Whose Rights Violated?

"It's affecting everyone in the house. This can completely ruin your recovery, let alone your safety, let alone your life. Those two nights were hell for me."
"We were all choked by our own anxiety, our crippling PTSD symptoms. You could cut the tension in the house."
"All of us were completely upset and flabbergasted, pretty much, and instantly all full of fear. They won't even allow a man on the property without permission by the staff and all the residents. And we had no pre-warning of any of this. There was never any discussions. It was never mentioned. We were all just blindsided."
"Everyone in the house has had at some point male-enforced trauma. This is not about discrimination, this is about the safety of male-enforced trauma victims."
"[Shelter staff said] 'We're all about inclusion and it's unfortunate that you feel this way ... Deal with it or leave'."
Kristi Hanna, 37, former paramedic, recovering addict

Kristi Hanna, who filed a human rights complaint after being told she was the one discriminating against a pre-operative transexual women who was in a shelter for female substance abusers: “We were all just blindsided… This is not about discrimination, this is about the safety of male-enforced trauma victims.” Tyler Anderson/National Post

Ms. Hanna did leave, at least temporarily, fearful of spending another night in close intimate proximity to a man claiming himself to be a woman, and seeking haven and support in the very same facility that Ms. Hanna was occupying, along with other abused women trying to adjust to the miserable reality of their situation, to eventually resume a normal lifestyle, as much as possible. The 'house' she referred to was the Jean Tweed Centre's Palmerston House.

The former paramedic struggles from the traumatic after effects of sexual abuse and additional problems relating to her alcohol and cocaine addictions. She had always been, she said, an "active ally in the LGBTQ community". Suddenly finding herself in a compromised safety issue personally when confronted with the reality of being in effect, forced to share sleeping accommodation in a two-bed bedroom with an individual who looked nothing like a woman.

Simply by stating he was a woman and decided to transition from a man to a woman and needing a place to stay, he was accepted by the Toronto shelter for women as a 'she'. Staff at the facility were uncompromising when Kristi Hanna objected to having to share a bedroom with a 'pre-operational' male. She had herself been living there , a re-purposed Victorian house, for a seven-month period.

After spending two anxious and sleepless nights in the company of the man-who-would-be-a-woman sleeping several feet away from her, she vacated the house, staying over with friends, sleeping on their couches as a "transient" in preference to another night of fear over being raped. She had lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, stating that the shelter "admitted a male bodied transgender into the safety of my home, bedroom and safe spaces", causing her stress, anxiety, rape flashbacks, symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder, and sleep deprivation.

"[The agency is] fully aware of the requirements under the Ontario Human Rights Code and are well known for our work in providing trauma informed care across our programs."
"With respect to accommodating trans women, we do not discriminate; nor do we impose modifications with respect to accommodation."
"We do, however, do our best to meet the needs of all parties affected in a way that complies with the requirements of shelter standards and trauma-informed practice."
Lucy Hume, outgoing executive director, Jean Tweed Centre

In mid-July, the women sheltering at the facility were introduced to the man who arrived as a transgender woman, an individual whose behaviour stood out for notice, someone who failed a sobriety test when in fact residents before being admitted must be clean for a month beforehand. The trans went to detox, then was admitted and assigned to Ms. Hanna's bedroom, a double room, beds five feet apart.

The trans, described as late 20s with facial hair, chest hair, wearing combat boots thumping about the house failed to impress the women sheltering there. At a communal dinner described by Ms. Hanna, the trans spoke of his wife in a past marriage, as well as a pregnant fiancee. During conversations the trans spoke of unidentified women as "hot", expressing a preference for Latina women -- in mannerisms that struck the women present as inappropriately "piggish".

After informing the facility staff that the trans's presence made her feel vulnerable and fearful, others present joined her in signing a petition to staff. She was offered an alternative; she could move to a room leading to a fire escape without a door. The room she had been occupying for the past seven months would continue to be used by the trans. That's when she moved out to begin circulating on friends' couches.

She approached the Human Rights Legal Support Centre to access information on her own rights through a telephone call. The adviser on the line on the other hand took offense at her attitude and ended the conversation but not before informing her that it was she violating human rights law through her attitude, so much so that the trans could file a complaint against her, placing the shelter in a conflict of interest.

"What you've told me is potentially discriminatory and potentially a violation of the law, and that individual may file against you in the future, and our role is to keep those conflicts of interest in mind", the adviser chided her in no uncertain terms. On the other hand, according to Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, women's shelters as a general rule have the right to restrict their accommodation to women.

"A trans person should have access to the shelter that matches their lived gender identity. However, this does not necessarily require that a cis and trans woman share the same bedroom."
"An appropriate balancing of the rights of both women may require that one of the women be provided with non-shared accommodation."
Renu Mandhane, Chief Commissioner, Ontario Human Rights Commission

And that's just what happened. The woman that is Krisi Hanna was hoisted out of her bedroom in favour of granting occupancy to a man who clearly acted as a man leaving no doubt that he was and is a man, despite his stated inclination to consider himself a woman, thus triggering an instant cultural kow-towing to the icon of transgenderism.

The shelter staff, in essence, contravened the Ontario Human Rights Code by denying Krisi Hanna's rights in favour of conferring rights on someone whose gender-appropriation status falls into the vaunted new sanctity of transgenderism. No equality of consideration between a woman and a trans; the trans obviously has preferential treatment in a society falling over itself to oblige and accommodate.

Yet the Code is quite clear, that everyone has a right to equal treatment of services and accommodation without discrimination inclusive of gender identity and express with the proviso that all those occupying accommodation have a right to freedom from harassment by other occupants sharing equal grounds in the Code. A total travesty of entitlement and justice heaped upon a woman in need, and it wasn't the trans.

Palmerston House, Jean Tweed Centre

Restore Honorifics : Ignore Entitled Pronouns

"Refusing to refer to a trans person by their chosen name and a personal pronoun that matches their gender identity ... will likely be discrimination when it takes place in a social area covered by the Code, including employment, housing and services like education."
Ontario Human Rights Commission

"Some senators [Senate of Canada, Parliament] expressed the view that forcing the use of non-gendered pronouns was reasonable because calling someone by their preferred pronoun is a reasonable thing to do. That position reflects a profound misunderstanding of the role of expression in a free society. The question is not whether required speech is 'reasonable' speech. If a statute required people to say 'hello', 'please', and 'thank you', that statute would be tyrannical, not because 'hello', 'please' and 'thank you' aren't reasonable things to say, but because the state has dictated the content of private conversation."
Dr. Bruce Pardy, professor of law, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario

(Image: Marta Iwanek) : Dr.Jordan Peterson

The Senate of Canada a week ago saw fit to support the elected Members of Parliament in passing Bill C-16, reflecting the Liberal government's legislation adding "gender identity or expression" to discriminatory grounds in the Canadian Human Rights Act. It has already been enshrined in the Ontario Human Rights Code. Which translates to no longer using pronouns society has long been familiar with, simple ones that distinguish between the genders, male and female. He and she have always been recognized as references to male and female individuals.

Free society, however, has transited toward recognizing a cornucopia of new and for many puzzling genders; from being free of any association with any gender, to a confusion of a combination of genders and alternately a transfer of birth gender identity to a completely 'other' gender, one traditionally familiar and many conceived of in the feverish minds of those dissatisfied with the choices nature has given humankind. But then, nature is herself sometimes confused in her assignments.

It is no longer to be viewed as optional if one is informed that a completely new and nonsensical (to the traditionalist) identification is to be used in everyday speech designating an individual in a wide array of personal and intimate choices for recognition. Some of the choices appear to the uninitiated silly and fanciful, like "ze", "zir", or "they", grammatically incorrect, but insisted upon lest someone's feelings be hurt and the negligent speaker is deemed to be a churlish lout.

Academic Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology, took personal offence at this strangulation of language and identity and in a rebellious move causing great consternation to students at University of Toronto where he is a -- or was -- a highly respected lecturer and teacher and posted several YouTube videos explaining his perfectly reasonable refusal to join the non-gendered pronoun bandwagon. He must have known there would be a backlash; immediate, vociferous and damning. From students, and from his own academic community.

It has become a human right to declare oneself neither male nor female, or both if the designation appears to fit the individual's view of self. It is a human right to call oneself whatever one wishes, in fact. But it stretches matters somewhat to insist that all of society must accede to the same recognition at the behest of the entitled and perhaps somewhat confused individual who views their gender with disgruntlement and confusion. Feeling perhaps that everyone should share that confusion in a spirit of support, leaving the condescension at home.

Perhaps no one has yet approached the Human Rights Commission, nor tabled a private member's bill in Parliament to make it a legal offence to flout convention and polite societal interaction by taking such liberties as speaking to and of the elderly as though they are children. Take, for example, the common occurrence of a receptionist in a medical centre or hospital calling an elderly patient by his/her first name; no salutation of "Mr." or "Mrs."; eschewing the courtesy of using the last name for the convenience of calling out the given name.

Now that is offensive to the meek and forgiving elderly who simply do a mental shrug bemoaning what has become of society that a social courtesy has been trashed in favour of treating the elderly with the disdain of ill-manners. Elderly women may not think much of "Ms." but even that might be preferable to having callow, perfect strangers address them as familiars. And elderly men who may be struggling with feelings of disempowerment in the thrall of agedness don't really relish young whippersnappers' entitlement to addressing them by their given names.

But the young and the genderless do feel entitled to being addressed in their ridiculous choices. Which is fine, their choice, but it is beyond absurd that the entire society must enter into a contract with them to support their choices.

I reckon 100-150 people out on the Hill for #C16 rally. Dylan Robertson, Twitter 17 May 2017

Multiculturalism..It.Is.Not.Working...

Although the term multiculturalism has remained broadly popular, its application has been the object of ongoing controversy. At the center of the debate is the issue of whether identities are in inevitably in conflict. That, for example, individuals must choose between their ethnic attachments and their Canadian identity. This view is rejected by the Government of Canada's as its vision of multiculturalism states that "...all citizens can keep their identities, can take pride in their ancestry, and have a sense of belonging. Acceptance gives Canadians a feeling of security and self-confidence, making them more open to, and accepting of, diverse cultures...with no pressure to assimilate and give up their culture, immigrants freely choose their new citizenship because they want to be Canadians."
Jack Jedwab, Chair, National Metropolis Conference on Immigration and Integration

Since we are approaching almost a decade into the post 9/11 era public discourses and sentiments of anti-multiculturalism have become solidified in several countries of the world including Canada. This sentiment has been fuelled by the link, in public discourse, of terrorism with multiculturalism. Thus events such as the Madrid bombings in 2004, the London bombings in the summer of 2005, and the terrorist plot by the Toronto 18 in 2006, have been cited by critics of multiculturalism. Part of this public discourse involves academics. For example, sociology professor Dr. Mahfooz Kanwar from Mount Royal University in Calgary made the following two comments to the Calgary Sun newspaper in 2006 shortly after the Toronto 18 arrests: "Multiculturalism has been bad for unity in Canada. It ghettoizes people, makes them believe, wrongly, that isolating themselves and not adapting to their new society is OK. It is not." and "Multiculturalism creates nations within a nation and divides the loyalty of people" (Corbella). These two front page newspaper quotes subsequently landed on the websites of several conservative anti-immigration and anti-multiculturalism organizations as credence to their cause that immigration and multiculturalism were not good for Canada.
Lloyd L. Wong -- Diverse, Canadian Multicultural Awareness Magazine

Well, there's pro-multiculturalism opinion in support of the so-very generous theory that people with mixed loyalties can pick and choose how they prefer to express their fealty to a country they have migrated to from their places of origin, bringing with them the baggage of culture, tradition, heritage, religious adherence and, most unfortunately, attitudes about other cultures, other ethnic groups, and along with all of that simmering resentments against those they traditionally consider to represent 'enemy' groups.

Encouraging the concept of multiculturalism seems like a good idea on the surface, that people should be free and feel free to express themselves in the manner most comfortable to them, irrespective of the fact that to do so may often clash with prevailing social norms in the new culture with its variant values. The importation of cultural values that are inimical to the well-being of some members of society is often in direct offence to the laws upholding the justice system of the welcoming country.

Immigrants to a new country do need to know that they will be expected to learn about that new country, to respect its laws, particularly such guarantees under the law of social equality, for harmony to result. People who choose to become landed immigrants and eventually attain to citizenship of another country should be prepared to surrender to the past what belongs in the past, and that would include attitudes toward others that guarantee disharmony.

It is a reflection of basic human nature that people are comfortable among others who reflect their culture, ethnicity and religion. And the problem is obvious enough, resulting in ghettoes encouraging a lack of intention to integrate into the larger society. A part of society that is insular and suspicious and anxious to remain separate and apart from the greater society, resistant to being absorbed and determined to remain a community group reflective of whatever it was they left behind.

There should be an imperative to become familiar with the language of the new country and a familiarity with the broader culture, with the necessity to cultivate an appreciation of societal values reflecting the new country's. A failure of willingness to adapt to the welcoming country can often be attributed to institutionalized multiculturalism. No one is expected to leave behind all vestiges of their original culture, heritage and whatever else has value to them.

But increasingly, in Europe, Britain, France, Germany as well as throughout North America, an unease has arisen over the functionality of multiculturalism. While civility ruled in general society it made some measure of good common sense to inclusively accept the concept of multiculturalism and not press too vigorously on good citizenship requiring that all citizens of a country share a basic commonality of behaviour and values-driven concerns.

What has resulted from multiculturalism, however, is discrete groups of people living their exclusion-driven lives in proximity to but not in concert with the larger, general population. A kind of balkanization of society, and an assault upon the heritage, culture, nature and values of the country that absorbs a wide range of people seeking the advantage that other countries advance over their own.

In 2011 David Cameron, then the prime minister of Great Britain said: "Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream", and he was not speaking in a congratulatory vein.

The international academic, Canadian Michael Ignatieff who once entered the political sphere in an effort to gain the leadership of the country once said: "A multicultural Canada is a great idea in principle, but in reality it is more like a tacit contract of mutual indifference. Communities share political and geographical space, but not necessarily religious, social or moral space. We have little Hong Kongs, little Kabuls, just as we once had little Romes or little Lisbons."

The very basics of what it means to live in a liberal democracy should be ingrained in the minds and attitudes of every immigrant who comes to Canada to fully understand the meaning and importance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Unfortunately, the Charter has been manipulated to reflect at times what people feel it should mean, not what it was meant to be.

The Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan

Malevolent Co-National Neighbours

"Due to the shocking lack of an official and reliable translation, Mrs. Noorullah did not understand what was happening, or why. She was taken from her home, along with her young children. She was told her life was in danger."
"Mrs. Noorullah was told that this security was necessary to protect her from Mr. Wali who was deemed a threat to commit a crime of so-called 'honour' against his wife and children. There were also baseless rumours of terrorist connections."
"The actions of the defendants ... were malicious, callous, and highhanded [and] serve to undermine the public's confidence in police officers and the administration of justice."
"They had been in Canada less than a year when the arrest happened, and their lives were once again thrown into chaos."
Statement of claim

Ashley Fraser / Postmedia    A file photo of an Ottawa police cruiser

Sometimes it's better not to live within a community, as an immigrant to another country, where other families from your native country live. Shared traditions, customs, language can give the comfort of familiarity but malicious resentment can also erupt. Most often people who emigrate from their country where life is anything but ideal, to one whose reputation is that of a beacon of hope and a haven of equality where refugees and immigrants can aspire toward a new way of life holding out huge promise for themselves and their children still need the comfort of familiarity.

Mahmood Wali Mahmad left Afghanistan in 2012. In Afghanistan where employment was scarce, he had worked for the Canadian Armed Forces as a translator, in Kabul. Many Afghans who found work alongside the NATO troops who were stationed in war-torn and Taliban-threatened Afghanistan, found themselves in need of an escape route once international troops left the country to fend for itself. Mr. Mahmad was one of them, uprooting his wife and two children to begin life anew in Canada's capital, Ottawa.

He moved into an neighbourhood where other Afghans also lived. And as matters transpired, it appeared that those Afghan expatriates resented Mr. Mahmad's work back in Afghanistan as a translator for the Canadian forces. One of his neighbours lodged a complaint at the local school that the Mahmad children attended alleging that the father beat his wife, that the family was one at risk of the kind of patriarchal cultural violence leading to the death of the mother, called an "honour killing".

That led to police involvement and a criminal investigation. His wife, Janatbibi Noorullah, who spoke only Pashto, and their two children, were moved to a shelter for abused women in Toronto, while her husband was arrested and jailed before being released on "very strict" house arrest. A family asunder, and a criminal investigation launched, but a trial never ensued. Instead, the man's wife learned enough English while living in Toronto to finally understand why she had been forcefully separated from her husband.

She forthwith denied all the allegations that she had been beaten and was at risk of spousal murder.


Since she and her two children were listed as the official complainants in the case against her husband, in the face of the fact she now put forward that there never had been and never existed evidence of criminal activity surrounding her family and her husband posed a threat to no one, and nor were rumours of terrorist activities ever validated, the case was dropped, the family was reunited.

The Crown was led to request that all charges against Mr. Mahmad be stayed and he no longer has a criminal record.

But he does have a law suit, naming Ottawa police officers, the Ottawa Police Services Board, and the Crown as defendants and suing them for $1.7-million. He is suing the source of his legal problems that interrupted his life so miserably. He had lived just under one year in Canada when he became involved in a horrible situation that devastated him at a time in his life when he thought he had escaped the nightmare that life in Afghanistan had become.

His lawsuit claims damages for negligent investigation, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution and breaches of his charter rights. As for the malicious rumours instigated by his former neighbours, fellow Afghans who had taken a rancid dislike to him, there will be no punishment because no real hard evidence exists to implicate them.

But Mr. Mahmad and his family now fully understand that there is little comfort to be had living amongst other Afghans, so he and his family have since moved to another neighbourhood.

Thin Pretext for Trojan Horses -- Whoops, More Islamophobia

"Discrimination works in both directions, and so does inclusion; we are in favour of mixed housing for cultural communities and religious groups."
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard

"I didn't hear people say, 'OK, we have to go and defend ourselves against these nasty Quebecois by going and living alone', that is not at all my motivation."
"A lot of Muslims have problems with the idea of interest, which in Arabic is called riba. That means if you pay more than you were loaned, you are doing something that is very, very, very, very bad from the Muslim point of view."
"Let us call it a technicality [bank 'profit' is permissible], for me as an accountant but for the believers it is not a technicality."
"You don't drive drunk on the street. If you want to drink alcohol, you drink it in your house."
"There must be some modesty in the way you [women] dress. We don't want women living there going half-naked down the streets. We don't like that. If they want to do that, let them go and live in downtown Montreal."
Nabil Warda, Muslim housing project entrepreneur

A silhouette of Muslim women.   ABBAS MOMANI/AFP/Getty Images

"We are here in Canada. We came of our own will. Our intention was not to come to isolate ourselves from society or from the community."
"It doesn't mean we have to hide ourselves and get away from the challenges we are going through. We have to face them."
Imam Foudil Selmoune, Brossard mosque

Montreal South Shore AlQuba Mosque

When Radio-Canada reported of a plan for the Brossard suburb of Montreal to break ground on a Muslim housing project, the proposal failed to find favour with municipal authorities, much less with provincial politicians. From Morocco where he is attending a UN climate conference, the premier's thought was the discrimination that non-Muslims would face out of this outlandish idea for a Muslim ghetto to be built within a French-Canadian setting, one whose Sharia-inspired rules would exclude non-Muslims.

Merely at the proposal stage to date, the building of 80 homes within Brossard, something in the nature of a religiously-inspired 'gated community' exclusive to Islamic values was put to members of the Brossard mosque by Mr. Warda. At the very notion of this becoming a reality, members of the provincial legislature adopted a unanimous motion to direct the minister of municipal affairs to instruct municipalities in the province that "no real-estate development can be based on religious or ethnic segregation".

Mr. Warda counters the controversy that has erupted by stating that Muslims have informed him they are (very, very, very, very) fed up with renting for decades with little to show for the rental money, that they refuse to take out loans nonetheless that would enable them to buy their homes, since loans have interest charges, and such financial conventions are not permitted under Sharia law. Needless to say, Canadian citizens live under Canadian law and Canadian economic conditions, not those under Sharia law. And these people have made the choice to pay rent.

It affords them a place to live, so they are getting value for their rental money.

It does seem passing strange that to Mr. Warda and those who support him, that while women scantily clad as is the norm during hot summer months anywhere in Canada must not be permitted to venture where Muslims live, alcohol can be consumed behind closed doors, when alcohol consumption is strictly forbidden under Sharia law. And that while taking out a conventional mortgage through banks is not permissible, under Sharia a house becomes the acquired property of a bank, allowing the resident to buy it back over time with the addition of a premium considered bank profit, not interest.

A play on words whose logic is patently absent. Profit is acceptable, but if it is called 'interest', it becomes forbidden. Forbidden alcohol is permissible as long as no one sees it being consumed outside a home. Women are held to a strict dress code of austere modesty preferably by completely covering the body, shielding hair from view is even better and presumably wearing a tent complete with face covering better yet as a reflection of Islamist respectability.

Mr. Warda generously claims that non-Muslims would not be excluded as long as they cleave to the Muslim community's set of values reflective of their culture, itself an offshoot of the religion and its politics. Women, he clarified, are free to choose whether they wish to wear the head scarf, but walking about in public wearing a halter top and shorts would be forbidden behaviour. "If they want to do that, let them go and live in downtown Montreal."

Which kind of answers the question: Is the Islamic social-religious code compatible with Western values and customs and laws?

The imam of the Brossard mosque appears not to have been in full support himself of Mr. Warda's brilliant idea to further isolate Muslims from daily social contact with non-Muslims in Quebec. His opinion on the subject was that it would seem considerably more constructive had Mr. Warda designed to use his financing proposal to give aid to Muslims in the purchase of existing homes instead of creating an especial Muslim-centric neighbourhood.

The Disrespect of a Doltish Buffoon 

"While his conduct was disrespectful and in very bad taste, it did not involve vandalism, that is to say spray painting or damage done to the statue, it did not involve planning or deliberation, and it did not involve any repugnant conduct like urination or splitting."
Prosecutor Jon Fuller

"This monument, as we all know, is there to honour those who serve their country, for people who fought for our freedom and that of so many others everywhere in the world."
"Your actions on that particular night showed total dishonour and disrespect for those individuals and the country at large."
"It's clear there has to be a message that this type of offence can't be excused simply as being a youthful prank or a moment of immaturity."
"These types of actions are an insult to veterans, their families and Canadians as a whole. It's not a joke, it's not a YouTube moment here, or a laugh. It is a criminal offence, sir."
Ontario Court Justice Ann Alder

Maciej Andrej Szczypka hides his face as he leaves the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2015. PATRICK DOYLE / THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

To have imposed the full brunt of the law on Maciej Andrej Szczypka would have had consequences of monumental import. Charged with mischief to a war memorial the man could have been removed from Canada with a conviction under that charge. A more charitable view of his trespass on simple decency and respect notched his offence down to simple mischief, to which he was urged by his lawyer to plead guilty, and he did.

There are many who would have no difficulty whatever recommending that the original charge stand. If found guilty through a trial the 22-year-old man would have faced a penalty whose maximum import would be a prison stay of ten years. In which case immigration consequences would have meant that the permanent resident would have his status revoked and be returned to his native Poland from which he had emigrated to Canada with his parents.

He had clambered up on the National Cenotaph a year earlier August. Bystanders present at the time recorded his actions with video cameras. What he proceeded to do was emulate fornicating with the statue claiming later to have been acting out in a drunken stupor. He was arrested and placed in jail, charges brought against him. A $1,300 fine was imposed. And he was ordered to undergo community service with the Salvation Army, undergo alcohol counselling, and become in the process a better human being.

This Candidate (for resident status) Demonstrates An Inability To Adapt

"This was very nasty [physical attack]. You are now in Canada. We do not place restrictions on the way that women live here, unlike in some other countries."
"Just because you think that someone has displayed bad manners, getting into a fight is no remedy for that."
Judge Kirk MacDonald, provincial court, Edmonton

Ed Kaiser/Edmonton Journal   The Edmonton courthouse

It surely isn't going too far to conclude from this stunning tale of a clash of cultures and religious ideology reflecting yet another instance when a man from a patriarchal culture has demonstrated his incapacity to adjust to a welcoming country's social and cultural values, that this judge suspended judgement beyond what the action that took place on November 6, 2015 warranted.

The man, Aadel Moradi, 39 years of age, had emigrated from Iran to Canada fifteen years earlier. In that period of time, demonstrating his unwillingness or/and inability to integrate into Canadian culture and accept the social values of his new country more than cried out for him to receive the full brunt of the law for his criminal offence. This is one individual; his Iranian heritage is only part of the problem; enlightened Iranian men would likely condemn his behaviour.

Instead, Justice MacDonald, who even commented that in his opinion it was "very sad" that the accused was incapable of identifying and honouring Canadian social mores, decided to place the man on an 18-month probationary period, after he had, through his lawyer, pleaded guilty to assault. Had the assaulter been anyone other than an Iranian immigrant, the full legal penalty of his actions would have fallen upon him.

In fact, it wasn't only the judge that relented, deciding to handle this display of contempt for Canadian values with kid gloves. He, it appears, conceded to a joint submission by the Crown and defence lawyers, who between them decided that the man's violently offensive actions should receive a lesser penalty than the jail sentence the judge had originally considered.

As Crown prosecutor Bethan Franklyn informed the court, Mr. Moradi and his wife had been accosted by a co-worker of the wife, who had noted their presence in the mall, and simply wanted to say a bright 'hi there!' to someone he regularly interacts with at their place of employment. This happened in late October. Mr. Moradi responded by indignantly asking how the man knew his wife.

He then ordered the man not to speak with his wife. And on November 6, Mr. Moradi accompanied his wife to the office in downtown Edmonton where she worked, requesting an audience with the human resources personnel to discuss the mall incident. He eventually spoke with Ross Undershute, chief executive of the health consulting organization, ordering him: "No men are allowed to speak to his wife, and she can't speak to any men".

When Mr. Undershute explained that this would be an impossible state of affairs in a working environment, the husband refused to leave the premises and asked to do so, and became abusive. He "clawed and scratched" Mr. Undershute's face, spat at him, and attempted to kick, knee, slap and bite Mr. Undershute, who suffered scratches to his nose and lips.

Lawyer Rob Shaigec informed the court that his client had been offended by his wife's co-worker's public approach, speaking to his wife without first introducing himself to his wife's husband, presumably to seek permission to do so, for based on his culture and upbringing this scenario represented a social misdemeanor. This, of a man who had lived one-third of his life in Canada.

Little wonder the couple, parents of a six-year-old boy, has since separated. Mr. Moradi's wife may yet be flexible enough to adapt successfully to Canadian social mores of equality and decency, and be able to raise their son in a milieu that will be conducive to his becoming a credit to the country. As for Mr. Moradi, one of the conditions of his probation is that he take an anger management course, and perform 50 hours of community service.

He is furthermore, forbidden from approaching his wife's office and nor may he make any contact with Mr. Undershute as well as three others of his wife's co-workers. It is this man's controlling pathology that led him to ventilate his rage that other men had dared to impinge on his perceived ownership of his wife; blaming the culture is only a part of the problem although the culture entitles men to believe that absolute control of women is a divine right.

But not in Canada.

Inculcation of Hatred Importation

"It seems that Israel is the place where tolerance and acceptance stop as far as Islamic education in the US is concerned."
"History is distorted and Israel is demonized. There is no mention of peace efforts, no discussion of peaceful solutions."
"Imagine the possibilities of educating young Muslims in America as to the real issue, to the fact that the conflict is complicated, and then presented with these difficulties, we would open the dialogue. Can you imagine if there was a dialogue between young Muslims and young Jews in the United States? The door hasn’t been opened because Muslims weren’t educated to do this." 
"I think we need to start having a conversation with Muslim educators in America about this. We’re not satisfied with just creating reports, we now want to make a difference and to change what we can change. I think what these syllabuses are doing is they are blocking the conversation, and that’s a shame. Education is where it starts."
Marcus Sheff, CEO of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education

"When discussed at all, Israel is presented by the curricula as a usurper and referred to on occasion as Palestine. There is no discussion of peaceful solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"With the exception of Bilal Philips’s Islamic Studies, the books are generally respectful of the 'other', their culture and ways of life and particularly of monotheistic religions."
"They do not glorify war or promote violence as a means of resolving conflicts. But they do teach about military jihad. Historical theological disputes, mainly with Christianity, and early conflicts, mainly with Jewish tribes, are included."
"The West is associated with a variety of social ills and immorality. Islam and Muslims are portrayed as being under constant threat and thus forced to fight, through jihad."
Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education report

An Afghan boy reads the Koran in a madrasa, or religious school, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Kabul June 30, 2014. (photo credit:REUTERS/MOHAMMAD ISMAIL)

The research study undertaken to examine the quality and content of educational curricula taught in Muslim schools, called madrasas, reveal that in Canada and the United States there is much to be desired. In Toronto the East End Madrassah was discovered to be teaching an extremist sourced curricula to their young students. An investigation reviewed 30 of the school syllabus books, sourced from Iran. Portions "challenged some of Canada’s core values", with passages referring to Jews as 'crafty' and 'treacherous'.

Curriculum excerpts
“Islam has allowed boys to engage in sports for one specific reason and that is to always keep them healthy and strong. But why should a Muslim be healthy and strong? Firstly, it is necessary to take care of the body because it is a gift from Allah. Secondly, so that you may physically be ready for jihad whenever the time comes for it.”
“Islam is a dynamic, comprehensive school that aims at the rectification of the social and economic systems of the world in a special manner. Unlike the beliefs of the ancient Romans, the Jews, and the Nazis, Islam is not restricted to a certain community of a certain race, but is for all human beings…”
“No doubt any wise, humanitarian person accepts such a combat and admires it [jihad] because there is no other way to achieve the sacred ends of the Prophets.”
“End of Jewish Plots and Treacheries: Ever since the Prophet’s entry into Madina, the treacherous Jews had vehemently opposed him and his Islamic call, evoking memories of their hostility to the previous Prophet, Jesus Christ, half a millennium ago. The crafty Jews entered into an alliance with the polytheist Quraish in a bid to stamp out Islam. They conspired to kill Prophet Muhammad despite the fact that he was lenient towards them and had treated them kindly, hoping to convince them of Islam’s truth. But eventually as Jewish plots and aggressions increased, he had no choice other than to take up arms against them, in order to protect Islam and the Muslims. At the battle of Khaiber which is famous for Imam Ali’s heroic exploits, the Prophet defeated them ending Jewish intrigues and conspiracies in Arabia.”
Source: Curriculum, East End Madrassah, eemadrassah.ca

In two of the curricula examined in this latest episode, Israel appears on some of the maps, but in others the name disappears. Within one textbook it is stated as fact that Israel has no historic claim to the land upon which it sits, while another textbook identifies anti-Israel activities central to the call for political activism. The United States Islamic educational curricula reveal an obvious "us versus them" paradigm projecting hostility toward Israel while distorting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the study results.

The educational texts in question represent five Islamic Studies curricula used as educational material in both the United States and Canada delegitimizing Israel. That this is a constant and ongoing problem with the textbooks used in the Palestinian Authority educational system is known and deplored. That it is exported from the Middle East to be used as a fundamentalist educational tool in North America is appalling, one-sided and exploitative, preparing young students to adopt the adversarial, hateful mindset in North America that haunts the Middle East.

The research, coordinated by Dr. Eldad Pardo of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, focused on Islamic textbooks identified as having been sourced from the International Educational Foundation of Skokie, Illinois (IQRA); the Islamic Services Foundation of Dallas, Texas (ISF); the Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Education of the Islamic Center of Southern California (ICSC); Yahiya Emerick’s Student Textbook; and the International Islamic Publishing House in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, written by Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips.

The five Islamic curricula are all based on Shari’a law and encouraging brotherhood and commitment to the worldwide Muslim nation, otherwise known as the ummah, and aside from their perspectives on Israel, most programs reveal a generally tolerant perspective, going so far as to encourage involvement in American civic and economic life. And while five of the curricula are in agreement with the UNESCO peace and tolerance standards reflecting its standard that "education should promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups", the fifth among them, composed by Bilal Philips alone does not.

This singular production goes out of its way to teach that Islam should be imposed by the full force of the Muslim state. The Bilal Philips curricula, published in Saudi Arabia for educational purposes geared to the United States and Canada, presents Islam and the West as completely polarized in values.

Defying (new) Convention

"It is no longer acceptable to impose western cultural questions and approaches on our societies. We absolutely reserve the right to make these choices and decisions, now and forever, on our own terms and in our own way."
"At present, we do not hear our concerns and approach in either side of this very strained discussion. Our understanding of marriage appears to be quite different from the dominating society and both sides of this discussion within it."
Indigenous bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada

"I don't know how we can move forward on this, or make a change, if we can't all feel that we're moving together. And if some people say we need a little more time, then I hear them."
Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate, Anglican Church of Canada

"What is different is this is a canonical change so, theologically, the church's understanding of what marriage is."
"And that's a huge ethical, theological understanding which some people wrestle with."
Meghan Kilty, communications director, Anglican Church of Canada

Julia C. Smith Photography / Via juliacsmith.com

The American counterpart of the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church, last year voted to authorize gay weddings in its houses of worship. Other countries such as South Africa and Brazil have agreed that they too are prepared in their Anglican communions, to give full consideration to the idea of accepting gay marriage. And, for the most part, the Anglican Church of Canada appeared prepared to forge ahead.

The church's governing body has announced a vote on same-sex marriage to take place in July, while acknowledging that the support needed to alter its rules of inclusivity may not be adequate to the task. Bishop Geoff Peddle suggested on a local radio show in eastern Newfoundland that the resistance to the formalization of the Church's acceptance of gay marriage emanates from aboriginal bishops.

He was not, he said, singling out one group of bishops, but empathizing with all points of view whether they came from indigenous or members in the gay and lesbian community, but all must be given equal opportunity to have their positions considered. Indigenous bishops Adam Halkett in Saskatchewan, Lydia Mamakwa in northern Ontario and Mark MacDonald, the national indigenous bishop, led the statement speaking of "very strained" internal debate.

At the same time the indigenous bishops while speaking of "a dangerously complex cross-cultural discussion", emphasizes the acceptance of gay and lesbians as "brothers, sisters, children and elders". They simply separate that acceptance from the insistence that gay marriage formalized in the Anglican Church represents an expression that mirrors indigenous cultural values.

"There is no place for hatred and separation in indigenous communities and, especially, in indigenous Christian communities", they stressed.

In that, simply because they balk at the imposition of what has become the norm in non-aboriginal communities of gay marriage acceptance, does not diminish their right to refuse that same acceptance in the same manner. Their acceptance of gays and lesbians as equals does not equate with giving them equal rights to the sacrament of marriage, reserved for heterosexual couples.

ndependent.co.uk

While disagreement on the issue is present within their own communities and their elders the discussions become confused with deciphering past practices within their communities as a result of "the widespread and deep destruction of our history and traditions by colonial occupation", emphasizes their collective position statement. When all else fails, the fall-back of reaching backwards toward historical resentment of cultural interference and wrong-doing of colonialists is always useful.

Two-thirds support is required from each of the church's main groups; bishops, clergy and laity, over a period of three years and two meetings. The resolution is set for the July agenda when the General Synod, the Anglican Church of Canada's governing party gathers in Toronto. Ironically, the country that federally led the way to acceptance of gay marriage as one of the first to do so, sees the United States, which was a relative laggard, preceding them in the Episcopal Church.

itratophoto.com

The Apartheid State

"[Until the mid-1980s] it used to be normal [for women and girls riding bicycles in Gaza.] They did it for pleasure and fun, by the sea."
Atef Abu Saif, writer, Gaza

"I want you [younger members of riding group] when you get married, to make riding your bikes a condition of marriage."
"I wanted to remind myself of my childhood, which was without problems. Riding a bike makes you feel like you are flying."
Amna Suleiman, 33, leader, Gaza women's cycling club

"The role of our women is to obey their husbands and prepare food for them inside the house, not to imitate men and ride bikes in the streets."
"[These women -- the cycling group -- are] detestable and ugly."
Islamic Jihad fighter, 33

"So what if a woman rides a bike? People have reached the moon already!"
Abdul Salam Hussein, 53, Gaza

Ms. Suleiman, center, and other women with their bikes in Gaza on Friday. Credit Wissam Nassar for The New York Times

An older Palestinian Gazan who can recall life before his community was ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement, sees nothing amiss in young Palestinian women riding bicycles for recreational pleasure. A younger Palestinian man who is a fighter with Islamic Jihad finds women who display themselves on bicycles to be repulsive for what that represents is independence and spiritedness, an unwillingness to be dictated to by public social pressure.

As the women who have been riding as a group for several months pioneer this new occupation in pleasure, cycling along Gaza's main highway, men and teens gawk at them. Hamas gunmen in a jeep jeer, and they earn catcalls from a group of men driving motorbikes. Their public display of rejection of the Hamas social contract that women be entirely subservient to men and to the rules that the patriarchal society has outlined for women does not endear them to the men who feel little admiration for the women's independence.

When Amna Suleiman declared her belief that women should establish an understanding with their husbands when they marry, that they should be expected to be able to exercise some freedom of choice in their activities, one of the  younger women laughed: "He'll give me a beating", she observed of any future marriage relationship she would have from among the men of Gaza. A Gaza marathon in 2013 was cancelled when Hamas barred women from running in it. Hamas continued its social engineering by forbidding women from riding behind men on motorbikes.

Gyms in Gaza are single sex facilities or they practise strict hourly divisions by gender. Women athletes practise their support in closed stadiums. Asmaa al-Ghoul, a Gaza journalist, was spat upon and threatened when she biked with three foreign friends from the southern tip of Gaza to Gaza City in a deliberate protest of the unwritten rule that bars women from cycling once they are past puberty. Social networks echo with the criticism of men from Gaza of this new phenomenon.

Unless religious leaders are driven to address the issue with a fatwa, Ahmad Muheisin, assistant under-secretary in Gaza's youth and sports ministry office, has no intention of putting a stop to the women's audacity, though they were violating Gazan 'values' by riding in public. But Palestinians in general decry the women's initiative, with the impression that women are displaying themselves, inciting men to leer at their legs and their bottoms.

Women's instinct for indecency, it appears, knows no bounds; they are shameless. Their atrocious behaviour pains the honourable men of Gaza.

Compassionate Germany

"A limitation strategy may even be both morally and politically necessary in order to preserve the state's ability to function."
"If democrats refuse to talk about limits, they leave the field open to populists and xenophobes."
German President Joachim Gauck

"The United States has left us, we are the orphaned kids in the playground, and there's one tough guy, Putin. It's really that simple."
Michael Naumann, (former German Minister of Culture)

"You have this hope the war will end. For one year, two years, three years, you keep this hope. You think, I owe my country something and I will stay."
"Until in the fifth year you realize there are five wars! The rebels against Assad, ISIS against the Free Syrian Army, the Saudis against Iran, the Kurds against ISIS, and Russia against America! And you lose hope."
Mulham, young Aleppo refugee in Berlin

Photo by John Beck

German media mostly avoid commenting that most of the Syrian refugees arriving, estimated to be up to 75%, are young males. Not that many families. There is an absence of minority groups, Christians, for example, Yazidis, Gays. They don't tend to congregate where they will become targets of young Muslim males. All these young men fleeing conflict, looking for future opportunities to brighten their futures. They are legitimately fleeing war, but they are also economic migrants.

There are problems, plenty of them, with the intake of a million refugees, haven seekers, migrants, in one country alone like Germany. Germany already had five million Muslims as immigrants, and now that number has been increased to equal, let's say, the number of Jews that Nazi Germany succeeded in exterminating during World War II, in the years of the Holocaust. This newer, charitable Germany with a conscience is determined to give safe haven to Muslim refugees.

Oddly enough, before the influx of the refugees German Jews seemed to feel they still had a place in Germany, just as pre-World War II, German Jews felt more German than non-Jews, fully integrated as proud Germans, incapable of believing anything so dire could ever happen to Jews in a country so civil, so given to the arts, so cultured. Now, once again the lives and well-being of Jews in Germany faces an uncertain future with the increased presence of a culture and a religion inimical to the presence of Jews.

And nor have Arab Muslims been respectful of Germany's women, let alone German law. There has been a reluctantly acknowledged incidence of crime events numbering around 200,000 that German police have had to respond to, attributed to the refugee population. German women have been taking to carrying pepper spray, have taken martial arts lessons, and are given important advice from their authorities, to have a care, in recognition of the changing face of the German population, else they will suffer unwanted sexual advances.

Accommodation to satisfy the needs of such a wholesale migration of humanity has strained the ingenuity and finances of municipalities. Expectations of the migrants and refugees are high for Germany has earned a reputation for generosity and compassion. Leaving local authorities not knowing where next to turn, their resources strained beyond recognition. Then there is the little problem that though billions of euros have been spent already, many more will still be required, since the spigot cannot be turned off, while the flood continues, and it does.

Those refugees and migrants expecting largesse must first register. But because Germany has more recently stated its expectation that when the conflict ceases, many of those flooding Germany will be asked to return whence they came, many decide not to register. They simply disappear, their identities unknown as is their whereabouts. That influx of Muslim men looms as a concern over female security in this new German society. All of this has led support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to slide precipitously.

The point is, the conflict is in its sixth year, with no sign of abating, becoming more complex as time moves on. And in its complexity, new arrivals to the conflict represent new adversaries, equalling more refugees, there is no sign that the situation that is straining Europe will be resolved any time soon. Waiting for the United States to move decisively to settle the conflict at an earlier stage accomplished nothing whatever; that conflict has now metastasized, threatening to swallow a greater portion of its near geographic proximity.

Turkey, the source of the refugee flood, itself flooded with over two million, has not been averse to sitting back with satisfaction at the sight of Europe divided, in flux and threatened, inundated beyond endurance with a population it had no further wish to absorb; a continent which had already taken in vast numbers of immigrants whose presence is slowly but surely altering the customs, values, laws and religious devotion into one utterly unfamiliar and discomfiting.

One woman recounts for the press a scenario in her daughter's high school classroom with the recent admittance of a 15-year-old girl from Syria. The ring tone on the girl's cellphone was a muezzin's call to prayer, a disruption in the class which the teacher further exacerbated by her unforgivable burst of "so next you'll have a suicide belt!" A girl insensible to how her intrusively religious sound would affect those around her, and a teacher whose common sense was entirely absent in a display of oblivious stupidity.

In Nauen, a small town near Berlin with high unemployment rate, right-wing demonstrations held placards reading "Nauen will stay white", last year. A gymnasium meant to house refugees was subject to an act of arson and burned to the ground at a cost of about four million euros. "There will be more protests. In some ways, this feels like a bigger problem than German reunification", observed Volker Muller, involved in the promotion of intercultural understanding.

Germany's wartime Tempelhof Airport in Berlin with its 15-meter-high hangars is being converted into shelters for thousands of refugees. An estimated 7,000 will eventually be housed there. "It's our duty to find a place for them", said Sascha Langenback, spokesman on social issues in Berlin, predicting that another 60,000 refugees may arrive in the capital by later this year. There, two young men from Aleppo complained about the food, about the noise, about how difficult it was to study the German language, about how tedious life has been at the "emergency" center.

German soldiers set up tents and beds for migrants in a hangar of the former Tempelhof Airport in Berlin on October 25, 2015. (REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke)

Hate-Exhaustion

"They're very prevalent in a number of communities. They're very unpredictable. You don't know when they're going to lash out."
Barbara Perry, criminology professor, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

"We see the right-wing extremism movement rear its ugly head once in a while, but it just doesn't really gain the same traction as Islamic extremists."
Ryan Scrivens, Ph.D student,  Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

"One officer voiced his concern about websites that urged its audience to 'kill the Aboriginals, kill the Jews, kill the blacks, kill the gays'."
"[More concerning yet some far right groups have joined outlaw biker  gangs who] share similar subcultural characteristics, such as slang, language, dress and a propensity for violence."
Study by Barbara Perry and Ryan Scrivens

In undertaking their study which has been published in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Perry and Scrivens interviewed law enforcement agents, community activists and as well current and former members of hate groups to arrive at their conclusions. They looked through court records and media reports and ended up with a comprehensive view of the far-right movement in Canada.

About 100 right-wing extremist groups were identified through their  study, ranging from "three-man wrecking crews" to more populous groups of die-hard haters, active in recent years. They discovered that these groups are prevalent primarily in Quebec, western Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Some of their numbers have taken part in  acts of violence at random, others in targeted attacks.

Those targeted  are Muslims, Jews, people of colour, aboriginals and LGBTQ people.

One incident the researchers focused on was the fatal shooting of an Edmonton hate-crimes officer last year as he engaged in serving an arrest warrant on Norman Raddatz, suspected of anti-Semitic bullying of a family. The June 2014 Moncton, N.B. shooting deaths of three members of the RCMP by Justin Bourque was also examined in the study, where his social media trail was replete with messages pf pro-gun and anti-authority support.

"Right-wing extremist circles appear to be fragmented and primarily pose a threat to public order, and not to national security", advised a spokesperson for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service which does not view their presence as a high priority they must address.  Police agencies have put together special teams tasked with monitoring such groups to enable their response to hate crimes.

It is their presence online, however that helps them spread their message. Just as it does the Islamist jihadi movement.

There exists as well a white power music scenario where Quebec appears to focus on skinhead music while Alberta presents as a black metal hotbed.

The public imagines the extreme right to be the purview of tattooed, raging young white males who view a pluralist society as anathema, where their opportunities for advancement are strictured in deference to preferential treatment given to  visible minorities, lack of personal success and opportunity representing a 'reason' for their angry hatred.

The Canadian Armed Forces has been infiltrated by the presence of those who  espouse and exhibit racism, though a military spokesperson noted that racist behaviour is not tolerated within the military since "such attitudes are totally incompatible with the military ethos and with effective military service."

Conflict between  gangs is a common trope. Petty criminal gangs often view one another as competitors from whom their turf must be protected. Neo-Nazi groups also engage in conflict between themselves,  negotiating violently for status and power, according to the study. One security figure quoted by the study noted: "They hate so much and so many that they start to hate one another".

Some of the interviewees evidently left the impression that it was irritating and fatiguing to have to justify racist, homophobic or anti-Semitic propensities, leading to the conclusion that "hating" quite simply "was exhausting". Oh dear.

Getting On With It....

"I'm voting for Trump. Because he says if you don't work, you don't eat and I believe in that. They give these men food stamps when they're not working or nothing. But when the woman working and taking care of her kids, you cut her food stamps all the way down."
"I feel like this: they should do more of a screening process when they let these foreigners in our country. I'm sorry, that's just how I feel. Because when they get over [here], they're blowing up shit and all kinds of stuff."
"I love Hillary Clinton. But they're not going to let a woman be president. Be realistic. They're not."
Malisha Williams, Ferguson, Missouri

"And I was like, you know what? I could vote for that guy [Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator]. [He's a guy] who started from a place where things weren't always good."
"Because people who've been through any type of hardship, like real hardship? Not only are they a lot more sympathetic or empathetic. But they know how to fix shit. You know what I mean? Like if you grow up and you don't always have the money to get things fixed yourself, you figure out how to solve problems a lot better than someone who can always just pay a repairman."
Remy Jones, Ferguson

"My momma told me when I was a kid not to vote for a Republican. There's no way he's [Trump] winning. He's trying to deport people already. Why you trying to deport people? Talking bad on Mexicans: You cannot talk about a whole race."
"My thing is, presidents always say they're going to do things and they never do it. Obama to me didn't do much ... I mean, look at Flint, Michigan. He's been in office eight years, their water shouldn't be dirty at all."
"She's [Hilary Clinton] got to stop praying. That's not going to change my mind. There's too much of that. It's acting. Just be you. Be yourself. Don't try to come in my comfort zone, my people's comfort zone. It's all an act anyway. I want the real you. It's the president: she's got to be real."
Travon Eddins, 21, Forklift operator, Ferguson

"The standard of living, the standard of life, the standard of everything has just dropped, dropped, dropped. Honestly, I would give him [Obama] a C. I mean, he's always advocated about helping the lower class, helping people find jobs, helping people get health care But he hasn't done anything, really, in my opinion."
"They have all that propaganda that they're trying to make changes and they're trying all of these things to make it right on the quality and the black and white issues. But nothing's changed."
Lisa Burte, teacher, Ferguson

This is the city where on a crossroads, late one summer night an 18-year-old black man was shot to death by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. The St.Louis suburb of Ferguson went into immediate protest mode. A young black man, Michael O.D. Brown, out for a night of relaxation with a friend, innocently walking along the street, had his young life taken from him. His parents would never see their son's future unfold before their proud eyes; their hearts were broken.

Police stand watch as demonstrators protest the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer on Saturday  (Photo: Scott Olson, Getty Images)

This is a moderately prosperous U.S. city, with middle-class homes, middle-class values, and a population that views their future prospects with the jaundiced eyes of those fearing that everything of meaning to them will slip away as economic conditions continue to cause trepidation and fear, despite that the unemployment rate has dropped to a hugely acceptable level compared to other countries under economic duress, and the elevation of a Black American to the presidency has failed to live up to the original elation among the majority black residents of Ferguson.

The Ferguson City Council at a recent public hearing deliberated over a U.S. Justice Department agreement mandating a massive overhaul of Ferguson policing. At the site where the shooting of Michael Brown took place in August of 2014 there is a plaque to remember the young man. It 'remembers' him as a bright and happy individual, someone whose loss will be a source of grief to those who knew and loved him all the remaining years of their lives.

We tend to gloss over flaws when the subject of the discussion is gone forever. In that gone-forever state all that is recalled is whatever was good and worthwhile remembering; we re-write relationships and personalities, choosing what we retain, what to discard. In the signal event that hangs over Ferguson as a defining moment in the relationship between its black and its white residents, its consideration of itself as a stable society, its rejection of a 'militarized' police force, Michael Brown has become a revered figure of loss.

These images provided by the Ferguson Police Department show security camera footage from a convenience store in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, the day that Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. A report released Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, by Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson says the footage shows a confrontation between Brown and an employee at the store. The report says that Brown and his friend, Dorian Johnson, stole a box of cigars from the store shortly before Brown’s death. (AP Photo/Ferguson Police Department)

A big, strapping fellow with attitude, resentful of being politely asked by Darren Wilson, driving his police cruiser, and stopping to admonish two black youths that they really shouldn't -- perhaps for their own safety, and certainly in upholding public order -- be strolling at night, down the middle of any road, only to be ignored, and soon enough threatened, does pose a certain kind of sinister threat on a dark night when one lone officer confronts two young men out for trouble.

Trouble was what erupted in Ferguson in the way of violence, riots and threats galore once it became public that the police officer would not be arrested, charged and punished for comporting himself as an officer of the peace, determined to protect the citizens of Ferguson, while in the process shooting to death an unarmed black youth whose actions and demeanour he interpreted as a danger he had the obligation to face and terminate.

Ferguson Market and Liquor store is vandalized after the announcement of the grand jury decision Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo. A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting sparked sometimes violent protests. (AP/Jeff Roberson)

It is an unfortunate fact of life that human beings are unkind to one another; unkind putting it mildly. But that this episode is yet one and yet another of the many historical-into-the-present incidents of improper communication leading to hostility and then the inevitable confrontation and violence is unfortunate. Not even a learning moment, since nothing much is taken from it that can be of value for the future; it just seems destined to repeat itself ad infinitum.

But at least the good citizens of Ferguson are deeply involved in and resolved to do their part in seeing that someone of sound mind and intelligence may be elected to lead them and their country into whatever the future brings.