Of all the crimes in our society I don’t believe there is any which raises the ire of people more than crimes, especially sexual crimes, against our children. Children are the future of any society, without healthy children a future healthy adult society just wont happen.

Two stories have been getting a lot of press time lately. The first is the series of scandals hitting the Roman Catholic Church and in particular the Pope’s possible involvement in attempts to coverup the crimes of its clergy. The second is the National Parole Board’s decision to grant a pardon to Gordon James, a junior hockey coach convicted of sexually molesting two players, one being a former NHL player.

I read accounts over the Easter weekend of those who condemned the RC church for not raising the issues during Holy Week services. Others who condemned the few attempts to defend the church from the pulpit by referring to the charges as ‘petty gossip’. Opinion columns, like Anthony Persichilli’s in the Toronto Star, who predicts the resilient church will overcome the scandal. Or from the other perspective in the same paper, Ted Schmidt sees the very rot of the institution enshrined in the scandal.

The New York based blog “Blogging Religiously” asks the question: “Are the Media Picking on the Catholic Church”. The writer argues with all the church has put in place to attempt to screen and identify pedophiles, the mistakes of the past should not be haunting the church of today.

Meanwhile we had the revelation that Gordon James had been pardoned in 2007 and that would likely have remained unknown had another accuser not come forward and wanted to bring a complaint against him. The reaction of the government was to promise a review of the pardon process saying “certain types of criminals cannot be rehabilitated”.

My take on this mess is maybe a bit simplistic.

The government hasn’t gone far enough, the churches (and yes I mean all of them) haven’t gone far enough, institutions as a whole have not gone far enough. It has become increasingly clear over the years that pedophiles do not change, their urges to offend are kept in check by either being removed from society or being allowed no corner to hide in.

Not only should convicted pedophiles never receive a pardon for their crimes, they should be on permanent parole, subject to state supervision for life.

Churches and institutions will continue to find themselves infiltrated by pedophiles, it’s the nature of the beast. Screening programs and police checks can keep out those already known but not those not yet identified. Programs to protect will help to reduce the ability of a pedophile to operate freely, but wont necessarily stop them. So, what’s a group to do?

Resist the urge to close ranks around the perpetrator and thus ‘protect’ the institution. Authorities should be called in immediately without exception. It doesn’t matter if the accusation is from the past or the present, the law should be allowed to take its course with the full cooperation of the institution.

The uproar with the Roman Catholic church (and others in the past) is not so much that a pedophile was able to operate within the institution but that the institution moved to provide cover for the perpetrator while failing to be faithful defenders of the safety of the children.

Their attempts to hide who may have had dirt on their hands only adds fuel to that anger. Do the mea culpas and faithfully turning out those found in their midsts from now on will go a long way to letting the anger cool.

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I’ve let this article sit in my browser for a few days now while I have pondered if my initial reaction stands up to my attempts to rationalise the actions of those involved. I can’t find it in my heart to justify them.

The article is about an Anglican church in Tsawwassen, British Columbia continuing to pay a reduced salary to their youth pastor who has been convicted of molesting a young Mexican boy in Mexico in 2004. At this point the parish is paying Brad Firth at least until his appeals are exhausted. Their reasoning seems to be since he has faced the courts in Mexico and they are different than ours, then his conviction doesn’t carry the same weight.

I was almost able to sway my thinking to some level of compassion and understanding that maybe, just maybe the conviction was bogus and good for the parish for standing by him. Then I found the part of the article that tells me once Firth does return to Canada, the police will be waiting for him. They have outstanding charges of possessing and accessing child pornography.

This man serves in a ministry which provides access to young vulnerable children. The fact he has been convicted anywhere in the world and faces additional charges here at home is more than enough reason for the parish to terminate any financial payments to him immediately.

If there are other victims of this man amongst the young people he has ministered to, does the congregation not realize the powerful message they are sending them through their continued financial support to Firth? It’s fine to suggest that IF there are further victims they would motivate the parish to stop their financial support by coming forward.

The fact is when a person in authority abuses a young person, that person doesn’t just have their body violated, the very core of their being is shaken, if not fractured. The parish choosing to continue financial support even though Firth has been convicted sends the message to any still silent victim to stay silent, that the pastor is going to be believed and not the victim.

I hope there are no other victims of this man. While the parish is busy rallying around this convicted pedophile, they may have already walked all over the walking wounded in their midst. I know what a struggle it is to keep a church going. That money being paid out to Firth could be put to a lot of good ministry in that church in Tsawwassen or any other church.

Will the church never learn?

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I’ve been reading and listening to the reporting about the detainee issue over the last several weeks. The Opposition parties in Parliament have been after trying to get to the bottom of finding out just who knew and when about detainees being turned over to the Afghans from Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan. As much as the government has tried to characterize those who continue to push these questions as either Taliban supporters or not supporting our troops, nothing could be further from the truth.

Over the weekend, I was listening to a podcast of TVOs “The Agenda”. The podcast was talking about the failure of the Conservatives to show up at the parliamentary committee hearings trying to investigate this mess. The Cons failure to show up effectively killed the committee meeting over the Christmas break as the lack of Cons in attendance ensures there is no quorum to allow the meetings to take place.

Laurie Hawn, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defense claims that ordinary Canadians are not interested in this ‘so called issue’, that only the Opposition parties are interested in playing political games. Lowell Green, supposedly a highly respected Canadian radio personality, was also heard on the podcast claiming that the only Canadians who care about this issue are the ‘lefties, who read the Toronto Star, are opposed to the mission in Afghanistan and want the troops brought home immediately’. That no other Canadian cares about this matter.

This Canadian Cares!

I suppose, by Hawn & Green’s definition I would be considered to be a ‘lefty’ especially since I definitely DO NOT support the current Conservative party and especially Harper and his band of bullies. I do read the Toronto Star along with the National Post, the Toronto Sun and the Globe & Mail on a regular basis. I support the mission of our troops. I have struggled with that support, especially when I watch the motorcades carrying our war dead travel the Highway of Heroes, but I believe the coalition and eventually the Afghan military and police have to succeed in that country.

The more I see on this issue the more concerned I have become.

Richard Colvin, a diplomat serving in Afghanistan, claims to have repeatedly warned the government about this issue. For having the courage to speak up, he’s been subjected to character assassination by government ministers and others. Green likely has really good intel and knows he’s one of those damn Toronto Star reading lefties, which makes the character assassination okay.

I have no doubt our troops have done what they had to do. They have followed the rules of engagement and may have been placed in the position of turning Afghan nationals over to abuse at the hands of other Afghans. That doesn’t make our troops bad, that makes those who placed them in that position dead wrong.

Green tried to justify this abuse by dismissing those detainees as dastardly Taliban who did mean and nasty things. He didn’t directly say so, but his argument appeared to stop just sort of stating these detainees deserved everything done to them and then some. Not all detainees are proven to be Taliban, and especially not radicalized Taliban.

Coalition leadership has stated repeatedly they want to reach the more moderate Taliban and try to turn them. I believe that attempt to reach them is an attempt to have them forsake the insurgency for peace. If any of those detainees were moderate Taliban turned over to abuse, I rather doubt they would be forsaking any insurgency. They would be more likely to become radicalized.

The Cons, the same Cons who came to power promising transparency in government, have responded to attempts to get this issue out in the open by dragging their feet on releasing documents and then redacting them so heavily they render them virtually useless. They try to claim issues of national security.

While full public disclosure might not be possible IF they actually have legitimate claims of national security, there is no excuse for not making full disclosure to MPs and most especially the Military Complaints Commission.

The Opposition parties have passed a motion in Parliament ordering the disclosure of the documents to the MPs and the commission. The government has vowed to ignore the motion and the supremacy of Parliament. Rumours are rife right now that Harper may try to have the Governor General prorogue parliament again until at least after the Olympics which would allow time for the heat to possibly dissipate on the subject.

Harper and his band of bullies seem to forget they are there to serve the people, to answer to the people, not their own self-serving brand of politics. Their seemingly desperate measures to forestall disclosure of their conduct on this file, and others, leaves Canadians seriously wondering what else hasn’t come to light.

Myself, I could have been pretty forgiving had the Cons given full disclosure when this issue came up the first time — admitted any errors in judgment made, reported what was being done to correct the errors and disclosed any further tweaking they had done. I would have considered it a learning process and that the matter was being taken care of.

Instead, I’m left wondering just what is being held back and why. Why are our soldiers possibly being placed in the position of turning Afghan nationals over to abuse? Why is a career diplomat and anyone else who speaks up being vilified? What is the government hiding that they are willing to be in contempt of Parliament (and in the people it serves)?

The longer they drag this out, the more inclined I am to want to see a public inquiry and full disclosure.

What do you think?

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The e-Justice Blog has posted a very interesting piece about Google and what they know about you. You may be very surprised to learn just how much of a profile they can put together about us.

The blog lists 25 pieces of information Google can access about us some without our knowledge. In these days of increasing concerns about online privacy, you need to be aware of as much as possible about who can find what about you.

Items Google can collect include:

• your financial informaton
• what blogs you read
• who and what you are emailing
• what’s on your computer
• your research paper, upcoming blog posts, bills etc
• where you are even without using Google Lattitude
• your problems
• your medical issues
• and more…

Check out the complete article for an eye opener about how transparent you can be online. Some of those items can be avoided by being careful, others are the nature of the beast.

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Fox News network is reportedly one of the highest rated in the USA. I’ve never been a particular fan of it, I’ve generally found a lot of their reporting more along the lines of a national gossip show, sort of like the broadcast version of the National Enquirer. I’m a Canadian, so for the most part, what passes as news south of the border isn’t really my business.

I’ve grown up with an awareness that a lot of Americans have very little awareness of their neighbour to the north. I can remember as a kid encountering other children in Algonquin Provincial Park, (that’s in Ontario) and them asking me what ‘state’ I came from. When I told them I lived in the Province of Ontario, the usual response was “what state is that in”?

I well remember how strange I thought those kids to be that they couldn’t fathom that they were standing in the province I came from. It was later I learned that ignorance came from a lack of information about this country and even less interest in knowing.

Back to Fox News. One of their so called news shows is called “Red Eye” hosted by Greg Gutfeld. For the most part Gutfeld and the cronies who participate on the show with him think they are rather funny in their perspective. Sort of Fox’s answer to the Leno or Letterman.

Recently Gutfeld decided to pillory the Canadian military after Lieutenant-General Leslie noted that our military will need an operational pause after our mission in Afghanistan is complete. The clip has been posted to YouTube here.

While the panel mocked Canada for relying on the US for our security, Ian Welsh made an interesting point on Huffington Post that we don’t actually need the US to protect us. He also provided some interesting stats about Canada’s involvement in military operations over the years.

The most obvious is that when it came to the two world wars, Canada was in pulling its weight and above its weight long before the Americans arrived:

In WWII Canada had 1.1 million men serving and lost 45,364. The total population of the country in 1945 was 12,072,000. Canada thus had a per capita loss rate of .376%. America’s death rate in WWII was .21%.

In WWI Canada had 64,944 military casualties in a total population of 7.2 million. The per capita death rate was thus a wopping 0.9%. The US lost 53,402, in absolute numbers less, and the casualty rate was .054%.

Using the link Ian provided, during the Korean War the US had a casualty rate of .005% while Canada’s was .02%. While our smaller population makes our absolute numbers of Canadians involved in the wars smaller, our rates of sacrifice of our young to the world’s battles are consistently higher.

Makes me grateful Canada is pretty picky about what battles we send our troops into.

Ellen over at News Hounds expressed her outrage over their mocking of our forces.  She also provided an email link along with a suggestion that her readers should email Fox to express their outrage at Gutfeld’s outrageous behaviour.

In addition to this blog post, I have done exactly that. My email reads:

Dear Sir:

I can appreciate humour as much as the next person. I can even appreciate humour made at the expense of Canadians (which I am). The genius of humour is timing which apparently Greg Gutfeld and the buffoons appearing with him fail to understand. Either that or they are woefully ignorant of their subjects.

Their recently aired segment titled “Taking A Break” pillorying our military for stating they will need an operational pause after our troops depart Afghanistan was beyond the pale.

Canada has had troops in Afghanistan since 2002. They were sent there to support our ally and neighbour to the south after the attacks of 9/11. In 2006 our troops moved into Kandahar province replacing American troops being pulled out to fight your war in Iraq. There is currently 2,800 Canadians serving in Kandahar.

Since 2002 a total of 116 Canadians have died in the Afghanistan war, 5 of that number died at the hands of our American allies, 112 of those deaths has been since 2006. As has so often happened in Canadian history, our troops have been punching above their weight in Kandahar and sustaining casualties at 2.6-4 times those sustained by the US and British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

At 2pm today, a plane carrying the bodies of four Canadians killed in Afghanistan on Friday, while taking part in a joint mission with US and Afghan troops, will land in Trenton, Ontario. They will be met by grieving family members, fellow military, our Governor-General (military commander-in-chief) and the Minister of Defense.

About 90 minutes later a motorcade of four hearses, grieving families, military escorts and police will start out along Canada’s busiest highway carrying those bodies to Toronto. There are 50 bridges between Trenton and Toronto, on all of them will be Canadians totalling in the thousands who are there to honour those fallen Canadians and show support to their families. I will be one of them.

Every one of our fallen Canadians have been met this way. Those four brings the total to eight Canadians who have died in the last few weeks in a war that Canadians entered to support their American neighbours. As painful as it is to stand on the bridge and watch those hearses pass by, I have and do support the troops and their mission in Afghanistan.

Do you have any question why Gutfeld and his buffoons have chose the wrong time to target Canadian troops? Fox News claims to be fair and balanced. Seems that Gutfeld needs to do some apologising for his tasteless behaviour to balance this out.

Patti May
Colborne, ON
www.outoftheshadows.ca

Add your voice, send an email to redeye@foxnews.com

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Tom Zytaruk would like to sue the Conservatives for their continuing claims that the tape which launched the Chuck Cadman affair was doctored. The problem is that he would need a lawyer willing to work on a contingency basis or pro bono in order to afford it.

So the defamation of this author continues unless that happens.

The court has found the tape was not doctored. There was a break in the tape, Zytaruk turned it off when Harper walked away from the conversation and back on when he returned. Pretty normal move to make. The Conservatives continue to claim as fact that the tape was doctored. Sort of a tell the lie often enough and it might be seen as truth.

Most recently, the Parliamentary Secretary to Harper, Pierre Poilievre rose in the House in response to a question from NDP Bill Siksay to ask if Zytaruk would receive an apology for the false accusations against him. Poilievre responded that it was a fact that the tape was doctored and the lawsuit had been settled with both pleased with the settlement.

Polievre had apparently received his instructions from Harper who had been whispering to him just before he rose in the House.

When challenged to repeat that statement outside the House where immunity from lawsuit is no longer available, Poilievre slipped out a back door and away from the media. Under the terms of the settlement, the Liberals are not allowed to discuss the settlement terms or the suit but that wont stop the NDP or the Bloc from raising it.

Last week the Conservatives suddenly dropped the lawsuit they had launched against the Liberal party when Dion was leading it.

Cadman, sitting as an independent, cast the deciding vote in a crucial non-confidence vote and kept Martin in power. The issue came to light after Zytaruk’s book on Cadman was published and included claims that Cadman had been offered a million dollar insurance policy to rejoin the Conservatives. If true, or any financial considerations are true, then that amounts to bribery which is illegal.

According to transcripts of the tape, Harper was aware of discussions taking place and taht financial considerations were being offered. The conversation doesn’t specify what they are. When the tape came to light the Liberals went on the attack in the House and then posted the allegations on their website. While Harper couldn’t sue over the comments in the House, they could over the website comments.

They launched a defamation suit against the Liberals claiming that the tape had been doctored. Surprisingly, Zytaruk was never named as a defendant. So called experts for each party differed over the doctored tape issue so the court ordered their own expert to examine the tape who concluded that it had not been doctored.

The pending lawsuit kept the issue out of the public eye during the last federal election in October. Seems that the Conservatives have managed to use the courts to muffle their dirty behaviour being brought into the public eye. If they engaged with some integrity instead they would save everyone a lot of money.

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In 2004 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Enbridge Gas in a class action suit brought against them over their excessive (and illegal) application of late fees on customers accounts. Enbridge agreed to pay $22million as a settlement after the ruling. Now that seems like the appropriate and responsible move. They likely collected a lot more than that before they were challenged but at least they had to surrender some of that cost.

Now you’d think that would be the end of it, lesson learned, they (and other over charging utilities) would adjust their late fees and get on with life. The shareholders would have to eat some dividends and life would go on. No, that wasn’t the end of the story.

Enbridge had the cheek to apply to the provincial energy board for permission to impose a special charge on to their customers to finance the cost of the settlement. Yes, that is the same customers that had been charged late fees plus all the customers who had never had to pay late fees. Now that is what I call fair play, didn’t get all their customers the first time, so they will get some the second time and all of them at least once.

The energy board approved the application, which leads one to wonder who either was asleep during that application or got paid off. There is a basic lack of logic that they even gave Enbridge air time let alone granting them the request.

Gord Garland, who brought the original class action suit has applied to the Ontario Government to have them review the ruling. Enbridge customers need to be watching this closely before they start paying even more for their energy because of this charge, which if it runs true to form, will net them WAY more than the 22million.

Other utility users need to keep an eye on this story as there are similar class action suits pending over their late fees.

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A Toronto principal charged with two counts of assault and a subsequent charge of breaching a non-contact order has been given an absolute discharge on one charge while the other assault charge and the breach charges have been withdrawn. The judge ruled that Maria Pantalone had suffered enough from the charges and should be rewarded with no criminal record for throwing excrement at two youngsters last June. Pantalone is the sister of Toronto’s Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone.

She has been on paid leave since the charges were laid. While that is galling, it does speak to the fact that we still have a system where we’re innocent until proven guilty even if we are as guilty as hell. Pantalone now has to face a review of her position by the school board.

It will be interesting to see the outcome although I suspect few will be surprised if she retains her job. I don’t think very many will be wondering too long if her relationship with a prominent politician played a role in her getting off scot free with abuse of children. It seems rather obvious to me that her political connections has let her away with this.

She reportedly said in her own defense ‘that she just couldn’t take it any longer’. Wonder where she got the supply of crap she used? Did she have it tucked in her purse for when her snapping point came? Maybe she was letting her pet use her desk as a washroom to have it close to hand for just such an occasion.

Yes, I know kids can be bloody irritating and they will push the limits. I’m well aware that parents often don’t give the teachers the support they so badly need in keeping order when their little Jane’s and Johnny’s act up. However, what parent could give any support to a supposedly responsible trained ‘professional’ who resorts to this sort of abuse to respond to youngsters?

My thanks of course to the judge and the lawyers on both sides who have so obligingly sent the message to these youngsters that it is okay for an adult in a position of authority to abuse and humiliate them. Good move folks.

It was only a week or so ago that some youngsters were suspended from another Toronto school for cyberbullying after they participated in an online forum in which another school principal was being personally attacked. The kids claimed their freedom of speech was being denied. I support the move on the part of the school because those kids needed to learn that with freedoms come responsiblities and they had not lived up to theirs.

When I see decisions like this one rendered in the favour of the abuser, I start to have some understanding (not to condone) of why kids resort to the actions they do sometimes. I certainly hope some parents scream long and hard at the school board to not allow Pantalone to retain her job after her getting away with criminal sanctions for her abuse of others.

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