Thursday 13 December 2012

Violence against women 4

                                                        Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Dear Readers,

Below is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's statement of December 6, 2012 on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women and below, as usual is my response with space at the bottom for you. I trust after you read this that you will see how concerned I am and I would hope that you will be as concerned, as well.


Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement to mark the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women: "On the evening of December 6, 1989, the country stood in horror as a gunman entered l'École Polytechnique de Montréal and ended the lives of fourteen young, bright, promising women simply because they were women.

                  A candle in memory of those young ladies who lost their lives on December 6, 1989.

 "Around the world, violence against women and girls is a sad daily reality. Our Government strongly believes in protecting the most vulnerable in society and continues to take a stand in combatting violence against women, at home and abroad, to help put an end to tragedies such as that of the Montreal Massacre.

"In Canada, we are investing in projects aimed at ending violence against women and girls in communities across the country, and we are placing victims' rights ahead of those of criminals by making our laws stronger. On the international stage, our Government is committed to playing a leadership role in the campaign to prevent sexual violence against women and girls in conflict areas.


                                                        École Polytechnique de Montréal

"Today, on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, let us join the families and friends of those lost in the Montreal Massacre and honour their memory by redoubling efforts to eradicate all violence against women and girls."


                                                                  They may be gone but they are not forgotten!
my response.....

Well, at the vary least, this proves that Stephen Harper doesn't forget, although it would have had more meaning if he had uttered the name of the individual who took it upon himself to snuff out the lives of so many just 23 years ago. So let me do it!

Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi (October 26, 1964 – December 6, 1989) was the 25-year-old from Montreal who murdered fourteen women and wounded ten women and four men at the l'École Polytechnique de Montréal, an engineering school. Although born in Montreal, the son of a Canadian nurse and an Algerian businessman, his father was abusive and contemptuous of women. After his parents separated when he was seven, his mother returned to nursing to support her children. Garbi and his younger sister lived with other families, seeing their mother on weekends.


                                                                    Gamil Rodrigue Liass Gharbi, alias Marc Lepine

Gharbi was considered bright but withdrawn and having difficulties with peer and family relationships. He began referring to himself as Marc Lépine at the age of 14 giving as the reason his hatred of his father. Gharbi's application to the Canadian Forces was rejected, and in 1982 he began a science program at a college, switching to a more technical program after one year. In 1986, he dropped out of the course in his final term, and was subsequently fired from his job at a hospital due to his poor attitude. He began a computer programming course in 1988, and again abandoned it before completion. Gharbi  twice applied for admission to the École Polytechnique, but lacked two required compulsory courses.

After several months of planning, Gharbi entered the École Polytechnique de Montréal, on the afternoon of December 6, 1989. He had long complained about women working in non-traditional jobs, and after separating men and women in a classroom, he shot the women, claiming that he was fighting feminism. He then moved into other parts of the building, targeting women as he went, before killing himself. His suicide note blamed feminists for ruining his life. Gharbi's massacre is regarded by criminologists as an example of a hate crime against women, and by feminists and government officials as misogynist attack and an example of the larger issue of violence against women. 

                                                          At the scene of the massacre!

 Which brings us to the sad but awful truth. Misogynist attacks will not end because we Canadians wave a magic wand. Another case in point....about one dozen families who recently immigrated to Canada are demanding that the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg excuse their children from music and coed physical education programs for religious reasons. The families believe music is un-Islamic just like the Taliban believe and then imposed on the entire population of Afghanistan and that physical education classes should be segregated by gender even in the elementary years.
The school division is facing the music in a typically Canadian way that is, bending itself into a trombone to try to accommodate these demands, even though in Manitoba, and indeed the rest of the country, music and phys-ed are compulsory parts of the curriculum. Officials say they may try to have the Muslim children do a writing project on music to satisfy the curriculum's requirements. The school officials have apparently consulted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and they have also spoken to a member of the Islamic community suggested by those very same Muslim parents. In any event, the school district is trying to find a way to adapt the curriculum to fit the wishes of these families, rather than these families adapting to fit into the school and Canadian culture.

                                                               Montreal Massacre Remembrance Ceremony!
Mahfooz Kanwar, a member of the Muslim Canadian Congress, says he has a better idea.

"I'd tell them, this is Canada, and in Canada, we teach music and physical education in our schools. If you don't like it, leave. If you want to live under sharia law, go back to the hellhole country you came from or go to another hellhole country that lives under sharia law," said Kanwar, who is a professor emeritus of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

 That might be putting things a little more forcefully than most of us would be comfortable with, but Kanwar says he is tired of hearing about such out-of-tune demands from newcomers to our country. "Immigrants to Canada should adjust to Canada, not the other way around," he argues.

Kanwar, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan via England and then the United States in 1966, says he used to buy into the "mosaic, official multiculturalism"  but now realizes that this is nonsense. He makes it clear, that like most Canadians, he is pleased and enjoys that Canada has citizens literally from every country and corner in the world, as it has enriched this country immensely. But it's official multiculturalism; the state policy "that entrenches the lie" that all cultures and beliefs are of equal value and of equal validity in Canada that he objects to. "The fact is, Canada has an enviable culture based on Judeo-Christian values - not Muslim values - with British and French rule of law and traditions and that's why it's better than all of the other places in the world. We are heading down a dangerous path if we allow the idea that sharia law has a place in Canada. It does not. It is completely incompatible with the idea and reality of Canada," says Kanwar, who in the 1970s was the founder and president of the Pakistan-Canada Association and a big fan of official multiculturalism.
                                                    Montreal Massacre Demonstration!

Kanwar says his views changed when he started listening to the people who joined his group. They badmouthed Canada, weren't interested in knowing Canadians or even in learning one of our official languages. They created cultural ghettos and the Canadian government even helped fund it. "One day it dawned on me that the reason all of us wanted to move here was going to disappear if we didn't start defending Canada and its fundamental values." That's when Kanwar started speaking out against the dangers of official multiculturalism. He has been doing so for decades. So, it's no surprise that Kanwar is delighted with the speech British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered to the 47th Munich Security Conference on Feb. 5.


"Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism," said Cameron, "we have
 failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong. We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. So when a white person holds objectionable views, racism, for example, we rightly condemn them. But when equally unacceptable views or practices have come from someone who isn't white, we've been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them . . . ... This hands-off tolerance," said Cameron, "has only served to reinforce the sense that not enough is shared. All this leaves some young Muslims feeling rootless and . . . can lead them to this extremist ideology."
                                                             Montreal Massacre Plaque!

Kanwar actually credits German Chancellor Angela Merkel for being among the first of the world's democratic leaders to take the courageous step to say that official multiculturalism had "failed totally." It appears leaders are getting bolder. During an interview with TFI channel on Feb. 10, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared: "We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him."Cameron ended his speech by saying: "At stake are not just lives, it's our way of life. That's why this is a challenge we cannot avoid and one we must meet."
That democratically elected leaders are at long last starting to sing a different tune on official multiculturalism is sweet music to Kanwar. Here's hoping those poor kids in Winnipeg will get to hear some of it.

                                                                        -30-



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