Keeping up with the CDN News these days is pretty depressing..

First the Robert Pickton case now this:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/200...n-attacked.html

Senceless... and shocking...

How's everyone else processing the news back home these days?

I believe it was an honour killing but I think that these kind of things happen everywhere. I don't know why these things happen, they just do. Many years ago a friend of my father, well more of a very close business associate, flipped out and killed his kids, his wife and himself with a shotgun. He was the nicest guy too. Doesn't make any sense and I don't think we can ever know why it happens. We just deal with what's on our plates and help the other guy (or gal) when we can. The rest is out of our hands. Look at Pickton and compare him with Conrad Black. Pickton killed people outright, Black did it using a pen and a bit of sophistry. Who's more guilty? Did Pickton or Black cause more suffering? If Pickton hadn't killed native prostitutes primarily, would the reaction have been any different? What if Conrad Black was killing prostitutes (we already know he assocites with them, just look at his wife) instead of a dishevelled, edentulous hog farmer, what do you suppose the result might have been? You tell me.

I don't know.....you can appreciate that within this story is another sad reality from another culture/ religion where it is thought to be a huge disgrace brought on the family if the traditional is not upheld.

I don't pretend to understand what I consider to be somewhat archaic, male dominated values.....but there are people who choose that life and swear by it.

She was probably a wonderful bright girl...wonder what could drive any parent to snuff that out

I posted the whole shebang in Off Topic.
I personally find the sentencing a piece of shite. Had the victims been working class folks like Conrad's victims; or daughters of privileged suburban Vancouver, "Mr." Pickton (and I say this with the utmost disgust and contempt) would have been found GUILTY AS CHARGED. This is yet another insult to First Nations women and sex workers: "you're social cr@p, so we don't give shite about you being kidnapped, beaten, raped, mangled, mutilated and fed to the pigs... after all, MR. Pickton didn't really mean it..."

Fear. A lack of perspicacity and an abundance of ignorance. Some people stick to dogma like a life preserver. It's not just confined to one religion or culture. There are plenty of similar examples, albeit in other forums, in Canada and the US. It's like that all over the world. People are afraid of change. Why is it that Patriachal societies never try to emulate the Patriachs? Sure we try to parrot their acts but never understand their reasoning or their wisdom. If we proscribe something, will it cease to exist?


I've spent enough time chasing down white-collar criminals to know that if any one of us walked into the First National Bank of Chicago with a shotgun and took $31 Million we wouldn't be serving 6 years in a minimum security "prison" or allowed given several months to report to jail. Police abuse of sex workers and aboriginals, well...don't get me started.

.....getting IR5 started..... poke, poke, poke.

Stop that, it tickles.

Allow me to join in....

Pickton was found guilty so I don't know what the complaint here is other then the obvious: his crime!
Clicky.
I house-sat in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside for a few months and was right in the heart of poor native people and street people.
What a fascinating lot.
They have their own culture and code they live by.
For the most part, this is more honest than what I have witnessed in a corporate office.
Yes, the fact that the murdered women were mostly of native blood, no one wanted to tough it.
The only reason it finally got to court is due to that community's hard work...pressing the issue.

I've been out that way in Coquitlam...it is so strange to see the developing sprawl of the suburb of Coquitlam and there's this pig farm in the middle of it.
It is a bizarre sight. The tri-city area and Surrey are growing so fast, that this type of scene is not completely annihilated yet. Farms and monster homes and old growth forest mowed down. Bleh.
Oh but I am digressing... hee hee.

Suburbs are nutty unsafe places.
More craziness goes on there than we will ever here on six o'clock news.
I prefer rural or urban living. Stay away from the burbs!

And yes, so true about fraudster artists like Black, and so many government officials.
I mean really, what they do is highly criminal and their stolen money pays for their release.
Mark my words: Black will not serve a day in jail.
As it is he is supposed to voluntarily turn up to go to jail in March.
(News on CBC radio heard this morning.)
WTF??!!
Anyone following the Mulroney fiasco?
As if we didn't already know all about it (and so many other stories like it that happen every day).
Ha!

Ahem...rant over...for now.

I process news in the only way I know how to cope with it sometimes...by not paying attention to it. I find the news to be a fascinating medium sometimes, other times, I barely glance at it. I'm overwhelmed when I do too much "thinking" about horrendous things like this. I have to take a break sometimes. Living in St. Louis, with probably
5 murders a day/night, is enough for me sometimes. I hide...refusing to "process" at all until I'm better able to handle these type of news stories. Some may say I have rose-coloured glasses on, but sometimes I need to, to survive.

Carla

I think it's more my trying to just accept that these things are happening seemingly every day in Canada right now..

It's become just as depressing to read CDN headlines as US ones.. and I've stopped reading news reports here in the US.. I'm used to "nice" headlines from Canada.. hubby used to laugh at what made "news" back home, and it seems like this fall it has been one foul story after another..

In many ways it makes me feel old, and longing for the good old days.. whatever those were..

That's the CDN in me though.. wanting things to be "nice"..

I'm just processing that's all.. not trying to weigh in on the news stories of the day or make one more "vile" than the other..

I'll stick with PEI headlines I figure.. what made the news there today was that they passed a resolution to allow the "tallest" building in Charlottetown.. a whopping 10 whole stories..

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-isl...burg-hotel.html

My 'complaint', if you can call it complaint, is that the jurors verdict was a piece of shite. The guy, a complete psycho (pigs and all) is guilty of murder 1, not murder 2 --- it's like a slap in the face, and I'm neither Canadian nor First Nations. But then again, what I am is an anti-racist educator so indeed I am biased. I had the chance to get my own community involved in looking for our stolen sisters in SK, and like you said sister, a community moves mountains.

Tallest building in Charlottetown!
That is so great.
I love news like that.

Yes people getting tazed to death in Canada,
and now the RCMP is being questioned as to why they are not allowing a police report as to their internal fraud on pensions, etc. going on.
This started a long time ago...who is accountable anymore?
Clicky.
Not to mention that the RCMP erased all tapes with evidence about the Air India bombing from ages ago.
Reason they told media: we needed to reuse the tapes for other things.
Like they couldn't buy more tapes and those were not vital.

I mean really.
Hmph.

Maybe us civilians should be given the reigns for awhile.


Canadian crime is quite different from American.
It seems more bizarre.
But then again we don't hear about a lot that goes on...

Rave on sister, rave on. I think that the problem with Pickton was the laissez-faire attitude of the Vancouver Police.

The way the press in Toronto (especially CFTO) is covering this business with Black, drives me crazy. Who cares. I don't give a rat's azz about this bastard. He should rot in jail. Now STFU and ferchrissakes quit calling him "Lord Black." He may have bought the title "Lord Black of Crossharbour" but if they send him to Leavenworth (or USP Marion or dare I dream USP Florence) he'll be "Lie On Your Back You Crossdresser." He's already bragging how prison will be a bore, I guarantee if they send him to Leavanworth, it won't be. He'll learn all about hostile takeovers.

Mulroney was/is corrupt, I thought it was self-evident. Why are we having a public enquiry?

OMG totally!

(BTW I meant "touch" it not "tough" it...oh me and my fast incompetent typing.
Sorry.)

Yes so harsh to think that these stupid trials that state the obvious corruption are paid by the tax payers: hard working middle and working class people.
Man that burns me...grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why why why do they not have these men pay for their court costs?
They can afford it with the money they have stolen right from under our noses.

Mulroney sold our country to the U.S. and they called it NAFTA...such a sweet name.
Sweeten a bitter pill.

SPP is on full tilt.
The corporate giants are running the countries.
No surprise there either.

Remember the Galiano trials?
After all the money spent, nothing changes.

"Lord" my aaassssss.

Ha!

Those of you in Toronto may remember this guy from a few weeks ago, Rick Wills. He was a Toronto cop who had an affair with a married woman yet was unable to explain how her body ended up in his freezer. He got all the perks (able to enter via the judges' entrance, out on bail, etc.) and here's the kicker, we paid for it! His legal bill:$4 million, his net worth: $2+ million (how he did it on a cop's salary well... ), the amount he actually paid:zero. He was eventually convicted. Now there's all this hemming and hawing about how legal aid should be looked into because Constable Wills was able to get it. What nobody talks about is the AZZHOLE judge who gave it to him. If you or I went in front of the judge, we'd never get legal aid cause we make too much. As a well-known Toronto lawyer once put it (BTW, he was cited for contempt for saying it) "the courts and the police are crazy-glued together."

It's such a sad state of affairs.

I heard some more about the story about the father killing his daughter for refusing to wear the hijab.
The brother is also in trouble for assisting in some way.

This story makes me want to throw up.

It exemplifies all that is wrong with the world.

That a human being's exterior tells about their interior. (basically)

Comments?

I have to wonder why so much focus is being put on the religious aspect of this murder (I tend to think it is just the media trying to put a spin on it).

A man murdered his wife, in Calgary, yesterday I think it was. To me that murder is no less crazy than the one involving this poor girl.

Anyone who would kill another person is a nut. I have given up trying to figure out why people kill other people, i've decided that, since I don't think like they do, there is no way for me to comprehend it, so I don't really try anymore.

Great point Trailmix.. it is true I think.. it's so simple to just blame "religion" and be done with it but no situation is so easy to just slap a quick cause on it.. the human mind is far more complex than that..

And I agree it's hard to make sence of it.. just is hard to see sooo many horrific stories coming out of the news today. I really HOPE that CDN media is not trying to be more "American" in it's approach to reporting the news and trying to sensationalize everything. Is it to much to ask that the media just be unbiased and straightforward in their approach to reporting the news of the day?

Every time I hear something horrific in the news, I take a deep breath and remember something I read once. The only items that make the news are those that are unusual or odd. If the news only had stories about good things then that would mean that the world was so hoorible that the good would be unusual. It's small comfort, even if it is a palliative cliche. I know mom and yours truly were having a discussion about what happened to that poor girl. Mom thinks maybe she was pregnant so maybe that caused her Dad (I use that termed very loosely) to freak out, I think that maybe Dad was molesting the daughter. I don't know what justifies this nonsense. Not wearing a hijab, what happened to no compulsion in religion? Please don't get me started, I like my blood pressure where it is.

So true IR5.

Canadian television is starting to take a page from American News (well here in Calgary anyway), and it irks me - every time they say BREAKING NEWS it makes me roll my eyes, well - sometimes I just laugh at them.

Don't tell me Sanjaya's going on tour.