The case of Brent Hawkes and how it may affect sexual assault survivors

Mayor John Tory (left) and Hawkes (right) during Toronto police’s Pride
reception on June 22, 2016

Anytime a community leader is accused of a crime, it’s going to be a big deal. But the circumstances surrounding the Brent Hawkes case made this even more so.

First was the nature of the charges. Stemming from an alleged incident in the 1970s when Hawkes was a high school teacher in Nova Scotia, he was charged with gross indecency and indecent assault, two provisions of the Criminal Code that were removed long ago. The Crown argues that the two counts amount to the modern day crime of sexual assault. Hawkes’ defenders believe they’re homophobic.

But the reaction was coloured even more by who Hawkes is. By his own account, he is one of the most well-known and well-respected religious leaders in the country. He’s a recipient of the Order of Canada. The mythology that’s developed around him — going on a hunger strike after the bathhouse raids, conducting the first recognized same-sex marriage in a bulletproof vest, eulogizing Jack Layton at his funeral — has cemented itself in Toronto’s imagination.

So when the charges were brought against Hawkes, the reaction felt familiar to anyone who has followed the many beloved public figures who have been accused of sexual assault in the past few years.

Several prominent community members and politicians rallied to his defence. Craig Scott said unequivocally that he believes Hawkes is innocent. Bob Rae and Olivia Chow expressed their support for their friend. Bill Blair, Paula Fletcher and Peter Tabuns all attended the first service after the charges became public. Doug Elliott, Kim Vance, Al McNutt and Rachel Lauren Clarke started the Brent Hawkes Support Fund to help fund legal costs.  (more...)

The case of Brent Hawkes and how it may affect sexual assault survivors

Background:

Gay Apologists Try Hard: In Defense of Brent Hawkes

Why Michael Coren Thinks The Right Is Angry About Brent Hawkes

It's Great to be a Pedophile in Toronto

Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis

Thesis

Antithesis

Synthesis

Psychological Warfare and the American Narrative

9/11. The number still rings in the mind as if chosen to act as a Pavlovian trigger: Outrage, anger, paranoia, retribution. A shadowy band of religious zealots fly not one, but two commercial airliners into the heart of America’s financial community while others deal a deadly blow to the Pentagon. It was a Hollywood movie, an act of war rivaling Pearl Harbor. Why did it happen? Who would do this to Americans, to America? How could a band of ragged terrorists plotting from a cave in faraway Afghanistan have accomplished such a complex task given the size and pervasiveness of the largest and most expensive military/intelligence apparatus in the history of the world? And even more curiously, why would Islamic radicals give the ideology-driven neoconservative administration of George W. Bush exactly the pretext they needed to launch a bloody invasion and further occupation of the Middle East?

According to the official narrative, 9/11 was an attack on everything American and in so doing changed everything about America. Like Kafkaesque characters who’d suddenly found themselves on the other side of a Cold War “Iron Curtain” mirror, Americans would now have to “watch what they say and watch what they do,” open up to questioning or face jail when prodded by squinty-eyed border guards and forsake any hope of privacy or dignity in a new world of electronic spies and full body scans. Former National Security Advisor, Admiral John Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness program would be enacted and a preexisting “Patriot Act” would be signed into law to clamp down on dissent and real or imagined domestic terrorism.

Some careful observers like Anthony Lewis of the New York Times had already noticed the bizarre coup-like changes coming over Washington in the months leading up to the attack as the George W. Bush administration inaugurated radical shifts in domestic and foreign policy that seemed un-American and alien to anything that had gone before. But those concerns would soon be forgotten in the race for revenge.

9/11 would ultimately give President George W. Bush and his neoconservative advisors all the public approval they needed to transform America and invade Afghanistan and Iraq to cleanse the world of evil in an endless “war on terror.” In the end it would turn America’s reputation for racial and religious tolerance, military invincibility and economic dominance on its head.

Looking back on the carnage of the last ten years it’s easy to see how the psychology of 9/11 changed America. What’s not easy to see is how a long standing campaign of covert psychological warfare built up since the early days of World War II had made the slow destruction of American democracy and the ascension of rule by secrecy inevitable, long before the planes ever left the runway on 9/11:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” -Dr. Joseph Goebbels  (more...)

Psychological Warfare and the American Narrative

Related:

The Most Dangerous Game: World View Warfare

What the world looks like, through American spectacles:

Catholics Are Right, Except When They're Annoying

"Islamophobia" doesn't make it into the religious right's lexicon, but "homophobia" nails the black hearts uptight Catholics? Here's an uptight Catholic for your enjoyment and edification:

BOMBSHELL: (Major Scandal Uncovered) Pamella Geller And Robert Spencer Running An International Scam Involving Neo-Nazis, Anti-Christian Neo-Pagans, MAFIA, Thuggery And Terrorism

Update:

Major Political Organizations Are Working To Get Governments To Slaughter Migrants In Europe

"

Limeys are always trying to correct our English... Was that "Anglophobic"?

East York residents take stand vs. racism

When Zahra Dhanani and a few other community members heard about the racist signs in East York last month, they decided to take a stand against hate.

The posters urged white people to join the so-called ‘alt-right,’ a movement that promotes white supremacy.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to see those gross posters, but it was really what mobilized people,” Dhanani said.

What started out as a Facebook group of a few dozen friends grew into nearly 1,000 members, ready to embrace multiculturalism and ensure people in the community felt welcome. The East Enders Against Racism group aims to counter hate speech and hate crimes while encouraging support through events, education and community-building.  (more...)

East York residents take stand vs. racism

Background:

Poster in East York being investigated as hate crime

A Nazi grave in the jungle: Hitler’s explorers went on secret quest to carve out a colony

A Nazi grave in Laranjal do Jari, Brazil that reads: “Joseph Greiner died here of fever on
Jan. 2, 1936, in the service of German research.”

An enduring air of mystery surrounds the towering cross emblazoned with a swastika in a cemetery near the remote Brazilian jungle outpost of Laranjal do Jari. An inscription on the cross, in German, reads: “Joseph Greiner died here of fever on Jan. 2, 1936, in the service of German research.”

Why is there a Nazi grave in the far reaches of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest?

Researchers have meticulously documented how Nazi war criminals fled to South America in the aftermath of World War II. But much less is known about a plot that took root before and during the war: The Nazis hoped to establish a German bridgehead in South America by conquering a swath of the Amazon River Basin.

The secret plan, called the Guyana Project, had its origins in an expedition into the Amazon led by Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, a Berlin zoologist, documentary filmmaker and member of Hitler’s SS.  (more...)

A Nazi grave in the jungle: Hitler’s explorers went on secret quest to carve out a colony

Related:

New Revelations Concerning Colonia Dignidad

Mystical Imperialism: Afghanistan’s Ancient Role

“Those who dream by night . . . wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.”
- Lawrence of Arabia from Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Mystical imperialism is a term used to describe 19th century British efforts to colonize the world by bringing Judeo-Christian ethics, morals and philosophies  and applying them to the pagan world.  In effect what Mystical imperialism became was a philosophy that rationalized the expansion of empire by infusing a sense of the divine into the raw politics of empire building. Today’s version of mystical imperialism applies to a hardened core of ideological defense intellectuals who combine their own esoteric and religious beliefs with Washington policy making.   This revelation came to us as we moved further into the motivations behind the secret war against the Soviet Union.

It was at the time of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 when we were working on the film version of our Afghanistan experience under contract to Oliver Stone, that we  started to piece together the mythic implications of the story. During the research for the screenplay many of the documents preceding the Afghan crisis were declassified. One such document, the Report of Team B, contained language and religious allusions that were surprising for a government publication. Completely overruling any chance for the peaceful cooperation promised by SALT, Team B claimed the Soviets were engaging in a Nazi-like build-up of forces and were preparing for a third world war as if it were inevitable. But it was in the Team B’s charge that the Soviet Union’s world view was “Manichean” that we found reason to wonder. Manicheanism, once one of the major Gnostic religions which, spread from the third to the seventh century from the region of Afghanistan to the east and west. Originating with the prophet Mani in the late 3rd century, the dualist Manichean philosophy divided the world between the two main forces of good and evil, with good equated with heavenly light and evil equated with the dark and material world. In 382 A.D. Roman Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion in the empire, deeming Manicheanism a heresy and declaring that Manicheans be put to death. From then on, Manicheanism came to be used as a veiled metaphor for the enemy of any officially approved truth, defined in stark pseudo-religious terms of good versus evil. But what was such a quasi-religious metaphor doing in the Team B Report?  (more...)

Mystical Imperialism: Afghanistan’s Ancient Role

I can affirm that this mindset pervaded the British elitist worldview of my alma mater. You could not turn in any direction without it hitting you in the face. Want an education in science and engineering? You'll only get alchemical indoctrination.

‘Hitler actually wasn’t that bad’: How Neo-Nazis are using attractive young women to boost their movement

In one of her online videos from her suburban Toronto bedroom, 19-year-old Veronica Bouchard slouches before the camera in a low-cut dress and a choker, lamenting the Jewish conspiracy to control society by corrupting minds with degenerate inter-racial pornography.

In another, she offers cupcakes decorated with swastikas to a portrait of Adolf Hitler, as she sings him Happy Birthday.

“Hitler actually wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t evil at all. And he’s one of my favourite people of all time,” she says.

Petite and pretty, she speaks variously in an over-acted breathy whisper, or a treacly, girlish singsong, sometimes blatantly trying to force tears about the supposed genocide of white people. At other times, she is vulgar, smug, sarcastic, agitated and angry, swearing at the suggestion she is uneducated and ignorant.  (more...)

‘Hitler actually wasn’t that bad’: How Neo-Nazis are using attractive young women to boost their movement

Related:

There Are People Using The Muslim Problem To Justify Nazi Ideology, Beware Of These Wolves In Sheep’s Clothing And Do Not Fall For The Manipulation

I knew girls  enrolled at the department of women's studies at my alma mater who made this same pitch. Yes, there is a connection between Naziism and feminism. And, there is a connection between eugenics and the 1970s pro-abortion movement. If you're still fighting the Reds, you're fighting the wrong Bolsheviks.

Achtung baby

Teacher's aide no longer working at Adam Scott Collegiate after being charged with sexual assault

An educational assistant is no longer working at Adam Scott Collegiate after being charged Wednesday with two counts each of sexual assault and sexual exploitation.

Karen Bagshaw was directed out of school after her arrest and she can no longer be on school property while the charges laid by city police are before the court, Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board director of education Rusty Hick said.

Police began investigating the 57-year-old earlier this month, looking into allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct involving students from the 2014-15 school year.

Two minors were involved, with the Criminal Code defining a young person as someone who is 16 or older but under 18, police said Thursday.

The school board, which has done as much as it can to aid the police investigation, was notified of the arrest Wednesday, Hick said. He called the news "incredibly serious and disappointing," particularly given that student safety is a top priority for officials.  (more...)

Teacher's aide no longer working at Adam Scott Collegiate after being charged with sexual assault

A State in Denial: British Collaboration with Loyalist Paramilitaries

A state in denial is the second of two major books on the Northern Ireland Troubles to emerge from research by the Pat Finucane Centre and Justice for the Forgotten, each making extensive use of official documents from the National Archives writes Tom Griffin.

In the previous work, Lethal allies, Anne Cadwallader of the Pat Finucane Centre presented the evidence that proved beyond doubt the existence of a loyalist gang involving members of the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment responsible for some 120 killings in Mid-Ulster in the 1970s.

Cadwallader demonstrated that opportunities to investigate the gang's activities were repeatedly passed up, and paramilitary infiltration of the security forces went unopposed despite official knowledge that this was the main source of loyalist arms.

While the existence of the Glennane Gang is now generally conceded, some critics of Cadwallader's book still resisted her conclusions about the role of high-level collusion in allowing the gang to operate.

A state in denial, by Margaret Urwin of Justice for the Forgotten, leaves the holdouts for the bad apple theory with an even more difficult task on their hands. She turns the spotlight firmly on the policymakers, and evidence of high-level collusion emerges on almost every page, from MI6 officers recommending collaboration with loyalist 'vigilantes' in the early 1970s to the Chief Constable lobbying on behalf of the Ulster Defence Association in the early 1980s.  (more...)

A State in Denial: British Collaboration with Loyalist Paramilitaries

Related:

Lethal Allies: how collusion fueled the conflict

Courtice martial arts instructor Christopher Brunke charged with sexual assault of teenaged student

DURHAM – A Courtice martial arts instructor has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenaged student.

The girl, 16, has been a student at Kumo Jiu Jitsu on Hwy. 2 in Courtice for the past three years and during that time formed a friendship with an instructor there, Durham police said.

It’s alleged that over the past two months the relationship “intensified”, police said in a media release Wednesday, Dec. 21. The suspect is accused of inappropriately touching the girl during a visit to her home, police said.

Christopher Brunke, 32, of Stanford Crescent in Clarington is charged with sexual assault, sexual exploitation and luring a person under 18.  (more...)

Courtice martial arts instructor Christopher Brunke charged with sexual assault of teenaged student

More coverage:

Durham martial arts instructor charged

Freemasons delete webpage on paedophile Gordon Anglesea’s libel judge

Convicted paedophile, police superintendent and freemason Gordon Anglesea is dead.

In 1994, Anglesea was famously awarded £375,000 in libel damages against four media organisations who presciently linked Anglesea to allegations of child abuse by suggesting he had been a regular visitor to the infamous Bryn Estyn children’s home in North Wales.

But the libel judge – Sir Maurice Drake – gave a monstrously biased summing up in favour of Anglesea, in which he said:

“Experience in the courts shows that where men and women, boys and girls make complaints of sexual assault they do sometimes make up stories, either completely or exaggerate some incident out of all proportion so that it no longer bears any relationship to the truth. 

“And of course a complaint that someone has sexually assaulted you is comparatively easy to make up and difficult to rebut. It is the nature of a sexual complaint that no one else is likely to have seen it.”  (more...)

Freemasons delete webpage on paedophile Gordon Anglesea’s libel judge

More coverage:

The Death Of Gordon Anglesea

A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation

A 12-year-old gymnast molested by an Olympic coach during “therapy” sessions.

Children as young as 6 secretly photographed nude by coaches.

Coaches who slipped a finger inside girls’ leotards.

A coach having almost daily sex with a 14-year-old at one of the country’s most prestigious gyms.

No one knows exactly how many children have been sexually exploited in America’s gyms over the past 20 years. But an IndyStar-USA TODAY Network review of hundreds of police files and court cases across the country provides for the first time a measure of just how pervasive the problem is.  (more...)

A 20-year toll: 368 gymnasts allege sexual exploitation

More coverage:

Report details widespread sexual abuse at USA Gymnastics facilities

Shirley Oaks was infiltrated by paedophiles from the 1950s until its closure in 1983 ... no wonder the children called this place 'Hell'

Shirley Oaks seemed well equipped to give the vulnerable and unfortunate children who ended up there just the kind of start in life they needed.

Situated in the leafy outskirts of Croydon, South London, its 70-acre site included cottages where children in care were looked after by so-called house mothers and fathers, a school, swimming pool, sick bay and playing fields.

But as the survivors’ group report put it yesterday, while it had ‘all the comforts and facilities of a picture-box village where the damaged souls could recover’, all was not as it seemed.

It added: ‘Away from monitoring ears, the children would be less complimentary about its virtues and they would whisperingly refer to it as “Shirley Hell”.

‘This childlike nickname would prove not to be so infantile once we discovered the extent of the unpalatable and sickening practices that had been taking place inside its perimeter walls.’  (more...)

Shirley Oaks was infiltrated by paedophiles from the 1950s until its closure in 1983 ... no wonder the children called this place 'Hell'

More coverage:

'I was drugged and raped in my own bed - age 12': Residents of Shirley Oaks Care Home tell of years of horrific sexual attacks at the hands of those entrusted with their care

Chris Spence, former TDSB education director, stripped of teaching licence

The Ontario College of Teachers has stripped Chris Spence of his teaching certification, marking the first time a licence has been revoked due to plagiarism.

The decision, delivered Monday by the college’s disciplinary committee, came a month after the former Toronto District School Board director of education was found guilty of professional misconduct.

Spence, whose fall from the top of the city’s education ranks began almost four years ago, was not present at the hearing. He was asked to immediately surrender his teaching certificate to the college’s registrar.

A written reason for the decision will be made public at a later date. The college would not comment on the decision, but spokesperson Gabrielle Barkany confirmed it was the first time the discipline committee revoked a teaching licence because of plagiarism.  (more...)

Chris Spence, former TDSB education director, stripped of teaching licence

Background:

College of teachers finds Chris Spence guilty of professional misconduct

Related:

Ontario College of Teachers Hearings -- December 2016

Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud

Corporate fraud has become normalised in modern society – including allegations against Volkswagen, one of the top global brands in motoring, HSBC in global banking and Rolls Royce in aerospace: the list goes on. The rot at the top of the finance industry, a key sector in modern business enterprise, has ceased to abate, even after the 2008 crash. In their latest book, Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud, editors David Whyte and Jörg Wiegratz focus on the moral conditions and culture that have enabled fraud to become the new norm in society. In short, the book studies the ‘neo-liberalisation of fraud’.

There is ample evidence about the growth and power of multinational corporations, and also the fundamental cracks and weaknesses in both local and global regulation of these profit-oriented enterprises. However, the authors argue that research on the culture of fraud and its justification within neo-liberal government and corporations is scant. Given the thousands of business schools and research faculties all over the world studying business, this gap is highly surprising. If business education has itself been captured by neo-liberal capitalism, then instead of challenging the immorality of fraud, it can become an engine for shaping greed, irresponsibility and corruption. Many are questioning their very purpose and the damage inflicted on the world.  (more...)

Neoliberalism and the Moral Economy of Fraud 

Angela Merkel Is Reviving The German Empire And Creating The Fourth Reich As Germany Allies With Turkey In The Creation Of The Revived Ottoman Empire

Muslim Nazis praying

The German military is amongst the top ten most powerful militaries on earth, and in this discourse it will be seen that it is conspiring with the Muslims with the aspiration of reviving back its evil empire, whose sinister roots go back to centuries of bloodshed, genocide and the bent to destabilize and destroy Christendom. 

In the fourth century the Germans, who had converted to the anti-Catholic heresy of Arianism (which, like Islam, denied the Divinity of Christ), tried to destroy the Catholic world in its invasion of Europe and North Africa and in its sacking of Rome. The Protestant Reformation that began in Germany advocated for the destruction of the Catholic world and for the obliteration of the seat of St. Peter. The revolution of the Reformation would lead to the Thirty Years War, the first pan-European war in which Protestant Germany and their Muslim Ottoman allies warred against Catholic Europe. This aspiration to destroy Christendom continued on in both World Wars. In the First World War, the Germans allied with the Muslim Ottomans against the whole of Europe. In the Second World War the Nazi Germans conspired with the Muslim Albanians and Bosnians, while at the same time, praising Luther, invading Catholic Poland, and working to war against the Vatican.

The Protestant population in Germany, in the words of one historian, “provided the broadest and deepest reservoir of support for the Nazi party in all social groups during its electoral triumphs in the early 1930s.” (See Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power)

Now in today’s Germany, the Protestants (like Merkel and Joachim Gauck) are dominating politics, and dominating Europe through their economic superiority; working with Muslim Turkey (which is working to restore its own empire) in destabilizing Europe by absorbing masses of Muslim refugees; providing arms for Islamic terrorists in the Middle East with the intention of overthrowing Assad’s secular government in Syria, and thereby advancing the Islamic empire in the Near East; and pushing for Orthodox and Catholic countries, such as Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Hungary, to accept the Islamic refugees into their countries, who are resisting Germany’s advances. In addition to this, it is also pertinent to point out that Germany’s economic strength is due to Nazi money, made by Nazi industrialists who were pardoned by the US and its allies after the war, thus allowing and enabling Germany to become the economic empire that it is now, and this will enable Germany to become the Fourth Reich that it so desires to become. Turkey wants to restore its old empire, and is working with Germany which as well has already proven itself to be an enemy.  (more...)

Angela Merkel Is Reviving The German Empire And Creating The Fourth Reich As Germany Allies With Turkey In The Creation Of The Revived Ottoman Empire

Related:

The Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division: Heinrich Himmler and the Formation of the Handzar SS Division

The Beast Reawakens

Nightmare

Mystical Imperialism, Afghanistan & Beyond

Veteran researchers, historians, writers and geopolitical analysts Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould joined me to discuss their scholarly works, notably Invisible History: The Untold Story of Afghanistan, Crossing Zero and The Voice. In this interview, we dive into mystical imperialism, the Great Game, black ops in Afghanistan, the role of geopolitical strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Cold War, Soviet espionage and British Intelligence, spy games, the history of Templarism, Roman Catholicism, BCCI and the drug trade, and much, much more!

Invisible History Blog

Much more depth to be found here:

Interview with Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald about Zbigniew Brzezinski, Afghanistan’s Untold Story and the Ukraine Crisis

United States of Anonymity

In 1966, a memo from a former U.S. State Department official found its way to a staffer at Chase Manhattan Bank. “The U.S.,” the memo read, “is probably the second major flight money center in the world, but with little probability of rivaling Switzerland for the foreseeable future.” Five decades on, that relationship has continued, with Switzerland – as the most recent rankings from the Tax Justice Network’s Financial Secrecy Index indicate – remaining the only country outpacing the United States.

However, in the half-century following the memo, the gap between the two countries has shrunk significantly, and over the past few years the U.S. has begun a handful of policies that may well catapult Washington past Bern as the world’s leading destination for financial secrecy. Speared by both state- and federal-level policies, the United States, as a recent Washington Post analysis found, “is now becoming one of the world’s largest ‘offshore’ financial destinations.” Or as Bloomberg noted earlier this year, “Some are calling [the U.S.] the new Switzerland.”

The U.S.’s transition into one of the foremost offshore destinations stems, in no small part, from Washington’s 2014 decision not to join the OECD’s recent financial information-sharing agreement, known as the Common Reporting Standards (CRS). American officials instead opted to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which came into force in July 2014. Even though much of text within FATCA’s provisions – which required international financial firms to notify the IRS of American accounts – mirrored CRS requirements, the two programs remain remarkably disjointed, such that, as the Tax Justice Network wrote, “Washington’s independent-minded approach risks tearing a giant hole in international efforts” at financial transparency.  (more...)

United States of Anonymity

Related:

Taxing the $2.5 Trillion in Offshore Profits: What's Ahead for Repatriation?

Meanwhile, in Canada:

Canada Revenue Agency’s landlord stashed money in offshore tax havens

A country of miners and lumberjacks can't count its change.

10-year-old boy speaks out about repeated bullying, parents say TDSB isn’t doing enough

Ten-year-old Evan Huff-Briedler loves drumming, sports cars and art and his favourite part of school is gym.

But the worst parts are lunch and recess. That’s because he has been bullied repeatedly over the last several weeks.

The bullying started with pushing and shoving, but earlier this month it escalated.

“I had my hat and glove thrown over the fence cause someone stole it and wouldn’t give it back. And when I ran went to talk to them and say why did you do that, they just punched me in the head,” Huff-Briedler said.

One boy wrote Evan a page-long apology letter and promised not to do it again.  (more...)

10-year-old boy speaks out about repeated bullying, parents say TDSB isn’t doing enough

Meanwhile, Ontario waxes aberosexual:

Ontario takes Halton Catholic board to task on anti-bullying policy

You're not in our alphabet

Concerns over the number of cancer cases among Cathedral High School staff

Concerns being raised about the number of cancer cases amongst staff at Cathedral High School in Hamilton.

According to The Hamilton Spectator, the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Union is raising questions after what it calls a disproportional number of staff being diagnosed with cancer.

The local president says there have been 21 cases of cancer since 1995 when Cathedral opened.

The worry is that the school site could be a contributing factor.

The Union says the downtown school was built on an old Hamilton Street Railway site and it suspects an old transformer remains underground and could be “leaching into the ground.”  (more...)

Concerns over the number of cancer cases among Cathedral High School staff

Taekwondo teacher admits sex abuse of young students

A Winnipeg martial arts instructor faces several years in prison after admitting he sexually abused three of his students.

King Yeung, 57, pleaded guilty in court Wednesday to a total of five sexual exploitation and sexual interference charges involving three female victims who took lessons as teenagers at Kang's Taekwondo Academy on McPhillips Street.

The former students came forward last spring with allegations Yeung had sexually assaulted them over a period of several years while he was their instructor.

He admitted this week to having sexual intercourse with two of the victims and sexually touching all three of them, starting off by buying them gifts and affording them special privileges at the taekwondo academy. In each case, Yeung started fondling the girls when they were 13 or 14 years old, sometimes waiting until they were on overnight trips attending out-of-town tournaments.  (more...)

Taekwondo teacher admits sex abuse of young students

Background:

Martial arts teacher accused in student sex assaults charged with decades-old crimes

Former teacher Amy Hood sentenced to house arrest for sex crimes against teens

A former Nova Scotia elementary school teacher will serve 15 months house arrest for sex crimes against two boys she used to teach, after a judge refused to sentence her to the mandatory minimum of one year in jail.

Judge Del Atwood handed down the sentence to Amy Hood, 40, Wednesday morning in Pictou provincial court, and called the one-year mandatory minimum grossly disproportionate in this case. Hood's offences were "more crimes of spontaneous opportunity rather than calculation," he said.

Hood was found guilty in April of sexual assault, sexual interference and luring involving two of her former students.

While Atwood noted Hood is highly unlikely to reoffend in a sexual manner, he was somewhat concerned by her trying to apportion some blame to her victims. He accepted evidence that Hood's bipolar disorder affected her behaviour.  (more...)

Former teacher Amy Hood sentenced to house arrest for sex crimes against teens

Commentary:

Russell Wangersky: Different sentences suggest double standard

Double standard with sentencing

Background:

Sentencing on sex charges in December for former Pictou County teacher

Four EU countries among world’s worst corporate tax havens, new report reveals

Tick Tock

The Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Cyprus are among the world’s 15 worst corporate tax havens, according to new Oxfam research published today. The report ‘Tax Battles’ reveals how these tax havens are leading a global race to the bottom on corporate tax that is starving countries out of billions of dollars needed to tackle poverty and inequality.

The full list of the world’s worst tax havens, in order of significance are: (1) Bermuda (2) the Cayman Islands (3) the Netherlands (4) Switzerland (5) Singapore (6) Ireland (7) Luxembourg (8) Curaçao (9) Hong Kong (10) Cyprus (11) Bahamas (12) Jersey (13) Barbados, (14) Mauritius and (15) the British Virgin Islands.  The United Kingdom does not feature on the list, but four territories that the United Kingdom is ultimately responsible for do appear: the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

Oxfam researchers compiled the ‘world’s worst’ list by assessing the extent to which countries employ the most damaging tax policies, such as zero corporate tax rates, the provision of unfair and unproductive tax incentives, and a lack of cooperation with international processes against tax avoidance (including measures to increase financial transparency).  (more...)

Four EU countries among world’s worst corporate tax havens, new report reveals

Related:

Panama Papers: Europol links 3,500 names to suspected criminals

Toronto-area high school students, parent charged after violent fight caught on video

A father who was seriously injured after police say he stepped into a violent fight between his son and another Toronto-area high school student earlier this month has been charged along with four other teenagers after videos of the incident surfaced online.

York Regional Police said a student from Cardinal Carter Catholic High School in Aurora and a student from St. Theresa Lisieux Catholic High School in Richmond Hill gathered with a group of other teens near Briar Nine Park in Oak Ridges for a fight around 3 p.m. on Dec. 2.

During the fight, which can be seen in two videos shared on social media, police said a parent of one of the students got into an argument with another student that escalated to the point where the teenager was assaulted.

The first video posted on social media appears to show two students punching each other repeatedly when a man can be seen walking up to where they were fighting. The video then appears to show a man striking a student in the background.

Police said a group of teenagers then assaulted the father, who was seriously injured in the incident.  (more...)

Toronto-area high school students, parent charged after violent fight caught on video

More coverage:

Teens, man charged in student brawl

Parent, four teens charged after brutal fight in Oak Ridges recorded

Background:

‘You’re not leaving bro’: Video shows man bloodied in high school student brawl

Teen charged in thwarted Oakwood Collegiate attack back in court next year

The teenager charged in a thwarted attack at Oakwood Collegiate Institute will be back in court next year.

A lawyer for the teen, who cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was in court on Tuesday.

The teen will appear in community youth court, a mental health court for young people, on Jan. 16, 2017.

The teen was arrested earlier this month, charged with uttering threats of bodily harm and uttering threats of death. After his arrest, the teen was taken to a hospital. It’s not clear if the teen is still in hospital.  (more...)

Teen charged in thwarted Oakwood Collegiate attack back in court next year

Background:

Principal reassures students after teen allegedly planned school attack on Montreal Massacre anniversary

Ontario town puts Junior Firefighting Program on hold after fire chief charged with sex assault of minor

The Town of Kingsville, Ont., has put a new Junior Firefighting Program for teenagers on hold after the fire chief was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a minor.

Kingsville fire Chief Bob Kissner, 60, has been suspended with pay after his arrest on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of sexual exploitation. The assaults allegedly occurred last week. Kissner was released on bail Monday afternoon.

The town had posted a request for applications on its website to fill eight positions in the Junior Firefighting Program, meant to attract young people interested in the profession.

“Right now we put it on hold just to kind of allow for staff to acclimate to what’s happening, to get their heads back in the game,” said Kingsville CAO Peggy Van Mierlo-West. “So it has been placed on hold. We’re hoping to re-establish it in the new year.”  (more...)

Ontario town puts Junior Firefighting Program on hold after fire chief charged with sex assault of minor

The Dark Side of America's Corporate Connections: Financing, Politics, Science

Nazi Nexus is the long-awaited wrap-up in a single explosive volume that details the pivotal corporate American connection to the Holocaust. The biggest names and crimes are all there. IBM and its facilitation of the identification and accelerated destruction of the Jews; General Motors and its rapid motorization of the German military enabling the conquest of Europe and the capture of Jews everywhere; Ford Motor Company for its political inspiration; the Rockefeller Foundation for its financing of deadly eugenic science and the program that sent Mengele into Auschwitz; the Carnegie Institution for its proliferation of the concept of race science, racial laws, and the very mathematical formula used to brand the Jews for progressive destruction; and others.

Related::

IBM 'dealt directly with Holocaust organisers'

A test at age 3 can predict whether children will grow and go to jail and lead a troubled life, scientists say

'I blocked and reported a number of social media users': Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle pens a VERY honest essay addressing the racism she has endured from online trolls

So there!

Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle has penned a powerful essay addressing social media trolls.

Meghan, 35, has opened up about the backlash she received over the producers of Suits decision to cast black actor Wendell Pierce to play her on-screen father.

In an essay for Elle UK magazine, she wrote: 'I remember the tweets when that first episode of the Zane family aired, they ran the gamut from: "Why would they make her dad black? She's not black" to "Ew, she's black? I used to think she was hot."'

The American actress says that the few tweets she was aware of spoke volumes of the racism still at large in the US.

She continued: 'The reaction was unexpected, but speaks of the undercurrent of racism that is so prevalent, especially within America.'  (more...)

'I blocked and reported a number of social media users': Prince Harry's girlfriend Meghan Markle pens a VERY honest essay addressing the racism she has endured from online trolls

Bizarre racist manifesto and video posted to Ontario cinema’s website after it was hacked

The owners of a London, Ontario, cinema are reeling after its website was hijacked Sunday by someone who posted a bizarre racist manifesto and video.

The hacker also took over the Hyland Cinema’s e-mail lists and sent the same material to thousands of people under the tagline Hyland Movie Guide: Special God’s Holy Day Edition.

Moira and Ali Adlan, who run Hyland, said they don’t know why they were targeted. But they were forced to shut down the Hyland website and have contacted police.

They fielded many calls from the community and posted a notice on social media explaining that they had been hacked.

“We are hoping we can find out who it is and have them charged with whatever they can be charged with… It’s horrendous,” Moira Adlan said Sunday.  (more...)

Bizarre racist manifesto and video posted to Ontario cinema’s website after it was hacked

In other Ontario news:

Halton Police investigating after Burlington playground defaced with Nazi references

Very interesting -- but shtoopit

Panama Papers revelations have already delivered results

International heads of state named on the rolls of clandestine companies in tax havens.

Canada’s big banks facilitating tax avoidance through thousands of offshore enterprises.

Strawmen fronting businesses to mask the identities of the real owners.

After a year-long investigation into 11.5 million leaked tax haven documents, the Panama Papers were finally made public last April — and they landed like a bomb.

Laying bare the secretive world of offshore finance, reports detailed the secretive flow of billions of dollars in a parallel offshore economy.

It was the biggest journalistic collaboration in history. Worldwide, more than 4,700 articles have been published on the contents of the leak, documenting revelations that have claimed the careers of heads of state, triggered at least 150 inquiries and audits in 79 countries and prompted criminal investigations into more than 6,500 companies and individuals.  (more...)

Panama Papers revelations have already delivered results

Related:

Canadian banks ordered to disclose Cayman dealings

London Remains Capital of Corrupt Elite Despite Panama Papers Probe

Despite revelations, March 2015, by Transparency International (TI) that 36,342 London properties were held by hidden companies registered in offshore havens, London's property market continues to be a "safe haven for corrupt individuals, through anonymous ownership," the campaign group says.

​Wealthy individuals from overseas are continuing to be able to buy up London property anonymously, according to new research by Transparency International UK and Thomson Reuters, 'London property: A top destination for money launderers'.

"Despite the global scandal of the Panama Papers, London's property market continues to be a safe haven for corrupt individuals, through anonymous ownership. Commitments made by the Government are positive, but this new research underlines the danger if the promising words don't turn swiftly to action," Rachel Davies, Head of Advocacy, Transparency International UK told Sputnik.  (more...)

London Remains Capital of Corrupt Elite Despite Panama Papers Probe

Saskatoon teacher faces child pornography, sex crime charges

A Saskatoon high school teacher is facing charges following an investigation into the exploitation of children through social media.

Rhett Lundgren, 39, charged with two counts of arranging to commit a sexual offence against a child and one count of attempting to access child pornography, made his first appearance at Saskatoon Provincial Court Friday.

Lundgren works as a fulltime work education teacher at Walter Murray Collegiate and, according to the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board’s public registry, holds an active, permanent teaching certificate. He's been with Saskatoon Public Schools since 2010, according to spokesperson Veronica Baker.

She told CTV News Lundgren has been “assigned to home with pay” and that the school division has launched its own investigation. Changes to his status as a teacher may occur depending on the outcome of the investigation and court proceedings.  (more...)

Saskatoon teacher faces child pornography, sex crime charges

More coverage:

Saskatoon teacher Rhett Lundgren facing child porn, child sex charges after police investigation

Saskatoon teacher charged with child porn, sex offences

Germany’s secret paedophilia experiment

Drug addicts and prostitutes: Dr Helmut Kentler,  a sex researcher, believed he
was giving Berlin’s troubled teens a social anchor while giving paedophiles a
chance to become caring foster parents.

Under the ‘Kentler Experiment’ of the 1970s, Berlin welfare authorities handed over homeless teenagers to known paedophiles

A mother and her young son board a train and sit opposite a fortysomething man. When they get up to disembark the man’s smile towards the blond boy takes on a troubled edge. “Do you love children a little more than you like?” asks the advertisement on TV screens on Berlin’s U-Bahn trains. The final message – “Don’t become a perpetrator” – is also the name of a groundbreaking paedophile research and therapy programme.

The campaign began in Berlin 11 years ago and now operates in 10 cities across Germany. About 7,000 people have made contact, and about 1,000 paedophiles – people who are sexually attracted to children – have received therapy.

“Paedophilia is not curable, but it can be treated,” says Dr Klaus Beier, who leads the prevention network at the Charité, Berlin’s university clinic.

The World Health Organisation classifies paedophilia as a sexual-preference disorder. Charité therapists explain to participants that their sexual attraction to children is a medical condition until the urge is acted upon, when it becomes a crime.

Patients learn methods of self-control and about the consequences of acting on their sexual desires. Treatment can take place anonymously, and medical assistance, such as “chemical castration”, to control sex drive, is offered on a voluntary basis.  (more...)

Germany’s secret paedophilia experiment

Related:

Germany faces up to sexual abuse after scandals at Catholic, other schools

Upcoming Green Politician's Interjection Reveals the Strong Influence of Pedophiles on Her Party

Renate Künast reaches for the undo button

More than half of B.C.’s most expensive homes owned by secret shell companies spurring money laundering fears

Almost half of Vancouver’s 100 most expensive homes are bought using shell companies or other financial tools that obscure the identity of the true owners, a report from anti-corruption group Transparency International says.

The report, which focuses on money laundering and tax evasion vulnerabilities in Canadian real estate through a study of Vancouver luxury homes, slams Canada for failing to close home-ownership loopholes related to shell companies, trusts and nominees.

The report also concludes the prevalence of non-transparent ownership in B.C. luxury real estate makes it impossible to measure how much offshore cash is invested in B.C. homes, even though B.C. is attempting to collect data on foreign ownership.

“An influx of overseas capital is one of several causes of rising property prices, (in Vancouver and Toronto) but the extent and impact of foreign investment remains unknown since very little data is collected on property owners,” the report says. “Individuals can use shell companies, trusts and nominees to hide their beneficial interest in Canadian real estate.”

Compared to other advanced economies, Canada has weak transparency laws, the report states.  (more...)

More than half of B.C.’s most expensive homes owned by secret shell companies spurring money laundering fears

Related:

Lax Canadian regulations sheltering corporate shell games

Hold and secure lifted for all schools in Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton

KAWARTHA LAKES - The Trillium Lakelands District School Board has lifted a hold and secure on all of its schools after a generalized threat was received Friday (Dec. 9) morning on Twitter.

Catherine Shedden, District Manager of Corporate Communications, Director’s Office, and Trustee Liaison, told MyKawartha.com that police and the Board are investigating the threat, which did not include any specific details, including which school was involved.

The incident is being investigated by OPP in Bracebridge. Later on Friday Bracebride OPP said they have arrested a 16 year-old Gravenhurst male after the investigation determined him to be allegedly responsible.

“At this point, we are working to track down a location to determine if there is anything, or nothing at all,” said Shedden, adding the hold and secure is a precautionary measure as safety is the Board’s first priority.  (more...)

Hold and secure lifted for all schools in Kawartha Lakes and Haliburton

More coverage:

Boy, 16, arrested following school threat

Durham teacher's licence revoked after years-long sexual relationship with student

DURHAM -- Ontario’s College of Teachers has revoked the licence of a Durham Region teacher after he confessed to a years-long sexual relationship with a student.

Wayne Thomas Bodley engaged in “horrendous” and “reprehensible” conduct that could jeopardize the public’s confidence in the profession, a disciplinary panel wrote in a recently published decision.

Bodley acknowledged the allegations against him and pleaded no contest to charges that included sexual abuse of a student and engaging in disgraceful conduct. A hearing was held in April, and the decision on sanctions was released in May.

A statement of facts noted that Bodley became acquainted with the student in 2005 and that in 2006 both attended a conference, after which Bodley offered the student a ride home. It was then that Bodley made a “pass” at the student, according to the statement.  (more...)

Durham teacher's licence revoked after years-long sexual relationship with student

Related:

Ontario College of Teachers Hearings -- December 2016