Choices and Consequences

It's tragic that young people feel themselves invulnerable to harm, and entitled to exercise less caution than they should in the exuberance and celebration of their youth. Young men in particular - but not exclusively, between the ages of 16 and 24 appear to be particularly susceptible to the delusion that nothing will occur of an untoward nature as a result of any reckless behaviour they engage in. Life is an ongoing adventure, after all.

But not for everyone. Some people die in the pursuit of that adventure. And that's what happened to a privileged son of a former Canadian premier; he became the instrument of death for a close friend. This was an accident, there was nothing intentional about it, other than the intent to have fun. Having fun for so many is synonymous with alcohol consumption; it loosens up the social inhibitions and makes decision-making just so much easier.

Jack Tobin, son of Brian Tobin, really has no excuse for his behaviour that took the life of Alex Zolpis. They were having a Christmas Eve blast at Byward Market, isn't that what young guys do? Engage in exhibitionism, frighten the life out of more sober people around them, challenge others to join them in having fun.

Jack Tobin's act was a commission of stupidity; his attitude prevailed even before alcohol was consumed. If he believed while sober, before the night on the town with his buddies, that drinking and driving was a bad combination he would not have done just that while intoxicated. His privileged background and his obvious sense of intelligence and honesty, if anything, should have imposed an obligation of caution upon him.

He cannot be excused for the inexcusable. The tragedy that his stupid behaviour caused, with two friends caught under the vehicle he was wheeling about on the roof of a parking garage caused a death. One man dead, another man's life impaired. There is no doubt he has suffered the agony of self-blame. But he will also doubtless suffer the shame and blame that an act of free will however intellectually impaired causing death, deserves.

There was another trial that took place recently of a woman, Dominika Duris, found guilty of driving while impaired by alcohol, in the death of her 20-year-old friend who was a passenger in her vehicle. She had been acquitted in an earlier trial, and second time around she was found guilty and sentenced to a two-year conditional sentence, including house arrest.

Both she and Jack Tobin are guilty of vehicular homicide. They both chose to drive while under the influence of alcohol and both caused the death of friends. Conditional sentences, house arrest, speaking to school groups as part of their punishment, week-end jail terms are all alternate sentencing potentials for young people.

There is no punishment quite as sobering as, at the very least, a minimum incarceration as society attempts to teach shallow young minds that their choices have consequences.

Practising To Deceive

What is it that motivates high-powered alpha males who consider themselves to be so entitled that they cannot maintain their most intimate personal relationships intact? They claim and possibly believe that their love for their mates are absolute, yet they are unable to forego the piquancy of the pursuit. Sexual conquest and gratification seems to overcome all other needs, urging to be fulfilled.

It is a human enough trait to succumb to inner urges, but the adult in us also cautions against excess and the destruction of vital relationships.

There is a choice; to maintain what is of emotional stability and deep value, or to knowingly, through the compulsion of emotional adventure and satisfactions derived from the thrill of achieving illicit relationships, to charge their atmosphere with the potential of destruction of a marriage. The urge seems irresistible to men who consider themselves to be elevated above the concerns that instruct most men although it is certainly not commonly unknown among the general population.

And, of course, women are as susceptible as are their male counterparts to forging relationships outside the confines of their marriages that will, in the end, destroy their marriages. Sometimes deliberately, sometimes because of a course of events that can no longer be restrained. The scenarios and the events themselves are as varied in circumstance and reason as the reflection of human dynamism and individual emotions and needs fulfillment.

Men and women search for intimate companionship, love and sexual gratification in monogamous relationships, then tire of the monotony and predictability and look elsewhere for additional uplifts. It seems to be men, largely, whose predator's instincts draw them toward destroying their intimate partnerships and with them, often enough, their public careers. Since it is high-profile public figures that draw the attention of the curious.

From politicians to socialites, sport figures to entertainment celebrities, aristocrats to the fellow living around the block, peoples' fallibility in maintaining constancy and the obligations of protecting and valuing special relationships seem to fall casually by the wayside of impetuous desires fulfilled. Women can find it in them to overlook casual errors in judgement, often enough.

But when it is revealed that their trust has been betrayed over a prolonged period of time, the sting of betrayal, that what they represent in the deepest possible emotional terms has not been sufficient to satisfy the cravings and the satisfaction of their partner represents a rejection of their value as partners. To discover that one's husband has maintained a long-standing affair under the radar of discovery represents a monumental blow to elemental self-esteem.

It represents a hard blow to the belief that a deep love and trust and understanding has been equally shared. It is destructive of not only the relationship but the psychical sense of self-worth. What woman would view with equanimity the revelation that her husband of a quarter-century fathered a child with another woman at the very same time that he impregnated her with their youngest child?

It is an unforgivable affront to the dignity of the relationship, a betrayal at the deepest level of the trust and love inherent in such a relationship. The deep and lasting harm that people do to one another through these secret alliances cannot be ameliorated by any kind of remorse after the fact. The deed is done and the pain is lasting.

"Another guy gov admits 2 cheating on his wife. Maybe we need more women governors. Guys: Keep ur pants zipped, for Pete's sake." Jennifer Granholm.

It is only the public figures, the politicians and the socialites,the entertainers and the high-paid sport figures that cause a scandal when salacious reports of details are revealed through the media. But these scenarios with various squalid and disappointing details occur all too often within the lives of the general public, disrupting family life and leaving children to cope with deleterious emotional upheavals.

"This is a painful and heart-breaking time. As a mother, my concern is for the children. I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal." Maria Shriver

It is not possible to confine the damage to one's inner sphere. Gossip on a grand scale, as in regularly updated media reports as details emerge occurs and the public is agog with disbelief at the status of those involved in the fall from public grace - revealing as in the case of those like John Kennedy, Tiger Woods and Arnold Schwarzenegger that the emperor lost his dignity in a series of tawdry affairs.

"After leaving the governor's office, I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago. I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family. there are no excuses and I take full responsibility for the hurt I have caused. I have apologize to Maria, my children and my family. I am truly sorry." Arnold Schwarzenegger

And on the micro-level, young children are bewildered as their parents no longer resemble the adults they know and have depended upon for emotional security and stability. They see their modest homes with for-sale signs and strangers trampling through for inspection, as the neighbours talk quietly among themselves expressing society's collective sadness at yet another human failure.

Mired In The Middle Ages

Ancient Persia has a magnificent and an ancient heritage. Modern Persia not so much.

With the Islamic Revolution the country under its new ruling Ayatollahs seemed to regress rather than progress socially. Iran's parochial concerns with its Shia traditions and its animosity toward the larger Sunni populations outside its borders, allied with its xenophobic attitude toward the outside world and its close embrace of Islamism earns it the reputation of a closed society.

Any country ruled by elite religious figures who consider themselves the supreme authority on politics, technology, social conditions and external relations and who bind themselves to the rigid traditions of religious fascism represents of its very nature, a totalitarian one that rejects human rights for its population.

Under the authority of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as religious head and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as political head, there is the spectacle of the hornet and the scorpion. There is a struggle for power and authority between the two figures, even while the Supreme Leader remains the titular head of state and the religious authority.

Iran's president, who exemplifies the country's rigid authoritarian stance and fervent religious devotion, while aspiring to acquire the annihilating properties of nuclear fission, believes himself to be the superior authority figure. While each supported the other's ambitions they were able to function as heads of government.

Now, it seems that the aspirations of each outdistances their usefulness to one another. It is hard to imagine which of the two is more fundamentally deluded. Both are intensely invested in fundamentalist Islam. The president is meant to take his orders from the Ayatollah, but it is clear that the President feels he should be junior to no one.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad feels his experience on the world stage and his ranking in the country gives him the authority to make decisions unauthorized by the Supreme Leader. Causing offence to those who support the Ayatollah, let alone Ali Khamenei himself. Each sponsors a different replacement as president for upcoming 'elections'.

This is a country that believes in the resurrection of a Hidden Imam, who will bring with him Armageddon; the ascension of the righteous to heaven and the destruction of the unworthy to dwell forever in the netherworld. Only those whom Shia Islam of the Iranian variety blesses will be saved; the lives of all others are forfeit for they are clearly undeserving.

This is a country where the political elite employ exorcists. Where Ahmadinejad's former spiritual mentor feels his pupil has been placed under an evil spell. "I am almost certain he has been bewitched", the ayatollah explained. Indubitably.

State-Funded Child Care

The Liberals and the NDP decry the Conservatives for not having launched a universal day-care plan, which both the Liberals and the NDP have mused about for a decade. Something that might be modelled after the Quebec day-care option, with $7-a-day, government sponsored and defrayed day care. Which the Conservatives years ago turned around and opted instead for a far less costly and less-intrusive yearly child-care support to parents to decide for themselves how the funding should be spent.

It's a nominal sum, serving as a recognition that some parents prefer to raise their children with one parent at home, rather than farm their children out to day-care providers. It is a tip of the hat to standard, old-fashioned parenting, in fact. And an admission that the Conservatives see it as impractical in the sense of becoming too great a financial burden for the taxpayer to support the concept of affordable, regulated, universal day-care. The public education system exists as a needful model of state-subsidized education.

As for the supposed effectiveness of state-subsidized day-care for the country's children, leaving parents not only free to get out into the workforce, but seeming to insist that they do so, since they have been freed by the state to do just that; parents feel the obligation they are under to leave the raising of their children to others. The end result of which can be far different than what those who encourage and demand it might anticipate, given the experience of a country which devoted itself to that very concept.

Sweden, with its long history of admired and often-emulated social welfare, had its universal, state-subsidized child-care system evaluated and the resulting study published in 2006 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked Sweden at the top and Canada at the bottom in child care provision. The comprehensive, affordable day care available in Sweden, and its history of gender equality has resulted in a very high percentage of women joining the paid workforce. After all, the demanding occupation of child care has been removed.

Because of a policy of generous parental leave of sixteen months after birth, mothers look after their babies for the first year-and-a-half. After that fully 92% of Swedish children from 18 months to five years are looked after in a day-care setting. Day-care subsidies are set at $20,000 annually per child. Which, among other things, explains why Swedish taxes represent among the highest in the world. The day-care system was initiated in 1975, and it took until the 1990s for an evaluation of the success of the program to be undertaken and recognized.

What was recognized was that Swedish health-care professionals cite the lack of parental involvement in their children's upbringing, and the parents' unfamiliarity with child rearing techniques as being responsible for socially dysfunctional children. Swedish youth are exhibiting psychological problems and disorders at a rate far accelerated over their European counterparts. As for educational progress in Swedish schools, they have descended from the top 30 years earlier to average among OECD nations.

Problem behaviours in Swedish schoolchildren far outdistance those of their European counterparts. The ratio of teachers to students is also increasing with deleterious outcomes. Quality service and care has been impeded by the simple fact that Sweden has been involved in a financial crisis. The bold and progressive experiment in state child-rearing has proven to be a failure.

Canadians should have no interest in going down that same dismal road.

Accessories To The Crime

The Islamic Republic of Iran gleefully noted the street-murder of 16-year-old Yazdan Ghiasvand Ghiasi last year, shot in Ottawa as he was sitting in a vehicle, and then tossed out of the car as it sped off. Purportedly a drug deal that went wrong. What kind of country is Canada, that such dreadful things occur in the street, a young boy of Iranian extraction so heartlessly murdered, Iran thundered, sanctimoniously scandalized.

Well, it would seem to ordinary Canadians that there might be something awry with the seeming inclination of immigrants with a Muslim background, who seem to turn, disproportionate to their numbers in society, to crime. This is obviously a response that would never pass the lips of Canadian diplomats, nor for that matter anyone who respects the dictionary of political correctness.

Yet Muslim youth appear drawn to the easy pickings and the adventurous excitement of crime on a micro- and macro-level, from drug dealing to murder, in greater numbers than their demographic seems to warrant. Young Ghiasi was shot in the heart by Mohamed Webbe; the dispute evidently occasioned over a bag of drugs, on a residential downtown street.

One shot killed the boy, hitting him directly in the heart; the other went skyward, shattering the sunroof of the blue Nissan Maxima involved in the tragedy. Two others, Abdulhamid Wehbe and Mohamed Webbe are also charged, with 2nd-degree murder, while Mohamed fled Canada; all in the family, as it were.

The trial of 18-year-old Zakaria Dourhnou has just concluded. He is a young man, previously in trouble with authorities and on probation, which included the court-ordered condition that he was meant to live with his mother who would monitor his activities. His mother, evidently having little respect for such conditions, allowed her son to live elsewhere, and paid for his apartment.

And it was in the parking lot of that apartment that the murder vehicle ended up. Mr. Dourhnou was instructed to clean up the incriminating evidence, as a gesture of friendship. And he was not averse to doing just that; police watched as Dourhnou and another teen, Khaled Webbe, obligingly set about cleaning up gunshot residue and blood.

"Mr. Dourhnou was acting for a friend in order to defeat a criminal investigation, by destroying evidence. the relevance of DNA evidence is well known ... It was obvious by the state of the vehicle that a serious altercation had taken place", stated Ontario Court Justice Celynne Dorval, in arriving at her decision.

A year in prison, over the 135 days already spent behind bars awaiting trial, a ban from possession of any weapons for five years, probation for three years. And his lawyer is outraged.

Atrocious Love

A child is so wholly dependent on parents for emotional stability and support, for guidance and for caring love, that with all or a portion of those absolute requirements withdrawn from that child the world must certainly appear as a dark void of misery. It is not actually possible for most people to visualize a child so utterly abandoned, left hopelessly adrift by a parent's disinterest, or in certain circumstances, left to psychotic episodes of child abuse and exploitation.

Most people feel an instinctive, subconscious need to to cherish a child, support and love a child. It is a deep-rooted imperative inscribed in our collective genes, tied securely to our most basic instinct of survival. Love and compassion flow from strangers toward an abandoned child. People become emotionally moved to do whatever it is in their power, to help a child overcome feelings of being lost and abandoned.

Yet the dreadful fate of some children is to be violated; by extreme physical neglect, by psychological torment arising from lack of care, and by sexual predation. In Ottawa, a trial presided by Ontario Court Justice Lise Maisonneuve has just concluded, with a 57-year-old man being sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment as penalty for having molested and abused his step-daughter from the age of six to age fifteen.

The child was very well aware that her mother was involved in her abuse simply because her mother witnessed it and encouraged it, to keep her husband in a good frame of mind. And the step-father testified that this was an ongoing life-lesson for his step-daughter, to teach her that everything comes at a price. The gifts and money he gave her were in exchange for 'favours', of a sexual nature.

The birthday gift the girl implored her mother to grant her for her fifteenth birthday was to have her mother finally put a stop to the sexual abuse. The young child lived a life of horror, and when her pleas to her mother went unanswered she finally revealed to a friend and the friend's mother what had been occurring to her.

The girl testified against her step-father, but no charges were laid against her compliant and willing mother, because the girl refused to press charges against her mother. The mother admitted to police she was aware of what was occurring, she witnessed her husband touching her daughter's breasts, and knew that from age six the girl was forced to masturbate the man.

The mother gave no explanation for her having assisted her husband in abusing her daughter. And she has no intention of leaving the man. A court-appointed psychiatrist testified that the man claimed the girl enjoyed his sexual attention. The young girl testified in a victim impact statement her empty feelings, lack of self regard, and thoughts of suicide.

And there is, in Montreal, another ongoing trial, that of a doctor, a father of two young children, whose wife, he discovered was having an affair. That knowledge devastated the husband. In the absence of his wife he murdered his five-year-old son and his three-year-old daughter in their beds, using his surgeon's skills to eviscerate them.

The morning he was discovered in his bedroom, having taken a drug overdose, with h is dead children lying bloodied and cold in their beds, police rushed him to hospital. He asked paramedics looking after him en route to hospital to "Tell my wife I love her". And he also said "I did it this morning".

His parents, who lived an hour's drive away had an anxious premonition when they had spoken with him the night before; his mental condition seemed highly abnormal. They had discussed between them whether to drive over that winter's night to ascertain whether all was well, and decided in the end, to wait until morning.

And in Manitoba, a Winnipeg woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for smothering her two-year-old daughter to death while at a Child and Family Services-approved shelter. She was under the supervision of Child and Family Services while living at a women's shelter where the little girl had been returned to her care. The 29-year-old mother insisted she hadn't meant to kill her child, just stop her crying.

An autopsy of the child revealed she had over thirty separate injuries to "nearly every portion of the body", in the days leading up to her death. Injuries that included bite marks to her legs.

"The Notion of Justice"

The absurd conceit that there is a special absolution for thespians and artists who engage in hugely destructive acts of violence against others is nonsensical.

If a celebrity figure behaves in a socially egregious manner, let alone a violently aggressive one, that person is as guilty of criminal transgression as any other member of society. Their artistic talent does not in any way, shape or form exclude them from being judged under the law as any one else might be.

An artistic genius who surrenders to the incredible impulse to murder someone is still a murderer. A trial has just recently concluded where a film producer in Western Canada entrapped a stranger by enticing him to a meeting at a remote and isolated place where he could be murdered.

It would appear that the experience of having killed someone was undertaken to satisfy curiosity, artistic curiosity. So that the murderer could satisfy his theatrical muse by writing about the experience with the full benefit of first-hand knowledge of the emotions, the struggle, the passion, and the evil deed done.

In the case of the French musical rock star Bertrand Cantat who beat his French girlfriend actress to death, the Lebanese-Canadian playwright, Wajdi Mouawad, Cantat's friend, argues extenuation through artistic genius. French film star Marie Trintignant was ferociously beaten around the head in a Lithuanian hotel, dying later of swelling of the brain.

A Lithuanian court had sentenced Cantat to an eight-year prison term for murder, and he had served half that time due to "good behaviour". All now must be forgiven; he has paid his due to society, as the famous phrase and sentiment goes. And, having done so, he should be admitted to Canada through a special Minister's permit to grace a Canadian stage in a theatrical performance.

Decency decrees otherwise, however, considering it an outrage that someone who murdered can be so cavalierly excused and re-assume his former role as a popular entertainer. The absurdity of the man being engaged to compose music for a series of plays based on Greek tragedy on the brutalization of women, and to act in the play as well, to emphasize the dichotomy of one who kills and who later repents, is in itself rather unpalatably theatrical.

Unfortunately, it appears to be a prevailing condition among the arts-and-theatrical set that one so talented should be excused any excesses. Much like the French director Roman Polanski, having raped a young underage girl being excused on the basis of his artistic directing genius from legal prosecution for his crime.

The artists involved at the NAC in the theatrical production of Des Femmes are prepared to stage a "unified show of support" for Cantat as "one of their own". A display of arrogant entitlement to special considerations not reflected in the public's opinion of celebrating and elevating a man who surrendered to the impulse to beat a woman to death.

But this is theatre, cutting edge and forgivingly avant garde as exemplified by the highly respected and wonderfully talented National Arts Centre's French artistic director Wajdi Mouawad. Who finds it most inconvenient that women's groups have raised a protest over his friend's involvement in the production of Des Femmes.

When all is said and done, Mr. Mouawad denies the logic of the protests, defends his friend's artistic talent and his "right to climb on stage", for he is not a criminal, since he has paid his due through his prison sentence. He is a murderer, yes, but his artistry surmounts and overshadows his status as one who had taken the life of another.

And he feels confident that the controversy will serve to clear peoples' minds, that it will be the pivot around which an important social discussion on "the notion of justice" and "what an artist is".

Three Years Later

Good grief, where is the common sense, the decency, the moral fortitude and intelligence when it comes to releasing from custody the most disgusting murderers whose crimes are unfathomable and beyond the pale. A man whose mental instability is well known. Who planned the murder of his three young children.

That he was responsible for murdering them is a known, but he is excused because he has a mental disorder.

Does that mental disorder make him less responsible for having planned to murder them in the expected and temporary absence of their mother? Does releasing this man from custody in a psychiatric ward back into the community equate with the dreadful crime he committed?

Does the community, let alone the country and its system of justice gain something of value knowing that this man who stabbed, strangled and suffocated his 10 year old daughter and 8 and 5 year old sons has been excused from full responsibility because of a mental disorder?

Allen Schoenborn, father of three, killer of those same three, not to be found responsible for his heinous act because of mental impairment. To release him from custody, theorizing that he represents no further threat to anyone in the community sounds rather cavalier. For one thing, it trivializes the dreadful act he committed.

There are three bright, beautiful children whose lives were viciously stolen. Their mother left bereft of their living presence, free to grieve their absence for the rest of her life. And the rest of her life may be briefer than imagined, since her husband, the father of their children, murdered those children to exercise his power over his wife.

Darcie Clarke, the children's mother was living in Coquitlam, British Columbia when the B.C. Review Board made their determination to have her former husband released. Into the local municipality. Her sorrow is still raw, her children dead three years. The man is as he was, and now he is free to live out his life as he will.

And that may very well include murdering his wife now as well. And then he can be found not criminally responsible for that act, due to mental incapacitation.

Upon which the board members who had him released should volunteer to invite this man to live with their own families on a rotating basis, as a generous act of compassion.

Democratic Deficit

In Ivory Coast, the latest of the African countries, following Kenya and Zimbabwe, where the president set aside the results of a democratic election to inform the country that he has no intention of stepping down and the opposition can go stuff itself, chaos has resulted, with government and opposition forces both on a tribal-slanted slaughter mission. In Ivory Coast, French intervention will shortly settle the question of legal, democratic order.

But the thousands who have died in an orgy of hated and revenge as the two sides seek advantage in the contested election fall-out will remain a blot on democratic procedure. Democracy is new to Africa, but deadly tribal antipathies leading to mass slaughter most definitely are not. When the two are harnessed, the newer social-political convention is supposed to surmount the traditional war-mongering disagreements between clan and tribe, but there is a long way yet to go on that path.

There are reminders on occasion that even in Canada, where the population does not resort to primitive violence and democracy has as long a pedigree as the country has existed, people still react on occasion with a vestige of the same blistering entitlements leading to bitter dissent. One might suppose if this were to occur anywhere in Canada, it is likelier to happen in a rural setting, rather than an urban one.

Urbanites are more shall we say - urbane, sophisticated in their thinking and reactions; cosmopolitan in their understanding of the social contract. While rural dwellers are understandably closer to the land, so their inherited and primal instinctiveness is instructed through a dimly recalled and subliminal acknowledgement of collective memory known as the survival instinct.

All this to say that in the recently-concluded provincial nomination in the Carleton-Mississippi Mills riding for the Progressive Conservative Party, the riding association itself was taken aback when a well-planned campaign with more support locally than they might have realized existed was successful in finally unseating 69-year-old veteran MPP Norm Sterling.

One might ask, isn't 34 years at the public trough as a politico long enough for anyone? When might someone of his vintage and his experience consider it is time to move aside and allow others to take up where he left off? Particularly when many in the riding may not consider theirs to be a fiefdom; rather a riding in need of someone who will become actively engaged in presenting their interests at Queens Park.

Mr. Sterling's opponent, Jack MacLaren, a West Carleton farmer and libertarian, will now join his next-door colleague Randy Hillier who represents the riding of Lanark-Frontenac Lennox and Addington where both of them may partner in tilting at frustrating-landowner windmills. As for Mr. Sterling's ire; longevity in a political contest is never an assurance of easy victory, nor should it be.

The manner in which a politician acquits him/herself on behalf of his/her constituents is the ruling order here. It is a democracy, after all, that we celebrate and live within. And which civil people recommend for other nations so they too may realize fairness and justice. And to be completely fair, the grudging acceptance of the inevitable by Mr. Sterling fits him exceedingly ill.

In that the ill grace that he evinced in his unwillingness to accept that the electorate chose a replacement rather than allow him to continue as their representative shines a nasty light upon his character. His grumpiness in alluding to his continued challenge to maintain a seat by running as an independent, his public flirtation with abandoning his party during the election by voting for another party should a personal friend decide to run, does him no credit.

What he does demonstrate is a vain conceit in his belief that he alone represents the needs of the area's constituents, and his cantankerous rejection of the idea that someone else may now be in a better position to do just that, reflects his own sad lack of principle.

Judgemental Errors

What's this? Prime Minister Stephen Harper responding to an enquiry about the hiring of a former senior aide, confessing that he had not previously known the full extent of Bruce Carson's work history, criminal history and mental-health record? How could he not have been advised?

When hiring is done in the Prime Minister's Office aren't the usual security checks performed? They are, after all, for ordinary workers taking employment anywhere in the civil service, inclusive of contract workers employed in the Parliamentary Precinct and elsewhere in the National Capital.

Would not the Prime Minister himself, much less his senior administrators insist that such background checks be routinely undertaken? To ensure that they are not saddled with someone whose background could prove controversial at some future date?

All these questions and so few palatable answers. For a background check of some dimension was surely undertaken.

"I'm learning these things as well. Let me be very clear about the situation: I knew that Mr. Carson had had difficulties with the law many, many years ago. Some 25 years ago. After that, he had had a good employment record." Sounds feasible. Other than representing as a mild reproach that his own integrity has been questioned. But does this represent due diligence?

The man was convicted of no fewer than five counts of fraud. All of this and more is claimed by Mr. Carson's lawyer to have been revealed during a government security check. Presumably the very one that got this man hired into responsible government positions before he was brought into the Prime Minister's official inner sanctorum as a trusted adviser.

The fraud charges that led to convictions occurred in 1990. Not all that long ago, actually. Two banks had been defrauded as well as a car rental company. Mr. Carson was ordered to seek psychiatric treatment. He was placed on two years' probation. He had a responsible position as a researcher with the Parliamentary Library, a very nice place to work, well-remunerated with ample additional benefits.

It was only with the later revelations through a news expose from an aboriginal news source that Mr. Carson had some unsavoury connections and a suspicion of illicit lobbying that the PMO asked the RCMP to investigate. The Prime Minister did better to issue a mea culpa rather than an excuse for lack of due diligence as in:

"The fact is, I did not know about these revelations that we're finding out today. I don't know why I did not know. Obviously, we're going to have to go back and look at our system ... had I known these things, obviously, I would not have hired him."

The situation demonstrates several things; that no one is exempt from errors in judgement, and that such errors in judgement lead to questions about one's judgemental capabilities.

Much Ado

Semantics, timing and deliberate misinterpretation. Mischief. An attempt to make a scandal out of a story that should have had no legs. A simple observation that made eminently good sense given a sinister spin. The result being that seniors everywhere sat up to take notice and definitely did not appreciate what they heard. What they heard is not what was said, nor intended.

Inconvenient details have a habit of getting in the way of a good story that has ongoing repercussions.

An interview with a political rival, making a simple observation. That, in her opinion an incumbent running for re-election in the next riding to hers was coasting along, not really doing her job of representation. Global news reporter Nelly Gonzalez interviewed Winnipeg MP (Conservative) Shelly Glover. Prompting Ms. Glover to her opinion on MP (Liberal) Anita Neville.

Plainspoken and direct:

"I think Anita Neville is in trouble. I've only been in Parliament for two-and-a-half years, Nelly, and I'll tell ya, there are a lot of shenanigans going on in Parliament. We need some fresh blood, we need some new people who have some new ideas and who are willing to stand up for their constituents. And I'm afraid Ms. Neville has passed her expiry date. Her constituents are constantly coming to my office because they can't receive service in French, because they can't get a call back. I think Ms. Neville is going to be defeated."

Clear enough: ..."Her constituents are constantly coming to my office because they can't receive service in French, because they can't get a call back." In office far too long, due diligence evaporated, time for a change.

But ripe for being deliberately misconstrued because that's where the story is. It shouldn't be there, it should be in the statement that constituents were clearly dissatisfied with the lack of service on their behalf by someone whom they had elected to represent their interests. The quote by MP Glover was taken from a transcript based on raw video.

But then Nelly Gonzalez, four hours later, appears to talk about a story about an insulting ageist 'gaffe'. Ms. Gonzalez is introduced by Anchor Peter Chura on Global Winnipeg Evening News with the statement: "A high-profile Tory suggested that a Liberal MP is just too old for the job". The transcript of the aired segment is far different from the original:

"We need some fresh blood, we need some new people who have some new ideas and who are willing to stand up for their constituents. And I'm afraid Ms. Neville has passed her expiry date."

A damning little excision there. It's what you call taking something out of the context of its original explicating content. And the response from MP Neville upon hearing the truncated version of the interview?

"It's typical of the Conservative party when they don't have anything real or substantive to say to resort to name-calling and personal attacks, it's typical of the party and Shelly."

Now who is being objectionable? It's like reacting to hearsay. Someone feels they've been spurned and denigrated and they respond acerbically. Unfairly too, as the instance indicates. But that's not all. The segment is posted to YouTube. And elder hysteria erupts, with CARP demanding a retraction, characterizing MP Glover and the Conservative Party as ageist.

Another opportunity for MP Neville to express her indignation: "I am not so much offended for myself as I am outraged on behalf of all seniors - especially senior women - whom the Conservatives seem to think are past their 'expiry' dates." And so, she does not feel obligated to respond to her constituents' dissatisfaction, but she does feel justified in rousing public opinion on her side.

It's called political opportunism. And it seems to work. Despite Ms. Glover's assertion of innocence of sinister intent in further clarifying her statement: "My remarks were clear: I was referring to Ms. Neville's performance as an MP, and only that."

Not good enough for the Liberal Party, issuing another statement to the trial-by-media: Which claims that Ms. Glover launched a "personal, ageist attack" on Ms. Neville, proffering a "weak attempt to cover up her gaffe", in insisting on claiming she referred to an unsatisfactory long-time tenure.

Balderdash and unholy crap!

Mayerthorpe Report

All aggregate places of residence have their good people and their bad. There are sociopaths and psychopaths and those whose simmering anger against the world and their rejection of societal values render them amenable to psychotic outbreaks. They become petty criminals, they prey on the society around them.

And they resent and hate authority and those tasked with the security of society.

In Mayerthorpe, Alberta, James Roszko was generally recognized as someone who lived on the outskirts of polite society just as he lived on his farm outside Mayerthorpe. He had a criminal record ranging from shoplifting to harassment and threats, and sexual assault. Of the six convictions on his record 4 dated back 26 years, 1 was 14 years old, the last 9 years old.

No reason to continue considering him a real threat to society. He had served his time for his offences, and legally he had the right of any other free citizen in a free society. But the RCMP were investigating stolen vehicles, and entered his property for the purpose of looking around. While there they also discovered a marijuana grow operation.

They secured the property, awaiting the man's arrival back from wherever he had fled to. At nightfall, assisted by two friends who lived in Mayerthorpe, who dropped him off at his farm where four RCMP officers had settled in for the night to wait for his eventual appearance, he entered his Quonset hut to retrieve the semi-automatic markman's rifle he wanted.

And then he shot all four constables to death. And to finalize the violently bloody drama he shot himself. The gruesome discovery of the slaughter sunk the RCMP into a deep depression of self-doubt. How might they have prevented this horrible event from occurring? Four Mounties dead, in one fell swoop by a psychotic petty criminal.

Who might ever have suspected such a dreadful occurrence might happen? No one.

And finally a report issued by Judge Daniel Pahl released to Alberta's Justice Minister and Attorney-General clarified the situation in terms of its unavoidability. That a criminal mind could outfox the best-trained law-and-security officers through the sheer inability of normal minds to apprehend a psychotic break with reality.

Grudge-driven satisfaction in murdering police constables before taking his own life, a final revenge, withdrawing the possibility of closure for a stunned and grieving community.

Inconceivable Incompetence

Perhaps the single most vital tool that a doctor possesses is his/her ability to diagnose. To make correct diagnoses. When a patient presents with symptoms that are either clear-cut and readily identifiable, or tenuous and problematical, not readily given to causal identity, it can be critical that the attending physician have a good sense of diagnostic capability.

If the symptoms cannot be diagnosed, they cannot be adequately treated. That is an obvious conclusion and an important one, underlining just how important it is that the correct diagnosis be reached. At which point the doctor is able, with confidence, to prescribe medication or an ameliorating protocol, or both, which will be of benefit and relief to the sufferer.

Incorrect diagnoses can constitute a life-and-death situation. There are infrequent, but dreadful consequences on occasion when a presenting sufferer's symptoms are not taken seriously, misdiagnosed and/or dismissed with inadequate recommendations, and which end in a life-threatening situation, and sometimes death.

Just such an occurrence appears to have taken place at The Ottawa Hospital, when the then-high-commissioner to Canada of Cameroon, Solomon Azoh-Mbi, brought his wife Mercy Azoh-Mbi to the hospital in October 2009 for diagnosis and treatment when she fell suddenly ill. An attending emergency-room physician, Dr. Bruce Cload, assessed her as suffering from the flu.

This coincided with a flu epidemic in the city. One might assume that the emergency room doctors had seen quite a few people presenting with flu symptoms. Mrs. Azoh-Mbi did not have to wait long to be seen by a doctor, but when she was seen, that doctor severely misdiagnosed her condition. He prescribed Tamiflu and discharged her to the care of her worried husband.

Who had brought along his wife's medical records. Which showed that Mrs. Azoh-Mbi had a heart condition and had a mitral valve replacement. As his wife's condition deteriorated, an anxious and desperate Mr.Azoh-Mbi called an American doctor for advice who, on the description of Mrs. Azoh-Mbi's medical history diagnosed endocarditis, a serious condition afflicting heart patients with mitral valve replacements.

By the time she was re-admitted to hospital and finally placed in the intensive care unit, the damage she had rapidly suffered was too far advanced. Mrs. Azoh-Mbi's condition was so grave she experienced permanent brain injury, and her legs and arms had to be amputated. She now requires around-the-clock care.

High Commissioner Solomon Azoh-Mbi has launched a law suit against several of the doctors involved in the emergency room of the hospital, and against The Ottawa Hospital itself, for $30-million. Most of which will be used to pay for personal attendants, medication and prosthetic devices his wife will require for the rest of her natural life.

Humanity's Advance

Thoughtful people have without a doubt noticed this phenomenon; that educated, talented, intelligent people tend to have fewer children than people who live in ignorance and poverty. And in a world where we have learned to share, and to care and to assist others, more children born to poverty than ever are growing to adulthood. Some, if not most, destined to remain mired in poverty, where lack of exposure to educational and employment opportunities have not restrained them from having more children.

The intellectual elite plan their families. Those who will have none because they feel the world already struggles far too much to accommodate too many people. Those who relent, and have one or two, to whose physical and intellectual welfare they dedicate themselves to ensure they receive a good upbringing and education, prepared to take their responsible place in society. Theirs is a dwindling society; they barely replace themselves. So the pool of the genetically intellectually endowed is not growing apace, but stagnating.

On the other side of the equation is the immensely larger pool of the ordinary, non-cerebral drudges who perform menial duties or none at all if they live off social welfare. Amazingly, these are the people who manage to breed without a thought to the future. They are simply doing 'what comes naturally', and the outcome of what comes naturally is not necessarily a happy family with parents nourishing the bodily and mental/social needs of children. All too often the result is children growing up in a less than supportive environment, never realizing their potential.

We do have, within society, the example of a specific group of people of an ethnic, cultural, social and religious/historical background forced by a peculiar reality eliciting hostility from the greater community around them, to distinguish themselves as a matter of survival. Treated as inferiors by the commanding majority and unable to apply themselves to the usual course of employment available to others they sought alternate means by which they could support themselves.

The result was in a manner the survival of the fittest. Peoople who became by necessity more intellectually nimble, seeking out alternate means of livelihood. In the process another reality; Ashkenazi Jews who managed to distinguish themselves by their superior contribution to intellectual life, where that ethnic group representing a mere one-600th of the world's population has been enabled by their determination and DNA profile, to amass a quarter of the Nobel Prizes awarded to outstanding exemplars of human accomplishment and achievement.

Fascist Germany took the outsider status of habitually mistrusted and detested Jews to a greater more existential threat level than their predecessor anti-Semites who only slaughtered Jews in fits and starts through progroms. The Nazi regime sought to eradicate them en masse as inferior pests, portraying them as caricatures of decent human beings. The ultimate revenge upon a world that could not persuade itself to care enough, was to endure, and survive the onslaught.

And throughout human history there has always been, within any given human population those ordinary people of the masses, and among them a handful with superior mental endowments. It is not all that surprising, given the numbers then, that the majority will go on producing replicas of themselves, while the scant minority will look beyond themselves. Human advancement in the arts and sciences owes all to the few.

And they are becoming fewer.

Pairing for Success: Religion and Technology

Yet another surfacing of an inability to adapt to Canadian - actually, universal - values on the part of those who worship an increasingly and bizarrely extreme form of Islam. Intent on rejecting everything it feels representing values of Western civilization. A counterpart to its own reliance on the pre-civility of traditional tribal animosities.

Historically, after its original foundation, in a paroxysm of wars and assassinations, settled Islam has been known for its appreciation of the arts in all its forms. From writing exquisite poetry, to erecting intricately beautiful structures, and hauntingly lovely music on a variety of musical instruments, accompanied by singers whose plaintive voices mesmerized the listener.

But here is a convert to Islam who insists that only male voices are now to be considered acceptable to devout Muslims, and "winds and stringed instruments have been banned because of their captivating power. Their notes and chords evoke strong emotional attachments. For many, music becomes a source of solace and hope instead of God."

Music, in those circumstances becomes a soothing drug, whereas devout Muslims should be turning to the Koran, and to God for solace. Music is a distracting influence, one that takes Muslims away from God and is therefore not to be tolerated. It seems this is a growing mode of thought influencing susceptible Muslims who then refuse to have their children taught the love of music.

This man was once himself an outstanding musician, lauded for his performance abilities. Yet now, devoted to Islamic precepts of complete surrender to Allah and ultimate respect for all the devotional concepts that circumscribe every aspect of life for the faithful, he teaches that women are forbidden from singing "in order to keep the sensual atmosphere of the society at a minimum."

"Men", he contends, "are much more easily aroused than females as has been thoroughly documented by the clinical studies of Masters and Johnson." Again, the modern meeting up with and clarifying the ancient. The president of the Islamic Research Foundation located in Mumbai insists music places its listeners in a "trance" and a "frenzy".

The dean of the Al Maghrib Institute of Texas, Yasir Qadhi, states that one "can't love the Koran and music at the same time." The narcotic effects of music on the human soul contests with God to enrapture the faithful. On the other hand the Islamic Institute of Toronto's website instructs that music is permissible as long as it does not contain "sensual, pagan or unethical themes", or subliminal messages.

"These are people who have an aversion to joy", explains Sohail Raza, speaking for the Muslim Canadian Congress. Islam does permit music; to claim otherwise is without a basis in actuality and history. But the debate within the Islamic community has fostered among some of its faithful the belief that parents may not permit their children to submit to music lessons in Canadian elementary schools.

Saudi Arabia, the fount of sternly fanatic Wahhabist-style Islam has been the source of originally encouraging engagement with jihad in the prosecution of forwarding the universal interests of Islam. Bilal Philips, whose message to the Islam of today is the inherent evil of music achieved academic degrees from the Islamic University of Medina and founded the Islamic Online University.

The Internet has become a valuable tool of instruction and command to reject all Western values for fundamentalist Islamists. Turning vulnerable young Muslim men toward violence and teaching through videos and on-line chat rooms how they must confront all vestiges of Western influence and wage a holy jihad in the name of Islam.

This is a startling but very useful symbiosis of a tribal religion originally based on conquest returning to its ancient source of ongoing conflict with those outside the faith, successfully using a modern technological tool of communication to achieve its aims.

Looted Antiquities

Greece would love Britain to return to them, as the rightful heritage owners, the Elgin Marbles. Italy would very much appreciate the 'return' to them of a prized sculpture by Bernini, which Canadians have ensconced at the National Gallery. And Egypt would far prefer to be in possession of its marvellous ancient treasures than to have them in the possession of foreign countries which themselves treasure what they have.

Egypt and its treasures; the fabulous Sphinx which suffered the indignity of being shot at by Napoleon's invading forces.

And adventurers-cum-archaeologists like Giovanni Belzoni, a former circus strongman who became fascinated with adventure and thought of himself as an archaeologist, who adventured into Egypt and took it upon himself to dig and destroy and loot and sell to international buyers eager to obtain the fabulous historical treasures of ancient Egypt from him, as the then-compliant Egyptian government stood by.

Belzoni and others like him even used explosives to blast apart immense structures to obtain the pieces they wanted.

And when it came to tomb-robbing, there was no one as courageous, audacious and adventurous as ancient tomb robbers, Egyptians themselves, who, despite the belief in curses that would destroy the lives of those who disturbed the fabulous treasures buried with noblemen and noblewomen and wealthy dynastic Egyptians and their Pharaohs, did just that. Looting the ancient tombs of all they could see of value.

In some instances that looting took place soon after the burials, and for centuries after, up to the present time. Ancient architects of tombs tried their utmost to confound the thieves by clever distracting devices, hidden areas, and mysterious tunnels blocked by great stones no human enterprise could budge. Despite all the subterfuges and clever hidden entrances, most tombs were ransacked of their valuables.

The tomb of Akhenaten was destroyed by vandals who had the blessing of the ruling dynasty that followed Akhenaten. Who was despised by most of the ruling class for the unorthodoxy of his rule, adhering to his belief in one single god, rejecting the classic mythology of a panoply of gods, a belief sacred to Egypt. Reverence for the god Aten, the life-giving sun, died with the death of Akhenaten.

A rare exception was the tomb of the boy-king, Tutankhamen. Whose tomb, uncovered and entered by Howard Carter in 1922, was the best preserved and most intact pharaonic tomb ever found. Even though it was suspected to have been broken into twice previously, in antiquity.

The Egyptian Museum, which prides itself on its national heritage and the treasures it has amassed, has released information that its inventory count of treasures have been found to be missing some key and critical treasures. Priceless antiquities dating from the 13th Century BC have been looted. When, it was assumed, dedicated and knowledgeable thieves entered the museum through a skylight in the confusion surrounding the anti-regime protesters assembled on Tahrir Square, adjacent the Museum.

"An investigation has begun to search for the people who have taken these objects, and the police and the army plan to follow up with the criminals already in custody", stated Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. "I have said if the Egyptian Museum is safe, then Egypt is safe. However, I am now concerned Egypt is not safe", he stated on his official web site. The pride of the country's past has been once again looted.

Eighteen priceless antiquities, two statues of Tutankhamen included, taken, among other wonderful ancient objects of art and antiquity. Aside from those missing objects, around 70 are said to have been damaged. International art collectors whose greed and zest to take possession of rare and beautiful heritage objects will be approached by dealers in the illicit who know their potential customers.

The ancient trade of grave robbers is still alive and doing very well for itself in the very grey market of rare and outstanding works of art and antiquities for those who will pay, and not enquire as to provenance and legality.

Egypt is not safe.

Seat Belts Save Lives

Legislation is generally enacted when it comes to public policy revolving around health and safety issues to make the country, the province or the municipality a better place for its residents. In Canada, running lights in vehicles are always on, ensuring good visibility in traffic, making it a universal, not a choice option. It is illegal to decide not to fasten seat belts in a moving vehicle. It may be uncomfortable, but it's a life-saving device.

Folic acid and other vitamins and minerals are added to certain foods to increase the odds of a healthier population. Vitamin D for healthier bones for milk-drinking children; fortified cereals and breads for optimum health opportunities for the public. Children are routinely inoculated against measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, tuberculosis. Treatment plants make our drinking water potable.

And since the use of fluoride in drinking water universally there has been a huge drop in the incidence of tooth cavities and decay in the general population. Particularly among children. It is now rare for a child under the age of 10 to have more than one or two cavities, unless they're addicted to sugary sweets and neglectful of tooth hygiene.

It was an intensely controversial subject, whether or not to embark on this bold, new experiment; putting fluoride into the public's supply of drinking water, decades ago. But common sense prevailed against the naysayers, those who warned the public would suffer from exposure to the chemical, and we've never looked back.

Its use is heartily endorsed by dentists and doctors and their professional bodies.

But it seems there are sadly backward places that still exist in their insistence that the state, or the municipality should not be permitted to force anything on the population. So the clever folks who populate Calgary and their municipal council decided to vote on the issue. And the anti-fluoride activists triumphed.

"It's about freedom. It's about choice and it's about people taking ownership of their own health, not having it imposed on them."

Right, Calgarians now have the freedom to visit their dentists far more often than previously. But this is their freedom we're talking about, their choice and their determination to live free and as they will. They will doubtless have reason to regret that choice, but that's what they chose.

On reflection, at some future date, when the sad statistics come in, and their children's teeth reflect their choice they can always recall the euphoria that accompanied their victory.

That's Justice...

Ontario's disgraced former chief pathologist, Dr.Charles Smith, has officially had his license to practise medicine removed. It is amazing that someone so incompetent, who was very well aware of his lack of competence as a pathologist, was permitted to continue in a post that was so important. His supposedly expert testimony, supported by the trust placed in him as a provincial pathologist, ruined too many lives.

In the course of his professional activities he was responsible for the wrongful conviction of men and women whom he led judge and jury to believe had acted criminally in the deaths of young children. He effectively took away peoples' lives, branded them, through his uncompromising brand of pathological certainty (no pun here) that he had the uncorrupted answers to vexing questions of responsibility for unexplained deaths.

The province continues to pick up the pieces representing the disasters he brought to families. With convictions overturned after innocent people spent years in jail through their wrongful convictions, the province has paid out millions in compensation. As though money could somehow compensate for shame, grief and loss of liberty.

Dr. Smith was decidedly not the leading expert on pediatric forensic pathology he presented himself as, encouraged by his superiors who simply could not be bothered to ensure they had the right professional in the right place. Working out of the Chief Coroner's office he was responsible for inaccurate and often accusatory testimony in 20 investigations of death, which led to criminal charges against parents or other family members.

He believed implicitly in himself, despite his later admissions of insecurity. These professed misgivings never gave him pause to consider what kind of dreadful damage he was doing to other peoples' lives. In this he was horribly irresponsible, arrogant and deliberately oblivious to the harm he was imposing upon others.

He gave misleading evidence under oath. And now has been found guilty of professional misconduct and incompetence by the College of Physicians and Surgeons' disciplinary committee. Took long enough. The committee reached a deliberation that Dr. Smith was deserving of the "most severe" penalty possible, in officially revoking his license.

That will be the extent of the penalties imposed upon this disgusting caricature of a practising medical professional. "It's pretty difficult to charge someone for being incompetent", was the casual reflection of a lawyer. He has been and will continue to be sued in civil court by those whom his testimony caused such grief.

Any findings in favour of those who have sued this dreadful man have been settled by the Government of Ontario, the co-defendant in the suits.

Euphoria in Tahrir Square

The anti-regime protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square are exultant. They are still there. They have the support they craved. They are euphoric with the sense of having accomplished the seemingly impossible. They were not physically extracted from the centre of Cairo. Their protest movement has exhilarated the young and the restless. Their will has prevailed over that of the sclerotic old men who have ruled Egypt like tyrants.

Those tyrants, through the force of their will have subjected Egypt to a peace treaty with a neighbour. The young of Egypt, some 30% of whom are unemployed may feel they would enjoy life so much more if the excitement of war, for example, was upon the land, instead of the cold peace that prevails, the peace that has allowed the country to develop rather than stagnate.

Theirs is not a wealthy country. Too many live in poverty. There are restrictions upon peoples' freedoms. But this is the Middle East, where those restrictions have expressed tradition, where tyrants have always ruled, where poverty has always existed, where justice is seldom served, where fractious disagreements between tribes and nations have resulted in bloodshed.

But hundreds of thousands of Egyptians resent their poverty, resent rising food prices, resent unemployment and no prospects for the future. Thus, the revolution they have managed to impose upon the administration of President Hosni Mubarak and his National Democratic Party that has ruled for far too long. Poverty allied with war seems so much more appealing.

This is the devil they know. In opposing that devil, what have they accomplished, aside from that deep inner sense of satisfaction with themselves and their growing pride in their resoluteness? They have indeed accomplished much; the closure of the country's stock exchange that speedily began to bleed stock values.

For each day of protest the country lost at least $310-million in GDP. Banks closed, ATMs ran out of cash, businesses were shuttered, people were not paid. Food and amenities became scarce because of difficulties in deliveries; meat prices quadrupled, shelves were cleared of goods in panic-buying excess.

Foreign investors hurriedly left that country that was in anarchic chaos; the Egyptian pound lost value. Public and state infrastructure damage from rioting, burning and looting came in at approximately $862-million. Tourism, representing a vital economic contribution, has been brought to a dead halt. Foreign countries rushed their nationals to safety.

International companies shut down their factories and workers were laid off. Quite an accomplishment. But no negotiation with the government. Which is pleading with the protesters to return from whence they came, and evacuate Tahrir Square, to enable life to return to normal. And the promised transition will proceed.

"When it's a revolution, you're not supposed to negotiate." A foolish sentiment from the mouths of the naive, prepared to tear down the house that shelters them all, and revel in exposure to the raw elements that wash away security and hope for the future.

Never fear; the Muslim Brotherhood hovers nearby. All of Egypt's problems will be solved.

Perhaps not to everyone's liking.

Deadly Custody

It is a tragedy when those who once loved one another become estranged and no longer love, demanding separation. 'Till death do us part', may have seemed a reasonable marriage contract declaration at one time when people seemed to make more of an effort to remain together in wedlock, taking seriously the 'lock' part of the contract, than now occurs.

But people have longer life spans now, and the world is a dazzling place of choices and temptations that may not have been present in earlier times. The patience and consideration that two people must learn to give one another does not perhaps seem suited to modern times when everything is hurried and everyone is self-involved.

When marriages are torn asunder by disagreements, by a recognition of incompatibility and diverging interests and concerns, it is sad. When children are part of those families, it becomes a tragedy. Invariably, there is one partner who insists on separation, and the other would prefer their conjoined status.

And all too often a man who have been rejected will nurse a deadly grievance and anger toward the woman who rejected them and take her life. What is worse, sometimes women out of their sense of grief and dejection will take the lives of their children.

And then there are the instances when either the mother or the father will, out of a deranged sense of abandoned revenge, murder their children to make the other partner suffer. Which may just possibly have occurred with twin 6-year-old girls whose father, Matthias Schepp, was found to have committed suicide.

His death sad enough, but the children whom he had taken for a brief period given him as a reflection of partial custodian rights are missing. The father contacted the children's mother and left an anguished message that he could no longer live without her. And it is the children who are now missing.

One can only hope that the substantial sum of money he had withdrawn and was found to be missing when his remains were found with a much smaller sum of money in his possession, was used to hire someone to look after the two children. Someone had to. It can be hoped that the desperate, deranged father did not plan a final solution for his girls.

Comparisons can be made to the horrific murder of two children who had lived in Montreal with their parents. Who had moved to Texas briefly, and reconciliation failing, had separated, and the children Danyela and Deyan Perisic became part of a custody dispute. The children insisted they preferred to stay with their mother in Montreal.

The court under Justice Helene Lebel, ruled otherwise: "They do not wish to go back so they will certainly be perturbed. However, these children are intelligent and capable of coping. They are not being returned to a place where they will be in danger." How wrong she was. Law enforcement officers in Coldspring, Texas found the children shot by their father.

Both children were airlifted to hospital, but both died of their wounds. The mother, Vera Vucerakovich, was convinced that her children were in danger, in the company of their father, Pedrag Perisic. Justice Lebel held that the mother had unlawfully taken her children from Texas, when she returned to Montreal.

Her ruling that the children must go with their father to Texas was overturned by Quebec Superior court Justice Marie-christine Laberge who granted the mother custody, ordering the father to return them. He chose to take their lives and his: "They can go over my dead body to Montreal".