CHILDREN'S AID SOCIETY FAILURE

A seven year old child was slowly beaten to death over a period of months in Toronto. She was in the custody of a couple who received custody from the child's mother who was a drug addict. Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carried this story titled "Child services failed girl, 7". The child's school contacted child welfare authorities five times based upon noticeable injuries as well as prolonged absences. There was ample information at two agencies to have rescued Katelynn Sampson from her abusive guardians but it never happened.

The coroner's inquest into the child's death had many recommendations. The problem simply was that those responsible for her safety above and beyond her guardians did not act when it was desperately needed. Apparently there were other agencies besides Children's Aid who had knowledge and should have acted but failed to do so. All these agencies knew that both guardians had criminal convictions although the newspaper story does not say what they were for. A truly horrific case and a grotesque failure by our child welfare authorities.

FREE SPEECH CANNOT BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this Comment piece from Derek James From, a lawyer with the Canadian Constitution Foundation. The title above of this posting is part of his basic thesis. Overall he states that governments absolutely must not have a monopoly upon expression, artistic, political or otherwise. He advises that Alberta's Human Rights Commission for example should have offerred "...a fulsome defence of freedom of expression and the need for limitations on the government's authority to control artistic expression..." during a 2003 hearing regarding hate speech. They found in favour of a musical band on other weaker grounds rather than on the inherent rights of free speech.

Surprisingly Canada still has a blasphemy provision in the Criminal Code. While it has not been used for many years nevertheless it does give the government permission to jail Canadian citizens for two years for saying unsavoury things on religious topics. This again is unconscionable in a free society particularily including a secular one.

What Mr. From does not mention are Canada's archaic Libel laws. Yours truly went through nearly eight years of court dates, motions, trial and then including after the court decision by a biased and incompetent judge; the final out of court negotiations to reverse the idiot Judge's decision. It all ended up as a formal settlement and was filed with Superior Court in Kitchener, Ontario. My "sin" was in publicly advocating the removal of a teacher with a long history both in and out of the classroom of instability, mental health issues and conflicts with students resulting in their parents removing them from the classroom. My nine year old son was but one of the many adversely affected students. My free speech and human rights were attacked by vested and powerful interests and lobbys as well as by the personal wealth of one of the parties. Indeed Canada has no right to be haughty or arrogant on matters of free speech.

INHERENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION

Decades ago I was advised that there are good schools in Waterloo Region and that it was despite the school boards. Basically it was because if a school had some good teachers and a good principal then no matter how flawed the Board's policies and directives, the school would succeed in teaching children. Similarily I believe that there are some good results delivered from the public service despite the best efforts or lack thereof by our governments. Whether municipal, regional, provincial or federal; in certain areas Canadians are well served despite the idiots in power.

Today's Woolwich Observer has this Editorial by Steve Kannon titled "It's evident that governments care only for those who keep them in power". His editorial is a damning indictment of Canadian governments in general although he focuses on our provincial Liberal government. He points out that public sector unions are notorious for donating money to the Liberals albeit through third party groups. From the Ontario Fire Fighters' Association and most especially the Teachers' Unions the donations keep on flowing to the Liberals who then repay them through their exhorbitant wages. The third party groups allegedly include a front group called "Working Families" and another known as "Project Ontario".

The bottom line is that self-interest has become the primary motivation for decision making. Canadian citizens are the losers in all this.

THE NEVERENDING OBERLANDER SAGA

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story titled "Oberlander wins back citizenship". Twenty full years the Canadian government has been trying to revoke Helmut Oberlander's citizenship and deport him. They've won and they've lost multiple times in court and Mr. Oberlander at age 92 is still with us and still a Canadian citizen. For me it's always been about the math. That plus a recent article I recently read that described the horrors of the Adolf Eichman trial shortly after the war. The biggest horror wasn't the already known genocide and ethnic cleansing; it was the utter normalacy of Eichman and his contemporaries prior to and during the early part of the second World War. That was the real horror how someone with a normal upbringing could blindly follow rules, regulations and even orders resulting in mass murder.

Perhaps as a smaller comparison would could look at otherwise decent whitefolk in certain southern states who as late as the 1960s honestly believed that negroes weren't really human and thus hanging and worse wasn't a crime. Getting back to my comment in the first paragraph about doing the math; simply subtract the years since 1945 (end of the war) from Oberlanders's current age of 92. The war ended 71 years ago hence Oberlander was 21 years old at the END of the war. At the start (1939) he was 16 years old. While someone that age certainly knows right from wrong I simply can't believe that he was either giving orders or on his own initiative assisting in genocide. In fact that age (16 or 17) speaks more to a child soldier than an adult. No one that age should be within 1000 miles of a war front or be put in any position dealing with prisoners of war or incarcerated civilians.

His story while dramatically different than Omar Khadr's does have some similarities. The biggest one is the ongoing Conservative Party attack upon child soldiers and trying to hold them to account for the barbarity of war. Hopefully our new Liberal federal government will take a totally different approach to Mr. Oberlander as they appear to be doing with Mr. Khadr.

END OF THE MIKE DUFFY TRIAL

Yesterday's Waterloo Region Record carried the following story titled "Duffy trial ending...with a wimper" written by Geoff Stevens. Mr. Stevens suggests that the trial was never a conventional criminal prosecution but rather "It was a political prosecution, a show trial staged by Duffy's own Conservatives to disguise (a)...". Essentially Mr. Stevens is suggesting that Mike Duffy's own party through him under the bus in order to cover their own guilty butts. Somewhat balancing his disdain for the Conservative Party, Mr. Stevens also suggests that Mike Duffy was not the ideal Senator but rather "...the product of a shabby patronage system that rewards political loyalty, not public service.'.

Mr. Stevens strongly suggests that there is ample reasonable doubt in order for Mr. Duffy to be acquitted on the charges against him. Apparently the Senate's rules were loosely drafted and loosely applied. That makes it pretty difficult to be held responsible for allegedly violating them. Overall it does seem bizarre to have wasted everybody's time and money in prosecuting Mike Duffy according to Geoffrey Stevens. Very shortly we will see if the Judge agrees.

MOUNTIES "TOXIC" WORKPLACE

Apparently change from within the Mounties isn't going to happen. Both last Saturday and today's Waterloo Region Record have articles describing the toxic workplace that is our Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Aside from the moral and ethical considerations, how about the legal ones. This is an organization allegedly devoted to upholding the laws of the land. Apparently for them that doesn't include laws dealing with equitable treatment of women. The latest allegations are from CBC News reporting "allegations of unwanted sexual touching, bullying and rampant nudity in the workplace at the explosives training unit of the Canadian Police College in Ottawa".

"Rampant nudity in the wokplace..."??? Holy crap if I were involved in explosives training I tend to think that I'd be wearing more clothes not less. What the hell is going on here? Is this nudity perhaps in the barracks or living quarters attached to the workplace? Or is it literally as the article states "...in the workplace...?

Regardless the other allegations of bullying and unwanted sexual touching are just too close to what numerous women have been stating for years. The Mounties are an Old Boys Club who clearly from the top down do not want female collegues. They need to be dragged screaming into the 21st century and that means heads at the top must roll. Nothing less will make this organization a modern crime fighting, world class organization. Saturday's Record article is titled "Goodale outraged with Mounties".

AT LONG LAST SOME CANADIAN COMMONSENSE

Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys the following story titled "Ottawa won't appeal Khadr's ruling". The Court of Queen's bench in Alberta had determined that Canadian Omar Khadr could be released on bail while he's awaiting his appeal of his U.S. convictions and sentence. Omar had been imprisoned for nearly thirteen years including being held in Guantanamo. This was a result of a firefight which killed his collegues and severely wounded himself. U.S. forces had attacked the house that they were all in, in Afganistan. A U.S. militarty court convicted him of murder after allegedly throwing a grenade one at the age of fifteen and secondly after having received multiple serious wounds.

Canada's Conservative government treated him shamefully for years as they sucked up to the U.S. first, and only barely showed any interest in Omar who was and is a Canadian citize. The issue of child soldier among others has been raised in Omar's defence for years as he was only fifteen years old at the time. It is long past time that our federal government changed their position with Omar Khadr and credit goes to the new Liberal government for so doing.