Jeremy Swanson
Fathers and Men's Rights Activist
"For The Children”
Ottawa, Ontario Phone: (613) 237-1320 ext 2438 swanson@storm. ca
ACTIVIST ALERT
Sunday 22nd April 2007
Canadian activist takes on Status of Women Canada on behalf of Canadian Men and Fathers
A landmark legal case starts Monday 23rd April at 10.00 am in the British Columbia Supreme Court when our brother Fathers Rights Activist Ken Wiebe of BC Fathers is going to trial in his legal suit against radical feminists within Status of Women Canada and the Federal Minister responsible for SOW. The trial is expected to take two weeks.
See the BC Fathers website here: http://www.fathers. bc.ca/
Ken and many other activists quite rightly took exception to the statements and actions of radical feminists Pierette Bouchard, Isabelle Boily, Marie Claude Proulx when they alleged in a taxpayer funded report (School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for the Masculinist Discourse) that men's groups were engaging in a media-internet war to discredit feminists and challenge and reduce 'gains' made by the women's groups. The defendants also stated in the document that men's-and therefore by extension-fathers rights be treated and labelled as "hate -mongering" hate speech and therefore hate-crime. They prepared a "hit-list" of Men and Fathers Rights Activists and the plan was to have men's and fathers rights groups monitored and investigated by the Canadian security services. The documentation obtained by Ken shows clear evidence that the defendants made obvious defamatory reference to and likened all men's activists to pedophiles and other deviants. The list is extensive. In other words they were referring to people like us. Here is an example of the kind of statements made in the report...... ..
“…In light of the growing use of the Internet by masculinist groups to develop misogynist sites inciting violence and the growing number of discussion groups used to promote hatred of women, we suggest that a monitoring organization be established, similar to Hate Watch, but focussed solely on gender social relations… "…It would also be useful to maintain, publish, disseminate and update a list of misogynist groups… "
"Some statements also incite hatred and violence….” “…We also recommend that consideration be given to whether legal action can be taken under Section 319 of the Criminal Code…” “…We have found a discourse of hate, often violent and unchecked, directed at women and feminists…. …"This is one of the peculiar features of the Internet: it enables extremists, racists, supremacists, heterosexists, misogynists, and other individuals and groups from the right and extreme right to openly espouse their opinions without any restrictions…” (Hmmm now where have we seen that before..? JS)
So fair activist do you see yourself as a "hate-mongerer" ? Do you understand that merely by being active in the field of Fathers rights that the people at Status of Women would like to see you fall into a category and labelled as an "extremist" a "racist", a "supremacist" , a "heterosexist" , a "misogynist" , a "pedophile" a "pornographer" and a "masculinist. " Are you "violent and unrestrained" and "hateful?" Are you "violent" and "dangerous to women"? Are you a "terrorist"? Do you think that merely by protesting inequities in law and demanding equal rights under the law and according to the Charter that you "incite fear and hatred" ? Do you believe that as men and fathers exercising our rights as citizens of Canada that we should be monitored and reported to the police and investigated- and even arrested -as "hate mongerers"? Do you believe that these feminists have the right to insist that we be treated as criminals in our own country-pursuing our rightful method of legal non violent protest? Do you believe we should have to put up with this defamatory outrage as a result of a report paid for with our tax dollars and written by people who are paid with our tax dollars too? How far are we prepared to let these people go? How close to another chapter in history in another place is this reality which we call the best country in the world-Canada? "
WE NEED TO SUPPORT OUR BROTHER KEN WIEBE. After all he is doing this as much for us as he is doing it for himself and his own family. If you can't donate to him or get to the courthouse to support and stand with him then at least please send him and email of support and solidarity. His email is Ken Wiebe kwiebe@fathers. bc.ca Please drop him an email letting him know you are thinking of him and that you support his fight on our behalf.
Ken Wiebe is taking direct aim at the feminist radicals for 'smearing' us all in this way and is suing the persons responsible, Her Majesty The Queen (God Bless Her) and the Minister responsible for Status of Women Canada. Ken is funding this all himself but he would welcome some financial support. A donation towards his legal expenses would be very much appreciated (see website for details) and he certainly hopes that Fathers activists will be at court to offer and demonstrate support and solidarity. You can bet that the SWC people will have people there to create a fuss in front of the media so we need people to get down to the courthouse on Smithe Street to show presence, support and solidarity. The trial starts tomorrow Monday the 23rd April at 10.00 am and the address is: 800 Smithe Street Vancouver.
If anyone wants to see the statement of claim or relevant parts of it please do not hesitate to contact me for details. See the original National Post article hereunder:
JS
Men's groups promoting hatred, federal report says Michael Higgins,
(with files from J. Kelly Nestruck)
National Post-Friday, May 30, 2003
A federally funded report says "masculinists" are orchestrating a backlash against feminism and blaming women for oppressing and discriminating against men.
The report's authors claim that masculinists portray men as victims and link feminism with boys' poor performance in schools, male suicide, loss of male identity and discriminatory divorce and child custody laws.
"A process of levelling the power relationships of men over women is taking hold, not only to mask continued inequality but also to attack some of the gains made by the women's movement," says the $75,000 report, School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for the Masculinist Discourse.
The report says "masculinist discourse" aims to discredit feminism and challenge the gains made by women in education, at work and in family life.
The report was written in response to a call from Status of Women Canada, a federal department, to research the subject: "Where have all the women gone? Changing shifts in policy discourses."
A disclaimer on the front of the repor says, "This document expresses the views of the author and does not necessarily represent the official policy of Status of Women Canada or the Government of Canada."
Among the report's recommendations is that an organization similar to Hate Watch be established to monitor men's groups on the Web, that inciting hatred on the basis of gender should be a hate crime and that women's groups establish a network to counter the masculinists' views.
Men's groups listed in an appendix to the report said they were outraged at being "smeared."
Ken Wiebe, from British Columbia, said his Web site, fathers.bc.ca, was set up as a resource centre for fathers who have had trouble in the divorce courts. He denied it promotes hatred of women and said it demands equality.
"There is no question that I have very little patience for feminists, especially the radical variety of feminism here in Canada," he said. "But I have a wife, I have daughters. This notion that because we are opposed to the feminists' political agenda, that that somehow equates to a dislike of women, is just propaganda. That's some kind of smear campaign."
Mickey MacMillan, of Kamloops Parents of Broken Families, said he was angry at being put on the "hit list." "All I've ever done is advocate for equal parenting," said Mr. MacMillan, who represented Canada as a boxer in the 1962 Commonwealth Games.
"I have no agenda against women. I don't like feminists because I think they're radical and I think they're against men, but I don't think they should try to criminalize me. And my government paying for it, it is a disgrace."
Jim Hodgins, of the Canadian Committee for Fairness in Family Law in Ontario, which is on the report's list but does not have a Web site, said, "I think there is a serious need to look into why the government is funding this."
In an interview with the National Post yesterday, the main author of the report, Pierrette Bouchard, a professor in the education department at Université Laval, said she was surprised at what she found on the Web sites.
"At first, I thought, Well, these are just a few small fringe groups, it's not important. But eventually, I found that there were more of them than I thought and that they had a large network on the Internet, through which they are disseminating their views. That does bother me. It was very surprising.
"In conducting this research, we found attacks on feminists on a lot of sites. We were only reflecting what we saw on their sites.
"I have a feminist perspective, but just because I am a feminist, does not mean that I am incapable of seeing that boys are having certain difficulties. Nor do I put all men in the same basket. Not all men are like those I identified in the report."
She defined masculinists as activists within certain men's groups. Ms. Bouchard and the report's two other authors, her research assistants, Isabelle Boily, and Marie-Claude Proulx, began by studying how "masculinists" used the media to portray the phenomenon of boys being less successful in school than girls.
"However, circumstances led us to examine various masculinists discourses, of which school success or achievement is only one," it says.
It notes articles in the media went from discussing girls' "triumphant breakthrough" in the 1990s to placing the emphasis on boys' "malaise." The authors blame the media for spreading the masculinists misinformation. They say men's groups view feminism as a movement to oppress and discriminate against men.
http://www.national post.com/ home/story. html?id=C78F1D80 -FDE6-4715- 8113-3EB1589B30B 2
"Do not try to help the oppressed unless you are prepared to take on the oppressors."- Anon
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