Harper’s Failed Agenda: Murder / Suicide by police exposes spin and deception.

By now, many of you have heard the terrible story about the two police officers from London (Ontario) who were found dead in a van this week. It turns out the deaths were the result of a murder / suicide between two police lovers who worked with one another at the London Police Department.

The alleged murderer was Acting Insp. (Mrs.) Kelly Johnson, 40, a passenger in a vehicle driven by her former superior and lover, superintendent (Mr.) David Lucio, 57. It appears that Mrs. Johnson shot Mr. Lucia dead via a single bullet to his temple before she turned the gun on to herself. The van Mr. Lucia was driving then crashed into Mrs. Johnson’s apartment. Both police officers were found dead inside the van.

Acting Insp. Johnson had attained the highest rank of any female officer in the force. She was set next week to assume the position of inspector. She served for several years as the detective sergeant in charge of the sexual assault and child abuse section and supervised the force's domestic violence co-ordinator.

How can this be?

Even though she had seemingly gained the respect of many in the “anti-violence” community, it appears that it was known within the force that Acting Insp. Johnson had some issues of her own. She had multiple previous sexual relationships with her male colleagues at the London Police Department. She married and later separated from fellow London police officer, Steve Pearson. One account following the incident suggested Mrs. Johnson had been known to be “controlling and abusive” in her intimate relationships. Another suggested that she had used her gender and “sex appeal” to rise through the ranks of the London Police Department.

I quote Alfred William Watson from New Brunswick who wrote the following letter to the editor to the London Free Press site on Friday June 9th 2007.

“A married female officer was having a sexual affair with a married male officer. The female officer had risen quickly through the ranks, obviously too quickly, and was about to replace her retiring husband as a senior officer. The same female officer was sexually involved with an even more senior, married officer. Sleeping her way to the top as it were. All the participants in this incestuous police charade were heavily armed and had unrestricted access to restricted firearms.”

What did the Police Chief and “anti violence community” say?

In spite of eye witness accounts and some very strong evidence suggesting that Mrs. Johnson was the murderer, London Police Chief Murray Faulkner has been reluctant this week to assign blame his domestic violence protégé for the incident. Is this all the police chief could say to avoid “eating crow” in front of his community? In 2006 Chief Faulkner was quoted as suggesting that domestic violence is a gender problem directly attributable to men.

"The problem here is gender. The problem here is men,” Faulkner told a crowd gathered at city hall. “What is it to be a man in our society? We need to approach this as a gender violence (and) a man’s issue. We need to have some frank conversations, man-on-man ..." "The vast majority of us, who are not involved in these violent acts, need to stand up to these other guys and say, "Listen' this isn't what a man's about. Don't remain silent. That's the worst thing to do." ~ London Ontario Police Chief, Murray Faulkner, at a news conference in 2006 to launch the Mayor's Task Force to End Women Abuse.

Assistant Inspector Johnson was also well known by Ms. Megan Walker, Head of the London women's abuse shelter; facilitating the lodging of victims at the shelter was a part Inspector Johnson's role as the Head of domestic violence at the London Police. Ms. Walker’s job exists as a result of the funding allocated to protect against domestic violence. Given that London has no comparable shelters for battered men (due to an absence of advocacy funding for men like there is for women), she benefits from the “men are the abusers” approach to domestic violence taken by the London Police Department. When asked about the murder / suicide she said this: "It's just a great personal tragedy for both families, friends and loved ones and anyone who worked with either one of them," Is it suprising she is very neutral in her comments about this particular incident?

Is domestic violence really a gender issue or simply a people issue?

Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms is all about removing race, religion, age, gender etc. from how our policies and laws treat the various issues facing Canadians. Yet, some of our police, politicians, governments (led by advocacy lobbies) insist that men are the problem when it comes to domestic violence. What is the truth?

In January I wrote the following (check out the link to see for yourself, please):

“There is considerable proof that the generalisation that "men are aggressors and breadwinners" and "women are victims and caregivers" is simply incorrect. For example, Martin S. Fiebert from the Department of Psychology at California State University, Long Beach examined 196 scholarly investigations, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners. The aggregate sample size in the studies reviewed by Dr. Fiebert in helping him to conclude this exceeds 177,100.”

Then, why is it there are shelters for women and not for men? Why is the common policy by the police seems often to be about automatically assuming that “men are the perpetrators of domestic violence”, even if unsupported allegations are the sole source of information leading to an arrest. Why is there not another measure to navigate through a “he-said, she-said” situation than assuming that men are the aggressors and women are the victims?

Is this not really about using a “cookie cutter” to sort out complex family situations? If one gender is given the benefit of the doubt in such situations, where is the accountability to ensure that false allegations are not used as a matter of control? What if persons use this bias to create an advantage in case of divorce? What if this enables an emotional and / or physical abuser to continue abusing because their gender makes it so they will not be held to account by the State?

Does gender bias serve “justice industry”: police, lawyers and the judges?

Is all about Stephen Harper's "law and order agenda"? Or, is it bigger than that?

For those of you who have read my articles in the past, I am a very big proponent of finding remedies to gender inequalities that have affected women over the course of history. My 94 year old grandmother was not considered a “person” when she was born, and her Canadian sisters could not vote. I also recognise that many of these same gender inequalities continue to affect women in 2007. Women are not yet equal to men when it comes to pay or the top corporate positions. Women also represent a strikingly low percentage of elected members to the House of Commons.

I consider these facts to be travesties of our society. Why do some still exist now? Many “old boys” would not want to give up the advantages that had been bestowed upon them by their forefathers when they were faced with the women’s movement and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982, especially when it comes to corporate and political power. Would it still be possible post Charter to preserve the hierarchies and principles of patriarchy?

If I were an old boy, one plausible remedy would be to “throw the women’s movement a bone” when it comes to having an advantage when it comes to matters of the family, divorce and domestic violence. If executed correctly, this could delay in perpetuity the pressing need to give up both corporate and political power, since much publicity elsewhere would distract from where the real problems lie for women in our society … and all one would have to do would be to sacrifice those men in our society who are vulnerable to divorce. In so doing, the “justice industry”, meaning the police, lawyers and judges can all profit from shifting power structures. This institution could conceivably be largely supported financially by a gender biased system, while allowing patriarchy to live on in our institutions and in our society.

If accepted by the women's movement and society at large, there would be the political impetus and pressure to design and implement family policy around the assumption that "men are the aggressors and the breadwinners" and "women are the victims and the caregivers". Would such policy foundations that are taken advantage of by both men and women not insitutionalise patriarchy post Charter? For women, is accepting this seeming advantage in matter of the family not a deal with the devil for those who yearn for equality and true gender parity?

Is advocacy funding part of the problem?

One obvious question is whether those who use advocacy monies to lobby governments, politicians and policy makers and influence the public via publicity are intending to promote patriarchy? An even better question is whether those who administer the distribution of advocacy monies willfully use it as an instrument to promote patriarchy?

I have five more questions that raise for me a doubt about the motives behind the law and order and justice agenda when it comes to family policy and domestic violence:

1. does an advantage for women on matters of the family, including domestic violence, insitutionalise women to come second in maters involving corporate and political power?
2. Does advocacy funding indirectly preserve this hierarchy in perpetuity?
3. Are advocacy monies responsible for creating a disadvantage for women outside of the home?
4. Do women who are seeking promotion and prominent careers still have to resort to "sex appeal" like some are now saying Kelly Johnson chose to do? This is even though she was still the highest ranking police woman in London, did the old boys make it that way by institutionalising patriarchy (a glass ceiling) and distributing the "pork" to those who sell out?
5. What about merit for talented women who deserve promotion who would in a pure and "free market" system represent 50% of top corporate positions and 50% of top political posititons?

Or, I would hate to think that anyone would say that women are less capable to lead corporately and politically. Affirmative action created a similar backlash in the United States that has kept some persons assuming that minorities and women were promoted for the wrong reasons.

In December 2006 I wrote:

The bottom line is that advocacy funding is only legal under the Charter if it does not put the rights of one gender ahead of the other. Therefore, it is inappropriate for these funds to flow to organizations who seek to delay further changes to the federal Divorce Act. All funding should meet the gender neutral standard demanded by the application of Canada's Charter principles.Some funding by the Status of Women has been paid to lobbies who seek to delay changes to the Divorce Act, especially since 1998, when a federal report recommended changes that would ultimately make "access" as much of a priority as "child support" in Canadian law and would arguably stop the unilateral flow of child support from men to women. The current situation has been preserved in part via advocacy funding. This is simply inappropriate due to its patriarchy.

I also wrote at that time:

In Canada, where Harper's conservatives have reopened the debate, it is essential that Liberals encourage the government either restrict the flow of advocacy funds to those organisations promoting gender discrimination, or fund men's groups who seek to change the Divorce Act for the sake of children, men, women and second families. Perhaps western democracies who make advocacy funding available to organizations that seek to make gains at the expense of the other gender should listen less to highly organized pitches and politics by certain lobbies and focus instead on the objective criteria of gender equality. Fairness would suggest that either advocacy funding must be made available to those seeking to make access a priority in family policy or restrictions on inappropriate gender funding are needed.

Conclusion

I hate to have to piggy-back on an absolute tragedy to demonstrate the problems that exist in our society with respect to which gender has the current advantage when it comes to matters of the family and who ultimately benefits from gender biased approaches to interpreting domestic violence. All I want anyone to take from this article is this:

1. Violence is a people issue not a gender issue.
   
2. Decisions about who sees their children should be made on the basis of merit not gender.
3. Family policy is set and continues to benefit Canada’s police, lawyers and judiciary and continues to hurt men, women, children from both first and second families.
4. In the meantime, women lack the corporate, institutional and political power they deserve in a fair and just society because the old boy’s well guarded solution to finding remedies to historical gender inequities lies once again at the level of the family, which furthers the patriarchy.

In a truly just society with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, men would not be absent of power in their home and in relation to their children and women would not be absent of power when it comes to pay, promotion or political representation.

Brothers and sisters, we should all be on the same page here.