Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - November 01, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page a19 Winnipeg free press saturday november 1, 2008 View from the West and beyond comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. M. Ca Winnipeg repress. Com a 19 g lobe and mail columnist Margaret Wente set off a firestorm last weekend with her column on the whole Dick Pound affair. She agreed the now chastised olympics bureaucrat using the word Savage in an interview with la Presse was pretty dumb. But then she went on and said some pretty dumb stuff herself. Wente was quite taken with Calgary academic Frances Widdowson a hons debuting a Book that promises to dispel the mythology about the history of aboriginal people. Wente agreed with Widdowson saying the truth is that aboriginal people Are a neolithic people. It Isnit True. Widdow songs theories Are decades out of Date and have been discredited by her Peers. We actually fit better in the paleo Indian Era by the Way. The article unfolded into aboriginal bashing with two right Wing women taking uneducated potshots at aboriginal culture. Its stupidity at Best at worst veiled racism. Wente said aboriginal contributions to this country Are vastly overstated. She says Widdowson believes we Are denying reality and Are therefore doomed to lives isolated from the modern world without the skills and aptitudes they need to make it in an increasingly Complex society. Yeeshe has Wente Ever met an aboriginal person she needs to get outside More often and take a Good look around. I think she suffers from what i Call Dinosaur thinking. There Are Likely lots of aboriginal people around her working thriving and living Well. Toronto the name has iroquoian roots has a vibrant aboriginal Community. Sure Many of our reserves have social issues were dealing with much of it stemming directly from government led policies like residential schools and Caps on education and infrastructure funding. But Wente should visit a few of our communities because they Are As diverse As any towns found across the country. Some reserves Are doing Well too. The obstacles we have to overcome Are huge but we Are a thriving people. We had to be adaptable in order to survive. Now were a growing population and Well become a major strength in the labour Market in the near future As baby Boomers continue to retire. Why is it so offensive to Wente that aboriginal cultures were every bit As Rich in heritage As those found in Europe during the 1600s? maybe Sheds afraid the status quo she believes in so strongly is changing. Ism not the Only one who a snot impressed with the column. Wentes words were so provocative they resulted in a Facebook group called fire Margaret Wente and Dick Pound. Some 2,000 people signed up in a couple of Days. The Globe and mail received Many outraged letters. They printed a few too. But they stood by Wente and thatus expected. The real truth is Canada was created with the support of the original people. And without their kindness a huge population of newcomers who founded Canada would not have survived. Ism not saying aboriginal cultures Are Superior. If i believed that id be no better than Wente. All cultures Are unique intelligent and contribute to this country. First nations deserve equal respect just like everyone else. The sooner Wente and her followers figure that out the better off Well All be. Colleen. Simard email. Com Colleen Simard Globe and mail columnist Wente too far a mid a decent amount of hoopla history was made this week when Shelley Hart reached the upper Echelon of what Many consider an old boys network. That history was of course her appointment As Deputy chief of the Winnipeg police service the first woman to Rise to that level. Hart never seen As part of an inner Circle was selected i suppose in the Wake of the mayors acknowledgement last year that the service was broken. It followed that an administrative shake up was sorely needed and appointing chief Keith Mccaskill was the first step. Hart who jumped a rank to become Deputy seems to be the second. Consumers of the news witnessed Mccaskill praising her As he in a fresh common sense manner concluded she was just the right person for the Job. Other top managers like superintendent Art Stannard seen in the background of some television news stories of the announcement looked As pleased As Mccaskill. But when the pomp and circumstance dissipates and the dust settles How will other cops feel Shelley Hart used to Call me in the Middle of the night and nobody should get the wrong idea. As a police officer i had a position for a few years that allowed me to be Home most nights. The saw off was that from time to time when certain information circumstances or people came to Light i was part of a unit that had to be notified sooner than later. Deputy Hart slugging it out on midnights was one who would take me from slumber to update. The thing that impressed me most was her ability without fail to accurately get to the Crux of a matter while simultaneously juggling the finer still important details. Of course the other thing was her unending patience that she pushed into service while i wasted her time shaking the cobwebs Loose. Harts a straight shooter not afraid to speak her mind. In a re jigging of the departments resources she and i crossed swords and views on some of the new directions that were considered. During those talks i admired the loyalty to her position and to those under her command. I suppose i could mention too that she was probably right. She and i began our careers about the same time. During the last three decades the Quality that stands most prominently that says the most about Deputy Hart is a nose to the Grindstone consistency that has manifested itself in All aspects of her work. Never one to play the gender card it is her Vigour and drive thatus been her Cornerstone. It did not matter if she was working a patrol car in the Core or performing traffic duties. Or As a detective in the robbery homicide division. Or most recently As the commander of major criminal investigations. Her work has invariably reflected Well on our police service. Officers both serving and retired Are optimistic that the latest addition to Winnipeg Gas senior Levels of policing will be a boost to morale and credibility one that will play a positive role in earning Back some of the Confidence that has been lost in recent times. Even a few seasoned detectives sometimes known for jaded if not surly worldviews Are buoyed by Harts promotion. And All this makes me wonder about the notion held by some that the promotion of this woman to an executive position in the police service is a surprising breakthrough into an old boys network. Because it seems that none of the old boys Are really surprised at All. Robert Marshall a retired Winnipeg police officer is a Security consultant. Rm112800@ hot mail. Com straight shooter Robert Marshall Shelley Hart Rose to top old fashioned Way she earned it Winnipeg free press archives new Deputy chief Shelley Harts work has invariably reflected Well on the Winnipeg police service. I t is the Winter of 1996 97 and your daughters Boyfriend is a Junior hockey player. He lives with a Bunch of other players and their coach in a hotel suite in Deseronto Ontario. The relationship does not venture outside the hockey rink or the hotel but the coach is always there and he has a reputation of ensuring players go to school do their Homework keep their grades up and observe a curfew. The coach and the players he brought with him have turned the team around. Once it could never win now it seems never to lose and everybody loves a Winner. Your daughter must be Safe. In 2004 you and the rest of Canada Are shocked when Michael Jefferson one of those Star players who had since remade himself into Mike Danton in the nil pleads guilty to conspiracy to murder charges in St. Louis and you learn it was David Frost his coach Back in Deseronto now his agent whom he conspired to have murdered. Both Danton and Frost deny a conspiracy or intent of any kind but at least with a guilty plea there will be no investigation. Danton commences his jail term in new Jersey. Your daughter and her Best Friend Are now Young women removed from Deseronto and the near Zero options Small towns offer girls. There were no chances for them to become great Junior players because like every other Small town in Canada Deseronto did not provide professional Junior hockey teams for girls. In this highly gendered equation girls were Only allowed to be adjectives that helped describe boys much As hockey scores do. Shortly after the Danton Story broke they went to the police. With distance and maturity the girls understood that the limited sexual opportunities offered by their sex boyfriends we rent about Loving the female body at All rather they were twisted relationships that revolved around their All powerful coach. The coach Danton wanted dead. In a Napanee courtroom this week one Young woman said i Felt uncomfortable with it but i Felt kind of pressured to do it referring to having to have sex with Frost. She added that she did not want to do it again but finally i got persuaded into it after her Boyfriend continued to pressure her to have sex once More with him and Frost. Robin Warshaw wrote the groundbreaking Book i never called it rape in 1988. She went to University campuses across the United states and asked girls and Young women if they had Ever been raped. Almost exclusively they responded in the negative. Then she asked them if they had Ever been pressured to have sex by someone who was much larger who held Power Over them who used intimidating or coercive tactics physically psychologically or emotionally had they Ever been brow beaten into sex simply worn Down by a Guy who take no for an answer had they Ever agreed to have sex because it seemed to be the Only Way out of the situation the answers came Back in the affirmative. The girls in Deseronto co operated with police for Over two years but on March 6, 2007, Crown attorney Adam Zegouras dropped the charges that concerned the alleged assaults against the girls declaring there was insufficient evidence. It was at this Point that one of the girls finally gave the police her diary where she kept her most intimate and embarrassing recollections of what went on in the hotel room. Too late the charges had been dropped and eventually her name which i will not use was disclosed to the Media As everyone pretended she was a willing participant in acts that sexually exploited and degraded her in a situation she was coerced into. Somehow though the charges involving hockey players who were allegedly abused in the exact same incidents at exactly the same time As the girls moved Forward. These were the Young men who the girls say colluded with Frost and persuaded them to have sex with their coach. Obviously Zego Raus does not understand what acquaintance rape is and How was judge Geoffrey Griffin understanding it when he lifted the publication ban on the girls names these girls Are All of our daughters. While writing crossing the line violence and sexual assault in Canadas National sports found too Many cases where the Justice system propped up the hockey mythology and abandoned girls Blind to the cyclical nature of sexual abuse because such ugliness could not be part of hockey. In a subculture presided Over with an Iron fist where garbage and garbage cans were thrown Over players who did not play Well where Frost was convicted of assault after he punched a player in the face everyone became a victim. Girls bodies were objectified in the most absolute meaning of the word becoming the surface on which and in which the real relationship that Between the coach and players took place. Abusive sex was a stand in for hockey the female body a stand in for ice As frosts players did As they were told. Like the Swift current Broncos who were paid $ 50.00 to bring a girl Back to the House of their coach Graham James so he could videotape them having sex these allegedly victimized players became victimize is. James pled guilty to 350 counts of sexual assault at the exact same time Frost started his fiefdom in Deseronto. Plus a change. Girls in a subculture where Frost told players they were Pussies and to put their skirts Back on and go Home were not human beings. One a Girlfriend testified she Only came to the hotel when invited. Determining when she saw her Boyfriend and when and with whom she would have sexual activity was not her right another tragic chapter in a Litany of Many that the hockey myth continues to deny. Laura Robinson a former member of the National cycling team is an author and freelance writer. Laura Robinson abusive sex As a stand in for hockey a 19_ nov 01 08. Ind a19 10/ 31/ 08 7 20 57 pm ;