Digital Painting

I got out my digital paint box this weekend and did this little abstract using a photo I'd taken as the inspiration/underlying image.

Another Leftist Screed

This is an article I wrote and sent to the Free Press for consideration. I don't consider it to be a perfect argument by any stretch so your comments and criticisms are most certainly appreciated.

Prime Minister Harper’s promise to crackdown on young offenders, which includes a provision to allow judges the option to sentence fourteen year-olds to life in prison, is a prime indication that he has little interest in respecting the rights of Canada’s underrepresented and underprivileged. Just last week I received a pamphlet from my local Conservative candidate lauding the government for raising the age of consent from 14 to 16 in the last session of Parliament. The Conservatives acknowledge that a 14 year-old is child when it comes to deciding whether or not to engage in sexual intercourse yet in the case of violent crime, according to Mr. Harper, that same child should be considered an adult under the law.

Although Mr. Harper admits that deep troubles in the home and community may contribute to criminal behaviour among young people he does not allow that this should be a consideration in prosecution of serious crimes. Defending his proposal in Ottawa he said: "in the end, while I can feel terrible sympathy for those kinds of situations, once a person goes down the route of murder, rape, beatings, killings – none of that becomes an excuse for that behaviour." In fact Mr. Harper’s prescription for youth crime is a very clear sign that he has no sympathy for children who react to the poverty, violence and abuse they suffer by paying it back. His solution is to blame the child who misbehaves for the neglect and disenfranchisement he or she was born into and to penalize accordingly.

Mr. Harper believes that the possibility of Draconian punishment will steer potential young offenders straight. In his words: "You cannot rehabilitate someone who does not get a message from the system about the serious consequences of what they are doing.” But many studies have shown that this belief is quite different from the reality of what motivates the most serious youth crime, and what, if anything, will cure it.

Mr. Harper’s proposal presumes that leniency is at the root of high youth crime rates, ignoring the reality that hopelessness, ignorance, apathy and mental disorders are often greater motivators for many young offenders than the ability to evade hard time. He displays an inability to empathize, preferring to believe that every child grows up with the same capacity to respect the strict morals that he and his ilk were raised on. But the truth for so many of our disadvantaged adolescents is as distant from Mr. Harper's views as Winnipeg’s North End is from Sussex Drive.

Directionless youth do not need jail time to straighten out, they don’t need to be told they are worthless by their government because many of them already feel worthless. Punishing them only reinforces their belief that the world is out to get them, and strengthening the sentences does nothing to correct their world view. Turning a child of fourteen, who cannot vote, who cannot claim to be in possession of his own destiny into an adult criminal is the mark of a callous and unjust society.

I am not saying that I fully support the YCJA in its current form, however imposing harsh prison terms on youth is a palliative cure that will not significantly impact the rates of youth crime. Mr. Harper’s proposal is a disciplinarian’s salve for a serious social problem that proves he is out of his depth when it comes to addressing the needs of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens.

Election '08 Photo of the Day

Obama gives McCain a longing look while he holds his knob.