Mr. Dowd:

Its pretty clear to see where the bias comes from in this newspaper.  Even after giving you the correct links and the correct information you still can't get it right.

"Editor's Note: The following correction was appended to this story, and the online version reflects those changes:
A story that ran on Page A1 on March 6-7 about child abuse fatalities requires clarification. A statement by Dr. Lawrence Ricci of Portland asserted that across the U.S. fathers and father figures are more likely to kill children. Ricci said Thursday his statement referred specifically to abused children who died of head trauma. According to a report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mothers and female partners of a parent were identified as perpetrators in 27.4 percent of fatalities involving child maltreatment in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available, while 19 percent of perpetrators were identified as fathers or male partners of a parent."

In 2007 according to US department of Health reports the following is the status of child maltreatment and child killing in the USA.

Victims by Perpetrator Relationship, 2007

This pie chart presents victims by relationship to their perpetrators. More than 80 percent (80.1%) of victims were maltreated by at least one parent. Nearly 40 percent (38.7%) of victims were maltreated by their mother acting on her own.

Note the rate by mom and other is 44.4% while dad and other is 18.8%. The rate by the mother is 2.36 times higher than dad. That is 236% greater. Now how to explain that away to those who believe only men are abusive.

Child killing:

Perpetrator Relationships to Child Fatalities, 2007

This table first lists perpetrator relationships including mother, mother and father, father, mother and other, father and other, female daycare staff, more than one nonparental perpetrator, unknown, etc. In the next column is listed the number of child fatalities from the specified perpetrator. The third column lists the percentage. More than 27 percent (27.1%) of child fatalities were perpetrated by a mother acting alone.

Moms and another are more than twice as likely to kill a child as a dad and another

Table 4-5 Perpetrator Relationships to Child Fatalities, 2007 Child Maltreatment 2007

It is important to use the data as intended not as your prejudices define it.  In the USA and Canada Judges award custody to moms in 86% and 90% of cases respectively. Mom will, if not already, take up a new boyfriend or partner. This action puts the child in greater statistical danger than if it were still a two parent biological family.  Some moms would rather acquiesce to the new boyfriends proclivities rather than lose him. The child takes second place. You may have heard about the Nova Scotia mom who strangled her child to death in a deluded effort to please her boyfriend as she thought he would leave her because of the child.

Despite what you think you know the safest place for a child is in a  two parent biological family, next is the biological father.  When comparing apples to apples i.e. a single parent female home to a single parent male the child is safest with the biological dad.

Based on your recalcitrance to print the truth, the manner in which some of your staff have dismissed some of the writers of letters of concern, (see below) and your apparent self-loathing as a man, as time permits I will file an ethics complaint with your State Newspaper Association. It appears you are suffering some cognitive dissonance based on these findings.

In addition I will file a complaint with the incompetent Doctor's Medical Association. There is no telling how many men's and dad's lives this "expert" has destroyed but he ought not to be able to spout the drivel he does.  I pity the children he has harmed by removing loving fathers who would protect them from an angry ex or her boyfriend.

You declined to print any letters to the editor and, in fact, your letter editor doesn't even know how to have reasoned discourse. Because he doesn't have a clue about a child's further danger from the single mom and her boyfriend, who is not a Father figure in any sense of the word - but you like to make the connection due to gender bias -  chooses to denigrate writers as follows:

Seek your needed therapy elsewhere, please.

You hold a special responsibility to print the truth. That sometimes means actually doing research and fact checking the sources of information given you by people you interview. You have failed miserably.

Mike Murphy
Sault Ste. Marie ON  Promote Bill C-422 Equal Shared Parenting

Il faut que cesse la violence des femmes, des féministes et des inconnues

Femmes fatales