doesn't understand this. Ignatieff was probably right when he said the Conservatives were "provincial" in their thinking - the Conservatives and many Canadians.

After all Ignatieff has done in his life - teaching, journalism, writing books, serving as professor at universities, he is sometimes criticized for not doing anything substantial, for not showing Canadians what he is all about. But isn't what it's all about is having the "trust and confidence" of the people, and "vision for Canada," as this article claims? Could the problem, in part, be the people working for the Liberals. See this, from the article, apparently a comment by "one senior insider" : “Ignatieff hasn’t unveiled any substance yet and until he does, he can’t move anywhere."

So now we're back to having to have something of substance to convince the people of Canada that Ignatieff would make a good leader, not just knowing that he is able to think, write, do the work, act with determination, and do all the things a leader must be able to do. He actually has to show proof, and not proof gained while working in other countries for non party-political jobs.

To say it's up to Ignatieff to stop the freefall, if that's what it is, is unfair. According to this article, "Mr. Ignatieff has already fired one group of top advisors yet his poll numbers are still dropping." He must wonder what is going on too.

He may be the best thing to happen for the Liberals, and our country, but if people can't change their perspective on his travels out of Canada and return to it, and all the qualities he has proven (though not to us), he may not ever get the chance to be PM.

Ignatieff is not only being blamed for the Liberal freefall, he's the one being forced to take responsibility for stopping it. I think that's not so. It's got to come from the people themselves.

If, when one is absent, one takes the time to look at what is going on in Canada, one might see things about it that are truly disquieting. and so, I'm not sure this would make one a "better Canadian" (as Rex Murphy claims Ignatieff said), when being a good Canadian often seems to mean keeping quiet about the norms of our society and the injustices committed here.

In his May 29th column, Rex Murphy becomes rhetorical, saying, "We learn our country by living in it, by absorbing the flow of its events, by acquiring an emotional as well as an intellectual grasp of its rhythms and moods. We inhabit this country, and it returns the favour: It inhabits us." In reality, the ideas expressed in this sentence are nonsense. Being that close to a country or a person can make us take its qualities for granted, so much so that people are often advised to take a break from it - a vacation or a separation, to reflect and enable rational thoughts to emerge, where once feelings guided all decisions. No one can know the entire country, or all its people. We all live in our own little worlds, sometimes of our own making, sometimes not. We latch onto pieces of it that we recognize as being 'ours', as Canadian. But most importantly, it is the leaving that enables a person to get a better picture of what is going on.

Ignatieff's absence is no obstacle to his ability to do well at the job of PM. In fact, I know that staying away will have given him so much more. Besides having been able to look upon Canada from a distance, he has now undergone critique by his fellow Canadians, who seem unable to grasp the significance of his time abroad. I have said before that leaving and then returning does leave one out-of-touch with prices, and changes in laws, but a read-up of these is usually enough. Does one ever forget how to ride a bike?

Rex asks, "There is an essence to this country. What we have in common, the core, is that which enables the embrace of diversity in the first place. Mr. Ignatieff may understand some of this, but does he feel it? Does he perceive the strength and depth of the common endeavour which has been and is this country since its founding? "

Perhaps not, Rex. I don't feel it. Perhaps it takes something from one's countrymen, after having spent time away, before one can feel it again. Perhaps one does have to take some time going through the motions before people start to see how unjust their behaviour and criticism is.

Read:
Story of my life http://samcpherson.homestead.com/StoryofMyLife.html
Hidden Narratives: stories of the many in the Montreal Massacre http://montrealmassacre.homestead.com/files/ArticlesandEssays/HddnNrtvsMntrlMsscrSMcPherson.doc

Michael Ignatieff thinks he's more Canadian than you are
By Matt Gurney
May 18, 2010
National Post
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/05/18/matt-gurney-untitled-ignatieff.aspx

Michael Ignatieff accuses Conservatives of “divide in order to rule” politics
By Rene Johnston
May 18 2010
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/810818--michael-ignatieff-accuses-conservatives-of-divide-in-order-to-rule-politics

The pressure is on Ignatieff to stop Liberal freefall
By Scott Maniquet
May 20, 2010
National Post
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/05/20/john-ivison-the-pressure-is-on-ignatieff-to-stop-liberal-freefall.aspx

Michael Ignatieff’s out-of-country experience
By Rex Murphy
May 29, 2010
National Post
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/05/29/michael-ignatieffs-out-of-country-experience

Being Michael Ignatieff
By Michael Valpy
Dec. 12, 2008 Last updated on Friday, Apr. 30, 2010
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/article841745.ece

Ageing [Aging] is good for us?

2010-05-16T19:53:00.004-04:00

'Ageing is good for us' (or in Canada, aging) is the title of an article in today's Times (UK). It's not a subject that gets much attention, either from Canadian or British newspapers. But what there is is usually biased and negative. According to the article, Nir Barzilai, director of an Institute for Aging Research in the US, considers "Age itself [is] the disease that must be treated."

Aging is a normal process, as I see it, though medical events that happen in the older person's life could certainly receive intervention in order to make the process go more smoothly and less painfully. That doesn't always happen, however.

The article's author, Eleanor Mills, asks, "Isn’t getting old and frail a fundamental part of the human experience, one of the great levellers, the touchstones that make us who we are? "

I'm not so sure aging is "good for us," as a stage of life that should always be looked forward to, even in Canada. "Getting old and frail," as Mills puts it, is not one of the great levelers, though the experience does become part of who we are, I suppose - part of our life cycle development and our identity. But as a fundamental part of the human experience, my concern is that, even without the invention of a new drug to combat the ageing process, there are still differences in the quality of medical treatment and care people receive as they grow older. Far different to be in a caring community, with a loving family and a doctor and health care team whose only concern is to ensure all their patients receive the best health care available. That thought is a bit utopian, isn't it. Right now, with the ageing babyboomers seen to be controlling the world, I sense some effort abounds to rid the world of the ones on the fringes of society.

As usual, with articles about aging, the author of this one too has a few disparaging comments to make about the baby boomers, as follows:

"Spare a thought for the rest of us. While I can see that a super-long, super-fit old age rounds off the gilded lives of that generation very nicely thank you, I can’t help thinking that those magic pills will only exacerbate the chronic inter-generational problems that are looming. The oldies are already bed-blocking the housing market and spending the kids’ inheritance — now they’ll be hanging on to their interesting jobs until they are 90 as well."

While there may be some truth to this, there is also the other side - in fact, readers often demand that old people keep working well past retirement age in order to pay for their pensions. Well, you can't have it both ways. You can't have the good jobs open up to the next generation AND expect them to keep working. And while many older people will not be able to contribute to their non-existent retirement income, many can, and will be paying members of the next generation for their support, one way or another, providing jobs that didn't used to be there.

Getting back to Eleanor Mills's notion that geting old is "one of the great levelers." It's not. Some old people will fare a great deal better than others, and not simply because they have money. They will fare better because this idea that the babyboomers are a burden and a waste of time and energy is being internalized by generation x - by article such as Mills's.

We are being misled as to the threat that the babyboomers pose, so much so that I think some people will use their power to prohibit any extra healthcare that would enhance some people's lives as they grow older. When the babyboomers were young, any problems of overcrowded classrooms, or delivery rooms at the hospital, or medical care, or jobs, or home, were dealt with, without the kind of pessimistic view that Eleanor Mills and most other journalists portray, of this time in history, as the babyboomers grow old. We had world wars in which many men lost their lives, so many that the future of our countries changed forever. Our countries have been through major health crises which have threatened our existence, yet we have come through them without placing blame on one category of people. It is so easy to blame the old, as it will be the poor old who will have to take the blame, while the rich old get to carry on as normal, or better than normal. Don't let this myth of the babyboomers wrecking society for the next generations take hold of your thinking and the way you act towards the old. It is a myth perpetuated by the middle classes.

The problem of saying no to the sick
By Michael Bliss
Globe and Mail
Mar. 26, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-problem-of-saying-no-to-the-sick/article1512418/

A Graying Population, a Graying Work Force
By JOHN LELAND
New York Times
April 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25care.html?th&emc=th

So you thought Generation X was angry?
By Leah McLaren
Globe and Mail
Feb. 05, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/style/so-you-thought-generation-x-was-angry/article1457660

Ageing is good for us
By Eleanor Mills
The Sunday Times, London, UK
May 16, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7127537.ece

We must be fair to everyone - even the rich?

2010-05-14T13:28:00.006-04:00

Good comments, to begin with, on this article from the Times in London, England - 'We must be fair to everyone – even the rich.'

Here are my comments. check out the times site for more:

by Sue McPherson 10:41 am EDT (15:41 BST)
There are so many excellent comments on this article! As far as 'intent' is concerned, re the comments by Miriam Nielson and Harry5, I have noticed that also, that there is some resistance from employers to hire unemployed people. I have also noticed some people getting jobs in the community which appear to require little or no education, yet would probably pay a reasonable wage for the work done. Many of those jobs don't seem to be available to just anyone. So besides some employers not being able to see past their own petty biases against the unemployed I think there is some intentional selection process going on by which those who are well-integrated into the community already manage to benefit further, while newcomers may be excluded.

by Sue McPherson 11:13 pm EDT (16:13 BST)
Tim Brown wrote May 14, 2010 2:41 PM BST : "we do need to be fair to the rich because if the rich go elsewhere and pay their taxes to a different country, everyone in this country loses."

Tim, I believe the point being made was the rich have the power to influence people and govts. They don't have to rely on ordinary citizens to get a fair deal. On the other hand, for most ordinary people, most can't just call up their mp or well-connected friends to ensure they get treated fairly. Thus Andy ODonnell wrote: "No need to be fair to the rich. They have the means to take care of themslves. . . . the poor need us to be fair to them. "

I have reprinted one comment in its entirety, with my comment on it first:

Alan Lynott wrote on May 14, 2010 5:33 PM BST:

"Let us suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
snip
snip
'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison.'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'The nine men surrounded the tenth [the richest] man and beat him up."

My response: It's more often the other way around - not the poor attacking the rich, but the rich who find ways of keeping all others down, in all the ways they are able simply by having access to resources. This anecdote, by Alan Lynott, not only turns that around by having the poor attacking the rich, but implies that they are stupid, not realizing that they were getting their beer for free, apparently. And they should be grateful, right, and try to remember that the rich work harder than anybody else and they really do deserve what they have?

Comment by Alan Lynott, May 14, 2010 5:33 PM BST :
Let us suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.The fifth would pay £1.The sixth would pay £3.The seventh would pay £7.The eighth would pay £12.The ninth would pay £18.The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.So, that's what they decided to do.The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20." Drinks for the ten now cost just £80.The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free: but what about the other six men - the paying customers?How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'They realised that £20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they subtracted that from everyone's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.And so:The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33%savings).The seventh now pay £5 instead of £7 (28%savings).The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% savings).The ninth now paid £14 instead of £18 (22% savings).The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% savings).Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings:"I only got a pound out of the £20," declared the sixth man.He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got £10!""Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I did!""That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get £10 back when I got only two?The wealthy get all the breaks!""Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison."We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"The nine men surrounded the tenth [richest] man and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. However, tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, a

We must be fair to everyone – even the rich
Camilla Cavendish
The Times, UK
May 13, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article7125822.ece

Added May 25, 2010:

Bryant says he'll 'never forget' deadly fight with cyclist
May 25, 2010
ctvtoronto.ca
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100525/michael-bryant-court-100525/20100525?hub=Toronto
Videos: CTV National News: Scott Laurie on the case
CTV Toronto: John Musselman on why the charges were dropped
CTV Toronto: Austin Delaney from the vigil at Bloor and Avenue
CTV News Channel: Michael Bryant speak to media

Compulsory heterosexuality, sex education in schools, and multisexualism

2010-04-28T14:40:00.006-04:00

Sex is political, not just pleasure-driven, the idea of 'compulsory heterosexuality' being the foremost lifestyle on which our society hinges. What everyone is required to do, regardless of their sexuality, is to reinforce the compulsory cultural norm of heterosexuality, at home, work, and school, and at volunteer activities.

Pressure is put on young men and women to conform or if not, to uphold the one accepted major sexual lifestyle in our society in the 21st century - heterosexuality. Even lesbians have to abide by the desires of straight men, and find a way of living in this world alongside them; not so difficult for gay men, whose brains, and the location of them, aren't so far off that of straight men.

Is it possible for society to raise respectful men and women, when so much hinges on their support for an ideology that places at its centre not just the old stand-by 'family,' but the ideals of 'pleasure' and 'work'? Heterosexuality has little to do with respect. Rewarding those who conform to or uphold heterosexual demands leads only to a false respect. It's about power and subordination, rather than co-operation and respect for one's own body and the choices of others. Men's desire for sex, and women's for a career or the chance to do their life's work, seem to involve the necessity to 'fake it', each in their own way, as their agendas collide.Barbara Kay argues in her recent article that 'multisexualism' refers to the idea that "all sexual behaviours and lifestyles are of equal social worth, except those that refuse to detach morality from sexuality." This has been the way sex education has been presented in schools, as something matter-of-fact, instead of sexuality being recognized as value-laden and deeply personal (at least for some). Time for change!

What is needed, rather than a school curriculum about sexual practices, is for boys and girls to become aware from an early stage how our society indoctrinates them into becoming men or women. Instead of sex classes, an emphasis on masculinity and femininity in the social context of life could be a valuable addition to the school curriculum. Teaching 'sex and gender' classes at an earlier age would give young people the resources they need to examine the social situations they find themselves in as they grow older, and possibly make more informed choices.

And then there's the argument that heterosexuality is normal, that it's how our civilized society has evolved, that there's nothing 'compulsory' about it. But surely female animals don't always want sex with the males but do have to coerced, sometimes. Do the males just have to line up, or do they have to preen and display their maleness to attract the females.

Girls no longer have to wait for estrus, as their female animal counterparts have to, but that doesn't mean they want it all the time. Heterosexuality is fine, as a lifestyle, or a cultural norm. But it's through women having to look sexually attractive, having to do sex in order to be 'real' women, or though being coerced or having to put up with men's unwanted advances as well as putting up with women's acts of persuasion,' that the term 'compulsory' takes its meaning.

The original mention of the new sex education curriculum mentioned sexual orientation and gender identlty. Could it be these terms that scared parents, the public schools, and the Catholic schools) off just as much as the mention of anal sex? It looks as though most parents just want their kids to know the basics, but not have any further understanding of their own sexuality.

McGuinty says he was in the dark about sex-ed plan
By Karen Howlett Toronto — Globe and Mail Update
Published on Wednesday, Apr. 28, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/mcguinty-says-he-was-in-the-dark-about-sex-ed-plan/article1549547/

Barbara Kay: The cult of multisexualism
By Barbara Kay
National Post
April 28, 2010 http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/04/28/barbara-kay-the-cult-of-multisexualism.aspx

Ontario premier defends sex-ed curriculum
By Linda Nguyen, Canwest News Service
National Post
April 20, 2010
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2930506

Caregivers for a Greying Population

2010-04-25T20:06:00.004-04:00

An article today in the New York Times on home care for an aging population focuses on the age of the care workers themselves - an interesting slant, although any slant in Canadian newspapers would be welcome, I'm sure. Our country seems to want to avoid this topic - is it too unpleasant, or just typical of our media and our government to wait until it is right on top of us before paying attention?

Another article caught my eye today - '10 years needed to fix health care: expert' - published in the Montreal Gazette. I'd like to know why it's taken so long for the media, the medical system, and the government - to become aware that the age of our population is increasing, that the actual numbers of the old are growing. I started learning about this in the early to mid 1990's while a student in classes taught by Ingrid Connidis at the University of Western Ontario. I learned, I wrote, I did research on aging, and I tried to get work in this field. Maybe I was just too old to start out in this career, but it did seem as though it was more often younger people (women) who were getting the research jobs at universities I applied to, or in positions in the community, in policy or work on the more practical side of gerontology and aging in general.

There are some interesting comments on the article in the NY Times, there for anybody wanting to look them over. I worked in homecare when I was a university student, 20 years ago, and met some great people and some who would have been better off living a hundred years ago in the southern United States. I worked in homecare again a couple of years ago, despite having two university degrees. Newly returned to Canada in 2007, as a stranger and with a resume that lacked a decent-looking work history, it seemed like a good idea at the time, and it did enable me to pay the rent.

Some people who have caregivers come into their home seem to be looking for a slave. Others may really need someone to listen to their concerns and not just to do the home care. Some families may want another person in the home to take the brunt off the stressful relationship with the older person. Perhaps in some cases the home-care worker stopping by has the additional purpose of ensuring the health of the aged person is still stable. Home care workers have to be able to deal with all these situations.

A Graying Population, a Graying Work Force
By John Leland
New York Times
April 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/us/25care.html?th&emc=th

10 years needed to fix health care: expert
By Charlie Fidelman
Montreal Gazette
April 24, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/years+needed+health+care+expert/2945390/story.html

Professor / student sexual relations on the university campus

2010-04-17T18:57:00.004-04:00

The article, 'On-campus sex ban: Hands off the student body, Prof,' raises to the forefront the problem of conflict of interest when a female student sleeps with her male professor. It may be viewed as nobody's business if the two consenting adults engage in sex, but if the act results in favouritism towards the student, or if the student's rejection of the prof results in the student losing out on an opportunity to do real academic work with the prof, then there is a problem.

According to this article, "The University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., is currently reviewing its rules on 'relationships of an intimate nature' between faculty and students. Already this year, the university has fielded multiple reports of professors’ conflicts of interest from students who had dated those individuals. And once again, what about reports from students who turned down the prof's sexual advance. Surely there must have been one or two of those!
This has been an ongoing problem at UWO for many years, even before I attended that university in the late 1980s. And nothing was done about it then. Declaring a conflict of interest demonstrates the desire to be fair. But unless this is followed up with investigation of TA hiring practices, assigning of grade marks, and references for other universities, it won't make any difference whatsoever. There is a big difference between reputation and character, or in this case, being seen to be fair and being fair.

On-campus sex ban: Hands off the student body, Prof
By Dakshana Bascaramurty
Globe and Mail
Apr. 08, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/on-campus-sex-ban-hands-off-the-student-body-prof/article1528269

The problem of getting health care in Canada - being old, sick, or disabled, or just trying to be healthy

2010-04-02T10:31:00.008-04:00

Following is the comment I left for the article 'Canada pledges $400M more for Haiti' on the CBC website (628 comments made, for this article). But what I am really writing about for my blog today is Canada's health care, and in particularly in response to the article, 'The problem of saying no to the sick' (in Globe and Mail).

April 1, 10:40 am - my comment re Canada's Haiti donation
I gather this will come out of Canadian taxpayers money, in the long run. What would have been nice would have been to have a choice, between donating to Haiti or spending money to improve the quality of health care for Canadians. There could have been a question on the income tax form: Which cause do you want the extra taxes you are paying to go to? [added at bottom - website address of the Michael Bliss article]

Readers often don't respond (or even read) comments others' make. But from the tone of the comments, there would seem to be many unhappy citizens of Canada, at the generosity of the government towards Haiti. This must make our governor-general Michaelle Jean glad at heart, but it doesn't do a thing for mine, not when I continue to read the kind of article as Michael Bliss has, in the Globe and Mail, that focus only on the money aspect of needing health-care in Canada.

March 30, 10:49 pm - my comment on the G&M website re health care for Canada's sick
Michael Bliss fails to acknowledge that we live in a society in which what matters most is money, and that people who have money are looked up to, while people who don't, generally are not. I imagine he is one of the former, one of those with money, and so he is actually writing this article about the other category of individuals - the have-nots.

He [ Bliss] starts off by making an assumption, that the wealthy are more important than those without, and thus they deserve to have more opportunity to receive better health-care, based on the fact that they have the money to pay for it. If access to health-care were based on some other factor, such as how many husbands or wives one has had in their lifetime, or how many cities one had lived in, then the entire story might be turned around, with different people struggling for access to health-care, not just those without money. More reasonably, one might suggest that those who had contributed something worthwhile to society might be given extra time to live, but on the other hand, it also makes sense to ask those people who have had such good fortune it they wouldn't mnd packing it in and letting other people have more opportunities before their time comes.

Others have attempted to address the problem more creatively. Here is a book about aging (not read): 'The quest for immortality: science at the frontiers of aging,' by Stuart Jay Olshansky, Bruce A. Carnes. http://books.google.ca/books?id=oC3NaSKysA8C&dq=science+fiction+writers+on+ageing&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=K0SpS8-cB4y0tgfp8pCKAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12&ved=0CDQQ6AEwCw#v=onepage&q=&f=false .

Also, The Social Consequences of an Extended Lifespan
http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5f59n9wc&chunk.id=d0e1955&toc.depth=100&toc.id=d0e1900&brand=ucpress

And finally, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a short story called "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow," about living in a medical-technology-enhanced society.

Last comment, Mar 31, 9:29 am, about the Michael Bliss article
How about saying No to the Minister of Education, who is spending 245 million dollars to start up full-day kindergarten.

If people like Michael Bliss really believe this is a time when priorities need to be set (rather than simply saying No to the sick), then now is the time to speak up. So stop with these nonsense articles about there not being enough money to treat members of society who don't have as much to spend on health care as people like, well, Michael Bliss.

I would like to end on the note I started from, the point I wanted to make. Why cannot Canadians have a choice what they are willing to spend their taxes on - to give to Haiti, or to improved health-care in Canada, or full-day kindergarten? There may be others to add to this list, but these happened to jump out in the newspapers in the last week or so.

The problem of saying no to the sick
by Michael Bliss
Globe and Mail
Friday, Mar. 26, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/the-problem-of-saying-no-to-the-sick/article1512418/ .

Canada pledges $400M more for Haiti
March 31, 2010
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/31/haiti-donor-meeting.html

Ont. pledges $245-million ahead of next phase of full-day kindergarten
by Kate Hammer
Globe and Mail
Mar. 30, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/ont-pledges-245-million-ahead-of-next-phase-of-full-day-kindergarten/article1517125/

Project Hero: Free university tuition for children of deceased soldiers

2010-03-26T15:42:00.013-04:00

A new policy, begun in 2009 by Retired General Rick Hillier and Honorary Lt. Colonel Kevin Reed, provides scholarships to children of soldiers who have died while in service. Project Hero has been introduced at several colleges and universities across Canada. Some professors at the University of Regina have objected to the program, however, claiming that the program glorifies military action, as does the name itself - Project Hero, and would rather their university had no part in it.

The program appears to be a tuition waiver, with grants for books and tuition presumably supplied by the Canadian Hero Fund. It looks as though the Canadian Hero Fund originally provided the funds for such endeavors, including spouses of the deceased soldiers being eligible as well as their children. Being so closely associated with the universities puts a different slant on the program, however. If the universities voluntarily waive the tuition fees, they will give the impression of taking sides, despite what the universities say.

“Our decision to do this was not at all meant to suggest endorsement of or lack of endorsement of something such as military action. It is purely to support the education pursuits of those for whom it might have been challenging to access post secondary,” said Barb Pollock, spokeswoman for the University of Regina. (Globe and Mail, Mar 26, 2010). But of course it is an endorsement! If they provided free tuition to white supremacists, wouldn't people notice, and wonder? Do we really want our universities to set objectivity aside and become politically associated with this side or that?

It's understandable that the University of Regina would sign up to the program without giving it much thought. They could see how other respected universities had agreed to the program, and at face value, it must have seemed like a good idea. It's just too bad that experts in the field weren't asked for their opinion first, before this step was taken.

The title given to the project is another issue. The old-fashioned idea, especially among military personnel, might well be to think of war and death in war as heroic, but our aim should be, and I thought was starting to be, to perceive war as a necessity, and being a soldier as a career, not mainly as a noble way to die, a means to becoming a hero.

The children and spouses of our fallen soldiers will be provided for, by programs initiated by the military or former military personnel, with ways of donating made easily accessible through the internet. It is not a rejection of the men who served in the military, or of their children, to turn down this request to join Project Hero. But it will be maintaining the purpose of universities, to turn down such a request. Universities should stay away from being seen to take sides, even if that is not their intention. They should avoid stepping into controversy by appearing to take sides.

It is difficult to turn down requests to assist children, the innocent victims of war. But doing so, in this manner, can lead to the kind of society we would rather not have. "Setting up the military as something special leads to a militaristic society" says Art Campbell, retired Wing Commander (see comments following Adrian MacNair blog). He also does not want to see the spouses of deceased soldiers being left out, with diminishing pensions to support them as they grow old.

The emphasis in society is always on youth - children and youth. In February this year, John Babcock died, at the age of 109. He was the last known survivor of WWI, and there was a call for a state funeral to be held for him. He wasn't a hero, in the traditional sense, and he didn't see himself as one, so he declined the offer, previously made to him. Links to four articles are included below, in the Globe and Mail, the Windsor Star, the Toronto Star and the Montreal Gazette - check for comments by readers about the significance of his life and death. I wouldn't want to see the focus of 'remembering' to be mainly about money - about scholarships to university for the children of soldiers who died.

Sask. premier disappointed by Project Hero critics
CBC News
March 25, 2010
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/03/25/sk-wall-scholarship-1003.html

Professors slam scholarships for children of dead soldiers
By Josh Campbell
National Post
March 25, 2010 http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2722557

John Babcock's passing
By Wilfred Edmond
Special to The Windsor Star
March 18, 2010
http://www.windsorstar.com/opinion/reader-comments/Gallery+Remembering+John+Babcock/2583336/John+Babcock+passing/2695738/story.html
Criticism of scholarships for children of fallen soldiers draws sharp rebuke
By Jennifer Graham
Globe and Mail (Regina — The Canadian Press)
Mar. 26, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/criticism-of-scholarships-for-children-of-fallen-soldiers-draws-sharp-rebuke/article1512784/

The enduring legacy of an old soldier : He survived!
By J.L. Granatstein
Montreal Gazette
February 24, 2010 http://www.montrealgazette.com/opinion/enduring+legacy+soldier+survived/2604717/story.html

Adrian MacNair: Ignorance on display at the University of Regina
By Adrian MacNair
Full Comment, National Post
March 25, 2010
http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/03/25/adrian-macnair-ignorance-on-display-at-the-university-of-regina.aspx

The University of Ottawa offers free tuition for children of Canadian military parents killed in action
University of Ottawa
June 30, 2009
http://www.media.uottawa.ca/mediaroom/news-details_1709.html

How inconvenient the veterans' wishes are to our mythology
Noah Richler
Globe and Mail
Feb. 23, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/how-inconvenient-the-veterans-wishes-are-to-our-mythology/article1478845 /

Canada’s last World War I vet, John Babcock, dies
By Nicolaas van Rijn Staff Reporter
Toronto Star
Feb 19, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/767925--canada-s-last-world-war-i-vet-john-babcock-dies

Blood of Heroes Blogspot
http://blood-o-heroes.blogspot.com/2008/04/rick-hillier-man-myth-legend.html

Canadian Hero Fund: keeping their dreams alive
http://www.herofund.ca/

Project Hero: Gifting Education to children of our fallen soldiers
http://www.projecthero.ca/

McGill Scholarships
McGill University
http://www.mcgill.ca/studentaid/projecthero/

Dutch man sees it his right to have nurses serve his sexual needs

2010-03-16T15:41:00.002-04:00

I can't help wondering why we don't see similar articles about this kind of thing, in Canada. Surely it's not only the Netherlands that have had this sort of problem. A disabled man apparently expected one of his nurses to provide sexual relief. The nurse had noticed other nurses doing so but refused as she did not see it as part of her job. It must be difficult to be disabled and male, but was this the best response, for him to try and get her fired from her job? It's hard to believe that the man felt so strongly that this was his right. Hasn't our society progressed at all?

The nurse took her complaint to the nurses union. The result was a campaign called “I Draw The Line Here." The union also reported the case to the police, according to an article in the Toronto Star.

As usual, I left my comments online, at the Globe and Mail article. There were a lot of nonsense comments, and a lot from men who seemed to have the same attitude as the Dutch man. Not a lot of analysis, otherwise. I shall include an excerpt of what I wrote, and would welcome comments from readers with their own perspectives.

" . . . what you will find is that some women are catering to the needs of the men who ask/expect/pay for it. There are some women in every workplace who have no problem doing this kind of work. And they probably have no trouble finding work in their area when they want it, just as you say - health care workers too, who provide sexual relief for men. I would think that any woman who gets that close to the physical aspect of caring for male patients - such as massage therapy, too - might get more advances that women who don't work in such areas.

If these male patients are requesting sexual relief from female workers, I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't asking it from female patients too, or anybody they can get away with asking. That is traditional behaviour for men, after all. Just ask women. What is probematic, and what this article is getting at, is that women shouldn't be expected to do this kind of work. Men shouldn't expect that all women are keen on serving them sexually. Or even reluctantly. Some women would rather not at all.

We do do realize that men like sex so much that women's ability to get work could depend on her willingness to comply. This is one of the greatest problems in the world of all time. The fact that we have access to contraception in the west helps, but it doesn't help those women who do not wish to serve men in this way, or who cannot, or who want to but won't for whatever reasons."

Dutch man tried to fire nurse who wouldn’t provide sex
Globe and Mail - Amsterdam — Reuters
Thursday, Mar. 11, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/dutch-man-tried-to-fire-nurse-who-wouldnt-provide-sex/article1497574/

Dutch nurses say `no' to sexual healing
Toronto Star - Amsterdam — Reuters
Fri Mar 12, 2010
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/778650--dutch-nurses-say-no-to-sexual-healing

The two-career family - profs in the ivory tower

2010-02-18T12:40:00.004-05:00

A couple of things I see problematic about favouring couples are first of all, it perpetuates the norm of coupledon as being the more acceptable marital status. Candidates who are single are probably finding it more difficult to find jobs that lead to academic careers, although once they get a foot in the door they may find that finding a partner with similar goals is easier. All in all, what this emphasis on marriage is leading to is a wider economic division in society, as those already advantaged in the workplace (through marriage or social network) take up more of the scarce resources, leaving less for those struggling to achieve higher levels in their career. It's favouritism to have the needs of some couples looked after by the university, if places are not available for both within one institution, or within one city. Out in the real world, that's what it's like - two people, two careers, and compromises so that both get some of what they want out of life. Making it too easy for some, while ignoring the plight of those who get left behind - worse yet under the guise of merit - is unforgivable.

I did submit this comment this morning to the Montreal Gazette but was told, when I inquired, that it might be a tech problem, relating to my own computer. So I placed another comment to another article there, with no problem. This seems to me to be rather a controversial issue, about spouses being encouraged to take up professorships at the same university, and I was surprised to see only one response posted.

Universities see benefits to hiring spouses as profs
By Misty Harris, Canwest News Service
Montreal Gazette
February 16, 2010
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Universities+benefits+hiring+spouses+profs/2571425/story.html

The newspaper industry and the online pay wall - paying for online news

2010-01-24T17:32:00.002-05:00

Leah McLaren of the Globe and Mail says that "the newspaper industry is coming to the slow realization that no one else will value you if you don't value yourself." That's just another of those myths that contain a half-truth. It certainly isn't true that people will value you even though you know you have worth - that what you say has worth - and that you value yourself. More realistically, people value newspapers and other people for external signs they see of their apparent worth - a title, credentials, career, employer (for people), or journalists with a reputation, title, career, etc (for newspapers). Most people don't really judge others on the basis of what they write or have done. Most people wait to see how someone else will judge them.

A newspaper can value itself without feeling they have to close themselves off from all but those willing or able to pay for their service. Even lawyers have a service for the poor (though I see signs of that changing too), although most of their best work is saved for those with money. If a newspaper truly valued itself, it wouldn't feel it had to refrain from giving news away in order to be valued. It might feel it had to refrain from giving news away in order to impress small-minded people who use money as a sign of worth. After all, it is these people, the ones with money - even though many of them have little ability to think for themselves - that newspapers must impress.

This entire scenario planned for the future is a further indication of where our soceity is heading - towards a wider gap between the rich and those less well off. By all means, start excluding those unwilling to pay for news, and the knowledge base that the rich already see as theirs will begin to come true, as those without will have less access to the same resources.

I'm looking forward to buying my online news
By Leah McLaren
Globe and Mail
Friday, Jan. 22, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/style/im-looking-forward-to-buying-my-online-news/article1440711

Sex for grades in universities

2010-01-22T19:44:00.002-05:00

The term 'sexual harassment' doesn't get to the underlying issues of many problems within universities, in whichever country one happens to be (the subject of the article the title is linked to, above, is South Africa). But sex and sexuality, I'm sure, must underlie many situations related to grants and the allocation of TA positions to PhD students, for instance. I discovered that trying to deal with these, without bringing in the more sensitive aspects of sex and sexual relationships didn't help my situation with teaching or keeping the supervisor of my research. I would say too, as other letters here indicate, that it isn't just a problem associated with men's behaviour, but equally about some women's willingness to use whatever is at their hands to ease their way through the system; and then, not always just to ease their way, but acting politically in matters of sexuality and coupledom, for reasons I'm not clear about. Thus, one woman's problems with the system might be swept aside by other women more intent on supporting men's 'rights' and desires, it seems. I am now back in Canada where the situation is no different.

Sex for grades in Africa's academy
By John Morgan
Times Higher Education (THE) (UK)
21 January 2010
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=410068

The plight of the underemployed

2010-01-20T23:44:00.002-05:00

Dave Rowlison's struggle to find work, after losing his full time job, is the subject of this article by Wallace Immen. After a year working his way back up to a job with a good possibility of becoming permanent, he has a lot to look back on. But is his experience typical, and does the rational approach provide the best answers to most people in the same situation of being made redundant? I ask, how many others will get lost in the system, never to recover to the same status in their life, with the equivalent income and use of their skills and knowledge that they once had. Why does the last section in this article, Turning part-time into full-time, seem to be blaming the victim? Is this the best approach to take in examining this social problem? What do ordinary people have to say about it? Read the comments section following the article on the Globe and Mail website.

The plight of the underemployed
By Wallace Immen
including Turning part-time into full-time, from Elizabeth Lengyel and Warren Lundy Globe and Mail
Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-plight-of-the-underemployed/article1437181/

Tiger Woods: golf, marriage, and masculinity

2009-12-22T00:35:00.006-05:00

Is it all about infidelity and the breakdown of a public persona, or is the Tiger Woods story more about those universal issues of masculinity, femininity, and sexual attractiveness. Furthermore, I have discovered, while participating in the discussion on the Tiger Woods matter, on 'Divorcing Tiger? You go, girl' in the Globe and Mail (Timson, Dec 17, 2009), that there are a number of similarities between the women commenting there and the ones who were committed to taking a stand (against me) on the editing of the Montreal Massacre article on Wikipedia. They share the same dogmatic views, and the same resistance to my ideas (although I do think they did ultimately, on Ecole Polytechnique massacre, but just didn't give me credit for them). The same kind of girls - pseudofeminists?

Photos of a scantily-clad Elin Nordegren, from before her marriage to Tiger, are easily accessible online (WWTDD, Dec 14, 2009). I wonder how Tiger feels about this. His wife's body - in pictures - was available for all men to appreciate, not just him. I wonder if it could have been jealousy or insecurity that led Tiger to take on mistresses. His sense of self - his masculinity - would be at stake, not just as an athlete but as a man.

I have mentioned in the comments section of this Tiger Woods article my dismay at the one-sidedness of the article, even though it appears that Elin Nordegren may have commited a violent act against Tiger Woods. There is some suggestion, in another article, that the children may have witnessed the violence. If so, then Elin's violent act could be a matter for social services. This raises the issue of what is acceptable for women, in terms of commiting violent acts. It supposedly is acceptable to knock him around, according to some, if she had no other recourse. The question is, should she be judged harshly for her actions when her husband was such a jerk, or should she have been able to control herself and let the law take care of it - or the divorce court.

On the matter of the car accident, and the suspicion of the golf club violence: Both Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods would have been in trouble, had the truth come out in a police report. But he probably didn't want to press charges against Elin, and never intended to. If he had had to answer the question, what provoked the attack, no doubt he wouldn't have said. If his girlfriends had kept their mouths shut, or denied any involvement (IOW, closed ranks with the adulterer), he would have gotten off scot-free, and his wife probably would have continued to play her dutiful role. We know, as women, how difficult it is to be believed when our husbands cheat. Having the whole thing made public forced her to play her hand, and forced him to back away from public committments in golf.

Journalists have a great deal of power, to sway public opinion as well as perhaps influence the course of action Elin would want to take. Accusing her of not standing up for her rights, or for putting up with men's bad behaviour, may have placed her in a position she didn't want to take. This is one of the influences feminism has had over women's lives - making them feel inadequate, not good enough, standing by her man. No one knows, except the two people involved in this marriage, what really went on and what the options are for resolving it.

Divorcing Tiger? You go, girl
By Judith Timson
Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009
Globe and Mail
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/divorcing-tiger-you-go-girl/article1404256/

elin hit tiger in the head with a golf club, part 2
By WhatWouldTylerDurdenDo
Dec 14, 2009
http://www.wwtdd.com/2009/12/elin-hit-tiger-in-the-head-with-a-golf-club-part-2/

Montreal Massacre 1989 - 2009

2009-12-06T12:01:00.006-05:00

A selection of articles (see below) on the Montreal Massacre (20 years ago today, Dec 6, 1989) represent just a fraction of the many perspectives on this tragedy. Have We Forgotten the Dead focuses on various murders and atrocities across Canada, including the killings at Montreal in 1989, ending with a message about violence and the necessity of gun control, although the comments take on a much wider scope than the original subject matter. ‘A Slap in the Face’ for Victims also emphasizes the importance of the firearms registry, which some feminists see as the one tangible legacy of the Montreal Massacre. Once again the comments on this article provide much to reflect on, from people interested in this subject of gun control and concerned about the rationale behind it. In Lessons of the Montreal Massacre, the story is told of one of the survivors of the Montreal Massacre, Nathalie Provost, who speaks to us about choice, and taken-for-granted opportunities for fulfilment in life. She and her children are living in a different world than most of us. The fact that Marc Lépine attempted to get the world to see how feminism has created a wider division in society between those who have and those who do not, seems to be lost on her. If her children, and all children, had to rely on one person’s views only – hers – about the lessons of the Montreal Massacre, the world would be in trouble indeed. Western News, from the University of Western Ontario, announced its 2009 remembrance ceremonies, one in Engineering, the other at Brescia College to honour the loss of the 14 women killed on Dec 6, 1989 at Montreal, and "the lives of all women that have been lost to gender-based violence," although I believe they are actually referring to women killed by men they know, mostly, and not the kind of killing Marc Lépine committed that day – meant to be a political act to draw attention to the harm feminism has caused in society. Marc Lépine lost his life that day also, though that is never acknowledged by heartless, narrow-minded, politically-oriented feminists. On Dec 6 1917, the explosion of the SS Mont-Blanc in Halifax Harbour left 2000 dead, injuring thousands of others. This is a sad day of remembrance.

Email s.a.mcpherson@sympatico.ca for a copy of my essay, Perspectives on the Montreal Masssacre: Canada’s Outrage Revisited (2005).
See also my website: http://www.montrealmassacre.net/

Jan 10, 2010
The article ‘Divorcing Tiger? You go, girl’ was added to the list below on Jan 10 2010. Marc Lepine and the Montreal Massacre became a part of the comments’ discussion with the online article. Tiger Woods seems to me to be the antithesis of Marc Lepine in many ways. They are opposites in terms of masculinity and career success.

Have We Forgotten the Dead
By Stevie Cameron
Globe and Mail
Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/have-we-forgotten-the-dead/article1387826/

‘A Slap in the Face’ for Victims
By Ingrid Peritz
Globe and Mail
Saturday, Dec. 05, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-slap-in-the-face-for-victims/article1390008

Lessons of the Montreal Massacre
By Catherine Porter
Toronto Star
Saturday, Dec 5, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/734817--lessons-of-the-montreal-massacre

Montreal Remembrance Ceremony
Western News, p. 13
Thursday, Dec 3, 2009
http://communications.uwo.ca/western_news/PDF/WNews_Dec03_09.pdf

Montreal Massacre Death Cult (added Dec 10, 09)
By Margaret Wente
Globe and Mail
Monday, Dec. 07, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/montreal-massacre-death-cult/article1392013

Divorcing Tiger? You go, girl [added Jan 10, 2009]
By Judith Timson
Globe and Mail
Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/family-and-relationships/divorcing-tiger-you-go-girl/article1404256/

Wikipedia and the Montreal Massacre

2009-11-26T20:27:00.004-05:00

A recent article in The Times (UK) suggested that Wikipedia has reached a rough spot. Several comments on this article mentioned the unpleasant atmosphere, a revelation I agree with, since my attempt a few years ago to have my knowledge and thoughts about the Montreal Massacre included on their piece on this subject, which came to be called by Wikipedia editors the Ecole Polytechnique massacre. Below is my latest comment, submitted to The Times comments section for the article, 'Wikipedia shows signs of stalling as number of volunteers falls sharply'. I shall include my comment below, even though some of it probably will not make much sense outside the context of the article and other comments on the Times website, though of course, not much about the Montreal Massacre and the 'violence against women ' campaign associated with it makes much sense either unless one takes into consideration changes in society brought about by feminism and the reluctance of feminists to discuss these. Following is the comment I submitted to The Times this evening.

At the time of the Montreal massacre, the fact of Lepine's father being Muslim did not come out. Probably, it would only have clouded the issue of Marc Lepine being seen as a victim of child abuse by his father. There always has been a link made between Marc Lepine having been abused and his apparent hatred of women. His father apparently reinforced Lepine's hatred of women through his own traditional example of manner of treatment of them. Lepine apparently learned this and became like his father, so they say. This is one of the original ideas, that resulted in Lepine being held up as the supreme example of violence against women even though the violence he committed had nothing to do with relationships with women. It was claimed that Marc Lepine killed the women at the engineering school because he had an inherent hatred of women due to the abuse. This displaces the truth of the matter, that Lepine lost out on his place in the engineering school that he had expected to have because men, traditionally, had been the ones to be engineers, not women. Some men have had to set aside their expectations of life as women (middle class, mainly) take up their places beside men in the universities and in the workplace. This is the viewpoint that feminists and their buddies did not want the public to hear, that Lepine had a legitimate reason to be angry and no way of dealing with it. He didn't know how to handle it so he went into the engineering school and killed 14 feminists, and wrote out his reasons in his suicide note. This was no ordinary school killing, and Lepine was not a madman. He was 25 years old and had his dreams thwarted at every step. Although his response to frustration and broken dreams was the worst imaginable, it should be remembered but isn't, by the heartless women of Canada and their friends, that he also died that day, on Dec 6, 1989. I was a university student at the time, and grieved alongside women, but later I came to understand how he must have felt.

Wikipedia shows signs of stalling as number of volunteers falls sharplyBy Murad Ahmed, Technology Reporter
November 25, 2009
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article6930546.ece

Can aging brains cut it in the classroom?

2009-11-18T13:44:00.002-05:00

Dr. Angela Troyer, neuropsychologist at Baycrest in Toronto, doesn’t seem to think so. I find this point of view offensive. Seriously! Should Angela Troyer be spreading this ageist nonsense? Read the article and better yet, the comments from young people worried about their capability, and from older ones who recognize other aspects of older students returning to the campus besides apparent differences in cognitive skills between young and old.

Can aging brains cut it in the classroom?
By Angela Troyer
Globe and Mail
Monday, Nov. 16, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/can-aging-brains-cut-it-in-the-classroom/article1365633/

PhD students at university (Doctoring the System)

2009-10-22T14:54:00.004-04:00

See this comments and others on the article, Doctoring the System, at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408733.

The fact that research can be controversial, and in any case could well be political, has not been addressed in the article [Doctoring the System, 2009]. Besides the research itself, the students themselves are political subjects immersed in a political environment, where race or nationality, and sex and sexuality are among the sources of conflict that can affect the completion of the research thesis. Worse yet, sometimes these are completely out of the control of the students themselves. Feminism, and other groups vying for power in an environment known for its scarce resources is not a pleasant place to be, without the necessary support, financial and otherwise. I agree with the distinction made by Paul Davies that being deemed withdrawn is not the same as a candidate being failed. But the consequences can be the same when the withdrawn student cannot offer an adequate explanation for potential employers or other universities when applying for jobs or to grad school. An incomplete degree gives the impression that the student was incapable of doing the work, or if the reason given was lack of funding, then it appears as though the withdrawn student either lacked ability or their proposed research was not worthwhile. I'm not sure that the consequences of letting a student down are fully realized by those involved. The results can be devastating and life-changing, to be treated in this manner.

Doctoring the system
By Tara Brabazon
THE (Times Higher Education) UK
22 October 2009
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408733

Lust: One of The seven deadly sins of the academy

2009-09-19T08:52:00.010-04:00

The seven deadly sins which are the subject of this article (The seven deadly sins of the academy, By Matthew Reisz) about campuses in the UK, are sartorial inelegance, procrastination, snobbery, lust, arrogance, complacency, and pedantry. THE is the Higher Education supplement for the British newspaper, the Times. . The heading links to the original article and comments, some of which were made by me about the section on lust, by Terence Kealey, so I won't expand further here on this complex subject. It's debatable just how light-hearted the article really is - humerous satire, or serious matters for the academy to think about? From the attention it has received in the British Press, one has to wonder where this will lead.

Sex with students? Is Terence Kealey as misunderstood as Juvenal?
By Mary Beard - A Don's Life, Times Online
The Times
September 24, 2009
http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2009/09/sex-with-students-is-terence-kealey-as-misunderstood-as-juvenal.html

Buckingham University vice-chancellor defends remarks over female students
By Adam Gabbatt
guardian.co.uk
Wednesday 23 September 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/sep/23/university-female-students-perk

Senior academic calls female students 'a perk of the job'
By Alison Kershaw, Press Association
Independent
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/senior-academic-calls-female-students-a-perk-of-the-job-1791904.html

The seven deadly sins of the academy
By Matthew Reisz
THE
17 September 2009
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=408135

Curvy students 'perk of the job'
By Katherine Sellgren
BBC News education reporter
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8270475.stm

Michael Bryant and Darcy Sheppard: class differences and similarities

2009-09-10T21:59:00.011-04:00

Michael Bryant didn't just change into a "clean suit". He changed into a suit (Margaret Wente's your use of language an example of the distortions and biases throughout your article. But I imagine you want to make it clear where you stand. To do anything else might mean having to give up your career. It's well known that the media isn't bias-free, not in important matters such as war and personal political scandals. The tragedy of the death of Darcy Sheppard, involved in a violent incident with ex-attorney general Michael Bryant, isn't just a morality play, though I understand completely how you might see it so. It is very class-based logic to see the event as a "cautionary tale for public figures," as though the tragedy could somehow have been avoided. True enough, stopping the car to try and deal with the matter instead of trying to 'lose' the cyclist, could have been one way of dealing with it, even though having to face the frightful consequence of Darcy Sheppard's wrath might have been too big a challenge for Mr Bryant. Attempts to present the cyclist as the aggressor, as the short-fused instigator of this tragedy, are misguided. It is often the case that people in the oppressed class are depicted this way, as being overly emotional, as incapable of being responsible persons in society. It used to be that women were put into this category - a means of keeping them down, no doubt. Now it's women and men of the lower classes. And it's men and women of the middle classes who keep up this unjust method of keeping the rest down. Just accuse them of behaviour that seems irrational (as in this case of Darcy Sheppard), even thought the behaviour of Michael Bryant seems to fit well into this very category - irrational, fear-based actions, for whatever reason. Leaving the scene of the accident to finish the drive to the hotel was just one part of this - the endpoint of a horrendous journey for the cyclist clutching onto the car, by the end of the journey simply for the sake of dear life itself, I would think. If it really was the case that Michael Bryant feared the man himself, feared the actions this working class cyclist might take against him, as one of the emotionally wrought people who can never make a go of life for that very reason (so they say), might I suggest that he, Michael Bryant, former attorney general, might have been a victim of middle class mentality, of the kind of game-playing that so many middle class people engage in. If the presumed emotional condition of the cyclist was the reason why Bryant became so insistent on getting him off his car, and if Bryant was unaware that the characteristics so often attributed to less well-paid wage-earners were not, as a general rule, neceearily true, then Bryant may have been led by his own fear into taking this unecessary action. It's shocking to think that a man's fear can lead him to taking action which leads to the man's death, but whether it is all his responsiblity, or also the responsibility of all those people who encourage others to think along these lines (and there are a lot of them), is something to consider. There are a lot of ignorant people out there, determined to destroy a person's life, it seems (or perhaps unwittingly), in order to protect their own, and to protect their lifestyle. A morality play, yes, and a legal matter mired in lies and distortions of truths. It could be that Margaret is right - it could well be Michael Bryant's privileged life, ambition, combined with a lack of understanding of ordinary people that led to this tragedy.

Morality play and a stampede to judgment
By Margaret Wente
No comments permitted for this article
Globe and Mail
Sept 3/10, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/morality-play-and-a-stampede-to-judgment/article1281262/

A search for answers in a cyclist's death
By Timothy Appleby and Jennifer Yang
Read also 'comments page' following article
Globe and Mail
Fri Sept. 04, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-search-for-answers-in-a-cyclists-death/article1275361/

Michael Bryant's political strategy: PR 2.0
By Kate Hammer
Read also 'comments page' following article
Globe and Mail
Sept. 8/14, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/michael-bryants-political-strategy-pr-20/article1279957/

Sexuality, motherhood, and aging: Marilyn Monroe

2009-08-05T10:55:00.008-04:00

Marilyn Monroe, had she lived, would now be 83 years old. Marilyn, aka Norma Jeane Mortenson (Baker) was born on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles, California, and died 47 years ago today, at age 36, on Aug 5, 1962 at her Brentwood, California home. I have provided links to several articles below, about the death of Marilyn Monroe and also on related matters such as sexuality, motherhood, and aging.

The song "Candle in the Wind," originally written in 1972 by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, in honour of Marilyn Monroe, is performed by Elton John here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvux60fqNU8 (courtesy of 'libysin', You Tube). Also see tribute to Marilyn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IotIPev5NBY&feature=related (courtesy of Danielle625, You Tube).

On This Day 5th August 1962: Marilyn Monroe found dead
On this Day, BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/5/newsid_2657000/2657289.stm

Obsession with aging female parts has created a new body lexicon
By Sarah Hampson
Globe and Mail
Friday July 31, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/obsession-with-aging-female-parts-has-created-a-new-body-lexicon/article1237224/

Women over 50 – the invisible generation
By Hilary Mantel
The Guardian
Tuesday 4 August 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/04/hilary-mantel-older-women

Marilyn Monroe: Through Your Most Grievous Fault
By Ayn Rand (July 22, 2003)
Capitalism Magazine
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=3247

'I really regret it. I really regret having children'
By Doug Sanders
Globe and Mail archives (originally published Sept. 2007) Last updated Jul. 29, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/i-really-regret-it-i-really-regret-having-children/article784948/

Refusing to multiply
By Leonard Stern
Ottawa Citizen
July 3, 2009
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/Refusing+multiply/1757284/story.html

Relationships in academia

2009-07-30T12:52:00.003-04:00

30 July, 2009, comment to Times Higher Education (THE, UK), on the article Love me, love my work, by Dale Salwak.

Dale Salwak writes "To strip someone of his or her work is to strip away part of the soul." There would be a lot of very soulless people in the world during these difficult times, if this were so. Salwak uses the anecdote of the husband who didn’t want his wife to work as a means of emphasizing the apparently incredible value of work, to the individual, and supposedly, to the wider world (if it something as important as academic work, ie). Work is valuable because society has made it so, largely because the people who write the books tell us it is. Work is essential to a person’ identity, but this kind of writing, by Salwak, does nothing to help people outside of academia to understand their sometimes miserable lot in life, or to help them feel better about it. Academics are indeed privileged to be able to live the lives they do, including the women who are now (thanks to feminism) able to take their places alongside men on campuses around the world. In this world of ours, it is not just husbands who have the capacity to "strip away" part of what so many human beings have within them, in the form of abilities, life experience, and knowledge. If you cannot apply what you have discovered, or reasoned through, to those outside the ‘inner circle,’ to individuals who have been excluded from academia for one reason or another (and not due to lack of ability or knowledge), then the result of the literary labour simply appears as a kind of inbred narrowness of thought, a narcissistic sense of grandiosity, or along with like others, a closing of the ranks against the rest of the world.

Love me, love my work
Dale Salwak
THE
30 July 2009
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407554

Rideau Canal, Kingston: Four members of the Shafia family found dead

2009-07-28T08:54:00.007-04:00

In the Globe and Mail recently, an article by Christie Blatchford appeared about Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Mohammed Yahya, and their 18-year-old son, Hamed, who have been arrested for the murder of three of the couple's children as well as Shafia's first wife, Rona Amir Mohammed. The four women were discovered on June 30, 2009, in the family car at the bottom of the Rideau Canal at Kingston, Ontario. The title of Blatchford's column was 'It's no accident that victims were all female,' a reminder to me of the knee-jerk reactions by feminists to the killings committed by Marc Lepine back in 1989 - feminists who could never let anyone forget that it was women he killed, and only women. The public was never given a chance to get rid of these first impressions, which tended to gather more support as time went on, particularly as opposing voices never had much of a chance to get heard. It's always a rousing opportunity, when something can be explained simply, such as in terms of an 'honour killing,' to gain support for a social cause. But even if the death of the eldest teenage victim could be included under this label, 'honour killing,' it is more likely that the circumstances were far more complex than that, and attempting to explain it away by the claim that they were all female is a bit farfetched.

As ordinary members of the public we don't have access to all the details, but fragments that have emerged in the media indicate that this is a genuine piece of multiculturalism at work - two cultures, at least. If the first wife of Mohammad Shafia had wanted a divorce, as reported by Paul Schliesmann (July 24), that could create a dilemma, and not only because the marriage between them had not been acknowledged legally in this country. When she died last month, at midlife, Rona Amir Mohammed might have been looking forward to a new life apart from her family. Rona had served her purpose, for more than 20 years raising the 7 children that Shafia's second wife, Tooba Mohammed Yahya, had given birth to, and might have thought it was time for a change. But how does one accomplish that, when honour, a clash of cultures, and legal problems lead to further difficulties - seemingly impossible difficulties to reconcile in this new country?

Referring to this as an 'honour killing' surely misses out on the complexity of the circumstances, including the part each of the accused had in the planning and carrying out of the deed. I wonder, aside from that, about the role that Sharia's second wife played in the marriage, especially as it turned out the children she and her husband had together were being cared for by his first wife, who lived with them but who in public was known as their cousin. How shocked would we be if it came out that the girls' biological mother knew beforehand that they were to have their lives ended while on their family holiday? Should we be looking at this as a gender issue, as male against female, to the extent that, if any woman got caught up in the middle of it that there was necessarily a good reason, such as her husband sneaking off to have sex with wife number one, as Blatchford suggests might be a plausible reason for discontent? The family was Muslim, as was Marc Lepine, as it happens, although how much traditional Muslim norms influenced this set of circumstances is questionable. Blatchford writes, "what seems to underlie these murders, what appears to be the real bottom-line context, is the belief that men are superior to women," but I don't believe men see themselves as superior in general, any more than women do when they are trying to maintain control of the little worlds they create. Men may see themselves as having the right to take appropriate steps to resolve difficulties within the family, and their rights are often upheld by female members of the family. This tragedy is an indication of the compexity of gendered relations, of the never-to-be-equal aspects of marriage and parenthood, and the generations of family that follow. Besides that, the differences in cultures may unwittingly have contributed towards the family's having arrived at a point of non-resolution, requiring a solution not able to be accounted for in Canadian multicultural values, norms, or through our laws, leaving us no choice but to acknowledge that our world is not as rational as we like to think it is. Once a mistake has been made, or a straying from accepted norms, perhaps it can simply be too difficult to bring things back to normal.

At the close of Christie Blatchford's column, a note was added: "Comments have been disabled. Editor's Note: We have closed comments on this story for legal reasons. We appreciate your understanding." Another piece in the G&M, by Jill Colvin, was open for comments, but why Christie Blatchford was allowed to write from her own narrow-minded perspective and not be open for comments from readers is unexplainable. She added this, about men's superiority: "Canadians don't believe that, do not accept the core belief of many ethnic groups that women aren't equal to men and are less valuable a creature." But Christie, don't you see that people in Canada often show no respect for women unless they're 'like' men - working alongside them, doing things men do, doing it their way, making money, and being as ruthless. They are not above treating with disrespect women who don't fit in with these feminist norms.

It's no accident that victims were all female
Christie Blatchford
Opinions, Globe and Mail
Friday, Jul. 24, 2009 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/columnists/christie-blatchford/its-no-accident-that-victims-were-all-female/article1229548/
or
http://SAMcPherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2009_Christie_Blatchford_Its_no_accident.doc

Family held in canal deaths
Andrew Chung Toronto Star
Thursday, Jul 23, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/670598

Parents charged with murder
By Jill Colvin
Globe and MailFriday, Jul. 24, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/parents-charged-with-murder/article1229624/

Were deaths of 4 women a matter of 'honour'?
Andrew Chung In Kingston, Ont.
Daniel Dale In Toronto
Toronto Star
Jul 24, 2009 04:30 AM
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/671148

Parents, son charged in canal deaths
By Paul Schliesmann, Sun Media
C News
July 24, 2009
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/07/22/10225341-cp.html
or
http://habsrus.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=NonHockey&action=print&thread=14328

Afghanistan, Canada, and rape

2009-07-15T14:03:00.003-04:00

Coercive sex within marriage was the subject of two recent TO Star articles, one of which (Afghanistan rewrites marital `rape' law), mentions the "provision ordering wives to offer sex with their spouses at least every four days unless they were ill," which may be a bit different from the idea reflected in the media in the west, of Shiite men permitted to demand sex from their wives, or, as westerners like to phrase it, rape. Is the requirement to 'offer' much different from the unspoken requirement in Canada, for instance, which requires women to submit to sex if they 'want the job' for instance. Is the idea of women being forced to "offer sex" problematic, because if it is, I would like to have professors and others in this country and the UK really think about their own behaviour, and I would like secretaries also to think about what women are required to do, in this country, to get sought-after jobs, etc. Putting the requirement in writing, in a law, may seem a bit over the top, but it's not that much different from what goes on elsewhere. Does the use of psychological manipulation instead of written laws make everything alright and within the law? Canada is advanced enough for its more powerful members to be able to do this sucessfully, without actually having to use physical force or make it an unpopular law.

How can individuals in this country of ours know whether or not there was an informal condition of employment, such as sex, if they have been quite content to maintain an active sex life, or become married? How can a person know for sure unless they stop doing it and see what happens? Will the favours stop? - the job offers and the funding. The argument made by sexually active and/or married women that that that has nothing to do with their success in life is illogical. It doesn't make sense to offer such experience as proof, as women sometimes do in discussions, although sharing one's experience as something for others to reflect upon might be helpful, if it is taken seriously and not distorted.

What western women include under the label 'rape' in our society needs to be thought about more seriously, especially if they continue to insist that a law suggesting that Shiite women 'offer' themselves to their husbands on a regular basis for sex should be referred to as rape.

Afghanistan and Rape
EDITORIAL TheStar.com
Jul 13, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/664951

Afghanistan rewrites marital `rape' law
By Heidi Vogt and Rahim Faiez
Jul 10, 2009
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/663752

Resentment towards the privileged: Inability of the privileged to do a good job

2009-07-12T00:22:00.003-04:00

In the New York times article, 'Dangerous Resentment,' Judith Warner takes up the battle of fellow elitist Bridget Kevane, a mother who perceived herself as being unjustly victimized by her local shopping mall, the police, the prosecutor, and women not so privileged as herself. In her own explanation of the events, in Guilty as Charged (Brain, Child 2009), Bridget Kevane closes with these words: "For feeling constantly torn between so many daily demands, trying to make it all work, but knowing that I sometimes fall short, I am guilty. But of knowingly putting my children in harm’s way by letting them go to the mall alone? Not guilty." Perhaps this is the crux of the matter, for she didn't simply allow her kids and friends to go to the mall. She drove them there - in her words, to "a safe place". In this magazine for 'thinking mothers', she emphasizes the closeness of her community, how the children "wander to each other’s homes," going "from one house to the other, to the park, or walking around the nearby university." She also mentions her own childhood, telling how she developed her independence in a family of eight siblings altogether. She says, "In many ways, I raised my youngest sister, walking her around the neighborhood, taking her to the local neighborhood store, and more." Her mother, she says, "believed in the power of allowing her children to gain independence by depending on themselves." But Bridget driving her children to the mall for the afternoon had nothing to do with the manner in which Bridget gained independence as a child, getting familiar with her neighbourhood, making decisions about where to go and when to leave for home.

The mall Bridget drove her children to was not within her local community, and it was not mentioned how far away it was if the children had decided to walk home. It might have been better, if she had wanted to lie down for an hour or two, to let the children go for a walk to the park, or to the corner store for an ice cream, than to drive them outside their local area to a mall so she could take a nap. That way, at least, if the children had had a disagreement, or one felt tired or unwell, they wouldn't have had to disturb her at home to come back to the mall to pick them up. It's also not rational to assume that because an 11-year-old is capable of babysitting within the confines of their home that they can safely assume responsibility in a public area such as a mall, with a Macys and other stores, a movie theatre, and dining areas. The children were placed in a situation of not being able to make certain decisions, but were entirely dependent on the shopping mall being a 'safe place' for kids.

I know that educated women can sometimes be treated unfairly. But I think that women's upbringing can be what counts against some of them, if they fail to comprehend the lives of other women and the subject matter they have been given the privilege of researching and writing about. Unfortunately, too many women who do so don't know what they're talking about. Judith Warner, the author of Dangerous Resentment, the NY Times article about mother and professor Bridget Kevane, argues that the incident in no way could be called 'child endangerment,' the charge brought against the mother. I wonder if Judith has a better suggestion, perhaps 'abandonment,' or should the wayward mother simply have been let off if there was no appropriate name for this error in judgement. What is clear, however, is that Judith Warner is out of her depth. Some of the 259 comments on this article, Dangerous Resentment, have dealt with these issues, and are well worth the read, including how a poor mother in shabby clothes would have been dealt with by the police, and some of the mindless assumptions made by Bridget Kevane, privileged due to her elitist position as a professor to believe that it is her right to let children in her care spend the day alone at the mall. The resentment some of us feel, about women like Kevane, and about Judith Warner, is that they use their position to take advantage of others while avoiding responsibility. In other words, they don't have a clue what this world is all about.

Guilty as Charged
By Bridget Kevane
Brain, Child magazine
http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/summer2009_kevane.asp

Dangerous Resentment
By Judith Warner
NY Times
July 9, 2009
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/dont-hate-her-because-shes-educated/?em

Popular Opinion: do prostitution laws violate prostitutes' Charter rights

2009-07-11T06:30:00.001-04:00

The judge in this case apparently believes too that Christians are the problem as far as ethics and just solutions are concerned. But there are still moral and ethical issues, not all contained under the umbrella of Christianity. So far, in world culture, men have been encouraged to believe it is their right to have more or less unlimited access to women's bodies, but men's sexual appetites may actually need to be kept under some restraint (as indicated by the recent marital laws in Afghanistan which promised them unrestricted freedoms), as so many of them don't seem capable of much self-discipline. Sometimes, religion enables a woman to have protection - through dress, community, and personal beliefs, up to a point. I wonder what will happen to the influx of foreign sex trade workers (such as Polish women as described by journalist and author Victor Malarek), who up until this point have had good reason to complain about being forced into the sex trade business. If they continue to come over to Canada believing they are going to make a fresh start in life, and then end up having no recourse but to become legal sex trade workers instead of illegal ones in order to survive, what will be the consequences, to them and to Canada? The women who are fighting for the right to have the sex trade be made legal are not likely the same women who are under the thumb of "sociopathic criminals," as you put it. They sound like a 'select few' who are trying to get their own needs looked after, while those sex workers working under poor conditions, whether legal or not, will continue to be as badly off as people are who live in seedy but legal housing, or work at underpaid mind-numbing but legal jobs for sociopathic criminal bosses.

Popular opinion
By Leonard Stern
The Ottawa Citizen
July 7, 2009
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/Popular+opinion/1765664/story.html

Refusing to Multiply - about motherhood and society

2009-07-07T13:07:00.005-04:00

The comment below was my response to the article by Leonard Stern, editorial pages editor, Ottawa Citizen, July 3, 20, 2009. He was questioning how to get Canada's citizens to choose parenthood. He says, "The brutal truth is this: The only sure-fire way to ensure women have lots of children is to deny them sexual equality. (Needless to say, this is an approach I’d oppose.)"

My online comment, July 6, 2009:
You mean other than surrogate motherhood? If it's not for money - for profit - what would be the motivation for today's generation of women? I hope that doesn't sound too cynical. But why would women want to give up the respect, the financial gain, the independence, and legitimate additions to their resume rather than provide the service of childbearing within marriage? Bearing and raising children as part of marriage is not enough in today's world to enable women to have their caring, problem-solving, planning, analytical, social, and community involvement skills recognized. Take a look at my website: http://samcpherson.homestead.com/StoryofMyLife.html So, either start paying what it's worth, or give mothers the respect they deserve.

Refusing to multiply
By Leonard Stern
Ottawa Citizen
July 3, 2009
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/Refusing+multiply/1757284/story.html

Michael Jackson: A tortured star's last days

2009-06-29T18:54:00.002-04:00

It's too bad, if that's the case that his comeback was intended to be a "journey into rejuvenation". At age 50, he probably needed to reinvent himself in a manner that took into account his health and somewhat declining abilities. He'd already proven himself. Surely his fans just wanted to be in his presence, however he chose to present himself (comment made online 6/27/2009 4:39:38 AM, on the death of Michael Jackson).

A tortured star's last days
By James Adams
Globe and Mail
Saturday, Jun. 27, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/a-tortured-stars-last-days/article1199387/

Bride ban: Gay bar says no to bachelorettes

2009-06-16T00:54:00.002-04:00

Comments on this article were closed off by midnight June 15. And I was just about to post my less-than-200 words! -

Good for him! But "Celebrate their happiness " (?) (comment attributed to Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry). Is going to a male drinking establishment the way to express one's happiness at getting married? This is about straight women celebrating with men, isn't it (gay men), but not with the female counterparts to gay men, who surely would be gay women, in lesbian bars. I understand the argument that the girls want to go where it will be less likely they will be "groped or ogled" (as though most lesbians really think straight women are sexually appealing and can't wait to get their hands on them). I wonder if there's some sense of identification with cross-dressing gay men by straight women, in the sense of their knowing they're acting out a role. Yes, drag shows for brides-to-be do sound like a market niche, one that appeals to a great many people, not just brides-to-be. I wonder, is it really about celebrating happiness?

Bride ban: Gay bar says no to bachelorettes
By Caryn Rouseau
Toronto Star
Jun 15, 2009 03:36 PM
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/651099

Medical isotope shortage a 'sexy issue'

2009-06-09T23:36:00.003-04:00

Members of the public who are outraged by Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt’s remarks about the shortage of medical isotopes in Canada should perhaps take a moment to reflect on what the ‘sexy issue’ language controversy is all about, and what it is exactly that is upsetting them about Raitt and comments she has made.

Seems to me it’s a good thing if a political issue is considered ‘sexy’. It means that politicians and the public, and especially the media, will make sure there is plenty of publicity over the matter. Take a look at this article ‘Managing government isn't sexy . . .’ (2008), chosen at random to illustrate my point. It can be difficult to stir up enthusiasm for the mundane tasks of managing government - boring, in fact. The topics of nuclear leaks and cancer, however, are fraught with emotion, tending to capture the attention and ire of working class and middle class families feeling threatened by these matters or who have experienced loss due to cancer, and who know this just shouldn’t be happening to them. There shouldn’t be a shortage of essential medical supplies for tax-paying citizens of whatever country.

Here’s another one, this time from England. ‘What does Obama offer US poor?’ is the headline (2008). Dawn Trice, Chicago Tribune columnist, is reported as saying, "After Hurricane Katrina, all of a sudden we had a national discussion about poverty. But once things settled down again, that faded away. So candidates don't focus on it - it's not a 'sexy' issue." Dealing with matters of poverty doesn’t earn political parties votes. It’s not a subject of interest to most people who have a voice in our society.

One final example – an article about a charity in the UK for victims of child abuse, apparently referred to by potential funders as "just not a sexy issue". Another subject, it seems, that carries with it a social stigma, "isolating those in its aftermath from the rest of society". Cancer used to be like that – a hidden disease – but luckily it is now able to discussed in public, and its victims treated with some dignity and respect, even if circumstances result in a temporary shortage of essential services.

Perhaps readers who object to the term ‘sexy issue’ should think about what is meant by that and not read something into the words spoken by Raitt other than what was meant. See the next post down for more insight into the matter.

Raitt's comments on 'sexy' isotopes crisis released
By Oliver Moore, Jeff Gray, Gloria Galloway
Globe and Mail
Tuesday, Jun. 09, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/raitts-comments-on-sexy-isotopescrisisreleased/article1173397/ (retrieved June 9 2009)

Managing government isn't sexy, but a few states flirt with success
By David S. Broder,
Seattle Times
Originally published Sunday, March 9, 2008
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2004269442_broder09.html (retrieved June 9 2009)

What does Obama offer US poor?
By Paul Moss
BBC News
11 October 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7643567.stm (retrieved June 9, 2009)

'Ladies here work for an absolute pittance'
By Phoebe Greenwood
Guardian
Sept 10, 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/sep/10/voluntarysector.childprotection (retrieved June 9 2009)

Cancer victims outrage or ‘sexy’ nepotism in eHealth

2009-06-09T23:28:00.003-04:00

What it is exactly that is upsetting members of the public about Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, besides the comments she has made about the issue of the shortage of medical isotopes being "sexy", and is this really the news item we should be focusing on? Is this story upstaging the very real issue of the eHealth system and lucrative contracts being handed out willy nilly?

In the first story, it appears that Lisa Raitt would like to use the shortage of nuclear medicine isotopes, and her ability to do something about it, as a means of advancing her career. There are some incidents of overspending, and what might be perceived as a ‘coldness’ towards the issue of cancer victims’ treatment, and towards their experience as cancer victims and the effect this has on their families. She also made a critical comment about one colleague, Leona Aglukkaq, to another during a private conversation, which was then made public. But does this warrant the loss of her position? Surely this is not the first time a politician has expressed him or herself in an unappealing, cold manner, appearing ambitious beyond belief.

Isn’t this the kind of personal experience a politician (or anyone in a professional position) might go through as they discover more about themselves and the world we live in. The quest for power is not an unusual one. The tendency to use power unwisely is also not that unusual. Many are protected while they make their errors in judgement during their career journey, but it’s also true that some are not. Several accusations, all of a different nature, have been made against Lisa Raitt. I wonder what it is, exactly, they are angry about, or whether this is a real issue at all.

This commotion has come about right on the heels of the eHealth controversy involving Sarah Kramer and her termination package, and Health Minister David Cramer. That story may not be as ‘sexy’ as the one about Lisa Raitt and her attitude towards cancer victims, but there is the matter of the $317,000 severance package, and the lucrative contracts apparently given to Liberal-
friendly firms without taking competitive bids. Sounds pretty sexy to me!

Premier defends Caplan, eHealth board
June 9 2009
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/647835 (retrieved June 9, 2009)

Ontario fires eHealth boss over spending scandal 'Important step to restore public confidence'
Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, June 07, 2009
http://www.nationalpost.com:80/news/story.html?id=1672117 (retrieved June 9, 2009)

Cancer victims outraged over Raitt 'sexy' comment
By Murray Brewster
Toronto Star
Jun 09, 2009 01:44 PM
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/647933 (retrieved June 9, 2009)

Comments in general, and Letter to the Editor, Globe and Mail

2009-05-27T14:25:00.001-04:00

On May 23 I submitted the following 'Letter to the Editor" (letters@globeandmail.ca) to the Globe and Mail. I will expand on the issue here, however, by adding links to compilations of some of the comments made by readers about the two articles.

In two articles this month, Sarah Boesveld addressed the subject of work, in ‘No shame in self-promotion’ (May 4) and ‘The quiet shame of job success’ (May 11). Ms Boesveld must have a knack for saying the things that get people thinking, as both articles received many worthwhile comments. I am perturbed, however, that in the end, what we are left with is only the article. The original links to the articles do not work, although I did manage to access the articles (minus comments) through checking the columnist’s name and accompanying list of articles. It concerns me that the articles got considerable attention from the public, but none of this is on record at the Globe and Mail online, not for future readers or for researchers. In this sense, I would describe the Comments service offered by G&M as a tension reliever, but not as anything significant for the purpose of knowing what ordinary people actually think. Some of us put in considerable time and effort into making comments that are insightful and informative, based on our life experience and our education. To have only the ‘authoritative’ view available two weeks later is both demeaning and disappointing.

Today, Wed May 27, I decided to submit the letter directly to the Editor, Angus Frame, at aframe@globeandmail.ca . The letter has been submitted and, as you can see, rather than wait any longer for a response from somebody, it is also on my blog.

Sarah Boesveld and readers. ‘No shame in self-promotion’ and comments. Globe and Mail, May 4, 2009
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2009_May_NoShameinSelfPromotion.doc

Sarah Boesveld and readers. ‘The quiet shame of job success’ and comments. Globe and Mail, May 11, 2009
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/Miscellaneous/2009_May_QuietShameofJobSuccess.doc

SEXUALITY and ‘The Purity Myth’ by Jessica Valenti

2009-04-26T12:21:00.003-04:00

An short excerpt from the book The Purity Myth appeared yesterday on Parentcentral.com on the Toronto Star pages online. The subheading was ‘The author of a new book argues against purity cults’, and that is what Jessica Valenti does, in this promotion of her book. How does such tripe get included in the parents’ section of the Toronto Star? Do parents realize that this author is promoting promiscuity in this piece, and possibly within the entire book if this is any indication of what it’s about? Approaching this subject in a black-and-white manner, only seeing two perspectives, she leaves readers with the suggestion that purity and virginity are old-fashioned and destructive towards young women’s sense of themselves, sexually. Attempting to turn readers (parents?) against the idea of purity and virginity is not a rational approach to the serious topic of young women’s sexuality. It’s part of it, but it isn’t the main problem. Making virginity the problem suggests to readers that the only alternative is so-called sexual ‘freedom,’ a stance I find damaging for girls/women and to society, maybe more so than the idea that women should remain pure. My response to the piece submitted online follows:

The double standard of gender differences in sexuality

Jessica Valenti has set up two polar opposites in this excerpt, creating a false sense of what the problems are. It's popular now to 'be sexual', as she says, although I wonder how much of the 'being sexual' is really that, for many young women out of touch with their own bodies. Valenti claims that "The sexual double standard is alive and well, and it's irrevocably damaging young women," but the problem actually is that feminists, in their attempt to do away with the double standard, have put women in the position of having to pretend there is no double 'standard', if standard is the right word. Men's sexuality IS different than women's. Men have a different physical body, different biology, different hormones, while the standard men (and women) are led to believe in is that women are the same as men, sexually, and are, or should be, willing and able to have sex, without a relationship, for the sake of fun and sexual release only. Women are rewarded for perpetuating that tradition.

How 'virginity' is a dangerous idea
Jessica Valenti
April 25, 2009Parentcentral.ca (Toronto Star)http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/623495

Discrimination against mentally disabled and developmentally challenged: Orillia

2009-04-24T20:53:00.009-04:00

Recently, in March, 2009, while searching the internet for information on the Ontraio Hospital at Orillia, Ontario, I came across a website offering the postcard 'Ontario Hospital or the Orillia Asylum for Idiots'. The site was apparently set up by the Orillia Public Library. I submitted a comment (on March 16) to the site, http://images.ourontario.ca/orillia/details.asp?ID=20399&p=c, giving my thoughts on this, as follows:

I'm really surprised that a library would resort to using this kind of description - even if it's true that the Ontario Hospital at Orillia once was called the Asylum for Idiots. To have it set up so that people can actually send this card by email is beyond belief. If you had the opportunity, library staff, would you make such postcards available to email if they showed and mentioned 'n----rs'? [Posted by Sue McPherson, 16 Mar 2009 at 16:17].

When I checked the other day, a response had been posted from the editors of the site, but which neglected to address my concerns:

Thank you for your comments Sue. I appreciate your concern regarding derogatory terms in these listings but the fact of the matter is...the name of the hospital was at that time called the Orillia Asylum for Idiots. Bear in mind that this was a the term used back in the 1860.s & 1870s. Of course we don't use such terms today. However, when inputting historical information it is important that we keep the names, titles and terminology given at that period in time. This makes it easier for those doing research and will be looking for something using the official title. Here is some history on the building you might find it interesting. This is a direct passage from the Frost Scrapbook. Couchiching Beach Park was originally called â€˜Asylum Pointâ€. The building was originally erected for a hotel by Henry Fraser of Priceâ€™s Corners. It was purchased by the Government in 1859 and enlarged and occupied by a â€œConvalescent Lunatic Asylumâ€ to use the objectionable description of those days. The hospital was under the charge of Dr. John Ardagh. The name was later changed to â€œOrillia Lunatic Asylum for Chronic Patientsâ€. This was later converted to â€œAsylum for Idiotsâ€ under Dr. Beaton. The Beaton family were very well known in Orillia. The building was then torn down after which the property was purchased by the Town for Couchiching Beach Park. The Price was $10,000.00. The present great institution for defective children was then erected on its present on Lake Simcoe. On an aside. In later years the new building became known as the Huronia Regional Centre or H.R.C. That is what it is called today.

I decided to submit another comment, which I did today, April 24, to the same site.

I didn't realize you were 'inputting historical information on the internet' in this manner. I thought it was a joke - a bad one, making fun of people, once again, whose mental condition has so often been something of ridicule in society. The fact of the matter is, that while it may be true the institution was called that (an asylum for idots) it is not so true that it was them who were the idiots. It might just be that the people who put them there, who treated them, and punished them, were the idiots.

I could understand it, to some extent, if you felt threatened by the people you are telling this kind of distortion about, if they were rich, powerful women and men. But they weren't. The patients were often lied about, or punished for not conforming to society, perhaps placed in the mental hospital by their families in order to get rid of them, or sometimes they may have been victims of misunderstandings, of their own emotions, or the emotions of others. I agree, to a large extent, that understanding the circumstances of the historical topic requires an analysis sensitive to its history, but more than that I believe it requires an analysis sensitive to the topic itself, and not just to the historical period. Unfortunately, that was lacking in the original set-up of the postcard online, as you (who by the way still remains anonymous) must realize. I do realize that the Orillia institution was more recently known as the Huronia Regional Centre, from doing an internet search on the subject, and many years ago I worked summers at the Ontario Hospital in Woodstock (later called the Oxford Regional Centre), and knew of the hospital in Orillia. [submitted April 24 by Sue McPherson].

One other person has had a comment posted on the site: http://images.ourontario.ca/orillia/details.asp?ID=20399&p=c. Nothing has been done to correct this problem, which must seem so obvious. I had also contacted the public library in Orillia in March but didn't hear back. My own postcard of the building at Orillia, in southwestern Ontario, which was the source of my original interest, is on the website http://ca.ebid.net/stores/Postcards-Past, where I have it offered for sale. Somebody with the power to get that postcard-to-email description removed from the website please do.

Chopin Park, Oshawa: parking lot for affordable housing?

2009-04-21T14:04:00.006-04:00

Another article has been written, this time in the Toronto Star, about whether part of a city park in Oshawa - Chopin Park - should be made into a parking lot for a brand new 'affordable housing' apartment building in Oshawa. This article suggests it's 'car culture' that is the problem (in this GM town). But as I wrote in my comment on the article, as follows:

Youth Culture

Indirectly, it's about youth culture, not car culture, although as we know, cars are the prerogative of the young and mobile. I understand this parking lot would be for affordable housing. In a sense, Council is giving Oshawa citizens a choice: allow more of those people who are already marginal to the macho and family mentality of an auto city to have a place to park their vehicles, or allow the kids more grass to play on. Whether intentionally or not, this is what Oshawa is doing - making it an issue about whose rights should prevail, and who needs the park property more. An underlying issue here is whether those who use affordable housing should even have a car. What real need do they have of one if they do not work. Since in our society one's career is the best indicator of personal worth, and probably most of those seeking affordable housing have not had a great career, do they deserve a car park, or should the land be for the kids? Who will look bad if this car park takes place? Submitted by Sue McPherson

A reponse to my comment was this, see following, and my comment to that. By the way, the original article was most definitely about what was behind the city's plan to pave part of the park.

re Youth Culture

Sorry to say you missed the point. It was not about affordable housing. It was about the sale of park land. There is no shortage of land in Oshawa. Affordable housing can be built anywhere but the residents can't conjure up more green space out of thin air for their neighborhood.
Submitted by slow joe at 1:00 PM Tuesday, April 21 2009

Re Youth Culture: a mutual solution

Joe, I think it was you who missed the point of my comment. Sure, 'affordable housing' can be built anywhere. But in this case, it was built beside the park. Furthermore, the city allowed it to be built without any arrangements being made for parking. Thus, one might assume this situation was a set-up, pitting those needing/wanting parking to those needing/wanting green grass for the kids. The situation seems to have become more of affordable-for-the-city rather than affordable-housing-for-those-in-need. One of the nicest apartments buildings I lived in was in Windsor. On top of the two-level under and ground-level garage was an area complete with grass, trees, and a swimming pool, all accessible from the second floor of the building. A solution like this wouldn't give the kids more grass to play on, but it might keep the apartment dwellers off the kiddies' play area.
Submitted by Sue McPherson

Car culture behind plan to pave park in Oshawa
Toronto Star
Apr 21, 2009
Christopher Hume
http://www.thestar.com/GTA/Columnist/article/621652

Class differences in aging: Re Face your tomorrow here, now

2009-04-20T08:56:00.006-04:00

An article in the Toronto Star today focuses on the meaning of life. I have said so, too, that women, as well as men, can* live productive, fulfilling lives as they age (Women in Transition: Discourses of Menopause (MA thesis), and the website diversity in Retirement: http://www.diversityinretirement.net/ ) but ageism is accompanied by classism (as seen in the New Orleans disaster). Someone like Butler (see article) will take it for granted that if one has knowledge, or insight, one will be listened to. He appears to be addressing his lectures to those who are already doing well - well enough to be able to concentrate on life fulfillment and to be able to pay for the ‘right’. That's fine, if boomers are doing that. Too many people have learned that their life's work has meant little or nothing - teachers say it, some parents do, and others in the caring profession. For many people, reputation has taken priority over character; anyone who reaches a notable position of respect and doing good has inevitably stepped on someone else's life dreams in order to do so. In the struggle of life, there just isn't room at the top for all. People may fear being discredited, and losing their reputation and career, and everything they have built up over the years. In a sense this would be the kind of 'meaningless and absurd life' referred to at the beginning of the article. After all, the life we live is, in part, as an individual, certainly, but the other part of it is as a member of society. We can know we have done well, and contributed, and even in a sense gained some fulfillment from that, but without recognition from society, and enough monetary recompense to keep going (to pay for rent, food, medical expenses and other vital necessities) then it does all begin to seem a little absurd and meaningless.

I don't know if anybody here follows tennis, but I thought it rather interesting, recently, to see Roger Federer (ex-No. 1) lose his cool. Normally, he is the epitome of calm, cool collectedness, with the grace and poise of a true leader, so to see him smash his racket on the ground during a match was really something to see. I'm sure he didn't expect the raquet to turn into a tangled mess of strings and aluminum, but that's what happened. "Just frustrated at his raquet" I believe the explanation was. But surely this is the bigger picture - the grand patriarch finding himself in decline, no longer at the top, but being replaced by younger, fitter, players. I have written about people with big careers (Ebenezer Scrooge being one of them). When it comes to the meaningfullness, having the big career, or at least having had one, is probably the most important, in our society, with relationships soming a close second. That's not the way it should be, but the way it is.

BOOMER TSUNAMI PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES
TheStar.com living Face your tomorrow here, now
by Judy Steed
Apr 20, 2009
http://www.thestar.com/living/article/621010

Women in Transition: Discourses of Menopause
by Sue McPherson 2002/2005
http://www.dissertation.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581122756

Treatment of the elderly in Canada

2009-04-19T09:16:00.004-04:00

I have not seen the equivalent of this article (see below for information), which tells about the unjust treatment of an older person in India, about old people in Canada. Do readers think that this sort of thing does not happen in Canada? Do you think that sons and grandchildren would not take over the old person's bank account here, confining him to an old folks home, not wanting to give him the opportunity of living in among friends, but removing him from all he once knew? My father Dennis Fulham was recently taken to a nursing home in another town closer to my brother, for the sake of convenience, leaving his home city of Woodstock and girlfriend behind. He is 90 years old. I have been excluded, from any involvement in decision-making or caring, and even visting has been made near impossible. Shame on lawyer George Bishop for closing his eyes to this!

No room at home for elderly in India
Toronto Star
by Rick Westhead
Apr 18 2009
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/620526

Montreal massacre article by Timson

2009-04-11T10:37:00.005-04:00

Following the April 7, 2009 article on the Montreal Massacre in the Globe and Mail are comments made by readers on many aspects of this event in Canada's history and the impact it and feminism have had on Canada. Particularly relevant in today's society, due to the failing economy, is the fact that there are more middle class double-career families, while other men and women get left out. The more one has, the more one gets. So some men and women are struggling to meet deadlines for ever-increasing mountains of work, heaped upon their ever-heightening reputations, while other men and women who never got the chance to move ahead may be struggling to pay the bills. Note: the subject of the article is not the main issue of my blog today. Discussion through the comments made on the article is.

JUDITH TIMSON
Montreal massacre: Let's stop this talk of cowards
Globe and Mail
Tuesday April 7, 2009
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090407.wltimson07art1832/BNStory/lifeMain/home

See also. Montreal Massacre website: http://montrealmassacre.homestead.com/

Poverty reduction - but only for some

2009-03-07T08:25:00.004-05:00

The inadequacy of Canada's policies to help the poverty-stricken is inexcusable. It is a subject that is ignored even by those who are apparently advocating for those most in need - or is it simply a trend these days to take the side of those formally declared disabled. Note the article, Poverty reduction - but only for some, in the Toronto Star (Carol Goar, Mar 6, 2009. It was intended to be an empathetic approach towards the needy, I am sure, but written without the knowledge of what poverty really is, who experiences it, and the lack of resources for even the ablebodied in Ontario (and perhaps throughout Canada). I wrote my own comment and submitted it, limiting it to the 1000 characters permitted, but it was virtually ignored by others commenting, except to have one piece of it taken out of context by another poster. I have noticed a certain intolerance by disabled people (and when I say that I am talking about those who have gotten themselves officially declared disabled, by appropriate sympathetic medical and government authorities), and that definitely came through in the comments made about this article by online readers. I will repeat my comment here, as I believe it has something important to say, for all those people who will not be able to find jobs to pay the rent, or who are not seen by medical authorities as disabled; thus, unable to qualify for increased benefits, and at risk for ending up on the street. It is not possible for a single, non-working person to live on the $6000 that social assistance would provide, and pay the rent out of this amount. People in such dire circumstances are often treated as though they are incompetent, unstable, and unwilling to do the work, rather than look at the causes of them. Getting caught by the failing economy is one main reason - bad luck. Not having had the foresight to work at building up a good work history is probably another (and women who were housewives in the 60s and 70s fall into this category). It is too easy to dismiss them as having made poor choices (which many probably did). Having no family to help them through is another way people can end up homeless (ie, on social welfare benefits) - having no husband or wife, or extended family willing or able to help. The worst thing of all about this article and accompanying comments in the Toronto Star was that comments were closed off after only 19 were posted. The article opened a can of worms, but failed to deal with problems that came out of it. Disabled adults are not the only adults going through really tough times. It is time to focus on individuals and couples who are struggling to make ends meet, in this society which has not only been ignoring them but, too often, blaming them for their predicament.

Not about the recession (my comment in TO Star)

I'm not sure what this has to do with the current recession. At least people declared disabled have govt benefits to help them, and many would be at the top of the list for supportive or subsidized housing. The recession is hurting people who would ordinarily be working. Instead, many people with the capacity to work are not. Those who are ablebodied have either to pay their own rent or get onto a 4 year (at least) long waiting list for subsidized housing. Such people are trying to compete for scarce jobs, and many will not be able to get them, and will end up instead on social assistance which, for a single person, is far less than the $8532 mentioned in the article - and rent comes out of this amount. As people get older, especially, and are competing with younger people for scarce jobs, they can run up against ageism, which lessens their chances. So my suggestion is, keep this issue of the disabled separate from the problem of the recession and poverty reduction. Submitted by Sue McPherson at 8:52 AM Friday, March 06, 2009.

Carol Goar. Poverty Reduction - but only for some
Toronto Star online. 6 Mar 2009.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/597363
article and comments available online

Attitudes towards poverty

2009-02-10T23:52:00.004-05:00

This article, the Poverty-Health Link, needs more of a response than simply saying the solution is to "reduce poverty." I have found that living without enough money is extremely stressful, besides not always having the money to pay for healthy-living foods. Stress itself might lead one to seek comfort foods, at least on more occasions than those better off. Giving up - feeling despondent about life - could lead to a poor person to have difficulty finding the effort to exercise, not to mention not having the money to take a taxi to the local swimming pool (a situation I found myself in Colchester, UK. Buses only got as close as several blocks away.) Then, when this despondency is seen by others, it may be mistaken for laziness. Trying to deal with the attitudes of ignorant others is half the battle. It's difficult to get to some medical appointments, when the cost of taxis and parking is sometimes beyond one's means.

Would poor people be best advised to spend their last $10 on healthy food, or keeping that appointment to take care of that health problem? For people not on welfare or not officially disabled, struggling to get by, assistance in transportation costs would be a great idea. Local governments, and any interested group:(1) Try and make health and recreation facilities available to everyone, not just those who have their own transportation, money, and health to access them. (2) Educate public employees, especially those in health services, what it feels like to not have one's needs listened to, especially if one's health is poor. (3) Provide low-cost foods in supermarkets, some labelled 'basic' if you like, and fruits and vegetables with flaws, for those who have no hangups about such things. (4) Recognize that there probably are a lot of people struggling with health and money issues who also have to deal with the general public attitude that being poor means one is stupid and lazy.

The poverty-health link
Editorial, Toronto Star, 10 Feb 2009
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/584859

Beyond Workaday Worlds
Sue McPherson 2005
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/EssaysandWriting/BeyondWorkadayWorldsSMcPherson.doc

Neither ABCs nor PhDs

2009-02-10T00:28:00.002-05:00

Re: Put education focus on ABC not PhD (Goar, 9 Feb 09). I agree that focusing on increasing post-grad education is not the answer. There is already more than enough competitition for scarce full-time jobs in universities. I question just how much the PhD is valued in general, and also whether emphasizing literacy as THE problem is an accurate way of perceiving the problem. What I see around me is cunningness being valued and rewarded rather than any real ability to do a particular job well. What I am suggesting is that it is mediocrity that is valued, in many instances, but that mediocrity gets hidden behind the ability of conniving incorrigibles to deceive and distort the truth. Creativity needs to be combined with integrity if it is to have a positive effect on society.

Put education focus on ABC not PhD
Carol Goar, Toronto Star
9 Feb 2009
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/583780

Doing what we know best: living with uncertainty

2009-02-06T15:44:00.004-05:00

In the Toronto Star, 6 Feb 2009, Richard Gwyn writes about living with uncertainty, a subject that's dear to my heart. Interesting, I thought, on reading this, that we would be going through a "fundamental reordering of our economy and society". The seven deadly sins seem to have been overturned so that greed is not simply a problem, but is seen as perfectly acceptable. But is education the answer? Surely 'talent' doesn't have to suggest that, although formal education can be an eye-opener and not just a means of improving one's chances at success. Diversity in Retirement is the name of my website, http://www.diversityinretirement.net/. My aim in starting it up was to have the life stories of individuals on it (written by me, with their permission) to show how people deal with the life transition of retirement, and how they think about it. So it's also about work, and how people find meaning in their lives. Talent, experience, passion, and creativity can all lead to something worthwhile in life. That doesn't mean it will lead to something worthwhile. It also takes money and interest from others for something good to happen.

Learning to live with uncertainty
Richard Gwyn
Toronto Star
6 Feb 2009
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/583157

York University: unions and rights

2009-01-27T08:11:00.008-05:00

Following is the comment I submitted to the Toronto Star on 21 Jan, 2009, regarding the ongoing strike by Faculty and TAs at York University in Toronto, whose main aim apparently was increased job security.

The unfairness of it all
When I was a PhD student in England, the hiring process for TAs consisted of professors hiring whoever they liked, irregardless of the applicant's lack of qualifications or knowledge of the subject. The aim, it turned out, was to provide teaching experience for grad students. Unfortunately for me, having learned research methods at UWO over a 4 year BA degree program and gone on to get my MA at Windsor, I could not compete with younger women with virtually no training and only a 3 year BA who had more to offer in other ways. Such is the world we live in. The world is not just. Get used to it. http://suemcpherson.blogspot.com
Submitted by Sue McPherson at 7:22 AM Wednesday, January 21 2009

York strikers vote 'no' to offer
Louise Brown
Toronto Star, 21 Jan 2009
http://www.thestar.com/article/574500

Book Review: Rights: Sociological Perspectives, Lydia Morris (Ed.) Routledge. 2006. 304 pages. ISBN: 9780415355214 (hbk). ISBN-10: 0415355222 (pbk).
Published inDSP (The Discourse of Sociological Practice) Vol 8, Issue 1, pp. 99-105. Spring 2007. Reviewed by Sue McPherson. http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/BookReviews/BkRvwLMorrisRights.doc

Censorship: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

2009-01-21T04:59:00.002-05:00

This situation seem so contrived! Based on one complaint, by one person, the appropriateness of the book A Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood, is to be investigated by the school board. Surely it's not the first time someone has 'complained' about it, or laid a complaint. Most formal complaints to school boards wouldn't receive the attention this book has, nor would the man who laid the complaint usually receive so much attention. Are the complaints procedures that public, rather than internal to the organization? Secretaries in such organizations are usually very good at protecting their bosses. And others in the organization are usually very good at covering up what they want covered up. So I suggest that this complaint, formal or otherwise, was permitted to surface because it was the right time and the right place, and the right person doing the complaining.

In this case, the complainant is a man, and he has three sons for whose lives he obviously takes much responsibiity. There's nothing like an all-male family, one with an absent female presence, to reinforce the main claim of the Handmaid's Tale, published over 20 years ago, that an oppressive gender division was in the works for the future, and that it would be men doing the oppressing. At the same time, attention would be deflected from the idea that it's not really gender that is the problem in the world today, it is class. For the most part, women in the book, The Handmaid's Tale, were sorted according to their social class, and one could probably say that marital status was just as important, just as it is today. Men's lives, in the book, were also inhibited and controlled, although just how much they would have felt their sexual situation intolerable, perhaps dependent on class status, is debatable. Having to have sex with another women lying between his wife's legs just might have appealed to some of these fictional characters, even if they were forced to deny it to conform to society's norms.

Is it denial that leads the main speaker to speak of unecessary brutality and sexism, or do his views, and the fact that he is the speaker, serve a political purpose? Robert Edwards is not a popular person at the current time, not among censorship objectors, lovers of Atwood or, apparently, feminists. But someone has allowed this case to surface. Is it really against feminists' interests to have him speak out so openly against the book? He has managed to distract readers from thinking about class differences and alliances in the book itself, and also to distract them from thinking about social class in society today. Making a book such as this appear unworthy for his sons to read, he surely will endear himself to feminists everywhere, who stand to benefit from the false notion that, because of this book our citizens are more aware of the negative aspects of such patriarchal, controlling attitudes in society. It's been a long time since I read the book, while a student at university, and at the time I was both impressed and appalled at the suggestions that came through the reading of it. I see that Atwood's fictional storyline displayed some truth, that the control of sexuality would be a large part of domination in society in the future, as it always has, in some way or other, although how much married women would really regret missing out on motherhood in real life is questionable. In our world today, careers for women are considered practically essential, for fulfillment in life and independence. So, while Robert Edwards seems to be taking a stand against feminism and the liberated female writings of Margaret Atwood, I wonder if he is actually doing feminism a favour, and if he will be rewarded for doing his bit.

Kristin Rushowy
Atwood novel too brutal, sexist for school: parent
16 Jan 2009
http://www.thestar.com:80/article/571999

Remembering tragedies of today and yesteryear: Oshawa and the Montreal Massacre

2008-12-06T11:04:00.003-05:00

On this day in 1989, a tragedy occurred in Canada. It has remained controversial, though the voices that question the significance of the Montreal Massacre, as declared by feminists, are often silenced. Feminists have gained the support of many men, and our government leaders, in promoting this event as an act of violence against women. I am writing once again, on this anniversary of the killings at the Polytechnique in Montreal, to draw attention to the fact that there are other perspectives on this tragedy and its significance to both men and women in Canada.

Feminists are still distorting the significance of the killings committed by Marc Lépine in 1989 at the Polytechnique in Montreal. Susan Martinuk is just one, claiming that rather than due to misogyny, the killings were because of lack of love in Marc Lepine's family life (Lack of Love . . 5 Dec. 2008 ). Feminists since Dec 6, 1989, have persisted in the belief that Lepine was a psychopath, a misogynist, a misfit in society, but Martinuk's explanation is no better. Marc Lepine stated what the problem was, in his suicide letter, only nobody was listening. The problem was that he felt he had a right to a career such as engineering, that had traditionally been held for men (Perspectives . . 2005, p.18).

In Oshawa this evening, a candlelight vigil has been planned to remember the women who died in the Montreal Massacre, and now, also, to honor Leslie Kelly, who died as a result of an knife attack on her family in Oshawa last week, on Nov 29th. She was killed by Gino Petralia, the father of one of the young family members who lived with her family and who she was caring for. It would seem appropriate to remember her death in this way, as the annual commemoration on this date, Dec 6, is to remember the lives of women who have died violently at the hands of men, as well as to remember in general that women often are the victims of male violence. However, in the time that has elapsed since the announcement of Leslie Kelly's place in the commemoration (Lost 2 Angels . . Dec 5), Leslie's husband, Rick, has also died. One of their children also died following the attack.

Leslie and Rick Kelly, and three-year old Nathan, have lost their lives in this tragedy. Remembering them will surely become a part of Oshawa's tradition in years to come, more so, perhaps, because this tragedy has moved beyond anticipated proportions. It is no longer about a woman and her child who have died in such violent circumstances. Her husband, the boy's father, has also died, leaving youngsters not only without a mother but without a father, too.

We speak of rights - of the individual and for groups in society. But the quest for rights, and the clash of rights, can leave some with their lives in devastation, and no easy solution in sight.

Lack of love, not misogyny, led to Montreal massacre. Susan Martinuk, The Star Phoenix. Dec 5, 2008. Retrieved Dec 6, 2008.
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/Lack+love+misogyny+Montreal+massacre/1035129/story.html.

'Lost 2 angels this week.' Brett Clarkson and Chris Doucette (Sun Media) Toronto Sun. Dec 5, 2008. Retrieved Dec 6, 2008.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2008/12/05/7640561-sun.html .

Perspectives on the Montreal Massacre: Canada's Outrage Revisited. Sue McPherson. 2005. Retrieved Dec 6, 2008.
http://montrealmassacre.homestead.com/files/articlesandessays/PrspctvsMntrlMsscrSMcPherson.doc

Book Review: Rights: Sociological Perspectives, Lydia Morris (Ed.) Routledge. 2006. 304 pages. Published in DSP (The Discourse of Sociological Practice) Vol 8, Issue 1, pp. 99-105. Spring 2007. Reviewed by Sue McPherson. Retrieved Dec 6, 2008.
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/files/BookReviews/BkRvwLMorrisRights.doc .

Women's Institute checking sex ads

2008-11-25T23:42:00.004-05:00

The minister for women in the UK, Harriet Harman, is asking members of the Women's Institute to assist in keeping an eye out for "suspicious sex ads" in their local newspapers. The UK has become concerned in recent tmes over the plight of trafficked women from parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia, although it is also recognized that not all British sex workers are doing what they do totally voluntarily. This is a very tricky subject, and it will be interesting to see how the WI handle it. When the WI group from Shipton, Yorkshire, posed in the nude for their WI Calendar in the year 2000, there was a reluctance by the women to acknowledge that there was anything sexual in what they were doing. I believe they need to think about this request for involvement in sexual politics very carefully. As the article in the Guardian informs us, being aware of the wording of the ads might help distinguish between those which may be for the purpose of exploiting women and those which are legitimate means for women to make a living this way by their own choice, and not having been pressured into this kind of work which could possibly be somewhat invasive to some. Such ads are apparently the "most common way used by men to access sexual services," Harman states in the Telegraph article. But even though the ads may be legal, some UK newspapers have banned them, the Telegraph reports.

WI to check local papers' sex ads
Mark Sweney, Guardian, UK, 25 Nov 2008.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/25/wi-local-papers-sex-ads
Women's Institute asked to weed out sex ads http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3517303/Womens-Institute-asked-to-weed-out-sex-ads.html 25 Nov 2008
Beer and Tea: Harmony and Contradiction Among Two Unlikely Counterparts by Sue McPherson. International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies 6 (3): 207-220, July 2001. © Human Sciences Press, Inc.
http://www.kluweronline.com/oasis.htm/302580

Madonna Single at 50

2008-11-23T07:32:00.003-05:00

In the article, Madonna of a New Era: Single at 50, divorce expert Deborah Mecklinger is quoted as saying that Madonna is typical of many other 50 year olds, in that she has decided to end her marriage and - well - read it yourself - as if Madonna is one of those women who stayed home to raise the kids and basically had an unfulfilling marriage - no career, and no money of her own. Maybe the fault is not with Mecklinger but with writer Joanne Richard, who uses Mecklinger's expertise to uphold her own views of the significance of Madonna's and Guy Ritchie's parting. Madonna is 50. She hasn't actually had a longterm marriage, not the kind that Pepper Schwartz is said to be referring to in the article. Madonna had a well-paying career, a unique life, before entering her second marriage. If she does become lonely in the years to come, it is not because of lack of a career, although how long she can keep up the pace is another matter. I don't imagine she has ever felt herself to be an "appendage of some man", as suggested in the article. Her influence over women of the younger generation, as well as her own, has probably been of great magnitude, along with others such as Germaine Greer, who also promoted a liberated sexuality as women's right. But the expectation that the liberated woman can 'feel free' to use or enjoy her sexuality has been turned into something less positive over the years - into women being pressured into being sexually active, including the expectation that older women should be having sex and enjoying it. Madonna has had the marriage that enabled her to be a more-or-less traditional mother, and whether she has a marriage in the future that provides her with companionship as well as perhaps something more, as she grows older, we will have to wait and see. I would think that first, though, she has to rethink the beliefs she seems to have lived by all her working life - that what really matters is sex and exuding sexuality - while reaping the financial gains that come with it. No doubt Madonna won't be single too long, at least, not without a short-term partner. But will that be what she wants for herself as time goes on? And will marriage, for a third time, be an option?

Madonna of a new era: Single at 50
by Joanne Richard
London Free Press
October 27, 2008
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/2008/10/27/7214986-sun.html

Ritchie Unreasonable?

2008-11-21T19:53:00.001-05:00

It would be ironic if Guy Ritchie and Madonna's divorce had something to do with sex. The trouble with women who have power is that they could be more likely to neglect their 'wifely duties.' Madonna has spent a lifetime endorsing the idea(?) and fantasy of sex. But in real life, can she cope? Has it all been a charade - albeit a profitable one for her? I'm sure her videos, in fact her entire life have been a huge influence on women's sexuality. But at age fifty, what must she be going through. She cannot keep this up forever. I, for one, believe this marriage should not be allowed to end so easily.

Meera Selva THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ritchie 'unreasonable.' Madonna alleges
Nov 21, 2008
Toronto Star

An Unjust World

2008-11-19T16:00:00.002-05:00

If ordinary people want our country to survive, then other ways have to be thought of, and changing one's attitude towards the unemployed might be part of it. Work has always been seen as the epitome of adulthood. People not working are often viewed as being of lesser status - as malingerers, or incapable of holding a job, or just too old to do it. Thus, for people struggling financially, the longer a person is unemployed the harder it is to get work and the more one appears less of a human being. Being poor isn't just about not having money. It's also about how one is perceived in society, and how one is treated. In the article Rough Ride for the Big Three, in the TO Star today, the emphasis was on it being "not their fault." Let's hope that those individuals who once had well-paying jobs will learn something from the experience of having to live without them, due to no fault of their own, and have a positive influence on society. The world isn't fair, as many of us already know.

The right way to stimulate
Thomas Walkom
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/539374
Toronto Star
Nov 19, 2008

Afghan acid attack - just because they were women

2008-11-16T10:34:00.002-05:00

I have some questions about this dreadful crime that I don't know the answers to - such as why were the girls' headscarves pulled away from their faces, and how many actually had acid thrown in their faces? Could there have been another reason why the attack took place - were the girls becoming liberated in other ways? Attacking students hasn't been the typical kind of attack, as I understand it - though attacking girls' schools has been, according to the article in the Toronto Star. This entire mess reminds me of Marc Lepine and the Montreal Massacre (Dec 6, 1989)- at the Ecole Polytechnique. See Montreal Massacre website: http://montrealmassacre.homestead.com/index.html

Mohammad Aziz
Afghan acid attack victim vows to continue schooling
Toronto Star
Nov 16, 2008
http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/537835

Supply and Demand: Is GM really indispensable?

2008-11-13T20:13:00.004-05:00

"There's no magical difference between the banks and the auto industry; they're both indispensable" (Premier McGuinty, in Banks get help, but will GM? T.O. Star, 13 Nov 2008). What an odd comment! Let GM concentrate on the maintenance of older cars during these harsh economic times. Maybe they could try and ensure that parts are available, and consumer advice on DIY vehicle improvement. That would be far more valuable a contribution, in my view, than the endless production of new vehicles for consumers who cannot, at this time, afford them, at least some of whom probably feel the necessity of keepng up with the Joneses. Let's stop this kind of one upmanship, and give GM workers the space to find other ways of contributing to society from their wealth of knowledge, not the least of which will be the probably new discovery to many of them that such loss of identity, income, and security can happen to anyone.

Read the comments following the Toronto Star article if you want to see just how many ordinary citizens oppose the bailing out of GM. And feel free to read my essay Beyond Workaday Worlds: Aging, Identity, and the Life Cycle (2005).

Banks get help, but will GM?
http://www.thestar.com/article/536036
Toronto Star Nov 13, 2008
Richard Brennan in Ottawa
Ann Perry in Toronto

Quasi feminism - rights, and breastfeeding in public

2008-11-12T20:19:00.004-05:00

If this mother is allowing her almost-2-yr-old daughter to be fed on demand, apparently for no other reason than she was "cranky", what kind of message does this give to the toddler, and what will this do to her future development as a human being living in a social world with others, as she grows older. The article doesn't say whether the two-year-old had inadvertently gone too long without sustenance of any kind, and whether the realization that she had had led the mother to taking such immediate action, or whether the offering of the breast was her usual method of calming a cranky child, as she indicated in this article. When people/children demand their rights, it is often at the risk of the rights of others being taken away from them. Thinking in the short term and the longterm, I question the value to society of this kind of practice.

Battle over breastfeeding
by Susan Pigg 'Living Reporter'
Toronto Star
Mother fights for right to nurse child in pool
http://www.thestar.com/article/535310
Nov 12, 2008

A valuable sociological lesson

2008-09-29T18:32:00.006-04:00

On hearing Harper had promised to cut funding to the Arts, I actually considered voting for him. Having all those talented hard-working people become jobless would provide a valuable lesson for society, that there really are a lot of people out there willing to work for a living if only something was available that made life worthwhile. I see from reading this article, however, that writers like Martin Knelman would probably put all those out-of-work artists into the category 'rednecks' and leave it at that. Once categorized thus, it is difficult to remove the stigma. In this situation, of course, there are philanthropists like Jim Fleck who could use this as an opportunity to do some good in the world and put money where it's needed, to keep unrecognized artists and the Arts from going under.

[I submitted the following to 'comments' on the article, after the last one there spoke irrationally of the Arts being "destroyed." ]

I'm sure no one wants to see the Arts destroyed, or our cultural identity ignored. But there are times in history when other things are more important, when survival of our society should take priority over the activities of the privileged and the rather expensive continuity of cultural identity. As I said, it would be a valuable sociological lesson if Harper's cuts came about. Too many people act as though it is only those who work in the Arts who are unjustly threatened with being denied their 'right' to contribute to society from their collective talents. It doesn't seem to be recognized that many individuals, who also have a lot to offer, have unjustly been denied that opportunity.

Let's hope arts bashing just a pose
Martin Knelman
TO Star
http://www.thestar.com/FederalElection/article/507392#Comments
Sep 29, 2008

Margaret Atwood and Harper's culture cuts

2008-09-28T12:05:00.002-04:00

In response to the question directed towards Margaret Atwood "You talk in your book about the link between debt and sin. Why do we feel shame about financial hardship?" Atwood says she thinks "the stigma comes from wanting people to think better of you than your actions might actually warrant." Sounds like a typical middle-class attitude to me. Our society is founded on money, and those without are shamed, whether or not they have done anything to deserve it. If one is a global corporation, of course, or The Arts, then the apparent reasons for 'financial hardship' may not always be seen as being mainly due to their failings. I have nothing against Art and Culture, nor against keeping major corporations in business for the sake of maintaining some stability of economy, but I question Atwood's attitude and (lack of) knowledge of what it's like to be poor and where stigma comes from (other people and society itself, as it happens). Culture and arts is not self-supporting, as we know. But there is no shame on their part for not being able to earn their own way. Poor people often work like hell, for other people or in their own homes, with little recompense. Yet because they are not home-owners, or do not have the trappings of wealth, they are seen as less worthy. Shame on you, Margaret Atwood, for your attitude! Atwood talks about the need to put more into technology, yet in another article (Actors condemn Harper's culture cuts, CBC, Sept 24, 2008)
the controversial subject of funding of the Arts is taken up. But if all those talented workers in Arts and Culture were to experience financial hardship, perhaps some of the really bad attitudes towards the poor would change. It seem to many people that there are plenty of jobs to go around if one has talent and the ability to do the work (even in Arts and culture, I wouldn't doubt) but the truth is there aren't enough decent jobs for people who deserve them and who could do them well. The threat of Culture cuts demonstrates this. I hope people can expand this line of reasoning to the general population, many of whom also are competent and able, but who may never get to do the work they wanted to do, and in fact may never again find employment.

Actors condemn Harper's culture cuts, CBC, Sept 28 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/09/24/artist-protests.html

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080926.watwood27/BNStory/Business/home Margaret Atwood's old-fashioned approach to debt
SINCLAIR STEWART From Saturday's Globe and Mail (27th)
September 26, 2008 at 11:20 PM EDT

Life at the top

2008-09-21T11:44:00.004-04:00

The mention in this article of the "$25 million penthouse at One Bloor – which was sold to an unidentified Hong Kong buyer" (Sky's the limit for Four Seasons condo, Sept 21, 2008) reminds me of my grandfather, John L McPherson, who lived in Hong Kong for 30 years and for some time lived in the most privileged area - on 'The Peak', at that time reserved for Europeans, mainly, I believe, not the Chinese. I realize there must have been some hostility about these circumstances, but I have often thought that at least my grandfather was trying to do something beneficial for Hong Kong, spending 30 years there building up the YMCA. I would ask, at this point, in what ways are the buyers of these expensive properties in Toronto planning to make a difference in the lives of the people of Toronto and, more widely, of Ontario.

Sue McPherson. 2006. J. L. McPherson, Hong Kong
YMCA: General Secretary 1905-1935
http://samcpherson.homestead.com/JLMcPhersonHKYMCA.html

Tony Wong, Business reporter, TO Star, Sept 21,
2008. Sky's the limit for Four Seasons condo
http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/503119

Immature, patriarchal Matt Damon blasts Sarah Palin

2008-09-11T21:32:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe film actor Matt Damon sees Sarah Palin only in terms of being a "hockey mom" who plans to use the "folksy" stuff she learned at the rink, if elected vice-president of the US. This, coming from a man who 'pretends' for a living. Damon sounds like a true patriarch, a person who sees women in terms of their housewifely/mothering duties and cannot expand his mind to take into consideration how far Sarah, for one, and women in general, have come in their individual and socio-political development, and what their capabilities might be. No wonder so many women can't wait to escape the denigration of being a wife and mother, when their skills risk being summed up as being 'folksy'. It's too bad so many people treat movie actors as though their jobs provide them with credibility, as though what they do on screen is real, and it's too bad they come to take themselves seriously when they really have nothing to offer. I guess what counts is to be 'cool', never mind what one knows or doesn't know, or has the ability to transform that into taking on real world challenges. Being a hockey mom (or having been a hockey mom at some point during one's life), may not be seen as 'cool', but neither are so such old-fashioned attitudes as Matt Damon's.

Matt Damon blasts Sarah Palin as 'scary'
and McCain's pick as a 'disaster'
by CELESTE KATZ political correspondent
NyDAILY NEWS.com
Thursday, September 11th 2008
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/09/10/2008-09-10_matt_damon_blasts_sarah_palin_as_scary_a.html