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Pardon for Sex Abuser

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Ex-coach Graham James pardoned for sex abuse that rocked NHL – The Globe and Mail.

This is a shocking story. In my 33 year career as a pediatrician I have talked with many children who suffered sexual abuse. All of the children I have seen were abused by someone they trusted or who was in a position of power over them –  a parent, a step-parent, a coach.

When an adult suffers an horrific event, he or she may suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, seek treatment and eventually go on, the event fading further into memory. With children, it is different. With each stage of development, the trauma can surface again – as the child becomes more able to understand what has happened, and as psychosexual development reaches anther stage.

I recall one boy whom I saw first when he was seven, sitting in an emergency room cubicle, with a frozen attempt at a smile on his face. That boy suffered throughout his childhood from a father who continued to stalk him. When he was 16 the boy laid a charge and the father was convicted. Imagine if he was now pardoned, because pedophilia is not as serious a crime as murder. The victim would be traumatized yet again.

This is what the parole board has done, in allowing the abuser of all those young boys to be pardoned. It has denied the importance of their suffering.

Health Care

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The Americans have finally passed a health care bill. Two important provisions: No one can be denied health care for a pre-existing condition; no one is dependent on keeping a particular job in order to keep health care.
No doubt the big insurers are worried about having to take on all these sick people. They certainly can cut into the profit margin.
Up to now, the US has been unique amongst developed nations in not providing health insurance for all its citizens. I hope the people in the middle class, the ones who formed the millions without health care, remember on voting day in November who it was that wanted to condemn them to bankruptcy in the face of catastrophic or long term chronic illness.
The saddest sign I saw at the protests to the bill was held by an elderly woman. “Hands off our Medicare” it read. Spreading fear amongst the vulnerable is a deplorable political tactic, not unique to those south of the border.
Our current government is “getting tough on youth crime” at a time when youth crime is falling. They want to be able to send 14 year olds to adult prisons. I think they’ve never actually talked to a teenager, or raised a child to adulthood.

CBC News – Politics – Contraception an ‘option’ in maternal health plan

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CBC News – Politics – Contraception an ‘option’ in maternal health plan.

These people still don’t get it. Contraception should not be an option. It is too important in the health of young women everywhere, especially in the developing world.
And apparently “family planning” is the Conservative code word for abortion. At least the Minister says no family planning, and Harper says yes to contraception as an option but no abortion debate. Yet more back pedalling today. Either they are incapable of thinking through their ideas, or they believe they can put “spin” on these issues and we won’t notice.

Retirement looms. One more week until the last day for patients, the 29th of March. I’ve been cleaning out financial files. Who knew how much there was to keep. The rule, according to our accountant is to keep seven years of records. I’m up to 6 banker’s boxes and counting.

Fundamentalist Harper and failure to save women’s lives

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CBC News – Money – 10 myths about taxes and filing.

It’s tax time and the CBC has been helpful, publishing a list of myths. Some of them are very old news, but there’s new information too. Worth the read.
I see the Harper government doesn’t think that supporting contraception and abortion rights saves lives. I guess the only lives worth saving are those of embryos.The lives of the women who die in childbirth or its complications, of which there are millions around the world, don’t count. The lives of women who are condemned to repeated pregnancies, without pause, ending up dying at what is by our standard a very young age, don’t count either. Stephen Harper tries very hard to convince us that he’s at the centre of the political spectrum. This sort of pandering to the most fundamental of his supporters shows again that he is not.
Shame on him. Shame on us if he’s elected again.

A black eye for hockey – The Globe and Mail

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A black eye for hockey – The Globe and Mail.
One of the commentators on this story suggested that the hitter should stay off as long as his victim cannot play. This could, of course, result in a life-time ban from playing. Another suggests criminal charges.
Criminal charges should be laid, in my view. Anywhere but on the rink such an attack would be called what it is – criminal assault. But there is a defence. The young man who hit Marc Sivard, had a coach, and a manager. He played in a league which has a bizarre standard – no penalty was called – and can’t bring itself to suspend the offending player. What were his instructions when he went on the ice that day. Was he supposed to bring down a player who was such a threat that the coach wanted him taken out of the game? Was it payback for some hit in some other game?
We’ve just finished watching the game played at the highest level, by stringent rules, with no one damaged for life. Can’t the standards of the Olympics transplant to the NHL? Or is the core audience watching for the thrill of seeing thugs batter others.
In my medical practice, I’ve talked to the adult survivors of head injuries like this. They are struggling to raise families and deal with such ordinary matters as remembering appointments for their children. They apologize for their poor memories and their emotional responses in ordinary conversation. They tell me about being unable to drive, and having to rely on community organizations and disability pensions. And I only hear a little of the trouble, because I’m their children’s doctor, not their own.
The long term consequences of head injuries range from learning disabilities to marital breakdown. The article above talks about Marc Sivard’s life at the moment. I hope his recovery is complete, and that depends on how many concussions he’s had in the past, and how severely his brain was damaged this time.
Paediatricians are trying to ensure that children wear head-protecting helmets in sports as diverse as biking and snowboarding. We encourage no-contact. We are playing a losing game while this kind of attack goes unpunished.

Medical Isotopes

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Precious medical isotopes could be shipped overseas – The Globe and Mail.

The people who are charged with fixing the reactors are working 24/7 to get them up an running to ensure that the global supply of isotopes returns to normal. I presume they know they are not working long hours and double shifts for the citizens of Canada, but for their company, which will then send off the products to the global market. Quite a deal the government or AECL or both made this time.
In 2008, on the Harper watch, funding was cut off to the scientists working to get the two Maple reactors on line. I am told that it is possible to fix whatever is the problem with “a few lines of code”, but the work has to be funded.

Why are they patching up the old, and why did they mothball the new technology? The article tells us that the Minister in charge of the file, Christian Paradis, referred question to the AECL management. Of course he did. Why take ownership of a problem that might bring backlash from citizens – patients – waiting for tests of their cancers, or heart disease, or renal failure, who may have to wait until the global market, and Canada with it, has an adequate amount of isotope? The global market didn’t supply the millions to fix the reactor, Canada did.

Publishing is on my mind again, as Write Words Inc. is planning to bring Murderous Roots out in a print on domand edition. Details to follow as they come to me.

Just an old boys appointment

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Critics blast ‘dead-of-night’ rights appointment – The Globe and Mail.

I don’t know enough about Mr. Latulippe to know if he is going to destroy Rights and Democracy, as Mr. Ignatieff is quoted as saying; however, it doesn’t look all that good. Three senior managers fired, a late night appointment, a disregard for the controversial nature of the appointee who apparently has strong opinions on the immigration of people who are Muslim, buddy of the responsible Minister: all make for very bad “optics”. Perhaps the throne speech and the controversy over the lyrics to O’Canada were supposed to overshadow this item. I didn’t know much about the agency, but there is a very good website.

About the lyrics, I have been listening to “all thy sons command” all my life. Recently I and many others have been singing “all of us command.” Anyone have a problem with that? I understand the lyrics were changed at the time of the first world war as part of a recruiting drive. Along with the income tax, we were stuck with them.
But changing them should not be a major focus of this parliament. We are at war; we have just started to come out of economic turbulence; we have a huge deficit, uncushioned by the savings that Paul Martin had set aside for just such an eventuality( the Harper government spent them to buy our votes ie lowering the taxes).

Olympics

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On February 24th, I wrote that the Own the Podium backers might be disappointed by the medal count. Exultant must be the way they feel now.
Last night a non-CTV channel was running that ad about the boy trying to get enough money for hockey by applying for a part-time job. In my practice I see kids like that, whose parents are on welfare, or single parents, or single-earner families who can’t begin to afford the expense of enrolling them in sports. Some of the lucky ones are in Tim Horton’s programmes.
I recall one unhappy boy in foster care, who got a new family when he was twelve. He couldn’t skate, but now he’s playing hockey, and happier than I’ve ever seen him. Most of that change comes from the support of his foster family, but not a little from being able to play a sport he loves. He and his family are gold medal winners in my book. The money that supports him comes from the Children’s Aid Society. When you are thinking of donations, remember the kids in care. They are ours, through the Crown, our responsibility.
Soccer is the game that matters to many of the kids. Doesn’t cost too much, lots of fun, aerobic, and outside. Summer Olympics are coming. Let’s see some support for the budding summer athletes.

Ten rules for writing fiction | Books | guardian.co.uk

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A member of my writing group, the Internet Writing Workshop, posted a link to this article in the Guardian: collected lists from authors such as Margaret Atwood and Stephen King – their personal rules for writing. One rule is on all the lists – write and then write some more. Write, revise, write, make it as well. I must say I always get a kick out of Margaret Atwood’s. I like her advice to take a pencil on the plane as pens leak. Take two, she says, one may break. A link to her blog is to the right.
Another piece of advice, not in these lists, is to do something “writerly” if you come to a blank spot: look for an agent; write your blog; read about writing; read about grammar; read.

The Globe and Mail reports this morning that the G20 meeting is coming to Toronto in June. Much wailing about the disruption to the city, to commerce, to the life of the people who live and work downtown. It’s only for two days, people. The city has that much disruption from marathons for this cause, and parades for that.
The potential violence is another matter. Earlier this week I blogged about the Black Bloc, the criminals in facemasks allowed to march with legitimate protestors and commit random acts of destruction. I don’t understand why, if it is reasonable to assume that a person wearing a mask in a bank is about to commit a criminal act and should be arrested, or at least called to account, the same individual in the midst of a crowd of similarly dressed people – the Black Bloc – which has a history of random violence, should not. And no, I don’t think hiding one’s face with the clear intention of creating terror and avoiding responsibility for criminal acts is a civil right.

Behavioural analysis unit

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Special OPP unit deeply involved in Williams investigation.
Highly-specialized OPP unit credited for speedy arrest – The Globe and Mail.

Both of these articles contain some information about the Behavioural analysis units, but I wanted to know more about the training and effectiveness.

So who are the profilers, how are they trained, and how effective are they? As to the latter, one article in 2007, suggested not very. (Taking Stock of Criminal Profiling: A Narrative Review and Meta-Analysis
Snook et al. Criminal Justice and Behavior.2007; 34: 437-453) However, in that paper, the analysis included “self-described” profilers. Currently, according to an excellent article on a Government of Canada website, in
order to apply for the training program, a candidate must meet the following requirements:

Be a police officer in good standing;
Possess a minimum three years’ recent experience in the investigation of interpersonal violent crime;
Possess superior investigation skills, documented in writing, in the area of interpersonal violence;
Possess a demonstrated ability to articulate thoughts both orally and in writing;
Speak, write, understand and read English fluently;
Be approved and sponsored by an ICIAF member in good standing;
Be recommended in writing by the appropriate official of the agency employing the candidate;
The agency employing the candidate must agree to cover all training costs;
The agency employing the candidate must confirm in writing that the candidate will work primarily as an analyst for at least the final year of the training program and three years thereafter.
Once admitted to the roughly two-year program, the candidate must study or obtain training in the following areas: sex offenders and typologies, sexual homicide, legal pathology, crime scene reconstruction, homicide investigation, investigation into suspicious death, child abduction and abuse, interviews and interrogations, normal and abnormal behaviour (psychiatry and psychology), preparation of analyses, threat asses sment, arson and attempted bombings, as well as a professional development course for instructors. The candidate must also familiarize himself with media and public relations strategies, blood spatter analysis, computerized case association systems (ViCAP, ViCLAS), laboratory procedures for criminal analysis and scientific content analysis (SCAN) (ICIAF, 2005).

The candidate must also complete a minimum of six months of investigation work supervised by a member of the ICIAF or the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes (NCAVC), including at least two months of supervised work at NCAVC. At the end of the training, the candidate must pass an examination. The candidate is presented with a case and has thirty days to write up an analysis and prepare an oral defence before the members of an evaluation committee, whose decision must be unanimous. After one year as an associate member in good standing, an application for full fellow status may be submitted to the ICIAF (ICIAF, 2005). Canada currently has four analysts who are full fellows: two employed by the RCMP and two by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). Three candidates are currently registered in the training program (two employed by the OPP and one by the RCMP). The Sûreté du Québec employs two analysts, but their status is unknown.
(Human Rights Commission, Government of Canada) The complete article is very interesting and is available on line at http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/research_program_recherche/profiling_profilage/page4-en.asp

The Williams case involved the Ontario Unit.
The advantage the profilers have now, over those in the past includes the vast amount of information available online and being gathered into databases, like ViCLAS, available to law enforcement all over the world.