A response I made to a piece of Edmonton Sun propaganda in all likelihood parroting a press release by misandrist Jan Reimer in Alberta follows this short note introducing the column. The article by a not very gifted so called journalist by the name of Andrew Hanon is after a retort by the Edmonton/Calgary Sun Editor-In-Chief, Jose Rodriguez, who has it would appear, been fully indoctrinated into the feminist mythology of man bad - woman benign despite the evidence of gender symmetry his paper has received. Dr. Don Dutton also sent a short email to Rodriguez with his joint paper co-authored by Kenneth Corvo, "Transforming a flawed policy: A call to revive psychology and science in domestic violence research and practice"
Rodriguez says there is no agenda by his paper but the email, in and of itself, belies this as a mendacious utterance. His newspaper has been given the facts on the relative equality of gender violence and he makes no apology for the propaganda based headline of a pandemic. But then he is one of the leaders of the MSM and this is the kind of misandry we have been getting and what we can expect down the road. Due diligence in research is not what we are about he is saying only the mythology of women as victim matters. Journalism as we knew it dealing with facts and research serves second place to Press Releases full of mendacity and hatred towards men.
Rodriguez represents the new journalism, especially in the shrinking market for print daily newspapers complete with Liberal bias and shockingly low standards passed on to the reporters. There is no shame when it comes to the last vestige of bigotry in western democracies and that is bias, discrimination and lack of sagacity directed toward white males. This white male isn't going to stand for such outright venom lacking truth and I would recommend a boycott of both papers managed by this Editor-In-Chief. If all white males stopped buying them what would that do to sales. Some how I don't think the feminists will take up the slack.MJM
Edmonton Sun
Suite 250
4990-92 Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta
T6B 3A1
Dear Andrew:
I'm just a tad interested in how you came to be writing the marketing of the month article for Jan Reimer's Shelter Industry. Would you do the same thing for any men's groups who are taking tax payer money and creating safe places for men and their children from their abusive partners. Sorry - I forgot there are none to speak of right across Canada - let alone in Edmonton. Your assignment editor may know Reimer and didn't give you any choices.
Your paper even wrote Reimer's headline about a pandemic just to sensationalize it some more to grab attention. It's slick marketing by Reimer and the Edmonton Sun becomes co-opted as part of her apparatchik to further propagandize the myth of female fragility and victimhood at the hands of the patriarchy. Her press release must have provided the meat for the story as surely your editor would not go out and beat the bushes for such a headline unless she is best buddies with her.
What you have unwittingly done is become a vehicle for misandry, and that is what the Reimer's of this billion dollar industry nation wide wish. They survive on the sympathy, gullibility, and complicity of many including the MSM, politicians, and the judiciary.
Why do I use the term Propaganda for which a common definition is: "The systematic propagation of a doctrine or cause or of information reflecting the views and interests of those advocating such a doctrine or cause."
The DV shelter Industry is the heartbeat of 3rd wave feminism whose ideology and doctrine revolves around women being victims of the Patriarchy (that's you and all other men) and the patriarchy innately and with malice wants to subjugate, control, coerce and abuse women. In its simplest terms men are bad - women are benign.
A feminist you may have heard of said this:"...men bash women because they enjoy it; they torture women as they might torture an animal or pull the wings off flies." Germaine Greer, The Whole Woman, Knopf, 1999.
You are saying to yourself - but I'm not a bad man - and you may indeed be right but not according to Reimer and her doctrine. Maybe your boss thinks of you as part of the patriarchy even though she is senior to you. After all the Editor-in-Chief may be a man. The DV Shelter is the temple of the ideology of Victim Feminism. It is where the flesh and blood martyrs of the cause of feminism exist just as Jihadists are portrayed as the martyrs of the ideology of radical Islam. They are sacred and inviolable within the doctrine and you are being used to propagate the myth of this martyrdom. For some feminists it is as holy as any religion and the end justifies the means even if truth is a victim.
The facts are otherwise, however, and the Edmonton Sun is quite guilty of publishing untruths and that clearly does not help its credibility. Lets first take your headline " Pandemic of abuse". There is no pandemic of any sort. DV has been on the decline for some years according to Stats Can and many other studies domestically and Internationally in westernized democracies. In fact that may be why Reimer drags out the "immigrant" issue. In many cultures - not ours - women are treated as inferior. That is not DV as we know it but a cultural abyss imported to this country. "Honour" killings are part of this imported cultural malaise and not DV as we know it as family members including fathers, brothers, sisters and mothers may be responsible for these abusive cultural practices depending on who broke the cultural code. I think you remember the drowning of 4 women in Ontario not long ago and the suspects are a father, mother and brother. A true Patriarchy does exist in many of these religions and cultures and feminists should work on this to enhance the health and well being of females subject to systemic discrimination, diminution, and physical abuse including homicide.
Total 611, 465 men 146 female
Rate of homicides with firearms have increased 24% since 2002. Handgun use on increase (gang related)
Women victims 24% - lowest proportion ever
Men Victims 76%
Both the rate of females killed (0.87 per 100,000 population), as well as the proportion
(24%), were the lowest since 1961
62 spousal homicides - no change from 2007
Lowest rate in 40 years 45 women 17 men
In terms of putting the spousal homicide rates in perspective per million couples we are looking at approximately 999,998 and 999,992 female and male spouses respectively do not kill each other. This is not a gender problem or a pandemic. Note that 76% of all victims are men. There is not one tax supported DV shelter for men and their children in Canada. There are 569 for females. Did you know there are about 1,600 shelters in the USA (2005) some serving men and women (CA and WV by court mandate in the past 2 years). Do the math between two countries with populations in a 1/10th ratio and look at the relative number in Canada as comparison. Does Canada have more than 10% of the total USA Shelters? Why do you think that exists? Better marketing and more violence in Canada or just more gullible politicians and organizations ready to look chivalrous?
Whats the definition of Pandemic in common usage in Canada: "Epidemic ---> over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population" not unlike H1N1.
But according to Stats Can not only does it not fit this status the problem is declining as follows:
An estimated 7% of women and 6% of men in a current or previous spousal relationship encountered spousal violence during the five years up to and including 2004, according to a comprehensive new report on family violence.
7% of women and 6% of men do not a pandemic make and that was a decline from 1999.
Check out the stats on Lesbian Domestic Violence to bring into perspective that women are not benign and innocent. Their violence is at least 4 times higher than hetero couples in most reputable studies. In recent large scale studies it shows women instigating abuse against their male partner in 70% of cases. Lucky for these women most men don't reciprocate as we are socialized to not hit females. Some of us, however, have no choice if the weapon the woman uses could kill us.
Reimer is quoted with respect to increases to calls regarding DV "...whenever the economy changes -- up or down -- we see an increase.." Can you not see how absurd that statement is and what evidence aside from her assertion is given. Anecdotaly there is speculation that calls could increase when there is an economic tailspin and there may be legitimate studies but when the economy is getting better (up) DV calls are similarly going to rise? You are like a parrot when it comes to this persons utterances.
When you decide to put on your cynic's hat, which all good reporters and editors should have, ask Reimer why they require non-disclosure agreements from all clients and why the shelters are not subject to both independent public financial and operational audits by respective governments who dole out 100's of millions of dollars a year. Ask how many women are actually there for violence (ostensibly the reason they exist), and how many for other reasons. Chances are only 10% of residents at any given time are there because of physical abuse. More and more the shelters are gateways out of marriages so mom can get a "leg up" on custody. Judges are as gullible as journalists it would appear! Also, ask if they allow boys 12 and over to stay with their moms?
I could go on at great length with debunking your assertions made at the behest of Reimer but this is enough. I have much more for you if you truly want to get the truth. Feel free to contact me and you can also read my response to you on my blogs. Just Google "Mike Murphy Pandemic of Abuse" or better yet yourself with the same term.
The very sad part of this scam by Reimer is there are many women and men truly battered and in need of help. I speak from the experience of a man shamed by the financial, emotional, and physical abuse by a woman and this shame is why you hardly ever hear of female perpetrated abuse on men.MJM
Mike, thanks for the email but all the stats you point to do not change the fact the majority of abuse victims in domestic situations are women and children and NOT men. Yes, there are men who are victims of domestic abuse but that's not what this story was about.
Denouncing abuse against women to highlight the small percentage of men who are victims is irresponsible. I guarantee you there is no agenda on the part of Andrew Hanon or our newspaper. Unfortunately, I don't believe I can say the same for you. Happy 2010.
Jose Rodriguez
Editor-in-chief
Edmonton Sun
From: Dr. Don Dutton
The recent complaint against your writer Hanon has come to my attention--unfortunately you are quite wrong about dv stats--the largest study ever conducted (by John Archer)- examining about 130,000 cases, found women were more likely to perpetrate dv than were men. Also surveys from 1989 to the present find women to be more frequent aggressors- this includes the large sample CDC study conducted in 2007. I attach a review of other research- those of us who do DV research are astounded at the mis-information in the general public--and newspaper editors especially need to get the facts straight and should spend some time reviewing this literature--it is not at all the way women's advocates present it.
University of British Columbia.
Edmonton Sun
Pandemic of abuse
Victims of domestic violence being turned away by packed city shelters
Last Updated: 23rd December 2009, 3:49am
Chantal is one of the lucky ones.
When she needed to escape an abusive marriage, there was room for her at a women's shelter.
Tragically, that's not always the case. Alberta, one of Canada's spousal-abuse capitals, has disgracefully few sanctuaries for battered wives and traumatized children.
LACK OF SPACE
When Chantal's husband erupted into a violent, drunken rampage, police couldn't find anywhere in the city that had room for Chantal and her two small children.
Finally, they found an opening at a shelter outside the city.
"I don't know what I would have done if they hadn't found that place for us," says Chantal, who spoke on condition her real name not be used. "I couldn't stay with family because he would have found us and started harassing them. They would have been in danger, too."
That was a few years ago. Police and women's advocates say that nowadays it's even harder to find a safe haven that isn't already full.
In 2009, Edmonton police will be called to 7,000 domestic violence complaints, a 16% increase over last year.
That's nearly 600 each month, or 20 every day.
"It's a pandemic," acknowledges Jan Reimer of the Alberta Council of Women's Shelters, who says she isn't surprised by the sudden jump.
Former Edmonton mayor Reimer says it's so bad that nearly every day women get turned away from local shelters because they're already full. Shelter workers try to help them find other safe accommodations.
The Edmonton Police Commission was told that in the first 11 months of 2009, city cops responded to 6,500 domestic calls.
For the full 12 months of 2008, the total was approximately 6,000 calls.
ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Reimer said there could be a lot of reasons behind the spike, including the extreme financial pressure on families because of the weak economy.
"It seems that whenever the economy changes -- up or down -- we see an increase," she says.
It could also be that more immigrant families are reporting domestic abuse as they get to know Canadian laws, she says.
Or it could be recent changes to the way family violence is reported, Reimer adds.
According to a recent Statistics Canada report, Alberta has the second-highest rate of spousal violence of any province, at 415 cases per 100,000 women.
Only Saskatchewan's, at 536 per 100,000, was higher.
But at the same time, Alberta women trying to escape abusive relationships get less help than women in most other provinces.
StatsCan says that there are only 50 women's shelters across the entire province. Most are funded partly by the government and partly by private donations.
Contrast that with B.C., which has 110 shelters, more than twice as many as Alberta.
Sgt. Tony Simioni, head of the city cops' union, calls domestic disturbances "the bread and butter of police work."
"On any given evening shift, you can expect to answer one or two of these calls," he says. "And there's always been a shortage of shelter space. I've had to take women all the way to Camrose or put them up in hotel rooms, anything to find them a safe place."
"Intimate partner conflicts," Simioni says, are considered the most unpredictable, volatile and dangerous situations police can find themselves in.
If it's that risky for the police, just imagine what it's like for the victims.
ANDREW.HANON@SUNMEDIA.CA
