Ottawa cops presume they're *experts* ...

when it comes to their beliefs for determining if women have been sexually assaulted or not.

University of Ottawa criminal lawyer Blair Crew, said about a third of investigations into sexual assault end with police saying the allegations are unfounded. [...] he said Ottawa police tend to discount a higher proportion of sexual assaults than they do other crimes.

Crew said for a four-year period from 2003-2007, 31 per cent of sexual assault claims that Ottawa Police investigated were dismissed as unfounded — that is, they [believe] never happened — as opposed to unsubstantiated, where there isn't enough evidence to follow the case.

He said by comparison, Toronto's police — which had gone through an audit in how it conducts sexual assault investigations — found only seven per cent of claims to be unfounded. And the rate of claims reported to police that are ruled unfounded tends to be about two to three per cent for other crimes, said Crew. [...]

He said police, still largely male-based organizations, tend to view sexual assaults as something that didn't occur and treat claimants more as suspects than as complainants.

"Frontline sexual assault workers as well as [...] women that have been in my office over a number of years have been insisting they were sexually assaulted despite the police insistence that no crime occurred," he said.

From here.

When you consider the Ottawa police force employs individuals like Melanie Morris and Steven Desjourdy, and that it rejects close to 1/3 of all complaints of sexual assault. it's no surprise women don't bother filing charges.

Ottawa cops in hot water, again.

A video allegedly showing police brutality in the ByWard Market late Friday night has prompted a review into the incident by the Ottawa police, says police Chief Charles Bordeleau. The shaky video appears to show a man being forced to the ground by three police officers. While being held by officers, the video documents one officer punching the man in the upper body and head area as many as a dozen times. The one-minute video does not show how the altercation began, nor does it show police taking any suspects away. 

From here. 

I heard this report on Radio-Canada. The police chief "invites" witnesses to step forward to share what they observed.

Given what happened to these women who witnessed and reported police violence in their neighbourhood, I'd think that people might feel threatened by the legal bullying tactics that cops exert inside the courtroom in addition to their illicit, intimidating reprisals.

Also, a reminder: What every citizen NEEDS to know about photographing and filming police officers in Canada, from here. 

UPDATE: A female witness who was there that night "could not corroborate the police account of what happened at the scene..." She also said: "The cops showed up and made it so much worse". From here. 
  
I predict that cops will intimidate and frighten this witness into changing her recollection of what she observed.

UPDATED AGAIN: Ontario Ombudsman André Marin reprimands the Ottawa Police Service.

The same day Bordeleau initiated the complaint, he also sent an internal email to the force’s rank-and-file reminding them that “the job of a police officer is a difficult one and we all know that enhanced scrutiny is a fact in our role.”

Bordeleau also wrote that officers have the public’s confidence and his confidence and respect for the work they do.

Marin says morale-boosting comments by the chief or even officers identifying Fairbairn and saying he’s a great guy, are innocuous enough, but when officers start giving their personal assessment on the extent of the force used by Fairbairn in the altercation, they influence the investigation and the likelihood that witnesses, civilian or uniformed, who saw evidence to the contrary, will come forward.

“The pursuit of the truth becomes pointless.”

Marin called for officers to use the same rigorous and strict process they use when investigating the public and to not show favouritism and partiality at the outset, just days after the incident.

This is how police forces roll.  A reminder of how cops intimidate those who witness their violence, here.

Toronto G20: Information Central

Distribute far'n'wide: fantastic resource/reporting site, G20.justice. com. We badly need a central collection spot for all the info, stories, and videos flying about and this looks like it.

Intimidation. Assault. Humiliation. Sexual Assault. Threat. Bullying. Kidnapping. Lying. Break & Entering. Stealing. Pre-emptive Arrests. Illegal House Raids. Vandalism. Destroying Public Property. Illegal Detention. Illegal Arrests. Enciting Rioting.

What do the above have in common? If you were in downtown Toronto during the G20 Summit, then no explanation is needed. If you've only been watching mainstream media - then you more than likely haven't seen the exemplary performances of our country's finest.

With pages on Charter rights, official contact information, Criminal Code, 'Evidence' (an effort to document a timeline of events), personal stories, and 'Lineup' (an effort to identify security officers, vandals, and agents provocateurs behaving badly).

From the Lineup page a list of participating police forces and security companies.


RCMP

Toronto Police

Peel Regional Police

Ontario Provincial Police

JTF2

Barrie Police

Calgary Police

Dryden Police

Durham Regional Police

Edmonton Police

Halton Regional Police

Hamilton Police Service
Kenora Police

Kingston Police

Montreal Police

Niagara Regional Police

Ottawa Police Services (ESU)

Royal Newfoundland Police

Saskatoon Police
Sudbury Police

Waterloo Regional Police

York Police

Barrie Court Services

Toronto Court Services

Contemporary International

Group 4 Falck

InterCon Security / ADT

Securitas

Zow, that's a lotta cops and rent-a-cops. (Dryden cops needed a taste of big city lights?)

The people behind the site say they're volunteers and seem also to be members of the Facebook group Canadian Demanding a Public Inquiry into Toronto G20.

Great work! And, sadly, lots more work to do.

And it's a great place to send acquaintances who believe the msm and refuse to look further. Hey, Teach! This site's for you!

Remember the Ottawa cop who abused a Black woman?

Sgt Steven Desjourdy has a new job. That's him on the right.

Yes Desjourdy - who should NOT even be allowed within 10 metres of any woman in police custody - now works in the division that investigates human trafficking.

In April this year - yes in 2014 - Desjourdy was "found guilty of discreditable conduct at an internal Ottawa police disciplinary hearing into a widely reported, controversial cellblock strip search in 2008.

In September 2008, Desjourdy left a female prisoner half naked in pants soaked with urine; her shirt and bra had been cut off during a strip search [...]

It took more than three hours for Desjourdy to provide her with temporary clothing called a blue suit."

DAMMIT JANET! has written about Desjourdy or pointed to him in reference to cop violence towards women in police custody.

For example, this: "a judge recently exonerated the sexualized brutality that a police officer used against a woman detained for alleged public intoxication - a "charge" which was never actually shown to be founded.

Violent cops like Steve Desjourdy sexually humiliate, degrade and punish jailed women with impunity. His actions which were challenged in criminal court, have been excused and thus can become the official standard that police taking women into custody can apply.

According to the judge who presided over the trial, Desjourdy "used reasonable force".

Many who viewed the internal video that captured Desjourdy and his colleagues' actions, observed that he seemed to be enjoying his job, exerting force in order to break the detained woman's will and her instinct to defend herself from the cops' deliberate, sexualized violations." 

Meanwhile, last week some Harper government MPs staged a series of opportunistic histrionics at the Justice Committee, ostensibly to hear presentations from women who have been trafficked and religious groups hoping to receive a large chunk of money in return for rescuing stigmatized victims they'll rehabilitate and pity, ALL in support of C36.

ADDED: This from Kate Heartfield captures the intent of the CPC dog-and-pony show, as well as the very worst moment when the chortling, snorting, oinking Con MP Goguen tried to score points against a lawyer (who substantiated his opposition to C36 with evidence) by badgering a multiple-rapes survivor.

(DJ! does NOT support C36; it is contempt for women and for the law.  In that blogpost, I reminded Peter MacKay - so greatly disgusted with "perverts" who purchase sexual services - that he might direct some of his outrage towards a certain Con politician, a buddy of Harper who subjected his wife to the very degradation that so incensed the Minister of Justice. Juxtapose this with the passage here, where Rob Ford offered up Renata to anyone interested. Procurement, or trafficking his wife. Is that a Ford family value?)

Back at the Justice Committee hearings, law enforcement witnesses like Chiefs of police supporting C36 were unable to explain why current criminal code sanctions against human trafficking aren't being enforced to stop "procurement" and the enslavement of women into forced sex work through threats, confinement and other brutal methods.  

And the focus of MP Joy Smith's (yes, the MP who hired Vic Toews' mistress) attention at the hearings was riveted upon the horrific, brutal stories told by women who had been trafficked.

Despite numerous fundamentalist religious groups vehemently claiming thousands upon thousands of women are sexually assaulted 10, 20, 30 times daily, very few police investigations, arrests, charges, and prosecutions of human trafficking are being followed through in any rigorous or systematic way.

On the last day of the hearings Christa Big Canoe of the Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto challenged the legal sloppiness of the pro-C36 crowd who used trafficking, and prostituting as synonyms for one and same criminal activity.  

MPs should distinguish between sex work and human trafficking as they consider bringing in a new prostitution law to replace the one struck down last year by the Supreme Court, an expert said Thursday.
After three days of often heart-wrenching testimony, the House justice committee is wrapping up the first phase of its work on the government's proposed prostitution law rewrite.
Many of the witnesses told horrifying tales of being trafficked and abused, while others spoke in favour of letting sex workers choose to sell their services.
Christa Big Canoe, legal advocacy director at Aboriginal Legal Services of Toronto, summarized the divide following 20 hours of hearings.
"[What] we're hearing a lot from a lot of the witnesses is the interconnectedness, but what we're not hearing is the distinct differences between trafficking and sex work," she said.
Big Canoe suggested better enforcing Canada's existing human trafficking laws if MPs are worried about the problem. Studies of human trafficking, she said, talk about how elusive the traffickers are.
"So the question I have to this committee is, how is that going to change by the provisions that you're now proposing, and what can be done to change that if it's not already occurring?"
The committee has heard from police officers that it's difficult to charge alleged human traffickers and that some law enforcement agencies use the threat of charges against prostitutes to extricate them and have them provide evidence against the traffickers.
Big Canoe pointed out that last year's Supreme Court ruling known as Bedford dealt specifically with Canada's prostitution laws.
"Bedford was about sex work. It wasn't about trafficking. We have laws in Canada about trafficking that aren't actually being used well. 

So Sgt Desjourdy, "known to police" for brutalizing women in police custody, is assigned to Human Trafficking at the Ottawa Police Services.

What sadistic person in Human Resources assumed this bully and abuser of women would be an appropriate fit for law enforcement tactics which Prohibitionists and Evangelicals are counting upon to "extricate" women from coerced sex work, arrest them, threaten them until they agree to testify against their traffickers then afterwards dump them somewhere, perhaps in the basement of a church where Harper Conservative business men can exploit them as "regular" low-waged-with-no-benefits workers.  

Oh. Wait.

Grand merci @kwetoday whose tweet tipped me off to Desjourdy's new job.

Abuse of power and authority in Ottawa.

Zoom at knitnut writes about this from a blogger's perspective, one who has been covering gratuitous police brutality in Ottawa for a while.

However, when I read the original news story something else emerged, as malign as unwarranted and illegal cop violence but symptomatic of a specific authoritarianism.

An Ottawa police officer who hit a 15-year-old boy in the head several times during an arrest in a darkened Rockcliffe Park Public School yard has been cleared of misconduct after a review concluded the constable used “accepted” standards for use of force. [...]

While the probe couldn’t figure out how many times McFadden hit the boy, it is known that the officer broke his left hand — the hand he used to strike the boy in the head.

The trouble began just before 10:30 on the night in question. There had been complaints about mischief at the school yard weeks earlier, so Ottawa police set up a four-officer surveillance team.

The team included two plainclothes officers, one of whom wore shorts and a backwards ballcap, a sergeant, and an officer positioned inside the school, which is known for educating the children of diplomats and politicians, including those of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. [my italics]

And there you have it. Just as the multiple disruptions of civil rights during the G-20 were the required trappings of Contempt Party leader's MASSIVE *security* show, so must this particular surveillance "incident" exonerate police officers of charges that unwarranted and brutal force was deployed. The conclusions of the Review Board were predictable, as with the official refusal by Toronto Police to investigate cops' criminal actions during the G20.

SHithead and his Con jobs found in the RCMP and now in municipal police forces their most compliant and eager bullies.

Honesty is Always the best policy.

This is the face of the communications & PR company that the Ottawa Police has hired to polish their bad apples in order to craft a communications *game plan* and to correct its image.

Face Value's slogan is: Trust. Worthy.

The events caught on CCTV at the cop shop are merely the tip of the iceberg. There has been considerable public exposure of officers and special constables who engage in unprofessional conduct, brutality and illicit practices. It will take more than a communications *game plan* to halt the rising tide of citizens' disgust with those who defend the actions and behaviours of thugs and bullies.

Nonetheless, Derek Johnston has invested time and effort to marketing his company to clients such as the Ottawa Police. From here, we learn that he presents himself as a specialist

"in addressing the issues of how police organizations manage their reputations as part of their risk management strategies and how they communication risk [sic] to stakeholders and the public."

Okay doke. Perhaps Johnston is proposing to exploit social media in support of his client. If so, he might counsel in particular Chief Vern White to heed advice proffered by Marta Kagan.

Listen.

Messages are not conversations.

It's a dialogue not a monologue.

Relinquish control.

Don't F**k with people.

In a world of social media, honesty is the only policy.

What was that last point again? Honesty is the only policy. Good luck with that, Johnston. Hope that Chief White does not choose to emulate Toronto Chief of Police Bill Blair.

Update: More about that contract with Face Value Communications - Ottawa police services board chair Eli El-Chantiry said: “We want to be transparent, accountable and we want the public to expect no less from us.”

Ottawa police despotic duo has history of brutalizing women?

Once more paraphrasing the words of Mark Steyn, "Must be convenient to have a [professional] code that obliges all your pathologies."

Two Ottawa police officers involved in the controversial strip search of a 27-year-old woman are being named in a lawsuit by another woman who says she was injured while in custody. [...] Carr is suing police for "personal injury" — although the nature of the injury is unclear, as her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, has yet to file a formal statement of claim outlining his client's version of the facts and the restitution she is seeking.

Carr's criminal defence lawyer said her case is being looked into by the Special Investigations Unit, the Ontario police watchdog that investigates incidents in which civilians have been seriously hurt or killed in interactions with police. Carr was arrested and charged with mischief, resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer on Aug. 23, 2008.

Her arrest came a month before that of Stacy Bonds, who was subjected to a strip search after being arrested for [alleged] public intoxication.

Two of the officers named in Carr's suit, Special Const. Melanie Morris and Sgt. Steven Desjourdy, were involved in the strip search of Bonds on Sept. 26, 2008.

From here.

More here about other complaints against Morris and Desjourdy.



The above is a photo of Desjourdy. If you're a woman in Ottawa and this cop approaches you, run for your life.

"I felt total despair, anger, sadness, I am pro-choice, but having an abortion is not something I ever wanted to have to do."

The great municipal region of Ottawa-Gatineau, the nation's capital area, has a combined population of 1,054,253 people. Yet as local news organizations and even the National Post report, the administration of the Ottawa Hospital doesn't ensure that trained staff is available to provide critical health care and administer the sexual assault protocol to victims who are taken to Emergency. Until shameful stories made headlines, that is.

From here:

The Ottawa Hospital is the city's only provincially designated centre for sexual assault cases. The hospital's Civic campus houses the Sexual Assault and Partner Abuse Care Program, with a mandate to provide care "24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," according to a 2006 protocol.

But hospital officials admit that they have not been meeting that standard in recent months, and that the problem has become "most acute" in the past three weeks. The hospital's roster of 15 specially trained sexual-assault nurse examiners has been reduced by almost half due to illness and unexpected leave.

A woman who asked the journalist who interviewed to call her 'Anita' when quoting her, said:

"It would have been good if they had it a couple of months ago, but I am glad it will be there for other women in the future."

Anita was attacked in the early morning of May 23. Police officers drove the 21-year-old university student to the Civic emergency room. [...]

After the nurse confirmed there were no sexual-assault nurses available, Anita says she was told to go home and that Richard Tomlinson, director of the Sexual Assault Support Program, would contact her in the morning.

"I knew that was not what should happen, and even the police officer looks at me and says, 'This is not how it should be done,' " Anita said.

Mr. Tomlinson and Anita communicated on Saturday morning, and she said she was offered the option of returning to the Civic for treatment at midnight on Sunday, almost 48 hours after the attack.

In the meantime, Anita would be unable to shower, in order to preserve evidence. The alternative, driving to Renfrew, was even less attractive, even though Mr. Tomlinson said the hospital would pay the taxi fare.

"At that point, I was pissed off, I was thinking 'This is ridiculous. Why the hell am I going to go all the way to Renfrew?' "

Anita decided she was done seeking treatment, even if it meant destroying evidence that might help police track down her attacker.

"I felt so gross, I felt like I was going to lose it if I couldn't shower," she said. "So I ended up taking a shower and giving up on the hospital."

She later told the police detective on her case about being turned away from the hospital.

"She told me I was the third case that weekend," said Anita, who is receiving counselling from a sexual-assault support worker.

A few weeks ago, Anita discovered she was pregnant.

"I felt total despair, anger, sadness," Anita said. "I am pro-choice, but having an abortion is not something I ever wanted to have to do."

It is common in the aftermath of sexual assaults to provide patients with the option of taking anti-virals to prevent sexually transmitted infections, and the morning-after pill, an emergency contraceptive that prevents pregnancy if used within three days of unprotected intercourse. Anita says no medical staff in the emergency room that night examined her, nor did they offer her medication.

More, much more here.

Rules regarding collection of evidence of sexual assault are strict.

Forensic Evidence Collection

A Sexual Assault Evidence Kit is used to collect medical evidence from the client's body and clothing to assist in legal proceedings. This evidence must be collected within 72 hours after the assault. [...] Photographs of the client's injuries can be taken and kept with the hospital chart should she/he wish to report to the police at a later date. If the police are involved at the time of the assault, they may take the photographs [...]

The defendant's lawyer, if unable to undermine the complainant's credibility, may challenge the integrity of the evidence collection process by calling the RN examiner to the witness stand.

Vicki McKenna, vice-president of the Ontario Nurses Association, said the Ottawa Hospital hasn't taken the issue seriously enough. She said many cities have dropped the on-call system in favour of permanent staffing. [...] McKenna said in addition to the low pay they receive on call, Ottawa's sexual assault nurses also sometimes have to fight to get paid for time they spend testifying in court.

Most RNs are women and the majority of sexual assault complainants are women. One wonders if that's the reason why the Ottawa Hospital doesn't consider the provision of this essential service a priority.

Now you see it. Now you don't.

"Showing more transparency" is usually code for the smoke-screen that lying liars create.

Thus it comes as a surprise that Ian Scott, director of the Special Investigations Unit, is siding with two families using civil litigation to challenge the unlawful deaths of family members killed by police officers.

Shorter Fantino: Oh yeah? Police ju-ju always trumps the Criminal Code and Charter rights.

Yes. That Fantino, currently in the Conservative Candidate Protection Program.

As well, read knitnut and dr dawg about the illegal police brutality directed at Stacy Bonds.

Finally: only a cop can ensure complaints against cops who do not follow proper procedure and are derelict in their legal duties, are processed in a fair and timely manner.

Doug Thompson was found dead in a city boarding house last September, and police officers gave his body to social services without checking his wallet or cell phone for ways to notify his next of kin. It took a week for his family to find out the 61-year-old had passed away of natural causes.

Andrew Thompson [an Ottawa police officer] filed a complaint, which resulted in internal discipline for the four officers. "We weren't satisfied with that given the seriousness of the negligence on their part," Thompson told the Standard- Freeholder earlier this year. "They've made a huge mistake."

The Ontario Civilian Police Association hearing will now review the charges laid against the four men. Thompson and his family also filed a $250,000 lawsuit against the police, city services and the coroner's office involved in the burial.

Link for above.

Merci to Toe for the news item about the SIU.

Cry me a river ....

Sorry Officer Olivera, but this mawkish attempt to spin the reality of working conditions for cops, medical emergency personnel, fire fighters and street intervention staff is transparent.

From here:

An Ottawa police officer wants the public to know that working in the police station cellblock can be dangerous. Special Const. Carlos Olivera said he has to take a cocktail of drugs in case he was infected with the HIV virus or hepatitis C after an incident in the cellblock in December.

He came forward with his story because of recent news coverage of a video showing another special constable kicking Ottawa woman Stacy Bonds after she was arrested in 2008.

And perhaps you've been pushed into the media spotlight by the public relations guy Ottawa Police chief White hired?

Funny how it is that nurses, ambulance personnel, firefighters and homeless shelter workers who face similar health-endangering risks when helping people in need don't beat them up to teach them a lesson, the way some cops feel they're entitled to do.

Police charge alleged cupcake enforcer with assault.

Ottawa police have laid additional charges against a 75-year-old woman who is accused of approaching men and forcing them to eat cupcakes.

Gwen Landbrauchen was initially charged after police investigated several complaints about a woman approaching men during daytime hours in Orleans.

Police said that on July 8 and 9, a woman had approached three different men in incidents around the transit station at Place d'Orleans.

Police said that the woman would offer a cupcake from a Rubbermaid™ container she carried. If the victim refused, she would put the tasty treat against the man's face and threaten to make him eat it for his own good. 

Sometimes she would shout "Lebensmittel!" at them.  If the woman was confronted about her actions by the men she was attempting to feed, she would speak in a foreign language.

According to police, new victims have come forward, prompting additional charges.

Landbrauchen is facing four counts of assault. She appeared briefly in court by video Monday to face new charges.

One of the victims interviewed on condition of anonymity said that, had the cupcake enforcer been a MILF like Catherine Deneuve in a black leather jumpsuit yelling at him in French, he thinks he might have enjoyed the experience.

Since the alleged assailant is a wizened, cranky old lady muttering in German, he didn't like it so much. He added: "I think that it was a just a crummy Loblaws bran muffin with stale icing from a can."

Another victim, also requesting anonymity, said that his colleagues at work taunted him about filing a complaint.

"They kept mocking me, asking why I didn't punch her in the face or shove the cupcake down her throat. I don't engage in violence unless my life is threatened.  But I had to report her to the police. Even if she's someone's granny who's suffering from dementia.  She can't be allowed to force people to eat cupcakes. What if somebody choked on it and died?"


- * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - *

This is the news item that inspired the above spoof.  Think about the misogynist messages that media reinforce when they trivialize unwanted physical or sexual actions directed at women. 

Update: "Kissing bandit" was originally used by The Citizen, that acknowledged it was an inappropriate choice of terms, and changed it online.

If you think that media narratives using half-truths and prejudices don't create and cement false perceptions, read this powerful deconstruction of the NYT coverage of the infamous Kitty Genovese femicide.

Rate a Cop

Another nifty use of the Intertoobz: Judge My Cop.

If you've had an experience with a cop -- good or bad -- this site wants to hear about it.

The website is the brainchild of 21-year-old Andre Borys, who was inspired to create the forum after his own encounter with Toronto police last summer. It was on one May evening that Mr. Borys was the designated driver for a group of friends out for a night on the town when police nabbed him for stopping in front of a pizza parlour in a no-parking zone.

“One officer looked at my licence, saw that I’m from Mississauga, and asked ‘What, they don’t have no-parking signs like this in Mississauga?’ ” recalled Mr. Borys, a fourth-year business student at McMaster University.

“I wanted to show him respect, so I didn’t respond with a smart-ass comment. Here I am being very respectful and he’s talking down to me.”

Mr. Borys doesn’t dispute the fact that he was breaking the law, nor that he deserved the $60 ticket, but says he felt making a complaint would have had no effect. So he started the website to allow people with similar experiences to air their grievances.

But it wasn’t until he saw the recent public outrage over alleged police brutality during the G20 summit making headlines this week that he decided to go live.

It went live very recently, so there aren't many comments there yet and they're all from Ontario.

So, what do the cops think? What did you expect? Waaaaaaah!

The Toronto Police Association says it is worried that a new website allowing the public to rant about their police encounters, publish names and badge numbers and rate officer behaviour, could incite “abuse” toward its members.

Well, when it come to 'abuse', the public has certainly been getting some lessons from the experts lately.

Paging Stacy Bonds. The Ottawa police haven't been mentioned yet.

Here's the site: Judge My Cop.

When men are "silenced"...

by women, no less!!! HOW DARE THEY?!?!?!

TORONTO - Councillor Janet Davis told Councillor Doug Ford to shut his “f---ing mouth” Wednesday.
Davis walked over and whispered the comment directly to Mayor Rob Ford’s brother during a budget committee meeting.
She dropped the f-bomb shortly after the committee rejected a motion to spend $409,000 for an eight-site expansion of the After-school Recreation and Care (ARC) Program. Ford had argued against the spending and accused councillors of wanting to “waste taxpayers’ money.”
The private R-rated remark prompted Ford to jump to his feet and announce Davis had told him to “keep my f---ing mouth shut” and called the comment “disgusting.”
“I don’t need that talk up here. Why don’t you just leave? You call yourself a lady, give me a break,” Ford shouted at Davis.

From here.

Some years ago, when I volunteered at the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre and then, at the Ottawa Sexual Assault Support Centre, I fielded requests to staff an information table or represent the organization at an educational event.

This occasion sticks in my memory.  It was held at a public high school. One of the teachers had determined it was a good idea for the students to learn more about acquaintance and date rape.

The impetus for this activity was the experience of one young woman who was "allegedly" assaulted by young men that she knew. The circumstances were very similar to what was inflicted upon Rehtaeh Parsons. When she reported the incident to the local police and tried to have charges filed, she and her mother were treated with derision and contempt.

After the noon-time information fair, where CHEO, the Ottawa police, Planned Parenthood, SASC and other community groups were present, students in grades 11, 12 and 13 filed into the assembly hall.

There was a panel of speakers, assembled to speak on the topic. Two participants stand out in my mind: the young woman whose experience was germane to the event, and a cop from the division where she tried to report her assault.

Yes. Both these individuals were on the panel, separated by other folks whose "expertise" on the matter I forget.  There was nobody from ORCC or SASC sitting there.

Clearly someone, probably a vice-principal, thought it was a good idea to give the police an opportunity to respond to the young woman's damning story.

Which she recounted haltingly, with no tears but with a quiet assurance.

Unfortunately, the next person on the panel to speak was .... yes, you guessed it ... the cop.

Rather than explaining in neutral terms the legal procedure for reporting crimes of sexual assault and providing legal definitions, he started justifying why the cops at his station determined that the complainant's report was "unfounded" — by recounting his version of the story, intently and intentionally attacking her credibility.

The sight and sound of a fifty-something cop re-assaulting this young woman without any challenges from the teachers or other people on the panel infuriated me.

You know how these days, people post TW - trigger warning - in front of links to articles or testimonies about traumatic events, usually child abuse, intimate violence, sexual assault, and so on?

Well.  That cop's malicious and unimpeded verbal aggression upon this young woman triggered something in me.

I was standing at the back of the hall; I had followed the students in and there were no seats left. 

I felt it before it actually exploded out of me.  A rumble, starting at the bottom of my torso moved upwards and was propelled out of my mouth.

SHUT UP!  JUST SHUT UP!

It was very, very loud.

The audience members, whose sympathies clearly lay with their peer, and who had been rustling uncomfortably during the cop's screed, broke into applause.  Some teachers craned their necks, trying to establish where the explosion had originated.

The cop's mouth was open. He closed it, he looked at the person who had made a mess of moderating this so-called panel. She looked away. He sat down.

Someone else hastily rose to address the assembly, a guidance teacher I think.  I was stunned, actually, by the force of what had just happened.  It had occurred reflexively, like an arm raised to ward off a blow.

Here's the thing.  Bullies like Doug Ford and the cop at this event are not used to being told to shut up.  Doug, a crafty political strategist, nimbly reacted to his colleague's quiet remonstrance by cranking up the volume and histrionically exploiting the incident to his advantage, playing to his Ford Nation following. He claimed victimhood.

That happens a lot.  In the House of Commons' Question Period and elsewhere.  Many have documented how bellowing men effectively silence their female critics with ad hominem tactics 

Research about the verbal space occupied by women and men is also revealing.

Paul Simon sang, years ago:

These are the days of miracle and wonder This is the long distance call The way the camera follows us in slo-mo The way we look to us all...

It behooves us to find a way to disarm this "live grenade" tactic, to move on to more compassionate and (dare I use this word, especially as I suggested to impolitical that Rob Ford has made it radioactive, in Ontario at least) authentic  forms of communication.

The difference between inflammatory and defamatory.

The Toronto Police union is calling for Sid Ryan to resign after the labour leader suggested police may plant agent provocateurs among the G20 protesters to incite violence. “It’s a totally irresponsible, inflammatory and idiotic thing to say for someone in his position. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association. “It’s a total insult to police everywhere.”

At a Wednesday news conference for the “People First!” rally, Ryan said he had concerns the police would use disguised agents to cause chaos in order to provoke a violent response from security forces. “They’ve done it before,” said Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. “I’m concerned about that as a tactic to justify police presence and justify the spending of $1.3 billion on security.”

From here. Notice McCormack said inflammatory and not defamatory. An explanation for this would be, as the letter from the Council of Canadians to Harper illustrates, there is cause for such concerns.

“Three undercover police officers attempted to incite violence in 2007 at the Montebello protest against the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The proof of their actions was caught on film,” adds Barlow. “The Sûreté du Québec was forced to admit that they were police officers, dressed in black and holding rocks. Yet, to date no one has been held accountable and through his silence, Harper appears to have given tacit approval of the use of agents provocateurs.”

It was the above incident that came to mind when this occurred in Ottawa, shortly before Stevie and his bullies disclosed the billion dollars (and rising) budget anticipated for the G-8/B-20 held in Ontario, much of it dedicated to public government security.

The Devil is a Christian invention and these days, he's a Moozlim.

Maisy Odjick and Shannon Alexander vanished from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg community near Maniwaki in September 2008, leaving behind their wallets and clothing.

Family members say they've had little help from Quebec provincial police, who initially believed the girls ran away. "Two teenagers don't just disappear off the face of this Earth with nothing. They had no ID, they had no clothes except for the ones on their back," said Odjick [Maisy's mother Laurie], as she fought back tears.

"There was no support, there was no investigation. Search teams weren't involved."

Throughout the investigation, native activists have criticized police for not taking the case seriously because the girls are Aboriginal.

If the girls' relatives had reported that the girls had been forcibly converted to Islam, perhaps an immediate Canada-wide alert would have been issued, as it has happened in the UK for this girl.

But then, Maisy and Shannon are not the pallid-skinned daughters of an Islamophobic community, are they?

Yeah - I'm being sarcastic. It's not just young Aboriginal women or girls that are at risk; any curious or vulnerable adolescent can become the target of a sexual predator or forced into service for prostitution networks.

Logue, the youth intervention co-ordinator for the Ottawa Police Service, isn’t sounding the alarm just yet. There aren’t hard numbers to support the theory, but the anecdotal evidence coming from the street is enough to prompt police and their partner agencies to discuss preventative measures.

Castille Troy, executive director of Minwaashin Lodge, fears the girls are being trafficked to other large Canadian cities and possibly out of the country. Being lured into prostitution isn’t specific to Aboriginal girls, but Troy points out a variety of factors, including urban culture shock, addictions and other mental health issues, that pull them into the dangerous lifestyle.

“There are predators out there just waiting for girls,” Troy says. “It’s an extremely dangerous situation for girls to find themselves in.”

The issue of Aboriginal women disappearing has been a cross-country concern for years. The Native Women’s Association of Canada has counted more than 510 cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal females over the past three decades.

We wrote here that Robert Pickton said that the Bible was his inspiration for his crusade against those he considered evil. A form of Christian "honour" killing of marginal women, it would seem.

Enemy, enemy, who is the enemy? An addendum.

If you're a cop: the public and all civilians are THE enemy.

Ottawa's police chief says he knows the public will be shocked by a video the courts released Thursday showing police pinning down an innocent Ottawa woman and cutting off her shirt and bra with a pair of scissors.

"I understand that Ottawa residents will be shocked by the video," Chief Vern White said in a statement on Thursday.

If you're Blob Blogging Whinger ... well settle in, cuz it's a loooong list.

1. Everyone who doesn't believe gawd speaks through pope Maledict and his Vatican Taliban.
2. Feminists (see above).
3. Anyone who responded with outrage to the systemic cop-initiated violence against Stacy Bonds but doesn't run screaming into the streets when SHE posts glossy fetal p0rn0graphy and/or SHE shrieeks about the BABEEZ! Butchered! In. Abortuaries!
4. Medical professionals, because they provide science and fact-based health care services which are BIASED against BABEEZ!
5. The mainstream media because Bill Whatcott is just like folksy figure Johnny Appleseed.

If you're Stevie Spiteful: the world's his enemy - except for whatever remains of his formerly terrorized ReformaTory caucus members and a few kool-aid-drinking sycophants.

For bad measure and your consideration - Kathy Shaidle. OK, Five Feet of Feces is more of a pro-active hater and bully than victimized by enemies, but she deserves to be mentioned, if only because of this and more recently, this.

In this corner ....

four, five goons in policemen's uniforms.  In the other, a tiny Black woman.

The physical confrontation took place over two years ago; several ProgBloggers have posted the video - which made Justice Richard Lajoie react strongly - released to The Ottawa Citizen, with some portions edited out to preserve Bonds' dignity, as requested by her lawyer. 

The next confrontation between Stacy Bonds and her assailants will take place in court.  To ensure that facts, judicial procedure and logic prevail, NOT brutal thuggery, there needs to be a demand for accountability far beyond the shameful and now habitual displays of sham scrutiny provided by the SIU.  Here's a petition to sign here.

From here: 

Ottawa police officers displayed a "bad attitude" from the very beginning of a controversial cell block video showing Stacy Bonds being kneed, pinned to the floor and stripped of her shirt and bra, the head of Ottawa's defence lawyers association said Thursday.

"She is the smallest person in the room and the officers losing control of themselves in the situation so quickly is very concerning," said Doug Baum. "Why was there such initial roughness? Why the knee strikes?

"There was a bad attitude here that led to violence and improper procedure," said Baum.

A "bad" attitude?  No kidding.

A continuum of cop violence against women: systemic and authoritarian, sexualized and fetishized. (updated)

From Ayesha, we learn about yet another woman's death, as a the tragic outcome of a desultory police investigation.

In an extensive post on a Facebook memorial page, her mother Leah Parsons described how the straight-A high school student became depressed and suicidal after the incident.

“The person Rehtaeh once was all changed one dreaded night in November 2011. She went with a friend to another’s home. In that home she was raped by four young boys . . . one of those boys took a photo of her being raped and decided it would be fun to distribute the photo to everyone in Rehtaeh’s school and community where it quickly went viral,” Leah Parsons wrote. “Because the boys already had a ‘slut’ story, the victim of the rape Rehtaeh was considered a slut.

“This day changed the lives of our family forever.”

Rehtaeh, who was a 15-year-old high school student in Cole Harbour at the time, was repeatedly bullied at school and “suddenly shunned by almost everyone she knew.”

“She was never left alone. She had to leave the community. Her friends turned against her. People harassed her. Boys she didn’t know started texting her and Facebooking her asking her to have sex with them. It just never stopped,” her mother told CBC.

Racialized women in Canada experience this daily.  First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Black, all brown-skinned women of mixed ancestries rarely if ever trust the police to take reports of sexual violence directed at them seriously, and to investigate properly. In reality, reporting such violence makes them vulnerable to the cops' own abusive practices, as case after case demonstrates. Operation Thunder Bird attempted to expose this reality.

In Ottawa, a judge recently exonerated the sexualized brutality that a police officer used against a woman detained for alleged public intoxication - a "charge" which was never actually shown to be founded.

Violent cops like Steve Desjourdy can sexually humiliate, degrade and punish jailed women with impunity. His actions which were challenged in criminal court, have been excused and thus can become the official standard that police taking women into custody can apply.

According to the judge who presided over the trial, Desjourdy "used reasonable force".

Many who viewed the internal video that captured Desjourdy and his colleagues' actions, observed that he seemed to be enjoying his job, exerting force in order to break the detained woman's will and her instinct to defend herself from the cops' deliberate, sexualized violations.

Familiar patterns of cops' fetishized brutality against women keep surfacing.  It would appear a measure of implicit identification with the perpetrators of sexual assault impinges upon some police officers' professional capacity to effectively investigate violent crimes against women.

In my opinion, the RCMP has become irreversibly corrupted and poisoned by misogyny; this latest outrage is more evidence of the toxicity of its systemic sexist culture.

UPDATE: Two excellent blogposts that MUST be read. Both cut to the core of the way rape culture enables violence against women and girls.

Child porn isn’t a “community issue,” RCMP from Steph Guthrie really nails the misogynist sub-text of the shoddy excuse the RCMP provided for its MASSIVE lack of due diligence, with regard to the taking and distribution of the photo of Rehtaeh Parsons.  A crime was committed; it's the RCMP's job to deal with it.  Unless its officers' sloppy lack of professional dedication is a recognition that the institution is de facto complicit with child pornographers and sexual assailants in that community.

This is heart-wrenching:

[...] where the fuck were the school officials, the members of the law enforcement, the people who should have made sure that she had adequate follow-up mental health care after her hospitalization? Where were they, and why didn’t they do anything? Or if they did do something, why didn’t they do enough?

Rehtaeh’s rapists are still out there. They are still in high school, they are still going to parties and they are, quite likely, still raping. Why wouldn’t they? They got away with it once, didn’t they? Rehtaeh’s rapists are still living normal, untroubled lives, and she is dead. [...]

Saying that we need to educate boys and girls about appropriate behaviour is victim-blaming. Saying that this wouldn’t have been a problem if the pictures hadn’t ended up online is like saying that rape is fine, but publicly broadcasting it isn’t. Calling Rehtaeh’s death a tragedy because we’ve lost a beautiful young woman is a joke – seriously, what bearing does her appearance have on how sad her death is? And since Landry is refusing to open an official review into how the RCMP handled this, isn’t he basically saying, “I think she was lying about the rape, but gosh, she sure was hot”?

All of this, every single word of this statement, all of the things that Rehtaeh endured, every single detail presented here is rape culture.

Read the comments too.


So, with regard to the way it deals with sexual violence against women and girls, should Canada feel *superior* to India?

Are crimes of sexual assault still a joke for cops?

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose? In London it would seem so.

The revelations today about how the Metropolitan police missed chances over six years to stop John Worboys - and indeed believed him rather than the victim - raises the question of how much has changed. At the top of forces such as the Metropolitan police there has been concern about the poor rape conviction rates and much thought on how to improve investigatory techniques and the victim support that the force offers.

Nine years ago the Met set up Sapphire teams in 30 boroughs, where trained officers told women all allegations of rape and sexual assault would be treated seriously. Haven sexual referral units were created where victims were medically examined in a supportive environment by specialist staff.

For frontline officers there is a strict protocol; primarily they are told to listen to the victim and accept her version unless there is a glaring reason not to. Despite such policies the Worboys case suggests that, at grassroots level, officers are not carrying out orders.

According to evidence, officers working in Sapphire teams have complained repeatedly that their units are de-prioritised and under funded. Some female police officers have told campaigners they would not go to the Met if they were raped because they do not believe they would be taken seriously.

At the heart of the controversy is how frontline officers treat women who complain of a sexual assault. The Worboys case suggests officers can be dismissive; several of the complaints made to the police were put down as "no crime" because the victims seemed flaky and unable to recall what had happened - all of which should have rung alarm bells ... not led to the victims being shown the door.

Here in Canada, the consequences of a legal judgement in favour of 'Jane Doe' and her lawsuit against the Toronto police organization would suggest that the system has improved how it handles investigations.

...much has changed since Paul Douglas Callow, known as the Balcony Rapist, stole through her open bedroom window 22 years ago, put a knife to her ['Jane Doe'] throat and raped her. The sex assault squad has grown from a 20-detective, 9-to-5 shoestring outfit to a bustling 30-detective operation with officers on call night and day. Its mandate has changed, too, from focusing only on stranger rape involving penetration to investigating any sexual assault in which there could be an ongoing danger to the public. ...

The squad is part of the 70-person Sex Crimes Unit, which includes divisions focusing on child exploitation, behavioural assessments and special victims. Changes to the system, Byrnes says, are owed in part to Doe's dogged wrangling.

For instance, after recommendations from the steering committee, squad officers now get specialized training. Other changes include:

• Front-line officers responding to 911 calls only take limited information, so victims only have to tell their story once. Squad members are hand-picked.
• There is a separate division dedicated to investigating rapes of prostitutes, a group previously ignored or blamed for their own plight.
• Cautions and press releases no longer contain "blame" language. For instance, women are no longer advised to "close their windows" if a serial rapist is on the loose.

Ten years ago, out of 1,570 sexual assaults reported in Toronto, the squad only investigated 70 cases because of its restrictive mandate. Last year, under the new rules, the Sex Crimes Unit probed 2,551 cases. "We've made the crime a priority," Byrnes says.

The Faculty of Common Law at the University of Ottawa recently held a conference - Sexual Assault Law, Practice & Activism in a Post-Jane Doe Era - to reflect upon whether anything has actually changed. The proceedings should be fascinating to read.

KKKory's Freudian Lingerie

This is delicious. ReformaTory, aka US Rethuglican-wannabee, lies and shenanigans spin together two current ugly confrontations -- the long-gun registry (which, by the way, may now be safe thanks to the NDP) and the Fox News North kerfuffle -- into a perfect hurricane of irony.

I knew I'd heard KKKory Teneyke say something about the US National Rifle Association meddling in Canadian politics as he hysterically claims Avaaz, the organization running the Stop Fox News North petition, is doing.

I was looking for a link, but was pretty sure it was during the shouting match debate betweeen KKKory and Avaaz's Canadian director, Ricken Patel, on the Evan Solomon CringeFest a week or so ago.

Bingo. James Bowie to the rescue.

"What if the NRA came in to Canada trying to influence policy and decision? People would be outraged!" - Kory Teneyke 03 09 10

Hee. The NRA is doing exactly that and has been for years and yes, KKKory was right on one thing, people are outraged.

When I heard him make that comparison, I thought to self, 'KKKory, are you sure you want to go there?" Maybe as he was bloviating about 'foreign' meddlers, he had a Freudian lingerie moment and out popped the name of a powerful foreign extremist group that he knew bloody well had been meddling for years.

Wikipedia says of the NRA:

Members of Congress have ranked the NRA as the most powerful lobbying organization in the country several years in a row. Opponents of the organization accuse it of unduly influencing political appointments.

In related news, Avaaz today turned over the Ottawa-area IP address of the saboteur(s) of the FNN petition to the RCMP and the Ottawa Police. You remember, that sabotage that KKKory has some connection to? KKKory said that an 'acquaintance' told him he or she had signed up fictional characters. But the acquaintance denied signing up real-world journalists -- which would be identity theft. Avaaz says that the same IP address was used to sign up both.

Ooooh, I'm making a REALLY big bowl of popcorn for this one.