Politic?

This is a blog dedicated to a personal interpretation of political news of the day. I attempt to be as knowledgeable as possible before commenting and committing my thoughts to a day's communication.

Monday, September 03, 2018

'Alleged Language' or Simple, Observable and Plain Reality?

"He steps up to them and tells 'All of you people need to get jobs' ... and 'You guys can't keep hanging around here being vagrants'..."
"And 'You guys need to get out of here'."
Scott Many Grey Horses, Facebook

"I found the whole thing completely outrageous. I felt so strongly that these are really people with significant challenges. Nobody would hire these people. They cannot get a job. Most of them have severe addictions or prenatal exposure to alcohol."
"I just felt unless someone helped them voice their complaint, it would just get swept under the rug."
"To me, that’s someone who has a high level of education and who deals on a day-to-day basis with people from that community, to exhibit such hostility towards that group was kind of mind-blowing in fact. I thought something should be done about it."
"It was just shocking to me. The rejection said the conduct didn't happen during his practice time. It wasn't while he was practising medicine so there's nothing they can do about it."
"When a person demonstrates an obvious disdain for an identifiable and vulnerable group of people, how can you be assured that kind of obvious bias and negative view of them doesn't effect the way he practises medicine? Surely that is something that needs to be investigated, and I urged them to reopen the complaint."
Lethbridge lawyer Ingrid Hess

"We are investigating and will take any necessary action once that investigation is complete."
"There is no excuse for the comments that were allegedly made in this instance, and we want to assure those involved in this incident that this sort of alleged language in no way reflects the beliefs or values of Alberta Health Services."
Alberta Health Services

"I am of the view that the various concerns raised in your letter of complaint do not relate to patient care."
"I understand the feelings of those affected by Dr. Clarke's remarks. They were unfortunate and inappropriate."
"The College nevertheless cannot dictate the behaviour of what a physician does outside a clinical setting excluding extreme circumstances."
Michael Caffaro, assistant registrar, complaints director, Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons
Dr. Lloyd Clarke will remain on administrative leave until the matter is resolved, Alberta Health Services says.
Dr. Lloyd Clarke, associate medical director, Alberta Health Services, Cardston, Alta. will remain on administrative leave until the matter is resolved, Alberta Health Services says.  (YouTube)

It's a pretty straightforward situation. A medical doctor by chance, but it could have been anyone who works for a living and feels disgust when he walks by a group of people outside the entrance of a store clearly loitering, not engaged in any useful work of any description in the middle of the day. It doesn't take too much cerebral functioning to conclude that the individuals appearing to be homeless Indigenous people, are doing nothing to further themselves, much less support their most basic needs, appearing to be satisfied to collect handouts to keep body and soul together.

Simply being Indigenous is no handicap in life. Presenting as handicapped based on being Indigenous because the larger society is seen as privileged at the expense of the Indigenous population is fallacious and self-destructive. But it does work wonders in inducing guilt in the minds of those being blamed for the conditions that Indigenous people find themselves in mostly as a result of their own lack of willingness to do something for themselves rather than be dependent on social welfare.

Dr. Clarke, the man accused of 'racism' because of disparaging remarks he made of homeless Indigenous would be in a fairly good position to medically judge the extent of their handicapped inability to fend for themselves as most people are expected to do. He obviously felt fed up and no little bit annoyed at the situation whereby people prefer to do nothing for themselves while exploiting a social convention whereby the hale and productive feel obliged, as they should, to give aid to those whom genuine life circumstances have not favoured.

Yet when someone with the intelligence and the public social conscience to point out to them that they could make a choice to restore a level of dignity to their lives by making an effort to help themselves, it is seen as a dreadful affront. Homeless, without a visible means of income, helpless and vulnerable in the opinion of the woman who read the account of the encounter that a purported bystander Scott Many Grey Horses posted on his Facebook account, it was scandalous, racist, unprofessional and unbearable to have accosted the group's lazy dependency.

Unable to perform some elemental labour, or unwilling to do anything that might result in self-sufficiency when panhandling and welfare are so much easier to come by, and viewed by many in the First Nations communities as the rightful obligation of the colonial-identified 'white man' to the noble Indian from whom he wrenched the stewardship of the land called Canada. Dr. Lloyd Clarke stopped briefly at the sight of able-bodied people, quick to register the indignity they suffered on Facebook when the physician analyzed their situation and chided them for their complacency and lack of responsibility.

Lawyer Ingrid Hess was propelled into service on behalf of these malingerers when she read the Facebook post, took the trouble of tracking down two of the people involved, and convinced them to sign a complaint. She was furious that the doctor had suggested the people in the group were searching out prescriptions for Tylenol 3s. How dare anyone confront these poor underprivileged people who, because they are Indigenous, are forgiven their unwillingness to exert a level of personal responsibility for their own well being?

She launched herself on a crusade to 'out' the doctor and ensure that he would be punished for his lack of compassion for society's psychologically impoverished. Thus far, Dr. Clarke has been placed on administrative leave while Alberta Health Services 'resolves' the issue, while promising that a different doctor would be available to anyone taking offence, should they require medical assistance from the Cardston clinic.

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