Glorious Feedback

These are letters published in today's Free Press refuting the commentary I had in Sunday's paper. This is the first time the paper has published letters based on an article I've written. Frankly, I'm a bit tickled. Here they are:

Letter of the day

Wed Aug 22 2007

Car thieves aren't victims

Re: Persecuting and Prosecuting Children, Aug. 19.

Ryan Kinrade equates children as equal victims in instances where they are objects of sexual attack and also as youthful car thieves causing willful damage and even death to others. I respectfully beg to differ.

A child who is the victim of a sexual attack is the target of a predator who is searching for someone who is less powerful than he to exercise power over. The perpetrator may have been the victim of some past injustice himself. In our society this does not entitle him to act out his resentment and frustration on an innocent human being.

In the same way the youthful car thief aligns himself with the sexual predator. The car thief may have been the victim of some sort of crime, but he is not entitled to steal and damage the property of others, or to maim and kill innocent third parties to empower himself or relieve his frustrations. The unfortunate victim of the car thief stands in the place of the child sexual assault victim in Kinrade's parable.

I do agree that child car thieves need to be treated differently than sexual predators, but when murder by motor vehicle results from car theft, the punishment needs to reflect the seriousness of the crime. Every perpetrator of every crime suffers from lost innocence. That does not excuse them for their willful and destructive behaviour.

I am extremely tired of the "everybody is a victim" culture, which I feel may be encouraged by Kinrade's musings. In some ways we are all victims of something in our pasts, but we can never use that as an excuse to victimize someone else with our own destructive behaviour.

WILLIAM D. WATSON

Winnipeg

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Excuses, excuses

Re: Persecuting and prosecuting children, Free Press (Aug. 18). Ryan Kinrade's article says the reason so many of these kids steal cars is because they are in impoverished environments. I beg to differ. As long as people make excuses for these kids they will keep doing it.

I grew up with two verbally and physically abusive alcoholic parents. I grew up in the north end in the 1960s. I used to roam the streets sometimes until 2 a.m. but not to vandalize or steal. I was on a mission. That mission was to find enough pop and beer bottles to cash in so I could buy milk for my baby brother. I also went to bed many nights where my supper was a bowl of milk and a slice of bread broken up into the milk.

I never used my childhood problems to steal anything, including food. I weighed 69 pounds when I graduated from high school. Please quit giving the kids of today a cop out. It won't help them in the end. The poor-me attitude will only get them so far and it probably shouldn't get them anywhere if they want to grow up to be productive members of society. One last thing, I am a proud Metis so don't think I'm being prejudicial.

Sandi Miller

Winnipeg

FP Article

I previously reported that this article had been rejected, but it appeared in today's paper, so if you've read it already it's nothing new, only difference is it's status has changed from "unpublished" to "published."


Two separate but equally devastating crimes that have captured the attention of Winnipeggers recently point to what a paradoxical pursuit Justice can be in the case of children.

In one case we have a man who’s sexual urges are reviled by society, who is judged by the masses as a monster, and who, if the common man had his way would likely be castrated or worse.

Liberal as Canadian society is in matters of sexual preference, we draw the line at children. We do so because we don’t believe kids have the gained the knowledge to appreciate the value of their sexuality, and are in general far more susceptible to manipulation from adults who would abuse their trust. We believe that an adult has an obligation to respect the innocence of the young, and to know the boundaries, liberal as they are in Canada, in which “consensual sex” is legally considered consensual.

However society does not afford children who commission motor vehicles for the purpose of joy-riding the same measure of innocence. Indeed, when a child--who is perhaps just old enough to consent to sex--steals a car he is no longer a child, but a “youth,” and as such is subject to the all disapproval and bloodlust an enraged citizenry places on it’s most hated criminals.

Tragic results, such as last week’s death of an innocent cyclist, seem to further mobilize public support and government musings on the redrafting of laws, intended to protect youth, to reflect a desire for punishment in the name of public safety. Only by strong deterrence and proper detention—so the theory goes—can we hope to end the madness that has threatened our property and our lives.

There is little discussion about the lost innocence of the perpetrators of these crimes. We have no tolerance for those who would know right, and do wrong, and not much interest in why they would choose wrong over and over again. Apparently, to most it is simply a matter that bad behaviour that goes unpunished will not be amended.

But I see a substantial amount of hypocrisy in our desire to protect one group of children from harm on the one hand, while seeking punishment for another group of children on the other. Are not all children equally worthy of our protection? Is it not the indifference and callousness that we as a community have showered on these persecuted children and their families that has caused them act as they do?

A typical young car thief in Winnipeg is most often the product of an impoverished environment. He is the possessor a stolen childhood lived out on the mean streets of our city, in neighborhoods most people do not live in or visit unless they are forced to. What his crimes indicate above all is the failure on the part of our society to shield it’s most vulnerable citizens from the harsh realities that come as a consequence of poverty and an interminable cycle of despair.

In 1989 the Federal House of Commons promised to: “seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.” Seventeen years later we are no closer to closing the gap, and providing this city’s unfortunates an opportunity to engage in activities and a lifestyle that most would find preferable to stealing cars and living as a pariah.

My guess is that few thieves, even the most chronic among them, would wish to be feared and reviled, if other forms of respect were available to them. If they could find a sport, or an artistic outlet or a hobby that could bring pride to themselves, their families and their neighborhoods would they feel the need to inflict hurt on society over and over again?

We must take greater pains to understand how our indifference is paid back in crimes of property and violence, rather than insisting that more severe punishments will restore order to the streets (which they most certainly will not). Only then will we be closer to finding the answer to what to do about these spectacular crimes—which seem to be the only indication of the epidemic of poverty and despair that better-off citizens pay much attention to these days.

The One That Got Away & Other Fish Tales

Yesterday afternoon I got back from a two day semi-annual fishing excursion with my long-time brother-from-another-mother Dr. Steve. This year we hit Dogtooth Lake which is accessible from the Rushing River Provincial Park (about 20 minutes outside Kenora).

Steve and I paddled his canoe out of Rushing River on Thursday afternoon towards the meeting place of Dogtooth and Kilvert Lakes (about a 7 KM journey). We had a very strong wind at our backs most of the way, which was fortunate given that we did not arrive at the boat launch until after 2pm. On the way out we stopped to fish a couple of bays and I was lucky enough to bring in a decent sized bass that we cooked for supper that night.

We spent all of Friday fishing the bays around the fabulous campsite we found on an island close to the opening of Kilvert. Unlike the Manitoba campsites we are used to from years past this site was completely unmarked by map or landmark. The area we camped in is a part of a proposed Provincial Park, but as yet is mostly undeveloped crown land (with a few notable exceptions in the form of some nice cabins along the way). Anyway, the island had been used previously and a decent fire pit existed, along with a fairly flat clearing in the middle that was perfect for pitching our tent.

The weather was ideal for the entire trip; hot and sunny with just a bit of a breeze. I managed to get a fairly embarrassing sunburn on my chest where I did not do up the shirt I was wearing. Currently I am sporting a rather nasty red stripe from the nape of my neck to the top of my shorts.

Back to the fishing. Our quarry consisted mainly of small to medium sized Large Mouth Bass. I had great success using two classic Rapala lures which happened to be swimming at just the right depth. Steve had a bit more trouble finding a killer lure, but between us we managed to catch a decent amount of fish. I did happen to catch a couple of Walleye while casting with the Rapala. The first one was a very nice sized fish (2 to 3 pounds) that I brought all the way into the boat only to loose while trying to put it on a stringer. Unfortunately I didn't even get a good shot of me with this beautiful specimen, so you'll have to take my word for it. The other Pickerel was a tiny, tiny little fellow, hardly worth mentioning. Of course there were a few dinky Jack to be had as well. All the fish fought well (especially the bass) and it was a pleasure to catch and release them all.

On the Friday afternoon just prior to catching the Walleye that got away Steve and I noticed a huge Bald Eagle in the bay opposite our campsite. S/he followed us around that afternoon as we fished getting up and flying overhead whenever we got too close, but always sticking around. I called her/him our Spirit Eagle and wondered if s/he was not responsible for finding us a good spot to camp and fish. We were also treated to some spectacular loon songs a beaver sighting and some amazing sunsets.

In short, a wonderful time was had, and we got to immerse ourselves in the natural wonder that surrounds us if only for a brief few days. Sadly the Lake of the Woods region is over-runneth with float-planes and powerboats during the summer season and Dogtooth Lake is no exception. However there were plenty of moments when one could imagine that there was nothing but wilderness and loon song, and star filled skies above.