VANCOUVER, May 30, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative Party delegates voted overwhelmingly at their Vancouver convention this weekend to delete the party’s longstanding policy defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
But they also voted in policies condemning sex-selection abortion as discrimination against women, and to uphold conscience rights for medical practitioners to refuse to participate in and refer for abortion, euthanasia, or assisted suicide.
And a resolution to delete the party’s opposition to legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide didn’t even make it to the plenary, but was defeated in Friday’s breakout session, 213 to 94.
“With respect to life issues, this was an enormously successful convention,” says Jack Fonseca, senior political strategist for Campaign Life Coalition, and Ontario delegate. “The Conservative Party platform has become more pro-life than ever.” (more...)
When it comes to The City of London, the term ‘tax haven’ is not describing all that it should. It doesn’t just shield the mega-wealthy from paying their fair dues it goes further and offers a departure from the rule of law as you would know it. Secrecy is its raison d’être. These secrecy laws do not benefit the local people living in its jurisdiction but only those individuals and corporations with enough money and with something to hide.
The reality is that the City of London caters for those above the law, it operates on the basis of bypassing democratic society as a whole. This has come about over time where an extraordinary ‘gentlemens agreement’ has stood the test of time. Over the centuries, the head of state and his/her governments have had the need of large loans for wars and the like, the City, in exchange for such commodity has extracted certain privileges the rest of the population do not enjoy. The end result over the time is that it now has its own jurisdiction to do pretty much as it pleases.
A ‘watchman’ sits at the high table of parliament and is its official lobbyist sitting in seat of power right next to the Speaker of the House who is “charged with maintaining and enhancing the City’s status and ensuring that its established rights are safeguarded.” The job is to maintain order and seek out political dissent that might arise against the City.
The City of London has its own private funding and will ‘buy-off’ any attempt to erode its powers; any scrutiny of its financial affairs are put beyond external inspection or audit. (more...)
When the College Cost Reduction and Access Act took effect in 2009, neither lawmakers nor school administrators had any idea how many college students would check the box on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) -- the document that determines eligibility for Pell grants, subsidized loans and work-study awards that help students pay for college or vocational training -- to indicate that they were homeless.
At last tabulation, the number was 58,000, a small percentage of the 20.2 million students presently enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate study. Nonetheless, school counselors and advocates believe the number is starkly inaccurate and represents a mere fraction of university students who actually lack a permanent home.
Shirley Fan-Chan, director of U-ACCESS at the University of Massachusetts Boston, provides on-campus support to students who are experiencing food insecurity and homelessness. "Most students think of homelessness as being on the street, sleeping in doorways, and for the most part, college students don't do this," she told Truthout. "They hide out. They may stay in one place for a few days or a week, then move somewhere else, bouncing from friend to friend with no fixed place to stay. But they think to themselves, 'Well, this is college. As long as I have a roof over my head, I'm okay.'"
And if that roof happens to be in a tent, subway car or vehicle, so be it. As Fan-Chan notes, students typically do their damnedest to make do, showering in the gym and visiting the emergency food pantries that are increasingly popping up on US campuses. (more...)
An inquiry into child abuse across a range of institutions in Northern Ireland will focus on Tuesday on the Kincora boys home scandal including allegations that MI5 blackmailed a paedophile ring which operated there in the 1970s.
The historical institutional abuse inquiry will hear evidence from men who were abused at Kincora when they were children and their allegations that the perpetrators were protected because they were state agents spying on fellow Ulster loyalists.
A number of Kincora abuse victims have tried through the courts to force the scandal to be included in the national investigation into allegations of establishment paedophile rings operating in Westminster.
Gary Hoy tried and failed last month to force the home secretary to include Kincora in the Westminster inquiry. Hoy and others fear that the Kincora inquiry, which is based in Northern Ireland and taking hearings at the court in Banbridge, County Down, will not have access to sensitive MI5 intelligence files on the people who ran Kincora.
Amnesty International has described the Kincora scandal as one of the most disturbing to emerge from the Ulster Troubles. (more...)
TORONTO — Many of this year’s new post-secondary graduates have left the academic world carrying tens of thousands of dollars in debt. Meantime, those heading to college and university this fall will soon contend with steep tuition rates that often result in a similar burden.
While schools attempt to lessen the load by offering financial aid, average student debt appears to be climbing. So some institutions are also responding by beefing up their mental health services to help students cope with life in the red.
“We’re worried about one type of debt — student debt — and we want to know how to pay it off as quickly as possible,” said Dillon Collet, who is about to enter his final year at the University of Toronto’s faculty of law and sat on the dean’s advisory committee on financial aid.
The committee organized a financial aid workshop that discussed the psychology of debt. It was well-attended, Collet said, with about 60 students in the room and a lineup outside.
The committee’s student representatives also pushed to have tuition fees — and their connection to student stress — to be discussed at the faculty council’s meeting each year, Collet said.
TORONTO - Ontario is promising to improve standards of care for nearly 16,000 young people in foster and group homes, youth justice facilities and mental health residential treatment following a scathing report from an expert panel.
The report focuses on a scattered system with no common standards of care for the children or set qualifications for staff who look after them in institutions that "need significant security controls" because of gangs and peer-to-peer violence.
"There is an urgent need to address the existing and longstanding challenges in the current model of residential service delivery," concludes the government-appointed panel. "Change has been very slow. It is time to shift gears." (more...)
He has spent more than a decade exposing the murderous criminal underworld of the Italian Mafia, but journalist Roberto Saviano believes that Britain is the most corrupt country in the world.
The author of international bestsellers Gomorra and ZeroZeroZero, has lived under police protection since publically denouncing members of the Camorra, a powerful Neopolitan organised crime syndicate, in 2006.
On Saturday he made a rare historic appearance at the Hay Literary Festival flanked by several security guards.
He warned the audience in Hay-on-Wye that financial institutions were allowing ‘criminal capitalism’ to thrive through offshore holdings. And he warned that a vote to leave the European Union would leave Britain even more exposed to the organised crime.
“If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me well it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy and I will tell you it’s the UK,” he said.
“It’s not the bureaucracy, it’s not the police, it’s not the politics but what is corrupt is the financial capital. 90 per cent of the owners of capital in London have their headquarters offshore.
“Jersey and the Cayman’s are the access gates to criminal capital in Europe and the UK is the country that allows it." (more...)
Kathleen Wynne and her Liberal government are hacking and slashing hospital budgets in a way that’s more chaotic than Mike Harris ever was, says a coalition fighting to save hospital beds.
“Chainsaw Mike,” as Harris was dubbed, was “more honest and more transparent,” than Wynne, said Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition.
If Harris was “Mike the Knife,” then Wynne is Hacksaw Kathleen — an out-of-control juggernaut clearcutting the hospital system.
“At this point, there’s no tracking of the health cuts by the health ministry,” Mehra told a Toronto Sun editorial board last week.
Worse, Mehra says there’s no planning behind the cuts and no attempt to restructure hospitals along population lines. (more...)
VANCOUVER – Conservative delegates voted overwhelmingly Saturday at their national convention to effectively accept same-sex marriage, a move Tory MPs and leadership candidates said modernizes their party and sends an important message to Canadians.
In a vote of 1,036-462, Conservative members – following a passionate debate – voted to take a neutral position on marriage and no longer define it as “the union of one man and one woman.”
The change also removes a longstanding policy statement that said Parliament, through a free vote, and not the courts should determine the definition of marriage.
The policy change effectively means the party accepts same-sex unions and that it shouldn’t be in the business of defining marriage for Canadians.
The vote needed and received support from a majority of delegates in a majority of provinces and territories. Saskatchewan was the only province whose Conservative delegates didn’t support the change. (more...)
LAVAL, Que. — Exactly one decade ago, Rocco Sollecito was part of a group of six men who seemed untouchable.
The six had been chosen to take charge of the Mafia in Montreal while its leader, Vito Rizzuto, was incarcerated in the United States.
Now, following Sollecito’s brazen killing on Friday — in broad daylight and within sight of Laval police headquarters — only two of those six men remain alive and they both were recently returned to federal penitentiaries out of concerns for their safety.
Police sources say investigators have evidence that a man, described as being in his 30s and dressed entirely in black, was waiting at a city bus shelter and opened fire into the passenger-side window of Sollecito’s white BMW sport utility vehicle when it stopped at a stop sign at about 8:30 a.m. Several shots were fired into the vehicle and Sollecito, who was alone, was declared dead after being taken to a hospital.
The shooter appeared to know Sollecito’s morning routine, one source said, adding that, besides the shooter, investigators were also trying to track down the driver of a vehicle that moments after the shooting appeared to slow down as it approached Sollecito’s SUV and then continued in the same direction the shooter is believed to have fled on foot. (more...)
VANCOUVER – Conservatives took the first step Friday toward adopting some sweeping changes to their policies and governance — including effectively recognizing same-sex marriage — and overwhelmingly rejected other contentious ones, including defeating an attempt to allow interim Leader Rona Ambrose to run in the leadership race.
Thousands of Conservative delegates gathered in Vancouver for the party’s national convention engaged in heated debate on economic, social and justice policies, the rules governing their party, and the powers that should be vested with the national leader.
Policy and constitutional resolutions passed by members at Friday’s breakout sessions must get the approval at the larger plenary session on Saturday before they can become official party policy.
In arguably the most heated debate of the day, delegates at the criminal justice and social policy session voted 279-143 to change the party’s definition of marriage — recognizing same-sex marriage.
The changes would delete parts of the current policy declaration that says the party supports legislation “defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”
It also would delete a section of party policy that says Parliament, through a free vote, and not the courts should determine the definition of marriage. (more...)
Corey Feldman has shared shocking details about the rampant sexual abuse he and other young actors were forced to endure during their years in Hollywood.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Feldman discusses how he was repeatedly molested by adult males in the industry, saying these men would pass many young stars 'back and forth to each other.'
He also reveals that his closest friend, Corey Haim, was raped when he was just 11 by a producer, the start of a long cycle of sexual abuse that Feldman believes led to his friend's problems with drugs and alcohol later in life.
Haim would struggle with drugs up until his death in 2010 at the age of 38, a death that Feldman blames on the men who abused the actor.
Feldman's comments come just days after another former child star, Elijah Wood, also gave an interview talking about the pedophilia problem in Hollywood.
'He had more direct abuse than I did. With me, there were some molestations and it did come from several hands, so to speak, but with Corey, his was direct rape, whereas mine was not actual rape,' said Feldman of the sexual abuse suffered by Haim.
'And his also occurred when he was 11. My son is 11 now and I can't even begin to fathom the idea of something like that happening to him. It would destroy his whole being.'
Feldman then made the shocking claim that many people in the industry were aware that he and Haim were being abused by these older men, and that no one did anything to stop it or help the boys. (more...)
A federal study on birth defects of children of IBM workers carries at least one surprise and many unknowns.
Children of men, rather than women, who worked at a polluted IBM plant in Endicott had elevated rates of certain heart defects, according to federal researchers.
But scientists with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health point to exposure to chemical hazards workers encountered in daily operations at the plant from 1983 until 2001. (more...)
When Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey went cap in hand to Ottawa, seeking tax relief and government incentives to save his company, few observers could contain their mirth. Yet nobody connected the dots to the fresh Panama Papers revelations, the massive global tax evasion story that broke just three days earlier.
Canadian journalists, it seems, have not yet solved the murder of their own profession.
Let’s start with the federal government’s own ad spend on daily newspapers. In the seven years since 2008/09, it’s plummeted from 18 per cent of the government’s advertising budget to less than one per cent today.
In a pattern repeated across the advertising sector, Canadian print media hemorrhaged millions of dollars to the government's online advertising, which now swallows some $14 million (or 27 per cent) of the total spend. The bleeding hasn’t stopped, as mobile advertising continues to overtake print media at a spectacular pace. Online advertising is now dominated by Facebook and Google.
That puts costly investigative journalism on life-support, and these two companies are pulling the plug.
Yet despite their substantial sales and marketing operations in Canada, both companies process all transactions in US dollars directly to their US headquarters. Neither charges GST.
So here are the Panama Papers questions Canadians should be asking: Do Google and Facebook receive federal government ad revenue, and if so, are they taxed on that income? Do they pay any tax here on their Canadian earnings? (more...)
Enrolment dropped by about 2,000 elementary students at the Toronto District School Board in the current school year in part because of the province's revised sexual health curriculum, says a public school board trustee.
"We don't know exactly why the drop has occurred," Gerri Gerson, TDSB trustee for Ward 13, Don Valley West, told Metro Morning on Thursday.
"Our projections are usually quite accurate and we do feel that there's some factor having to do with the sexual health curriculum."
She said the TDSB expects its projections to be off by about one per cent, or 1,700 students, every year, but there was a loss of 2,083 elementary students in the 2015-2016 school year. The province's revised health and physical education curriculum started in September 2015.
One school in particular, Thorncliffe Park Public School, which runs from grade 1 to 5, saw a drop of enrolment of about 90 students. (more...)
A woman currently employed by the Toronto District School Board is facing sex-related charges in connection with alleged incidents involving a student dating back more than a decade.
Police allege that between September 2001 and June 2003, a student was sexually assaulted by a woman, both during and after school hours.
The student, whose gender was not provided by police, was 14 when the alleged incidents began.
On Wednesday, a suspect was arrested in connection with the case.
“(The accused) was an employee of the Toronto District School Board, working as an educational assistant at Bloor Collegiate Institute at the time of the alleged assaults,” police said in a release Thursday afternoon.
“She is presently still employed with the TDSB.”
The suspect currently works as a teacher in the short term behaviour program at The Elms Junior Middle School, located at 45 Golfdown Dr., in Etobicoke. (more...)
“I would die myself to look at his face and see his green eyes once again,” the mother of Sammy Yatim told the court as she wiped away tears during her victim impact statement at Const. James Forcillo’s sentencing hearing.
“I want to hold him in my arms, not his ashes.”
Sahar Bahadi placed photos of her son in the courtroom before each family member read aloud how their lives changed after the night Yatim was shot on a TTC bus by Const. Forcillo.
“Sammy’s life was not just the time we saw him on the streetcar, his life was so much more he was a wonderful young man,” she said. “He was the sunshine of our lives.”
Yatim, who had consumed ecstasy and was wielding a small knife on an empty streetcar, was shot nine times by Forcillo in 2013. (more...)
Once a revered teacher, Andy Olsen rushed from court Wednesday a guilty man.
“I think it just reiterates the fact that teachers are in a position of trust when you are working with children and youth you need to be very mindful of the position that you hold,” says Crown Prosecutor Leah Fontaine. “The power that you have.”
The former teacher at elite Shawnigan Lake School, Canada’s largest private boarding school faced six charges including child luring, sexual exploitation and abuse of authority and trust. Court heard they were all committed against one female student between 2014 and 2015 while he was a house director, a live in teacher at the school and she was a student.
Court heard she was a vulnerable girl, prone to anxiety who was 17 when the alleged incidents took place.
But Olson’s defense argued he did not know she was struggling emotionally, and that he had no direct contact as a teacher or coach with her to establish a position of authority over her.
The judge ultimately disagreed, convicting him on 5 counts, the only acquittal on the charge of assault. (more...)
TORONTO—Ottawa needs to beef up its efforts to combat money laundering in the real estate industry, say critics and housing observers after documents revealed that dozens of companies haven’t shown how they’re trying to detect questionable transactions.
The Canadian Press reported this week that at least 85 firms have not fully implemented compliance plans intended to flag questionable transactions—including cases where money laundering is suspected—nearly 15 years after they were legally required to do so.
“We can have the best rules possible around keeping laundered money out of our real estate market, but if no one is enforcing those rules, what good are they?” said David Eby, the NDP housing critic in British Columbia, where some have said the housing market is particularly susceptible to money laundering.
“The realtors appear not to be taking the rules or the reporting obligations seriously, and Fintrac seems to be not too concerned when they see mass non-compliance.” (more...)
Ontario's education minister says the province has "strengthened the requirements" for school boards on being inclusive and will contact the Halton Catholic school board after trustees voted against updating an anti-bullying policy over concerns about mentioning sexual orientation and gender identity.
"Gender identity and gender expression are now included as prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Ontario Human Rights Code,” Liz Sandals said in a statement emailed to the Star. “We will be reaching out to the board to discuss this matter,” she said.
"Our schools must be places where everyone — staff, students, parents and the community — feels welcome, safe and respected."
Sandals' comments come as the board faces widespread criticism for a 4-3 vote against accepting the new policy — from other provincial politicians, but also its own chair. (more...)
Following Elijah Wood’s recent comments in the Sunday Times, public attention has quickly turned to entertainment industry “vipers,” and those leveraging their position and prestige to sexually exploit children. The actor spoke to the UK paper about the prevalence of abuse and the difficulty in addressing it, because victims “can’t speak as loudly as people in power.”
Wood later clarified his remarks on Twitter, explaining that, while this is an issue he feels “is an important one that should be discussed,” his interest was piqued by a recent documentary, not personal experience. He stressed: “I cannot speak with any authority beyond articles I have read and films I have seen.”
The role of the celebrity in industry abuse cases is often used to shape its narrative. Wood’s interview marks just one more in a myriad of recent examples. The celebrity abuser, as much as the celebrity victim, or the celebrity activist, elevates the issue; recently revived allegations against Bill Cosby and Woody Allen have not only dominated the news cycles over the past year, but much of the conversation around industry abuse itself. It is crucial to hold both men accountable for their actions. But it is also important to realize that many of these Hollywood abusers, and the majority of their victims, are not household names. In a 2012 report on child sexual abuse cases, the Los Angeles Times wrote that a number of cases involved “lesser-known assailants employed at all levels of the industry,” from an on-set tutor to an acting coach, along with talent agents, managers, and production assistants. Because the abuse is so widespread, the boys and girls affected are likewise at “all levels” of their career: from child stardom to suburban aspiration.
As with the weight of their names, the new developments in the Allen and Cosby cases have the effect of making Wood’s remarks feel particularly timely, and they are. But they have been relevant for much longer. Below, we constructed a short timeline of the major cases and developments in Hollywood abuse history. (more...)
A mother of a child with autism said a Liberal MPP’s apology was “not from the heart” after the police were called on her for threatening a protest at his office.
Bob Delaney, a Liberal backbench MPP, said the police were called after Melanie Palaypayon “frequently” called his constituency office and threatened to protest the government’s new autism program by handing out flyers outside his office.
Peel Regional Police ultimately visited Palaypayon at her home.
Palaypayon and her 6-year-old son Xavier have been waiting for more than three years for Xavier to receive Intensive Behavioural Intervention (IBI) therapy, an advanced behavioural therapy method for children with autism.
When the Liberal government decided to change regulations surrounding autism services, Intensive Behavioural Intervention was defunded for children with autism who are five years old or older.
Despite being on the waiting list for three years, Xavier was removed from the list for IBI this spring. (more...)
York University president Mamdouh Shoukri, left, shakes hands with Dahdaleh in October after he donated $20 million to the school. York later announced it would name an institute and building after him.
He has hobnobbed with the Queen and Bill Clinton. Donated a small fortune to Canadian universities. Runs a billion-dollar global business empire. And glides effortlessly in the highest echelons of corporate and political power.
Now, a joint CBC/Toronto Star investigation based on the Panama Papers provides the closing chapter in a years-long saga involving Canadian tycoon Victor Dahdaleh, which saw him battle criminal charges and a billion-dollar lawsuit on two continents over an international bribery scandal — all the while forging close ties with a trio of Canadian universities.
The huge leak of offshore financial records reveals Dahdaleh, a 72-year-old Jordanian-born metals magnate, is indeed, as long suspected, the mysterious middleman known in U.S. court documents as "Consultant A" — described as having handed out tens of millions of dollars in inducements to officials at a Persian Gulf smelting company in exchange for supplier contracts that went to one of the world's biggest aluminum conglomerates. (more...)
Fifty seconds: From the moment Const. James Forcillo first laid eyes on Sammy Yatim to the moment he pulled the trigger on his police-issue Glock.
Seven seconds: The time that elapsed between the first volley of three shots – including the lethal bullet – and the second volley of six shots, five of which struck the dying teenager.
The initial gunfire was justifiable, a jury concluded, acquitting the officer of second degree murder. The subsequent gunfire was not justifiable and Forcillo was convicted of attempted murder.
Less than a minute in all, that fateful July night in 2013, and the wreckage it left behind.
One life lost, needlessly, if not for the foolishness of an 18-year-old high on Ecstasy, brandishing a knife, the blade he’d already wielded at a terrified passenger before everyone scrambled off the stopped downtown streetcar.
One life hanging in the balance, the cop who says he was only doing his job, presented with a non-compliant armed suspect posing an imminent threat.
Except there was no threat, imminent or otherwise at the point of the second volley, not with Yatim lying mortally wounded near the stairwell of the car, his spine fractured, paralyzed from the waist down, his heart catastrophically damaged from another bullet to the chest.
One minute that neither Yatim nor Forcillo can have back. (more...)
Halton Catholic trustees have rejected an update to the school board’s discipline and anti-bullying policy after one raised concerns that mentioning sexual orientation or gender identity could violate religious teachings.
The changes had previously been approved, unanimously, by a trustee committee and at last week’s full board meeting it was explained that the updates are in line with what’s required under the provincial Education Act and Ontario’s Human Rights Code, said Chair Jane Michael.
“It was a shock to all of us, I believe,” said Michael, who expected the amendments — which she considered part of a routine update — to easily pass. Instead, they failed on a 4-3 vote.
And because the board is “already so far behind” in making the required changes that were ready back in February, Ontario’s Ministry of Education “was waiting for an affirmative answer (last) Wednesday morning” after the board meeting, Michael said. (more...)
Manahil Arshad Khalil, a 12-year-old with glasses and an impish smile, sits in her Toronto bedroom, at a computer. When she finishes scribbling a math equation she holds it up to the screen and watches a Skype window framing the face of a young woman in Pakistan – her teacher.
Taped to the wall is a piece of paper on which Manahil has written her daily schedule, signing it “Manahil!!!” Like her 10-year-old sister and seven-year-old brother, she does roughly two hours of science a day, two hours of math, an hour of Islamic studies and an hour of social studies. The children take just 45 minutes of break time.
Last year, they were students at Thorncliffe Park Public School. But now they’re home-schooled, after their parents pulled them out in reaction to Ontario’s new sex-ed curriculum.
That decision put Manahil and her siblings among an estimated 2,000 kids permanently withdrawn from public school over their parents’ fears of sex ed, and whose education is now largely a mystery to authorities.
In a province that barely oversees elementary-level home-schooling and private schools, it could take years to understand the bigger implications of the “missing children.” (more...)
A little known Swedish-Canadian oil and mining conglomerate human rights groups have repeatedly charged produces “blood minerals” is among the Clinton Foundation’s biggest donors, thanks to a $100 million pledge in 2007, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation has found.
“Blood minerals” are related to “blood diamonds,” which are allegedly mined in war zones or sold as commodities to help finance political insurgencies or despotic warlords.
When the Vancouver, Canada-based Lundin Group gave its $100 million commitment to the “Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative,” the company had long been cutting deals with warlords, Marxist rebels, military strongmen and dictatorships in the war-torn African countries of Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia.
Lundin promoted its reputation as a fierce, hard-driving company. Adolf Lundin, who founded the company, audaciously traveled to the French home of Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1996 to secure mining rights for his company. A few years later, Lundin admitted he had offered a “donation” to Mobutu’s “elections campaign,” but later said he never gave the funds. (more...)
From the moment Const. James Forcillo left his police cruiser with his gun raised, he was trying to intimidate Sammy Yatim, the Crown argued Tuesday at Forcillo’s sentencing hearing for the attempted murder of Yatim.
“(Forcillo) failed to follow his training and common sense and chose to pursue an unnecessarily aggressive and emotional approach,” Crown prosecutor Milan Rupic said.
That is a breach of trust, he said, because police officers are required to ensure civilians are not unnecessarily injured when being arrested.
Rupic argued that Justice Edward Then should look at the entirety of Forcillo’s behaviour when making his sentencing decision, including Forcillo’s failure to use de-escalation before both the first and second volleys of shots he fired at Yatim.
Justice Then responded that it seems far more interesting to compare the de-escalation efforts made by Forcillo before each volley.
Some attempt at de-escalation was made before the first shots through the commands to drop the knife, but no attempt at all was made in the six seconds before the second volley of shots, Then said. (more...)
TORONTO - Premier Kathleen Wynne has told a Liberal backbencher to apologize for calling the police on the mother of an autistic child who had threatened a protest at his constituency office.
Wynne will meet later today with MPP Bob Delaney, but says she told him on the phone to apologize to Melanie Palaypayon.
Palaypayon is one of many parents upset about changes to eligibility rules for Intensive Behavioural Intervention for their autistic children.
Wynne says constituency office staff can be intimidated by protesters, but insists people have a right to speak out against the funding changes, which will deny IBI therapy to children over the age of five. (more...)
What strikes me here is the fact that, according to the article, and starting in the 60s, Ottawa clergy were warned at least seven times about Father Crampton’s “sexual misconduct.” At least four priests were told. We don’t know the names of all four priest, but we do have the names of two: (1) Father Barry McGrory, and (2) Father John Beahan (later an auxiliary bishop ) Both were themselves sexual predators, and both were good friends of Crampton’s. It is no surprise, then, is it, that neither neither McGrory nor Beahan took any action?
Who were the other two priests who knew and failed to action to protect children?
(2) Duty to report
“In 2011, the Archdiocese of Ottawa issued a protocol that requires all clergy members and church employees to report any allegation of child sexual abuse to the Office of the Archbishop and to the Children’s Aid Society.”
In Ontario the duty to report to CAS has been obligatory for many many years. Lawyers are exempt. Dioceses are not.
That aside, I do not understand why there is no obligation to report to police. If there is suspicion that there is criminal activity,common sense says report to police.
Sexual abuse of children and youth are crimes. By all means, report to CAS to ensure that other children are protected, but for goodness sake report suspected criminal activity to police.
I have never understood why the duty to report in most if not all provinces and territories in Canada is not to police but to the CAS. Why is there not mandatory reporting to police of such a reprehensible crime ? That I suppose is another matter, but it seems to me that there is nothing to prevent a bishop from insisting that all sexual abuse allegations levelled against a priest must be reported to police. Why not? Yes, I can understand that victims may have concerns, but I also have faith in the victims, and I believe to the depth of my being that there is not one victim out there who wants to see other children or youth abused. I fear too that it serves Church officials well to allow victims to remain riddled with shame and fear. Perhaps a little time to explain the necessity of contacting police and a promise of support is in order, along with assurances that the shame belongs squarely on the shoulders of their abuser?
TORONTO - These politicians wouldn’t hear them out, so parents of autistic kids put them on a blacklist.
Groups of parents taped up “Wanted” posters of 12 cabinet ministers and MPPs whom they claim have ignored their pleas to consider reversing recent changes to children’s autism services in Ontario.
The controversy stems around the government’s move to eliminate eligibility of kids ages five and up for provincially funded intensive behavioural intervention (IBI), which is designed to help participants develop life-building skills.
The poster campaign launched after word spread that Liberal MPP Bob Delaney, who represents the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, called the police on parent Melanie Palaypayon late last week for threatening to hold a protest outside his office.
“It’s stonewalling,” said Bruce McIntosh, president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, which organized the poster campaign. “They have blocked people on Twitter, they have just failed to answer emails. Meetings keep getting rescheduled or postponed, but you can only postpone something so many times before it’s clear that you have no interest in meeting. In hockey, they call it, ‘ragging the puck.’” (more...)
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Soviet liberation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz. Elderly Holocaust survivors, former soldiers and world leaders have gathered in Poland to mark the 60th anniversary: “I would like to say to all the people on the Earth: This should never be repeated, ever,” said Maj. Anatoly Shapiro, 92, who led the first Soviet troops to enter Auschwitz.
Lest we forget an important corporate participant in the Holocaust – two excerpts shed light on the role of IG Farben, ie. Bayer.
IG Farben was the most powerful German corporate cartel in the first half of the 20th century and the single largest profiteer from the Second World War. IG (Interessengemeinschaft) stands for “Association of Common Interests”: IG Farben included BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and other German chemical and pharmaceutical companies.
As documents show, IG Farben was intimately involved with the human experimental atrocities committed by Mengele at Auschwitz.
A German watchdog organization, the GBG Network, maintains copious documents and tracks Bayer Pharmaceutical activities. (more...)
Allegations of corruption and grade-fixing at an Ontario-accredited private school in Shanghai are symptoms of a deeper issue with the province's oversight of its offshore schools, according to parents at another troubled private school in Hong Kong.
A day after Premier Kathleen Wynne visited Shanghai on a November trade mission and posed for pictures with executives from the embattled Canadian International Academy, she was in Hong Kong where a photo-op of another sort materialized.
While visiting the Ontario-accredited Canadian International School in Hong Kong (CDNIS), Wynne was cornered by two of the school's former pupils, who handed her a stack of petitions pleading for the premier to intervene in a nasty dispute over the school's governance that has dragged on for months.
The Canadian International Academy (CIA) in Shanghai and CDNIS in Hong Kong are two of 21 offshore schools authorized to teach an Ontario curriculum, offering Ontario credits and a high school diploma, while catering primarily to wealthy, elite families with the goal of sending graduates to top universities in Canada. (more...)
