When femicide is justified by men who feel their "honour" has been soiled.

The first post of an informal series, illustrating how and when all the elements of the legal system do work and justice is served.

Dorothy Woods.

Police officers meticulously collected evidence to document a complicated investigation in a rigorous, professional manner.

Here's an interesting series of posts, following the release of her accused killer - presumed innocent as the legal system goes, and this feminist agrees - on bail after he was charged.

The Crown proceeded with skill, compassion and due diligence.

The defendant's lawyer attempted to impugn the integrity and the objectivity of the prosecutor.

Outside court, defense lawyer Michael Nolin took issue with how the texts presented to the jury portray David Woods as a racist. "I'm very disappointed that this is the line that the prosecution has chosen to draw in the sand," he said. "I find it interesting that the only prosecutor of colour in the Saskatoon provincial prosecution office has been drawn to try this case. And he's been on it from the beginning."

Nolin concluded his case for the defence by stating Dorothy engaged in a high-risk lifestyle with several strange (code for black) men*, and exhorted the jurors to "vote with their conscience".  Oddly that doesn't sound at all like a closing argument to me though it does seem to be a judgement.

The judge carefully presided over the trial and instructed the jury members.

The attentive jury reviewed the details of evidence that was gathered and presented.

After a finding of first degree murder, the prosecutor Michael Segu was able to offer observations to the media in his measured, thoughtful manner.

Oh. Was it racism, the "the elephant in the room" that Woods' lawyer Michael Nolin kept tripping over?

Nonetheless David Woods refused to take responsibility for the aggrieved male honour and patriarchal privilege that motivated him to plan and execute the vengeful murder of his wife.  He appealed his conviction.

*The testimony of Dorothy's friend was challenged by Woods' lawyer; the judge allowed it.

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ADDED: to provide a context for this post.  There have been many confrontations after the Ghomeshi decision, particularly with regard to those who seem compelled to police what can be properly criticized.  On both sides of the divide, many have descended into use of hyperbole.

These screen caps indicate how most criticism of Justice Horkins' judgement is met with hostile screeching of SO YOU WANT TO ABOLISH THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE! 

When those accused of being "anti-presumption of innocence" attempt to clarify - they're then accused of being in league with some RWNJ advocacy for victims, such as the useful con job Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu.  Err, no. 

The Great Mouse Massacre.

My cat used to be a great mouser. She is now a feline elder, beset with chronic health issues and confined to the second floor as it would be dangerous for her to navigate the stairs - she is blind in one eye.

Thus, I knew I would have to deal with the minuscule missile of grey fur that streaked across the kitchen floor last week.

I purchased humane traps. The concept behind these cantilevered plastic boxes is simple: a yummy appetizer is left in the furthest corner, the mouse enters, shifts the center of balance, and the device clicks shut.

The next morning, two of the traps were closed and ominously, the other two were empty ... of bait.

The plan was to release the caught mouse (mice?) a few blocks from my house - in other words, to relocate them.

I gingerly opened one trap. Nothing. The other? Zip.

Fine. This was a declaration of war.

The mouse had been lulled into a state of complacency and triumphalism by the ease with which it had outsmarted the humane traps.

At my local Home Hardware store, I asked the young clerk about vermin poison. "If it dies in its hidey-hole, won't its carcass stink up the kitchen for awhile?"

His eyes shifted nervously as he said: "I think the poison makes the mice really thirsty so they leave your house to look for water."

He shrugged. I snorted.

"Let me see one of those New Improved Mousetraps™©", I said.

I looked at the plastic object, slightly narrower than the metal coilspring clamps that shipping clerks have at the top of their boards.

SNAP! It was now firmly clutching my finger. "Well, said I, it caught me, it'll surely catch a mere mouse."

So last evening I delicately prepared 4 itsy bitsy teensy weensy amuse-gueule, little pieces of bread with a smear of peanut butter, for the better mouse traps.

This morning: one dead field mouse.

Before you start yelling at me, may I say in my defense that the mice previously hunted down and caught by my cat were likely tormented before she applied le coup de grâce and then dropped them under my desk chair.

My new tenant died quickly - and efficiently.

Martyr or Zealot?

The Flint Journal interviewed a man who knew one of the two men shot today in Owosso, Michigan. The anti-abortion one, not the other one, the gravel company owner, whose views on abortion are as yet unpublished.

In fact, the man interviewed had known the anti-abortion guy for most of his life and worked with him at the Buick plant in Flint. He saw him outside the school -- and WTF is up with protesting abortion at a highschool? -- twice this week and heard that he'd been there all week.

"He was the kind of guy, well, if you want to say he was kind of radical, to do the things he was doing, with the demeanor he had to display the fetus on this big, full-color signs, you had to be a little radical. He's been all over the state protesting. He was committed."

Decaire said he would talk to Pouillon "from time to time," generally about their days in the shop.

"But he always had his abortion sign with him. He was known as 'the sign guy'."

Over at LifeShite, the canonization has begun.

Occasionally, as he was doing this morning, Pouillon was known to stand near Owosso high school to discuss abortion with the students there.

Occasionally, eh? (And pssst, he probably didn't stand, since he used a wheelchair and much is being made elsewhere of his handicapped status.)

You gotta hand it to LifeShite, though. The story admits to a few warts on the guy.

Court records published by local news reports show that Pouillon has been cited on charges connected to his pro-life activities, mostly minor infringements related to property laws, many of which were dismissed. In 2000, Pouillon was found guilty for stalking - a charge Zastrow [friend and fellow anti-abortion protester] says was unjustly brought against the veteran pro-lifer.

Oh, and look who else weighs in. Operation Scumbag, one of the main enablers of Dr George Tiller's assassin.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman told LSN that Pouillon, who participated in Operation Rescue, was a "dear friend" and "always an encourager."

All the usual suspects are lining up to play martyr. Hop over to JJ's to read about the fetus fetishists' 'news conference'.

Silence will not protect us.

Sitara Achakzai. Safia Amajan. And now, Natalia Estemirova.

The desolate field was on the edge of town next to a disused factory. I heard crows and distant traffic as we walked along in the dusk, marshland on either side.

"One of the women was wearing red boots," said Natalia. "There was very little grass in winter so you could spot her a mile off." My companion was a tall, determined-looking woman, who took big strides and talked at a rate of knots. Unlike most women in Grozny these days she wore no headscarf. Natalia was head of the Grozny branch of Memorial, the organisation that campaigns for human rights across Russia.

She had brought me to this dreary suburb to see the place where three women's bodies were found one day last November. The morning after that gruesome discovery, four more dead women were discovered around the Chechen capital. All seven had been shot in the head with an automatic weapon.

As we stood shivering in the dying light, I never dreamt that three weeks later Natalia, herself, would suffer a similar fate.

On Wednesday she was bundled into a van as she left her home. Her body was found later the same day in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, with multiple bullet wounds. There is little doubt in Chechnya that her killing was connected to her investigative and campaigning work - including the case of the seven murdered women.

These three women knew that speaking out, denouncing violence against women, put them in the bull's eye of murderous religious fundamentalists who kill with impunity. Such violence is also seen in other countries dominated by religious rightwing ideology. Mexico, for example. From here:

Mexican activist & journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro has been arrested and jailed by police. Women's rights advocates are calling Cacho's arrest a 'counter-attack' in revenge against Cacho for having authored a book, 'Demons in Eden' that exposed the connections between a group of wealthy business-men and pedophile rings and child pornographers.

Cacho was detained for the supposed crime of defamation (a criminal offense in Mexico) resulting from a complaint filed by Nacif Borge, a Lebanese born textile
businessman who Cacho has linked with the leader of the pedophile gang, millionaire hotelier Jean Succar Kuri ...

Since the publication of Demons in Eden, Cacho has been harassed and has received death threats for her investigative journalism. Cacho is the director of the Center for Integral Attention for Women (CIAM) in Cancun, whose 40 member staff have also been threatened by forces apparently linked to the wealthy businessmen.

Brutal, systemic violence perpetrated in christian countries against women and children - with the collusion of state officials - has been well documented by Amnesty International.

Palling around with terrorists

For undisclosed reasons, the OPP will not pursue charges against convicted murderer and domestic terrorist James Kopp.

James Kopp, serving a life sentence for killing a U.S. doctor who performed abortions, will not face charges in the attempted murder of an Ancaster physician, the OPP say.

"Following consultation with the Hamilton Crown Attorney's office on the evidence relating to the attempted murder of Dr. Hugh Short, the Ontario Provincial Police and Hamilton Police Service joint investigation team has decided not to proceed with charges at this time," according to a press release.

Short was shot and wounded by a sniper in his Ancaster home in November 1995.

Check out Kopp's story and Canadian links.

Meanwhile, Kopp continues to be the main suspect in three non-fatal shootings of Canadian doctors: Dr. Garson Romalis in Vancouver (1994), Dr. Hugh Short in Hamilton (1995), and Dr. Jack Fainman in Winnipeg (1997). He was charged in the Hamilton shooting after DNA evidence was found at the scene that matched Kopp's hairs. Kopp is also a suspect in a fourth non-fatal shooting in Rochester, New York—Dr. David Gandell (1997). All five victims, including Dr. Slepian, were shot through a window of their home by a sniper hiding behind the house, armed with an assault rifle.

The cops have Kopp's DNA from the Ancaster scene? And they're not pursuing the case? WTF?

Sure, I understand that Kopp will die in prison in the US, but he likely shot three Canadian doctors. And we don't seem to care about proving this? Finding out who helped him in Canada?

Me, I wanna know who Kopp was palling around with in Canada.

Attractive Victims

I have never (knock wood) been a crime victim. It occurs to me though that my 'sell-by' date as a victim is probably past. In fact, I'm probably way closer to the middle-aged, incoherent, probably-having-a-nervous-breadown end of the scale than to the female, blonde, teenaged shopper end.

Gary Mason in today's Globe has a thought experiment of his own:

Just imagine if Joe Canadian were tasered in, oh, I don't know, let's say the Bangkok airport.

And Joe Canadian died.

Imagine that the Thai police took nine months to complete their investigation, an investigation that included a trip to Canada to look into Joe's past.

And in the end, they decided not to prosecute the police officers involved.

Their report says Joe died because he drank too much and suffered from a flying phobia, which combined to weaken his system and made him vulnerable when he was blasted with 50,000 volts of electricity.

Imagine how Canadians would react to a report like that.

Yeah. Imagine that.