Nine-year-old boy beaten to death for eating birthday cake, police say

Death penalty, please.

Heavy, Heavy Sigh

Young child abandoned at Surrey bus stop; police looking for parents

You can bet if his parents care about him, they'd be desperately searching for him, too. God help that little fellow.

An Aboriginal Woman...

...tells it like it is:

Aboriginal women fear their own kind the most

"In the fall of 1988, I was in first-year law school at the University of British Columbia. Our criminal law teacher recommended we all go downtown and watch a trial where alcohol was being considered the murder weapon for the first time. There were over 200 of us in first year criminal law. Only my mom and I attended the trial.

Although Gilbert Paul Jordan, a.k.a. "the Boozing Barber," was linked to the deaths of at least 10 women, he was convicted of manslaughter in relation to the death of only one. Evidence at his trial showed all the women he had targeted, hundreds of women, were aboriginal. Fact is, aboriginal women who were alcoholic or down on their luck ended up dead.

That was 1988. I was 28, and had just finished undergrad work, escaped a violent marriage in my early 20s and had survived a teenage rape. In 2011, some 23 years later, I ran for national chief of the Assembly of First Nations as one of eight candidates, one of four indigenous women.

I'm writing this to share my views on sexism in our community and any linkage I see to violence against women in our community and our conspicuous absence as leaders within our communities. Some 90 per cent or so of the chiefs eligible to vote for national chief are men.

In my opinion, there is a link. Aboriginal men kill aboriginal women and girls, rape aboriginal women and girls, beat aboriginal women and girls, and no one is really talking about the moose in our living room."

As if we didn't know. But thanks for confirming it. Godspeed.

About Damn Time

Conservatives propose increasing legal marriage age to 16, say it will keep ‘barbaric cultural practices’ out of Canada

"The government is proposing to set 16 as the national age of marriage in legislation introduced in the House of Commons on Wednesday that it says will help keep “barbaric cultural practices” out of Canada.

The bill tabled by Chris Alexander, the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, targets early forced marriages as well as polygamy, which the legislation would make grounds for deportation.

The Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act would make it a criminal offence to participate in or officiate at the marriage of an underage child. Removing a child from Canada for the purposes of forced marriage would also be criminalized.

The Justice department has also asked the provinces to have judges sign off on marriages involving those between the ages of 16 and adulthood. Currently only parental consent is required and the minimum age for marriage varies by province and, by some interpretations, is as low as seven."

As low as seven!! Wow!!!! I didn't know that. My granddaughters are close to that age. I can't imagine them being married. They're too lippy, for one thing.

I Hate It, Hate It, Hate It, Hate it...

One in 10 girls sexually abused, says UN report

Six in 10 children face regular physical assault, report warns

I know we live in an imperfect world, but if we could change just one thing, make it this.

You Go Girl!!

Vaughn Palmer: Aboriginal child welfare system is a gravy train with no destination

"There’s virtually nothing to show for the $66 million spent by the B.C. government in the past 12 years on improving aboriginal child welfare, according to a damning report by child advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond."

[---]

"More than half of the children in care are aboriginal, though they account for less than 10 per cent of the population under the age of 18. Native communities, angered that so many of their children were being taken by the state, wanted a greater measure of control and control over those decisions."

[---]

"“Landmark agreements between government and aboriginal leaders set the foundation for a new, more positive relationship (and) created a climate of hope,” as child and youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond noted in a report released Wednesday.

But as Turpel-Lafond goes on to chronicle in her almost 100 detailed and fully researched pages (46 boxes of documents, 76,000 pages reviewed), the result was a decade-long public policy catastrophe.

“Since 2002/03 more than $66 million has been expended on these change initiatives and not a single child directly served.”"

[---]

"About half the money went to an attempt — subsequently abandoned — to establish regional authorities to deliver aboriginal child care.

“Nearly $35 million ... paying people to meet, hiring consultants to facilitate those meetings, and producing materials of questionable practical value that almost never addressed the actual difficulties children and youth were experiencing in their lives.”

After that exercise was abandoned, the government substituted a replacement program, Indigenous Approaches, that Turpel-Lafond characterizes as “a hodgepodge of financial arrangements” grounded in a belief that “First Nations partners should do what they want” and be funded accordingly.

“The agenda was ad hoc and that securing resources consisted of making a pitch to senior officials, who then recommended funding for activities. The financial accounting was too poor to permit assessment of objectives and outcomes. These projects existed outside most government financial and policy frameworks.”

Against that backdrop, one has to note her damning comment on where many of the aforementioned millions landed: “To be blunt, a significant amount of money has gone to people who provide no program or service to directly benefit children.”

The representative doesn’t hesitate to name names. Page 51 of the report details some 18 native organizations that received $32 million in contracts over the years 2009-2012.

And that, my dears, is the product of the Indian Industry. And it's not confined to British Columbia.

Even My Pollyannish Optimism...

...can't help me with this one:

Child bride, 8, dies of internal bleeding on wedding night: Residents, activist

"An eight-year-old Yemeni girl died of internal bleeding on her wedding night after marrying a man five times her age, a social activist and two local residents said, in a case that has caused an outcry in the media and revived debate about child brides.

Arwa Othman, head of Yemen House of Folklore and a leading rights campaigner, said the girl, identified only as Rawan, was married to a 40-year-old man late last week in the town of Meedi in Hajjah province in northwestern Yemen.

“On the wedding night and after intercourse, she suffered from bleeding and uterine rupture which caused her death,” Othman told Reuters. “They took her to a clinic but the medics couldn’t save her life.”

Othman said authorities had not taken any action against the girl’s family or her husband.

A local security official in the provincial town of Haradh denied any such incident had taken place. He did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press."

[---]

"Human Rights Watch urged Yemen’s government in December 2011 to ban marriages of girls under the age of 18, warning it deprived child brides of education and harmed their health.

Quoting United Nations and government data, HRW said nearly 14 percent of Yemeni girls were married before the age of 15 and 52 percent before the age of 18. The group said many Yemeni child brides-to-be are kept from school when they reach puberty."

Shakes head. Sheds tear.

As one of the commentors says, Happy September 11th, everyone.

What Is This?

Open season on little children?

Mother of Toronto boy, 11, charged with attempted murder

Previously.

Duh!

Death of child on Sask. reserve ruled homicide

I hope we haven't got another Tamra Keepness on our hands here.

PS: I just remembered a joke told to me by a couple of aboriginal people on a reserve where I taught school years and years ago:

Question: "What do you call an abortion clinic on a reserve?"

Answer: "Crime prevention."

Hey. Don't blame me. It wasn't my joke.

Don't Do This To Your Kids

Kim Kardashian, Kanye West reportedly name baby 'North'

Give them a name that won't haunt them their entire lives. They're gonna hate you anyway. Why make it worse.

Round-Up

I'm not a big fan of little pop flash-in-the-pan starletdom, as personified by Justin Bieber, but there are creepy people who stalk these starlets. This is a story that is really, really creepy:

Justin Bieber: Two men accused in plot to murder pop star

Leave him alone. He's just a kid.

And speaking of kids, here's a really interesting article about Malala Yousufzai

Her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize has stirred some debate in Pakistan, which is good:

"The government seems to have moved a resolution in Parliament to declare Malala Yousufzai as daughter of the nation. Pakistan’s top dignitaries have also visited the UK, in recent days, to meet the young girl heroine whose name has also been proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize. Given the attention she has received lately from all over the world as appreciation for standing up for her right to education and that of other girls, there is also a possibility that she may even be seriously considered for the award. However, I am tempted to ask the question if it is a good idea in the first place.

I would also like to make it clear that I have endorsed her nomination with an open heart and my objection has got nothing to do with her but how we as a state and government, or even a society, tend to react to winning an award. There is a high probability that once we, as a state, bag the Nobel through Malala, our entire focus will shift on the prize rather than the problem behind it."

Maybe the reputation of Nobel Peace Prize can be redeemed at the same time, but I'm not holding my breath.

Last, but not least:

Plants grow in space despite lack of gravity

There are some advances in science that have great potential to be beneficial to humankind and Mother Gaia, but I fail to see what application this will have down here on earth where gravity sucks. But, you never know. I'm down with science for the sake of science.

Oh, Man...

...How could you not "just want to hug him". His story, if you believe it, which I do, is so inspiring, just like his voice:

Cruelty To Children

This has to stop!!!

Once Again...

...with the child abuse. (If this doesn't make you want to puke, nothing will.)

Raped, tied to a tree, burned alive: Robbie Middleton reveals chilling details of boyhood attacks in deathbed video

He was only eight years old. God forbid any of my grandchildren should be victims of this kind of sicko. I'd personally see to it that the perp got the same treatment. What have I got to lose. I'm already an old foggy nearing the end of my life anyway.

In My Humble Opinion...

..there is no punishment too harsh for people who do this:

Allegedly slain tot had internal bleeding, broken bones: Autopsy

"...an autopsy found Keagan had "multiple severe" injuries that included bruises, broken bones and internal bleeding."

Bring back he death penalty!! Poor little guy was only two years old. He didn't stand a chance.

Dear Lamestream Media...

....I don't care if Justin Bieber puked while on stage.  I'm not interested in baby starlets, or for that matter, even adult starlets. But Bieber is a human being, and as such, I think he deserves some dignity. Give it a rest, will you?

Heavy sigh!

This is one of the main reason I cancelled my cable subscription several years ago and put my TV in storage. I'm certain I will never go back. You seem intent of keeping us uninformed and feeding us syrupy pap. Sorry. Not interested.

Un-Freakin' Believable!!!

Are you telling me this child was in a worse place than the one they put him in????

Man with 85 priors pleads guilty to death of foster child placed in his care

I once knew a woman who fostered children. By the time they get into foster care they are already massively screwed up. This woman was an angel sent by God. She had the patience of Job and was as loving and caring of those children as anyone could be. Still, they have a hard time finding suitable foster parents, but really! Take them out of one hell hole and put them into another. There has to be a better way.

Yikes!!

Pedophile jailed indefinitely

"Of the 546 dangerous offender declarations imposed in the courts since 1977, 75% of those were for sex offenders. Of those 546, only 41 with indeterminate sentences have been granted either day or full parole. Only 15 dangerous offenders in Canada with indeterminate sentences are now living in the community in this country."

Only 15. I feel so much safer. They better not be anywhere close to my grand children!! This old biddy is not above murdering any of those perps. What have I got to lose? I could spend my last few days on the planet living on tax payers expense and I know I will have a fairly large group of admirers. I wonder how Greg Gilhooley and Theo Fleury feel about this sentence, compared to the one given to that perp, Graham James.

Graham James Gets...

...two years. (Updates from SunTV below) Not two years less a day, as is often the case, but two full years. The significance of that is that two full years is a Federal pen sentence. One day less, he'd be heading to a provincial pen, where all the petty thieves and whatnot go.

Two years means he has to spend seven hundred and thirty days with hardcore criminals. I hope his new bunk mates take care of things - every - single - one - of - those - days - for him (if you know what I mean).

Read Greg Gilhooly's victim's impact statement. Frankly, I don't think two years is enough. Perhaps two years for each of his victims, but not two years total.

UPDATE: The truth from one of his victims:



And another:



Sun TV has lots of videos reacting to this verdict.

On Being a Murderer

I've been watching and listening to the news about the former hockey players who have come out about the horrific abuse they suffered thanks to Graham James.  Today, I felt a bit of relief when I was able to cast my vote at this CBC article. At the time of my writing this, the number of people who felt James should not go to prison was 37. Those who feel as I do, are 1083. Kinda makes ya wonder, doesn't it. Who are those 37 people? Are they pedophiles?

Reading the article, you'll see the Crown is seeking a six year sentence, and of course, the  prosecution, much less than that. I can tell you with absolute certainty, though, that if any of my grandchildren ever suffer at the hands of a pedophile, I would gladly put a bullet in the perv's brain.  After sticking a broom handle up his ass and leaving a few splinters behind, of course.

You have to hand it to those hockey players for coming clean about what was done to them as children. Hockey players are pretty macho guys. Going public must have taken a lot of courage. And this has been very, very public. Hopefully more good will come out of it than just the cleansing of their own souls. Here's to you, guys. You've done good and you've blazed a trail.

Anyway, go cast your vote at the CBC poll. As it stands now, 96.7% of us don't want no namby-pamby sentence handed out. Send him to jail where the inmates will give him some of his own medicine - good and hard.