THE WAR AT HOME

I once sat at my desk into the evening, only for my phone to ring ... on the other end was a woman who was angry, asking if I was the "human rights tribunal'.  I calmly told her I was not, but we do handle matters before that Tribunal.  

Without listening, the woman immediately went into a rant about how she and her daughter were living at a 'family shelter' and she was being discriminated against.  I ask her how.  She then explains that she had no access to the kitchen during the Ramadan between 8:30 and 9:00 p.m.  I asked her why that was an issue, that Ramadan only went on for a certain period of time and there were 23.5 hours she was able to use the kitchen each day apart from that.  She then hurried on about how she was "kicked out" of the kitchen during those times because she was expressing her "freedom of speech".  I asked her kindly how she would take somebody else using their "freedom of speech" to say what was on their mind about her, perhaps her gender, her disability, her poverty, and so forth, but she did not respond, just that she was so wrought up over these Muslims who were also at the home.

Several weeks later, in my own community, somebody started setting up a business called the Islamic Boutique.  This place was not even an active business, as people can see inside that drywall, electrical work and other preparations were being made to put this business into place.  The following week I found all the windows smashed and the signage for the business removed.  A few days later, I was speaking to somebody downtown at a coffee shop who told me her husband was beat up by somebody in his residential complex because he was a Muslim.  I handed her my card to ask for her husband to give me a call.

I learn in June that a few Pride events were cancelled because there were threats made to the organizers of these events.  At the events that went ahead anyways, many were confronted by members of Yellow Vests Canada, Soldiers of Odin, National Party and other fringe elements that would invite somebody with a bullhorn to shout out Biblical "interpretations" to them and approach members of these events in anticipation of causing a fight.  In fact, many fights did erupt.  This happened at the Eaton's Centre where people from these elements were in attendance on Pride Sunday in Toronto with the intention of causing a fight.

In fact, many people from the LGBTQ community are remembering Stonewall and sadly, the mass shooting at Orlando, Florida.  While I know that most Christians do not think like this, the Internet is dominated by those that do.  We were somehow transported back to the 1950's where people were afraid of being who they were or admitting to anybody who they were.  For those of you that do not or refuse to remember, there were the words of Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did 

not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did 

not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not 

speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was 

no one left to speak for me.

This was during the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s, which people of the West had said 'never again'.  It is more than a generation later and we have encountered many genocides since, such as in Rawanda, Darfur, Tunisia, etc.  People did not feel much about these things because they happened so far away and believed this could never happen in a western "civilized" society.  What people don't remember is that prior to the second World World War, Germany was one of the most educated, civilized and advanced countries.  There were many daily newspapers and its citizenry were well educated and well-read.  If it can happen there, this can happen anywhere. 

There were signs as the German economy began to fail.  In difficult times, scapegoats become part of the national agenda.  There were significant developments that happened after the election of Hitler and his party, the National Socialist Party.  This was a party that sold itself as the party of the working class German.  It organized and implicitly rose against communists, immigrants, and others that could be targeted for Germany's unemployment at the time.  They decided to abandon the Treaty of Versailles at the time and push for Germany First.

Cultural discourse continued to go on a populist, hateful path, whereas certain statements were commonplace in the Germany of pre-war times.  Laws were passed to limit the rights of its Jewish citizens, as Hitler felt the Jewish people were responsible somehow for their woes.  Many German people just sat on the sidelines and watched this happen.  As we know today, it wasn't only the Jewish people, but immigrants, poor people, disabled people among others who were also scapegoated and rounded up and many were transported to facilities where they were either used as slave labour or killed.  The Aktion T4 Program utilized six facilities and eventually killed over 300,000 persons with disabilities, which technically ended in 1941, but afterwards started up again under a "wild euthanasia" program carried without mandate and only discovered after the Allies invaded Germany and ended the war.  They were exerting dominance of the so-called "Aryan race" and eventually denied rights to other non-Aryan peoples.  

In Canada today, we are hearing frightful stories about anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant hatred and below the surface, Canadians do not realize that many groups, especially aboriginals and many persons with disabilities do not have full citizenship rights that other citizens take for granted.  When such groups try to exert their rights under the charter, the populists try to use the notwithstanding clause to avoid taking responsibility for the abuses they heaped onto various minority groups over the years.  For example, many people do not know until recently many people with disabilities were subject to eugenics policies.  The Alberta Eugenics Board operated until 1973.

A woman named Leilani Muir sued the Alberta government on behalf of a class of plaintiffs who also were sterilized under its eugenics policies.  In 1997, the Alberta's court awarded the plaintiffs millions of dollars, Leilani herself receiving an award of $740,000 in 1996.  However, instead of relenting, the Alberta government used the notwithstanding clause to limit compensation to her and to further plaintiffs seeking their own compensation under the class action .  It was only complaints from the public that shut this down.  Sadly, I don't think we have a public today that would oppose this sort of thing, as once again we have fallen aboard a similar populist bandwagon.

I attend meetings once a month with others who are interested in thinking.  This group of people I meet with include educators, retired business persons, IT consultants, journalists, etc.  These meetings are on hold over the summer, to start again in September.  We talk about a variety of subjects.  The facilitator of the group is a career educator, journalist and presenter.  He explained how society tends to move to different extremes, with today society being swayed to the alt-right.  Most in society do not believe or understand how they are repeating history, but many of us around that table have understood this to be the case.  We talk about how we as individuals can help.

I find thinking a rarity among the general population, because too many people think Dr. Google will diagnose their medical problems, that You Tube saviours will help you prepare for the end of the world and Facebook profiteers push fake news to get you to distrust moderate politicians by getting you to believe almost anything they want you to believe about them, much like Hitler's supporters got the population to buy into the new laws against the Jews.  An example of this is the Pizzagate scandal to get many Americans to believe that Hilary Clinton was behind some kind of pedophile ring.  In Canada, these same people (yes ... these are the same interests that brought Donald Trump into power) are trying to get people convinced the Trudeau wants to turn Canada into an Islamic state.  Both stories are horribly false and not only defamatory, but dangerous for democracy.       

These things are dangerous for democracy.  It has started with Muslims in our country.  Who is next?  Mexicans?  The LGBTQ community? Maybe people will just turn against each other, perhaps start dumping on people with disabilities.  This is already happening even though most readers probably don't know this.  Most people don't realize that people with disabilities that are unable to work or find work enough to support themselves are relegated to an inferior status and forced to abide by laws that nobody else is.  For example, there is no marriage equality for such persons with disabilities.  If they do try to work off the system, they will pay among the highest marginal effective tax rates in an attempt to reach self-sufficiency that no non-disabled person will ever accept.  But like the German people who watched the Nazi regime attack its minorities, today's Canadians are standing by and only thinking about themselves, wanting tax cuts, less immigration, etc. while even if all of these policies were put into effect, these individuals would not be one penny better off.  Yes, even if we spent nothing on other countries, immigrants, refugees, etc., Canadians would not be one penny better off.  Mark my words. This is something I know, but many folks refuse to believe or understand.

This "otherness" trajectory has also followed itself into my own profession, although with less of a working class flare that the anti-Muslim rhetoric plays out.  In our recent elections for the Law Society's board of directors, a slate of candidates ran on a single issue.  This was to StopSOP or to repeal the requirement that the society's licensees create a 'statement of principles' which basically gets each of us to recognize and think about our obligations under the Human Rights Code to other licensees, staff, clients and the public.  Sadly enough, certain members of our profession made a fuss about "forced speech" which it is not.  One of them already took this to court and lost, but is appealing.  To me, "forced speech" is citing the Lord's Prayer at the beginning of each day, even if you are not a Christian.  The Lord's Prayer is not a law or a way for people to consider their obligations under a law, but a belief.  This is in response to members of our profession "knowing" they have obligations under the Code, but don't really believe there is a lot of infringements at a systemic level.  There is, as many people spoke out about this.

However, the StopSOP slate won, every last one of them.  This doesn't mean they are racists, but this single issue campaign has driven away other important discussions that our profession should be having, such as access to justice, the role of the profession in systemic issues and how to deal with the onslaught of technology.  However, one must wonder.  Because the Statement of Principles was founded from a report on challenges faced by racialized licensees, folks supporting the Statement of Principles were quick to notice that twenty of the twenty two people who were part of the slate were white males and none of them were racialized minorities.  I have no problems with white males, but I have problems when a community resists diversity for its own sake.  The victory by the StopSOP may now leave a gap as to how to deal with discrimination issues felt by racialized members, who are now going the other way to express concerns about "what about them" now.

Our communities have done this writ large.  If you are not a white, Canadian born Anglo-Saxon Christian able-bodied person, preferably a male, you have a lot to worry about.  Ford's government is constantly re-iterating how "the best social program is a job", but unless Ford plans to give everybody who wants a job a position with a living wage within their communities, he can't use this.  This is part of why I do not like simple minded people.  Solutions to these issues are not that simple, or they would have resolved long ago.  

What I want to say to people here is that please think about this.  Our society has been through these things for thousands of years where it was always the "other" who was at fault for society's problems, even during the times of the Black Plague, the witches trials, slavery (and attempts to escape it), and so on and so on.  Today, our economy is changing again.  Our governments have been busy in the past few years bombing countries in the Middle East and we do not expect people to show up at our door to ask for shelter and protection?  Maybe we need to re-think our war strategies.  I don't mean to preach on these things, but I am very well educated.  I used to teach this stuff.

Sadly, one of the questions I used to ask my students is coming to fruition.  I asked them if it were possible to have the pre-holocaust killings of persons with disabilities, etc. happen again.  It has been happening in the UK under it's work assessment program, where it is cited in the British Medical Journal that over 120,000 people died or were killed as a result of this.  This excludes the 400% hike in hate crimes against people with disabilities in Great Britain as cited by author Katherine Quarmby in her book Scapegoat.  People in the UK know this is happening, but sadly continue to stand around and assume most of them are "scroungers", just like the Conservative leaders referred to them as, when this program was first implemented.  And sadly, many Ontarians continue to stand around as Doug Ford slashes program after program, thinking it will never affect them ... but then, again, remember Martin Niemoller.  It can and it will happen to you if we don't act now.

THE RISE OF THE ANOMIE GENERATION

I walked the full walk for the Coldest Night of the Year 2017 for Start Me Up Niagara.  Start Me Up Niagara's business is booming, but for the wrong reasons.  Sadness and hurt is ubiquitous with personal pain taking priority over social peace.  The organization tries to put into place hands on solutions that produce long term change for people, instead of just feeding an empty belly for a night, or for a few days.  They pursue the concept that all people have value, not just those that are reaping most of society's rewards.

This winter has been rough for me with the death of my mother last fall, only to be followed by the knowledge and helplessness of my father dying before me.  To me, it is though society has been taking a turn in a different direction and we all feel like helpless pawns trying to fight against the forces that try to keep us all down.  Members of my profession are susceptible to mental health issues because people do not approach us when their lives are doing well, when optimism speaks the day. We spend our time receiving, analyzing, outputting and speaking out, filing complaints, approaching people who are less than happy to see us, only to be misunderstood by those for whom we speak at times, as well as our colleagues.

Niagara Region is not a nice place to live and do the type of work that I do, without expecting to have some of it rub on you.  It is part of the compassion of my advocacy and my practice.  I actually give a damn about the people that come in to see us.  I've often considered the work of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs ... my people are at all sorts of levels of that ladder, although nobody I know has truly reached the top of personal fulfillment.  At this time of the year, it is so hard to keep going  ... people around me are talking about the spring as though the spring can only bring blessings and freedom from this chronic darkness.  I spoke to the cab driver that took me here who told me as he let me off to keep your stick on the ice.  His eyes seemed to know how I was feeling, though I mentioned none of it ... he did mentioned so many people are hurting and cranky today.

This world is not the world that folks like my mother and father built.  My mother and father lived in a different world, in a different time ... perhaps, when we didn't know so much about the dangers of smoking and other things like that.  Growing up, I always noted people being mostly of an 'average' type, although I tended to thrive among the intellectuals.  We intellectuals would discuss anything, ranging from the eventual usefulness of learning the Pythagorean Theorem, to remembering the name of every bone and muscle in the human body and the periodic table.  At the same time, I watched the world evolve into something that I no longer understand or want more of.  My grandfather who I adored throughout his long life is probably rolling in his grave if he knew what the world has consisted of today.  He always taught me to remain strong, think for myself and keep fighting for justice.

In my working world, it is all computers, cloud technology, server technology and legal rigidity.  It is a controlled environment in some way, where we can give others the gift of a certain amount of peace and control in their lives.  Experiencing things, hearing things, doing things and then writing up memos about all of that becomes the life of law.  I continue to want and need the people around me that I have, as when I am not at work there is less of that, but more raw human emotions and amorphous anger directed at no particular direction.  I walk out of my office tonight.  One fellow is yelling and screaming obscenities down King Street, kicking over every garbage can or other chattel that moves.  Another fellow mumbled words only he knew what they meant, while giving us all the starry eye and that scary grin.  In the housing of the bank machines, people lie down and make themselves at home there.  They tell me they won't go to a shelter.

The world my mother and father were part of was one where everybody worked for a decent wage or produced decent wages for others, while looking forward to a decent retirement where the thought of mere survival and struggle was distant.  During my mother and father's time, people cared for one another, for their neighbours and did not mind having a government that also gave a damn.   My mother would tell me of how she grew up in a time that even rock and roll music was so new, so different and unabashedly rebellious.  Nevertheless, she felt the growth of illicit drug use led to where we are today, but then again, she faced her own comeuppance.  She married the man she thought would take care of her and us for the rest of her life, but that did not turn out right.  My father picked up and left my mother for what he saw were greener pastures, though that did not prove rewarding for him in the long run either.  At one time, there were consequences for one's actions ... or at least some expectation that one would apologize or at least forgive.

The fact that my mother passed away and my father is on his way to his own fate reminds me of the era that both of them lived through and hoped for our next generation passing on as well, and moving to a new ambiguous future where public anger results in the rise of people like Donald Trump and favouring policies like Brexit ... looking for solutions in politicians that create both impossible expectations and unanticipated grief for way too many ... the people want this, so why not they justify their stake into the very heart of society.  Society becomes an unnecessary force, as worship of the individual takes over, the thought that one strong man can make it right, is as scary as it sounds ...  I try to explain to people the elements of contagion theory and a voice of authority quietly condoning violence and hatred of the latest scapegoat group, or even joking about it to a large crowd of angry supporters ... is something that is as dangerous today, as it has always been.  Sometimes our first instincts, our first spark of anger and our desires arising from them are not necessarily the panacea we should be seeking.

In today's unabated community of 'alternative facts' and so-called fake news, society is approaching its pinnacle in its anomie.  The progressive forces of society not only have to fight the tendency of celebrity worship sharing the same old neoliberal concepts to run a government, whilst ignoring the very real consequences of a society going under, but to help people away from harming their own interests.  I tell people close to me what it was like for me to work in the mental health system when our province was headed by Mike Harris, who as his first move when elected slashed welfare rates, fired numerous civil servants and started the downward curve in health care coverage.  This is when I realized that the old era had ended and a new, scary reality was taking shape.  I do truly believe we never truly recovered from that period.  In my darkest moments, I still remember those who have died or have lost everything they owned or even their families or loved ones through Mike the Knife's slash and burn policies.

Those who worked alongside me back then are either dead or still wear their scars.  Occasionally, I meet one of them who appear very surprised to see me owning a legal office and partaking in rights-based litigation these days.   At the same time, I try to provide support and avenues for others to practice and to partake in profit sharing with me.  I also provide ongoing support and mentoring to others in the profession, many of whom just had too much.  Many stopped believing in what they do or what they are worth.  It's about the world and what it has been coming to.  It's about society telling people they are on their own, regardless.  I don't want to see the world turn out like that.  I want to stand up and make a difference where I can.  It is just sometimes so hard to see where I am going with this.  Some tell me it is about the ripple in the water the stone I make creates, as it broadens it scope to cover more ground.  Being a survivor is not all about glory and celebrity; it is grit and hard work, and many times hard feelings.

Click the links throughout this post and you will hear songs/videos replaying elements of the world I am referring herein.  Would be interested in your thoughts.