La nouvelle mère

 

To the Editor, The National Post

Re: A school board's message: women good, men bad, (Barbara Kay, May 30)

Sandra Pupatello, Ontario Minister Responsible for Women's Issues, takes issue with Barbara Kay's excellent article about the Peel School Board's ill-conceived initiative to indoctrinate students with anti-male literature.

As politicians are wont to do, Minister Pupatello proffered some 'statistics' to support her contention that only women are victims of domestic violence. But she did not do her homework, and has damaged her credibility severely. We would like to respond to her allegations with some facts she seems to have overlooked.

She stated, "According to Statistics Canada, in 2004 there were nearly 28,000 incidents of spousal violence reported to the police: 84% of victims were female." But she did not explain that raw numbers drawn by counting police reports of domestic violence are not indicative of the truth about domestic violence, because men simply do not report their partner's attacks upon them to the police except in the most extreme cases.

To have any meaning, these raw numbers must be subject to appropriate statistical regression which takes account of the unreported incidents of domestic violence by integrating the rate of reporting for each gender. Without that, such figures are not only meaningless, they paint a false-to-fact image of the problem which further exacerbates it. The minister's use of such figures is completely irresponsible, and such behaviour is unacceptable from someone as highly placed in government as she.

Gender-violence researchers at StatsCan, the British Home Office, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services all acknowledge that there is a serious dichotomy between the numbers of victimised women and the numbers of victimised men who make such a report to the police. This is reflected most clearly by The British Crime Survey, an ongoing statistical initiative of the Home Office which does not rely on police reports but rather on personal interviews with randomly chosen subjects from all walks of life. That study found that "64 per cent of women and 94 per cent of men subject to domestic violence in the last year did not think that what had happened to them was a crime."

Statistics Canada, in a July, 2005, report apparently missed by Minister Pupatello (published at http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050714/d050714a.htm), states that, "In cases of current relationships in which emotional abuse existed, 25% of women and 19% of men experienced violence.... In contrast, in current relationships where there was no emotional abuse, 1% of women and 2% of men experienced violence" (emphasis added).

These figures show clearly that domestic violence is not a single-gender issue, and that men make up a substantial percentage of victims, too. In certain StatsCan-defined categories of violence (being 'kicked, bit, hit, hit with something'), men are at substantially more risk than are women (the ratio of women to men who suffered this type of attack was 1 to 3.4).

The minister also says that the 2005 Domestic Violence Death Review Committee Annual Report of the Chief Coroner reported that, "of the 100 cases they examined between 2002 and 2005 in Ontario, females were victims in 93% of cases."  This is extremely misleading, because what she does not state is that this report is not the result of statistical research, but is rather a compendium of incomplete and non-structured case studies. For her to rely on this type of material to back her claims is not only disingenuous, it could easily be viewed as a classic example of how to "lie" using statistics.

The DVDRC report the minister cites does not provide any rigorously derived statistical data, and it was never meant to do so. The purpose of the report was to review the circumstances surrounding certain (but not all) cases of violent spousal/partner death which occurred in Ontario, and to search for preventive measures. The report states clearly that only 34 cases were reviewed out of 111 reported incidents during the three year period covered by the 2006 report. Significantly, it does not state how cases were selected for review, which invalidates any statistical authority it might have had. Finally, there is a strongly-worded disclaimer on page 10 of the report which states:

This document was produced by the DVDRC for the sole purpose of a Coroner’s investigation pursuant to section 15 (4) of the Coroner’s Act, R.S.O. 1990 Chapter c. 37, as amended. The opinions expressed do not necessarily take into account all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the death. The final conclusion of the investigation may differ significantly from the opinions expressed herein. (emphasis added)

The minister also quotes the same report as stating that "domestic violence fatalities are not gender-neutral events." This should not be surprising, as the report itself is not a gender-neutral document . Throughout the entire document--just as throughout the pamphlet distributed to students by the Peel School Board--references are exclusively to women as victims and men as perpetrators. Although verified statistics from other, more rigorous sources, clearly show this is far from the truth, the report's authors ignore them. The evident bias of the authors is so overriding that one wonders how any supposedly responsible government minister could even think of relying upon their 'findings.' An unbiased observer could only conclude that the minister relied upon this document simply because it supported her own biased point of view.

World Fathers Union, a Canadian-based NGO which works to protect the interests of children and fathers in all countries, maintains a data-base of gender-violence reporting gathered from a wide variety of mainstream news sources for use in our on-going research on how these issues are presented in the world press. The most recent review of these data (May, 2007) shows that violent spousal/partner deaths and other serious acts of domestic violence are reported in an almost equal proportion world-wide: 51.8% of the reports were of murders or attacks by a woman against her husband, partner, or children; 48.2% of the reports involved the male as the perpetrator. Sources for the original reports are provided by unbiased search-engines such as Google News and CNN, amongst others. While our findings have not yet been published (the research is on-going), the reports on which they are based have been, and one would expect any intelligent and informed adult to be aware of the general trend they indicate.

But inexplicably, the minister is not. Nor, it seems, is she aware of the wealth of other rigorous statistical data which have been compiled on this subject. This is unacceptable, and her blinkered and false view of domestic violence as a 'women-only' problem needs to be shown for what it is: Political hyperbole designed to reinforce her position as a partisan of only half her constituency.

To echo the minister's closing thoughts, we hope that there comes a day when we will not need to educate government officials about this issue; unfortunately, that day has not arrived.

 

Petition to the Ontario Legislative Assembly

Re: Removal of Justice Marvin Zuker from the bench

To the Honourable members of the Provincial Legislature:

WHEREAS the Criminal Code of Canada was intended by Parliament to be applied equally to all Canadians, and

WHEREAS judges in Canada have a duty to obey the laws of Canada just as do the rest of the citizens of Canada, and

WHEREAS section 139 (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada states that it is an indictable offence for ANYONE to wilfully attempt in any manner to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice in a judicial proceeding, and

WHEREAS section 122 of the Criminal Code of Canada it is an indictable offence for any official who in connection of his duties of his office commits a breach of his/her trust to the public, and

WHEREAS Justice Marvin Zuker of the Ontario Court of Justice has admitted tampering with official court transcripts which constitutes both an obstruction to justice and a breach of the public trust as it relates to his position as judge, and

WHEREAS the actions of Ontario Judicial Council in allowing Justice Zuker to continue his duties as judge even after it was confirmed that he had broken the law under the Criminal Code makes it abundantly clear that the Ontario Judicial Council has failed to protect the public’s interest in the administration of justice when one of their piers has broken the law, and

WHEREAS the actions of Justice Zuker have resulted in shame and embarrassment to the Canadian people and have brought the administration of justice in Canada into significant disrepute,

We the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Members of the Provincial Parliament to undertake the following:

That Justice Marvin Zuker be immediately removed from his position as judge and charged by the Attorney General of Ontario under section 139 and 122 of the Criminal Code of Canada so that Canadians can see that the Criminal Code of Canada is to be equally to all citizens, including judges, and,

That the charges involving Justice Marvin Zuker be dealt with in a transparent manner, in an open public courtroom with Justice Zuker being judged by a jury of citizens should he wish to challenge the criminal charges.

Name (Printed)	Home Address (include city & postal code)	Signature
Jeremy Swanson	1010-180, Argyle Avenue, Ottawa, ON K2P 1B7

Procès Norbourg: Lacroix charge le témoin

 

Le juge Leblond

 

Scales of justice out of balance

Jugement de la Cour supême du Canada

The way it stands now, women acquire rights, while men -- even if their female partners want them free of them -- acquire obligations.

 

Amen!

I listen to feminists and all these radical gals - most of them are failures. They've blown it. Some of them have been married, but they married some Casper Milquetoast who asked permission to go to the bathroom. These women just need a man in the house. That's all they need. Most of the feminists need a man to tell them what time of day it is and to lead them home. And they blew it and they're mad at all men. Feminists hate men. They're sexist. They hate men - that's their problem."

Jerry Falwell

 

Citation improbable

Vous me rappelez mon premier amour.
Son nez est tellement gros qu'elle se mouche avec une cuiller à café et elle a des hémoroïdes grosses comme un citron. Un jour elle s'est marché sur les seins: c'est pas la graisse qui la gêne. C'est elle qui m'a quitté. Elle me trouvait moche.

 

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A Father and Son Separated by Divorce Finally Reunite--in Iraq

 

If It's a Bad Parent, It Must Be a Dad...

 

Dissident Domestic Violence Experts Announce Ground-Breaking Conference: 'From Ideology to Inclusion: Evidence-Based Policy and Intervention in Domestic Violence'

Juin le mois des grosses couennes

 

Inimaginable au Québec

Knoxville father makes boy wear sign as punishment for using drugs
 

 

Girls are stupid throw shit at them

 

Child Support System Ignores Dads'
Economic Reality

Enfants du divorce et Ritalin

Des citoyens de Belœil s'opposent à la construction de logements sociaux

 

Nichons en folie