Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 23, 1981, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus kiss Case was a human tragedy by Harvey Stevens special to the free press on june 9, it was my duty As jury Foreman to pronounce the verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity on Vaughan Michael pollen. In the Legal sense my duty was accomplished in rendering the vent it. Emotionally and morally i re main disturbed evidence pre setted during the trial of a boy growing progressively More disturbed As he retreated physically and mentally into his own separate crawl space of a world accumulating a pent up rage that was finally and inexorably vented on Kenneth Maitland because he was no longer emotionally capable of enduring the constant put Downs of his Only source of Comfort Rock group kiss. These facts Bear disturbing Testi Mony to a profound human tragedy. The shooting was tragic because a boy s life was taken Only because he made persistent fun of a Rock group. Deeply disturbed the event was tragic because neither Ken Maitland nor anyone else knew How disturbed pollen was when he said to him one of these Days Ken i m going to kill the words were not spoken in fury but in the dead Mono tone Way pollen always used. Thus no one suspected his True intent not even when he produced a gun in the class room the next Day. Pollen s growing mental illness was tragic psychiatric evidence indicated that it stemmed from his rejection by family and Peers. By Grade 9, he Felt completely alone in the world. Unlike the adolescent who Calls attention to himself by disruptive behaviour pollen could not effectively reach out for help. He turned inward nurturing fantasies of being an important member of kiss knights in the service of satan. Denied the company of those around him he embraced the demonic which expressed the rage building up inside himself. Yet out Wardly he was so quiet and unobtrusive and no one knew the depth of his anger depression and despair. Because no one knew or cared to know no one was Able to help him even had they wanted to. In the Light of this tragedy with the evidence still fresh in our minds can we take a few minutes to reflect on Why it happened and what we might do to prevent the conditions which produced Vaughan pollen s behaviour what happened in that classroom on october 19, 1978 was a once in a million event. However the conditions which Contri buted to pollen s illness Are not so rare. Striking findings the results of a representative Sam ple Survey of 550 inner City Junior High and High school students conducted last fall revealed the following facts d 18.3 per cent of All inner City Stu dents have a relationship with their families characterized by a High degree of conflict Little or no sense of close Ness and a feeling of being disliked some or most of the time by their parents. D 18.1 per cent have no close friends with whom they can discuss matters that bother them. D Between 2.2 per cent and 5.3 per cent feel alienated from their families and have no close friends. While it is not possible to conclude How Many of these students Are on their Way to becoming mentally ill these findings demand concern. There Are More than just a few adolescents facing the turmoil of their teenage years on their own. Given the number of adolescents who Are socially isolated from or rejected by family and Peers what can we As a society do to help them we must begin by noticing them. Yet several of the psychiatrists and psychologists testified that it is difficult to notice the withdrawn adolescent because Atten Tion is normally drawn to those who Call attention to themselves. Accordingly we need to broaden our appreciation of distress signals. The school system would seem a logical place to Vest such a capacity to emotional problems because it deals with the vast majority of adolescents. To do so properly school trustees and administrators must Back the development and implementation of comprehensive screening for social and psychological deficiencies. Research has shown that the Quality of the student s emotional health affects his capacity to learn teachers in Winnipeg s Core area schools appreciate that the Basic needs of children for adequate nutrition love affection and a sense of self Worth must be met before they can adequately function academically. Therefore to fulfil their mandate the educational system must provide the necessary resources both to detect when those fundamental needs Are not being met and to see that they Are responded to through collaboration with other social welfare services. A 1 More developed and better staffed guidance system is called for. Such is the thrust of several of the draft recommendations the social planning Council of Winnipeg made in its recent preliminary report on youth needs in the Core area. School role the school system could also respond by developing curricula in consultation with the psychological and psychiatric professions oriented to making Stu dents aware of their own emotional needs. If pollen had received some instruction about mental health quite possibly he would have realized his growing problem and taken Steps to get help. In the Light of the statistics i cited above surely there is a need for More preventive psychological and psychiatric services through the school sys tem. The school system is not the Only institution implicated in Ken mail land s death. The psychiatric evidence also pointed to the role which an inadequate daily life played in this tragedy. Yet Vaughan pollen s experience of being emotionally rejected by his family is not unique. About one in every six inner City adolescents also experience a fairly Strong sense of alienation from their families. Surely such a state is not acceptable particularly when such adolescents Are More Likely to drop out of school turn to drugs and fail to obtain adequate employment. As a society we need to review and upgrade our commitment to promoting adequate Paren Tal performance. Our approaches to preventing inadequate parental performance must be comprehensive because the reasons for inadequate Parent child relationships Are varied. They include too much stress on the family unit and psychologically immature indifferent parents. We need to reduce the e economic and social stress on Many families. Job training and placement programs aimed at the marginally employed household head require greater sup port. The single Parent family needs All the support our society can give it. The big Brothers and big Sisters organizations need volunteers to help fill the Gap of the missing Parent. Adequate and affordable Day care lunch and after four care needs continued support. In addition there is a growing realization of the need for improved Day care and Parent aide services to those families found to be lacking in adequate Paren Tal skills. Increased measures Are required to prevent the psychologically immature from becoming parents. The rate of teen age pregnancies within Manitoba has grown. In 1978, 60 per cent of All births to women under 20 were to those unmarried. In 1980, about 65 per cent of these mothers kept their babies. . Experiences show that while such unmarried families comprise one sixth of All households they account for 50 per cent of reported abuse and neglect cases. Society s increased permissive Ness regarding pre marital sex coupled with its unwillingness to provide Well organized comprehensively implemented family life education programs in the schools is mainly responsible for this growing crisis of children bearing indifference is deadly finally we need to Challenge the indifference we individually and collectively attach to parenthood and More basically to caring for one another within our families work places and the Community. Some of us never appreciate and most of us Are always forgetting that our mental and emotional health and happiness have so much to do with How we treat others and in turn Are treated by them. Often it takes a crisis in our lives or an event like Ken Maitland s death to comprehend this awful and inescapable truth. To eliminate the All too prevalent social conditions which contributed to Vaughan pollen s mental illness we must begin by placing a much higher value on human relationships. Students must make an Effort to befriend the shy and lonely classmate parents must value parenthood More than they do employers must be More concerned about the conditions of work As they affect employees Job satisfaction and self respect teachers and school trustees must become More concerned with the needs of the whole child social service professionals must be More prepared to collaborate with each other in responding to the needs of their clients and politicians and policy makers must strive harder to create both the economic and social conditions for True Community to it is Only to the extent that we value the Quality of our relationships with one another that we will find the will and perseverance to create a More caring society. Harvey Stevens is a research associate with the social planning Council of Winnipeg. Rock group kiss has had a considerable effect on some of its Young fans such As these on right who Wear Gaudy makeup when they attend kiss concerts. Senators enjoy risk free defections As the net result of any appointment to the Senate of Canada said John a. Macdonald you make nine enemies and create one ingrate. The nine enemies Are the disappointed applicants the ingrate is the appointed one. As further testimony to this Wisdom 13 senators have Cut their party ties if any to form an ingrate Rump in the other place announcing that they would no longer receive the party whip and asking for seating arrangements separate and apart from their caucus bound Liberal or conservative Brethren. Hon. Louis Philippe Beaubien the senator for Bedford was the Only tory to join the group which includes one Independent senator one so credit senator and 10 grits. Obviously Beaubien Molson and Manning have been tactically employed to Lay smoke Over what is Pri Marily the strategic withdrawal of a group of Liberal senators from the chafing and burdensome duty of sup porting the constitutional proposals of the government of p. E. Trudeau. Beaubien Molson and Manning merely provide an Aura of dignified respect ability to what is at heart a Liberal Mutiny. Even though one of their own has become the Token tory in this grit rebellion the conservatives Are excl Dalton Camp Tant. In the matter at Issue the Constitution it Means they have gained in strength and numbers those who will support their position and oppose the government. Furthermore it could Only be heartening to conservatives to be spectators to some other party s Public display of disunity. And even though the Senate As Macdonald Well knew has always High quota of ingrates this is the first time there has been an attempt to organize the ingratitude into a movement a Liberal one at that. Liberal spokesmen for the new sen ate Rump have been at pains to say they remain devout in their Liberal Faith the single caveat being they will not take instruction from the Liberal Cau Cus and the whip s office. Thus from the prolific hybrid of liberalism an other mutation emerges in the shape of grit senators who will support the policy of their government Only when it does not ruffle their principles regional biases or personal interests if there be any if this fever of private emancipation becomes epidemic Senate Reform will have been achieved better or worse without amendment or refer ence to the provinces. Whatever the Senate has been it could now become a chamber of conscience in which Sena tors would be responsible to no one and naught else but their individual sense of virtue. Based on my own knowledge of those who have been summoned to the Senate the Likely possibility that More of the same will follow i find the Prospect of an upper House of private piety somewhat disconcerting. The trouble with putative insurrections much As this is that while Trig gered by expedient needs As that of opposing the government on the Constitution the mutineers have not thought beyond the immediacy of their present unrest. What next we must assume since they have asked to be seated together that they represent a common Point of View. But neither they nor we know View might be other than one of Dis sent. Even so to establish the right of dissent in the Senate or anywhere else All one needs to do is speak one does not need to form an enclave. What of senator Molson who came to the Senate in 1955 As an Independent and remained so is he now having joined the Rump More Independent or less so inevitably one should ask of the 13 or at least of 11 of them if they truly believe the parliamentary system of which they Are a part works Best if the restraints of caucus discipline Are removed and one s conscience is Given free rein. I doubt it. If anything the senators have put a Low Price on the merits of the party system and placed an exit Bitant Price on their individual Worth elevating themselves above the pro Cess. Oddly enough 12 of the 13 were summoned to the Senate by prime ministers who were impressed not by their Wisdom or exquisite principle but by their loyalty to party. They care willingly bearing the labels of their partisanship. It takes some courage for a member of the House of commons to Bolt his or her party however lofty the purposes. But the my must inevitably face the electors. The senators run no risk and confront no ultimate would have been a More impressive demonstration of their principle h and they screwed up enough moral scruple to resign from their Senate Sanctuary of privilege and perquisite. Failing that convincing resort the senators look less like liberals of conscience and More like liberals of convenience. Toronto Sun Syndicate Bob Wilson legislature Saga might not be Over with the supreme court s dismissal 6f a request to Appeal the conviction of Bob Wilson the official notice of vacancy of the Wolseley seat was registered last week and the curtain appeared to have fallen on the last act of the Wilson melodrama. Or was there an epilogue yet to come it had been a very Long performance extending Over 21 months and had placed almost everyone involved in an uncomfortable position. Undoubtedly the most uncomfortable and unhappy person was Wilson who after exhaust ing every possible method of Appeal would be spending the next seven years at Stony Mountain Penitentiary for conspiracy to import and traffic in Mari Juana. However he was not the Only person who had suffered. Since the original arrest in september 1979, All members of the Assembly have been inflicted with acute embarrassment realizing that the action of one reflected on All. As various individuals admitted the general Public opinion of politicians had been less than complimentary even before the Wilson events unfolded but the constant publicity Given to the arrest conviction and Appeal of one of their own Only worsened their image. Many maintained it would have been better if he had resigned immediately. At least they would not have been so under the dome Arlene Billinkoff closely identified with him. Wilson refused to quit believing he had every right to remain As an la and intended to continue serving his constituents As Long As possible. That task became increasingly difficult with each passing month. Originally he had been asked merely to withdraw from the tory caucus room pending disposition of the charges but when he was found guilty a year later his party was faced with a difficult decision. Should it expel him immediately or wait until he had completed his Appeal it was a difficult position for the tories torn Between supporting the principle that a person was innocent until the court process was exhausted or ridding themselves of a political Burden. Eventually the caucus and the party expelled Wilson requiring him to sit As an Independent. At that Point his former colleague would behave As offers had done in similar situations resign. Regardless of that Hope and the numerous accusations from the nip that Wolseley would not be properly represented by such a member Wilson still intended to re main. Unfortunately the discovery of a Sec Tion in the criminal code which ruled that a seat was automatically vacant when the member was sentenced to More than five years for a criminal offence changed that intention. Al though there was doubt about the applicability of that Section Wilson was willing to stay away temporarily. How Ever Midway through the december session he entered the chamber and after a Day and night of heated debate was expelled. The government then introduced changes to the legislative Assembly act echoing the contents but presumably removing the doubts about the legality of the criminal code. Under the new provision the person in ques Tion would be barred from sitting in the House or receiving any indemnity but the seat would not be vacated until the Appeal was completed. It was retroactive in order to prohibit Wilsom from receiving any Money because of his Brief appearance in december. That legislation was greeted with Relief by most Las but some believed it to be bad Law. Attorney general Gerry Mercier admitted there would be problems regardless of the method used while others maintained the retroactivity aspect was a very unsound precedent based on a tenuous principle. Even Sterling Lyon agreed that retroactivity should be avoided wherever possible but insisted it was in the Public interest this time. The Bill became Law but the Battle was not Over. When Legal Aid Manitoba initially dismissed his plea for Finan Cial help Wilson suspected political reasons. He believed a Law suit challenging government legislation during an election year could be Embarrass ing but Legal Aid officials said the request had been denied because there was no real Chance of winning. Others however said it would be worthwhile to use this Case to test the criminal code. In the meantime Wilson s Appeal was dismissed he was imprisoned but intended to go to the supreme court and the Wolseley seat remained in limbo. Mercier insisted it would not be considered vacant until All Legal ave Nues were exhausted. They were finally exhausted last week when the request for Appeal was rejected by a panel of the supreme court. Accordingly an official notice of vacancy of the Wolseley seat was registered by two Las and Lyon said that vacancy would be filled at an appropriate time. Whether that meant a by election within the next 12 months or a general election remained to be seen but at least the problem was on its Way to Resolution. However some strings remained to be tied. Wilson s latest lawyer was willing to proceed with civil court action despite the absence of Legal Aid and intended to ask whether the provi Sion of the criminal code was applicable and took precedence Over Provin Cial Laws and whether the the legislative Assembly act were punitive or even Legal. Obviously the final curtain had not yet descended. Doonesbury of Cam Shafi Rixis. In just inconclusive. m a in effect a composite communist ;