In a recent lecture, the presenting executive cited the Polytechnique Massacre as an example of ongoing violence against women. In the question period, I suggested that comparing all men to a psychopath mass murderer was similar to comparing all Blacks to Idi Amin, all Russians to Stalin, or claiming that 'the Jews' killed Christ. The room rumbled with unease. Two men thanked me in the exit hall.
I propose another view of Canadian deaths, which are mourned only by monuments in the towns where they died. Please place these deaths in the context of 14 women killed by a psychopath, which never happened before or since. All men and women condemned that massacre.
The death toll of the men below remains ongoing. They die to provide their families with security and prosperity.
1873 Drummond Colliery Disaster, Westville - 60-70 deaths
1880 Ford Pit Explosion, Stellarton, - 50 deaths
1891 Springhill Mine Disaster, - 125 deaths
1914 Hillcrest Mine Disaster, Alberta - 189 men died.
1917 Dominion No. 12 Colliery Explosion, New Waterford, - 65 deaths
1918 Albion Mine Explosion, Stellarton - 88 deaths
1938 Sydney Mines cable break in mine shaft - 20 deaths
1956 Springhill Explosion - 39 deaths
1958 Springhill Bump - 75 deaths
1982 The Ocean Ranger drilling rig Grand Banks Newfoundland - 84 deaths. All drowned in freezing water.
1992 Westray Coal Mine Explosion, Nova Scotia - 26 deaths
2009 Newfoundland Offshore Oil Helicopter sunk - 16 deaths, including one woman.
Omitted from this toll is the annual murder toll of men, at least twice that of women.
In 2005, the count of deaths on the job was 1,097, a historic maximum.
Few Canadians know that 97% of those deaths are men. That means 33 women and 1,064 men killed at work, every year.
Men who died fighting to preserve Canadian democracy, The Boer War - 261 War World War I - 64,944 World War II - 42,042 The Korean War - 561 War in Afghanistan 112, ongoing.
Female battle deaths to date: 1.
From: "Why I Won't Wear a White Ribbon"
"Job-caused deaths amount to about 800 per year in Canada. 97% of those deaths are men. That is typical of industrial nations.
Workplace equity is not imposed for the hazardous occupations in the mining, oil, logging, transportation, and construction industries. Canadians grieved over the deaths of 26 miners in the Westray mine explosion of May 1992. Since Confederation, over 1200 miners died in the Maritimes mines, and many more of pulmonary suffocation and cancers. Few Canadians understand those tragedies as typical of centuries of work deaths.
Men commit their bodies and lives to compete for labour in the marketplace, as the irreplaceable financial support for their extended
families. A man is still expected to preserve his wife and children from the insecurity and deprivations caused by poverty. The burdens on men of an erratic economy have rarely been examined by the media or social scientists. Husbands and fathers blame themselves for low income, job loss, bankruptcy, and family poverty. .
Fathers' loyalty and sense of duty to their families are paid for with their physical and mental health, and years cut off their lives. .
Vancouver and many other cities commissioned monuments dedicated to: "...all the women who have been murdered by men." What would be the public or legal reaction if those gender terms were replaced with a religious or racial slander?
No monument has been proposed for the devoted fathers and husbands who supported their families with work in mines, construction, as police officers, deep-sea fishermen or (mostly volunteer) firefighters. They risk their lives every day. Canadian soldiers stare death in the face as they remove land mines in the Balkans to save the lives of strangers, or rescue Afghanis from terrorists. They are heroes, and we owe them respect and honour."
Professor Jeffrey Asher (Ret'd)
Ottawa
Posts
be honest
Harvey has made a career out of the Legal Abuse System and has been full participant in this long ongoing destruction of families at their weakest moments(mentally,financially,emotionally)people are stripped to the bone. It is lunacy to cast rose petals of addoration in his direction for having written a book about his own role and arrogant thoughts. I mean what next ? a Redux of Pontious Pilate as the hero and Christ as supreme villain and troublemaker