Did you know that rats can manipulate themselves physically? I didn’t. That is, not until I read RATS Observations on the History & Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants, by Robert Sullivan.[1] Rats have the ability to…
Over several 100 individuals have responded to our questionnaire, ‘What are your thoughts'.[1,2] It is made up of a list of violent acts that victimized persons speak of enduring. Respondents are asked to decide that if many or all of…
It’s rather a weird title, but when all of these relational realities recently collided, my decision was made. These issues would be the title for this Blog. For five years I have looked forward to receiving the next edition of…
Last week as I stood over my kitchen sink washing my dishes I was multitasking—washing dishes, cleaning up my kitchen and watching the program Daily Planet on the Discovery Channel which got me into thinking. The TV program had caught…
Linda and I attended the Atlantic National Event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, (TRC) with a friend, on the 29th of October. The TRC is part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement,[1] a class…
There are many forms of torture. I will focus, however, on the torture of solitary confinement because Linda and I were recently sent a BBC News article discussing statements by Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture or cruel,…
I am adding this word ‘tabooization’ to my language. Because, in my opinion, it reinforces gender-based oppression; it is used to silence persons who have suffered sexualized victimization. In effect, tabooization sends socio-cultural and…
Why can't reporters get it? Why can't they become aware that when writing about sexualized violence committed against children, including babies, that their wording must not be described as babies and children engaging in "sex acts"…
Every September morning that Linda and I walked down heavily worn thick stone steps of the hostel that housed our six day stay in Poland, I wondered about the peoples whose ancient footsteps had carved such indented pathways that now led us onto the…
What is wrong with the wording “having sex with a 2- to 3-month-old baby” that is in a newspaper article describing an U.S. Army major accused of raping an infant? This is the question I want to shout out at the world of media reporting.…
At first glance this title may seem like an oxymoron but it is not. Now, several days after Father’s Day there will be store employees lifting Father’s Day cards from their display slots, maybe packing them away until next…
It seems, I ought to, when writing or speaking about rapings perpetrated predominately against women and girls pre-post- or in-conflict refer to such a crime as being isolated to “a weapon of war” because this is how the world is…
Yesterday, I listened to Sara's message on my answering machine.[1] She was asking who she could contact to try to explain why mammogram technicians need sensitivity education so they would become aware of the impact forced nakedness can have on…
In industrialized countries such as Canada, Easter time is expressed in store aisle after store aisle. Cloaked with Easter egg candies and the chocolate – white or brown – symbolic Easter Bunny wrapped in plastic, packed into brightly…
Sharing Linda and my work and the collective voices of all who have contacted us from different countries, such as New Zealand, Australia, Western Europe, the UK, USA and Canada, these presentations provide the opportunity to educate those in…
Torture ‘porn’ Images Do Exist News reports talking about a recently released book about the violent brutal acts Col. Russell Williams inflicted against women suggests that negating child ‘pornography’ charges were…
This year Linda and I attended the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, at the UN in New York City, from 22 February to the 4th March. If you are wondering how many people, mostly women, attend from all over the world,…
As a writer my focus is on sharing the supportive and research work that began for Linda and I in August of 1993 when a woman ‘introduced’ us to the reality of the torture victimization she suffered, that was inflicted by private individuals or ‘non-state actors’. Linda and I hold a relational feminist and human rights perspective so my writings reflect this position, as does the editing that Linda and I do. Being entrusted with person’s victimization knowledge and healing work our goal also includes sharing their voices in our articles.
Without this participatory partnership we could not break the global patriarchal socio-cultural resistance that has silenced the existence of the many forms of non-state torture (NST) victimization that can be/are inflicted from birth. Writings share our wisdom and focuses on gaining the human rights of victimized persons not to be subjected to torture, and to assert the necessity that NST must be specifically and distinctly criminalized in all nations on this planet.