Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
January 5, 1999
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking. More..
Virtual Library of Newspaper Articles - 2002
Mommy's Little Secret
The Globe and Mail, Carolyn Abraham, December 14, 2002
More..
Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'
USA TODAY, by Martin Kasindorf, December 12, 2002
An acid sense of betrayal has been gnawing at Damon Adams since a DNA test showed that he is not the father of a 10-year-old girl born during his former marriage.
"Something changes in your heart," says Adams, 51, a dentist in Traverse City, Mich. "When she walks through the door, you're seeing the product of an affair."
But Michigan courts have spurned the DNA results Adams offered in his motions to stop paying $23,000 a year in child support. Now, Adams is lobbying the state Legislature for relief and joining other men in a national movement against what they call "paternity fraud." More ..
A Woman's Right to be Criminal
Fathering Magazine, December 5, 2002, by Roger F. Gay
I read a USA Today article on child support by Martin Kasindorf entitled, Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'. Paternity fraud is when a woman names the wrong man as a father for the purpose of forcing him to pay child support. The words 'paternity fraud' were in quotes as if they referred to someone's questionable characterization rather than a straightforward fact. This might have moved me to let out a long sigh except that I knew it would not have been worth the trouble. I know from experience that 'paternity fraud' would not have been in quotes unless we were being prepared for some unadulterated bullshit.
I shouldn't give the impression that I'm particularly peeved at Mr. Kasindorf or USA Today. As an apparently objective journalist Mr. Kasindorf attempted to present the two sides of the story; pro and con. Tens of millions of men are likely quite relieved that attacking them relentlessly without acknowledging that another side might exist is no longer considered objective. We can't expect journalists to be experts on everything, so perhaps presenting two sides to everything is the best we can hope for. But it makes me wonder when objective journalism will tackle issues like rape, pillage, and torture. There must be somebody out there who can argue in favor of those things maybe one of those people who thinks that the Constitution is outdated and we should be more open to ideas from other cultures. More ..
'Kids come first' in new divorce law
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) December 11, 2002
Study: Young white men face higher suicide risk
Legal issues and relationship problems were main reasons
for those taking their lives.
The Indianapolis Star, Staff Report, November 23, 2002 More..
$70,000 paternity ruling sets precedent
The Age, Australia, By Ian Munro, November 23, 2002
A man who successfully sued his fomer wife for damages because she told him he was the father of her lover's children had set an Australian legal precedent, the man's lawyer said yesterday.
Judge John Hanlon awarded Liam Magill $70,000 for general damages and economic loss, and ordered his former wife, Meredith Magill, to pay costs.
Mr Magill's solicitor, Vivien Mavropoulos, said the decision had extended the law of deceit to the circumstances of a man being falsely led to believe he was the biological parent of a child. More ..
Court says mother can move with son
The Ottawa Citizen, Cristin Schmitz, Saturday, November 23, 2002
Earl Creighton, like many separated fathers, tries to be there for Robert, his six-year-old son. He takes him to swimming lessons, reads to him, and visits the boy several times a week.
That close relationship will change as a result of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision this week that permits Mr. Creighton's ex-common-law partner, Charlotte Bjornson, who has sole custody of Robert, to move their son 3,000 kilometres from Waterloo, Ont. to Calgary.
Ms. Bjornson asked the court to let her return to Alberta where she has family support and can resume a nursing career with 12-years' seniority that she interrupted when she moved to set up house with Mr. Creighton in 1996.
In a unanimous judgment Tuesday that will help custodial parents (usually mothers) who want to move with their children over the objections of non-custodial parents (usually fathers), the appeal court overturned a trial judge who had refused to permit Ms. Bjornson to move Robert because it was in the child's best interests "that he continue to have a close and loving relationship with each of his parents." More ..
States Consider Laws Against Paternity Fraud- Child Advocates Worry About Effects
Washington Post, by Robert E. Pierre, Oct. 14, 2002 More..
Preserving Paternity Fraud
The Orange County Register, U.S.A. by Dianna Thompson and Glenn Sacks, October 3, 2002
California Governor Gray Davis had the chance to free thousands of falsely condemned men last week. He chose federal funds instead.
Davis vetoed the California Paternity Justice Act (AB 2240), which would have helped thousands of California men who were wrongly assigned paternity in default judgments, and who have been compelled by the state to pay years of child support for children whom DNA tests have shown are not theirs. In Los Angeles County in 2000, for example, 79 percent of paternity judgments were decreed by default. Most of these men had no idea they were "fathers" until their wages were garnished. More ..
House bill would penalize mothers who misidentify fathers
Orange County Register, by Breanna Shepherd, October 3, 2002
Duped Dads - Men Fight Centuries-Old Paternity Laws
ABC News, by Geraldine Sealey, October 2, 2002
More..
Davis vetoes tests to ID dads PATERNITY: Men forced to support children not their own say bill would have offered relief. They vow to fight on.
Daily Breeze, by Jasmine Lee, Sept 28, 2002
State reform plan fights rising paternity fraud
Detroit News, by Thompson & Sacks, Sept 25, 2002
More..
California Teacher Sentenced to Prison For Sex With Student
The Associated Press, September 19, 2002
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AP) A judge Thursday sternly lectured a former California teacher who kidnapped a 15-year-old student and had sex with him in a Las Vegas hotel, but gave her a sentence that allows her to be released from Nevada custody next month.
"Being a teacher is a sacred trust. How dare you? How dare you?" Judge Joseph T. Bonaventure yelled, pointing his finger at Tanya Hadden, 33.
He sentenced Hadden to five to 121/2 years in prison for second-degree kidnapping, sexual conduct between teacher and student and statutory sexual seduction. But he suspended all but six months of the sentence, meaning that with time served she faces only 40 more days in Nevada. More ..
The growing consensus against circumcision
NATIONAL POST, Jackie Smith, August 30, 2002
Just 30 years ago, male circumcision was all the rage; as many as 90% of boys in the United States, 70% of those in Australia, 48% in Canada and 24% in the United Kingdom were circumcised (often without any anesthesia).
I remember the war that waged in my own mind when my son was born in the 1980s.
I had no religious reasons for choosing circumcision; I wasn't trying to guard against "unhealthy masturbation," as early proponents of circumcision were. I didn't care if he looked like dad, as some parents do. I wanted to know only one thing: What would be best for him -- medically. More ..
`Totally unexpected' death of baby probed
Five-week-old infant died after he was circumcised at Penticton
hospital
The Province (British Columbia, Canada), Jason Proctor, Thursday, August 29, 2002.
The sperm that got away
Sunday Life Magazine (Australia), By Amy Cooper, 18 August 2002
Men say they need protection from a new predator the women who target them exclusively for their sperm. Amy Cooper reports
Around the world, the battle of the sexes is taking a new turn. American millionaire Steve Bing acknowledges he's the father of English model and actress Elizabeth Hurley's son only after DNA tests. In Sweden, a court orders Igor Lehnberg to pay child support to the lesbian couple who used his donated sperm to have three children. Tennis star Boris Becker accuses a Russian model of stealing his sperm during an encounter in a broom cupboard.
Mick Jagger is ordered to pay child support after tests prove he is the dad of model Luciana Morad's son. And in the US, there's the world's first "paternity fraud" lawsuit: Peter Wallis accuses his long-term partner, Kellie Smith, of "intentionally acquiring and misusing" his sperm after she became pregnant when she was supposed to be on the pill.
The ingredient these stories share is becoming as influential as drugs, dollars or oil. It stirs up conflict, divides loyalties and drives men and women to desperate acts. For a slightly absurd-looking microscopic organism with a wriggly tail, sperm has a lot to answer for. More ..
Moms Can Be Deadbeats Too
Single dads are sick and tired of being labelled "deadbeats"
when it comes to paying child support. And data suggest
they have good reason to be upset.
Fox News, U.S. By Liza Porteus, Friday, August 9, 2002
More..
bill would reform state's paternity law
Daily Breeze, by Jasmine Lee, July 28,2002
The Daddy Trap Missouri's child-support cops won't take
DNA for an answer.
The Pitch, by Deb Hipp, July 11, 2002
Ideology Still Trumps Science for Feminists
PRI/Contrarian, by Sally C. Pipes, July 8, 2002
Opposing view: Clearing up the paternity
process
Sacramento Bee, by Roderick D.Wright, July 12, 2002
The Daddy Trap Missouri's child-support cops won't take
DNA for an answer.
The Pitch, by Deb Hipp, July 11, 2002
Ideology Still Trumps Science for Feminists
PRI/Contrarian, by Sally C. Pipes, July 8, 2002
'Dads' cleared by DNA fight 'paternity
fraud'
Washington Times, by Cheryl Wetzstein, June 22, 2002
Editorial: What is fatherhood? It's more
than biology -- much more
Sacramento Bee, June 21, 2002
The Honourable Senator Landon Pearson received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa Gazette - June 7, 2002
When she was sworn in as a senator in 1994, Landon Pearson had two goals: to advance children's interests through legislation and to open up the political process so that children could participate in the decisions that affect them. More..
Group asks court to strike down spanking law
CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) - June 6, 2003
OTTAWA - The Supreme Court of Canada began hearing arguments Friday in a case that could decide whether parents have the right to spank their children.
The Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law is asking the court to strike down a century-old statute that allows parents and teachers to use physical force while disciplining children.
Lawyers for the organization say the law violates the Charter of Rights because it infringes on children's security of person. More ..
Q: Should courts allow DNA testing to determine paternity
in child-support cases?
Insight Magazine, May 27. 2002
Girl, 14, pleads guilty to infanticide
Newborn boy dies after being abandoned on trail near home
Saskatoon StarPhoenix, SK, Heather Polischuk and Jason Warick, Senior Reporter, May 25, 2002
PRINCE ALBERT -- A 14-year-old girl pleaded guilty Friday to infanticide for abandoning her newborn baby along a seldom-used trail behind her home.
The teenager, who cannot be named under the Young Offenders Act, was also charged with first-degree murder, but that was dropped in exchange for her guilty plea to the lesser charge.
The girl walked into a bush on Oct. 2, 2001, near the home on the Whitefish reserve that she shared with several relatives and gave birth to the baby. She had hidden the pregnancy from her family, court heard.
The girl wrapped the baby boy in a blanket, placed him along the infrequently used trail and walked away.
The baby's body was discovered along the path two days later. More..
"Justice minister launches anti-bullying campaign, recalls playground ordeals"
Canadian Press, May 23, 2002
"Ontario woman convicted of son's starvation death granted full parole"
Canadian Press. Wednesday, May 22, 2002
KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) -- An Ontario woman who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in one of Canada's stiffest penalties for child abuse will be released on full parole after serving less than half her term.
Lorelei Turner, 38, and her husband Steven were convicted of manslaughter in July 1995 for beating and starving their three-year-old son John to death in a case that horrified Canadians who followed the trial.
But on Wednesday, a panel of the National Parole Board in this eastern Ontario city ruled Turner will be released but placed on probation until July 2011.
Until then, she must remain within 25 kilometres of her residence, is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under 16, and must continue to receive counselling.
"The board would have looked at the risk and obviously found a low risk to reoffend," Carol Sparling of the National Parole Board said Wednesday. More ..
"The dark side of motherhood"
Are mothers who kill their children unnatural? Not necessarily,
anthropologists and psychologists say
The Ottawa Citizen, Reuters, Sunday, May 12, 2002, by Kelly
Patterson
Invisible Suicides
The Ottawa Citizen, by Jeffrey Asher, May 16, 2002
StatsCan recently reported on a 10% increase in suicides. But StatsCan persists in ignoring the group of Canadians at greatest risk for suicide, as do the media and professional reports. Suicide is a microcosm for those most under stress and most at risk of unresolved crisis in society. Suicides may logically be categorized as 100% citizens of Canada, and then as 79% male. The most critical measure of depression - suicide - is counted overwhelmingly in male corpses. For over 23 years widespread media and professional attention concentrated on 12,500 AIDS deaths, compared to little concern with 92,000 suicides.
Every three hours in Canada, another male kills himself. In the 1990s, at least 800 females ended their lives along with 3200 males. From 1960 to 1980 male suicides in the 20 - 24 age group increased by over 200%. After age 70, women's suicide rates decline gradually, but men's rates, already five times higher, rise another 50%. This startling male suicide data should have raised alarms decades ago among researchers and journalists across Canada. The absence of widespread prevention campaigns to save lives from more than 4000 suicides every year seems incomprehensible. More ..
Academics see sex crimes in schoolyard 'Kids need to think'
NATIONAL POST, May 9, 2002, by Tom Blackwell
Anyone who spends much time in an elementary schoolyard has likely seen it -- children making lewd jokes at others' expense, pinching fellow students' buttocks and rating their classmates' body parts.
A new Canadian study confirms that such behaviour is, in fact, widespread among both boys and girls as early as in Grade 6. But the authors say the conduct should be viewed as sexual harassment, with the potential to do real damage to young people.
Previous studies had suggested the roots of the problem lay in the high school years.
But psychologists at York and Queen's Universities found that sexual harassment begins much earlier, perhaps related to children entering puberty. More ..
Child poverty activists tell PM to put words into action
Canadian Broadcasting Company, Mon, May 6, 2002
YES: If DNA is used to free death-row inmates, we should
accept it in paternity cases.
Insight magazine, Washington, D.C., U.S. By Dianna Thompson,
May 6, 2002
NO: Biology shouldn't always be considered as destiny in
child-support cases.
Insight magazine, Washington, D.C., U.S. By Jenny Skoble,
May 6, 2002
Innocent lives falling through the cracks
Government must step up and help, aid workers warn
Canadian Press, By CASSANDRA SZKLARSKI, Wednesday, May 1, 2002
TORONTO -- The horrific abuse suffered by children like little Randal Dooley will continue without immediate intervention from Ontario's new family services minister, aid workers warned Wednesday.
The battered seven-year-old died at the hands of his parents more than three years ago even when there were clear signs to educators, social workers and police that he was being abused.
And despite a study released more than a year ago that
exposed debilitating workload problems at agencies designed
to protect the welfare of children, things aren't getting
any better, child protection workers say.
Troubled parents and their children are routinely falling
through the cracks as workers fail to meet provincial guidelines,
said Rob Neil, a child protection worker in the Toronto
area.
More ..
Research proves that fatherhood really matters
Tallahassee Democrat, KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE, By Roland C.
Warren, April 20, 2002
Truth is no defense in state paternity suits
San Francisco Examiner, by Dianna Thompson, April 15,
2002
Paternity Fraud Action Alert Should Non-fathers Pay Child Support? / Help free forced fathers
Circumcision found to reduce cervical cancer in partners
The Jerusalem Post, By Judy Siegel, April, 14 2002
Sign of the times: Firm offers paternity testing on billboard
National Post, Susan Heinrich, March 30, 2002
"Quebec woman who killed child out of jealousy gets near-maximum
14 years"
Canadian Press, March 18, 2002
"Parent-child murders increasingly rare
'Not an epidemic': High-profiles cases are not evidence
of a growing trend, statistics show"
The National Post, By Brad Evenson, March 16, 2002
At first glance, it appears North America is suffering an epidemic of child murder.
This week, as Texas mother Andrea Pia Yates was convicted of drowning her five children, RCMP officers began their grim search for the remains of six Vancouver Island children who died in a suspicious house fire. Their father was charged yesterday with six counts of first-degree murder. Two days later, the search for Toronto two-year-old Alexis Currie ended when her father led police searchers to her body. The same day, a Smiths Falls, Ont., father was charged with killing his daughter.
Yet appearances can be deceptive. The truth is such tragedies are increasingly rare.
In 2000, according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 27 children died at the hands of their parents. The number was the same in 1975 when Canada's population was only 23 million -- 30% smaller than it is today. More ..
DNA Shakes Up Child Support Law California Paternity Justice
Act: If the Genes Don't Fit, You Must Acquit
by Glenn Sacks,
www.glennsacks.com,
March 15, 2002
Children of the gender wars
by Lisa De Pasquale, The Washington Times, March 15, 2002
The March 3 Parade magazine announced that, starting next year, the Ms.Foundation will expand its popular feminist holiday Take Our Daughters to Work Day to include boys. It will now be called Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Marie Wilson of the Ms. Foundation said, "Now we need to look at how girls and boys can progress together." This was, perhaps, in response to California male rights activist Joe Manthey's civil rights lawsuit against the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Mr. Manthey contends that government support of this holiday discriminates against boys. Mr. Manthey is correct in that assumption. However, the Ms. Foundation's plans are now doubly detrimental. It offers boys no benefits and subjects them to the same feminist propaganda girls have had to endure.
Beginning in 1995, the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute began to expose this stealth feminist holiday that breeds victimology in girls and left boys behind year after year. At national press conferences, in speeches and op-ed pieces, the Luce Policy Institute exposed how the Ms. Foundation and Take Our Daughters to Work Day participants divide the sexes at a young age to foster the feminists' ideological agenda. It is now clear that the Ms. Foundation is including boys simply to expand their "gender sensitivity" program designed to retrain boys into girls and labels boys as oppressors of women. More..
Family Court Bias and Injustice the Root Cause of Many Murder-Suicides
Men's News Daily, U.S.A., by Eeva Sodhi ( Eeva Sodhi is a freelance writer from Ontario, Canada), March 7, 2002
Last few decades have seen an alarming rise in the number of young men who see suicide as the only option out of despair. In Canada, the yearly toll is close to three thousand men, most of them in the prime of their lives.
Statistics Canada tells us that in year 2000 fourteen men and one woman also committed an act of family homicide before ending their own lives: 10 men killed their spouses, three men killed their spouses and children, one killed his child. There was one high profile case where a mother killed her child during an act of murder-suicide.
Based on the above, we can hardly conclude that we are facing an all-out epidemic of murderous men on the prowl, intent on killing their spouses and offspring. Rather, we are facing an epidemic of desperate men who see their own death as the only option.
Yet, we refuse to examine the causes for these multiple tragedies. Rather, commentators cite this as another example of male violence. Only in the exceptional case where a mother kills her child and then takes her own life do we strive to understand the underlying reasons. More..
Circumcision, the unkindest cut
Toronto Sun and various other newspapers of the Sun Media chain across Canada, by Dr. Gifford-Jones, March 4, 2002
When I researched this column on circumcision, my initial reaction was "wow." I thought the topic would be as easy to write about as rolling off a log, but it took hours. I hadn't realized the male foreskin had triggered so many medical articles and so much controversy. Now I'm convinced that most families make a decision on circumcision without knowing much about this procedure. The question is, has male circumcision increased the sale of Viagra? More..
Circumcision unnecessary, say Sask. doctors
Canadian Press, CTV and various newspapers across Canada, February 21, 2002
REGINA - Routine circumcisions on baby boys is an unnecessary medical procedure, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan said Wednesday.
"For almost 2 1/2 decades now the Canadian Pediatric Society has pointed out there really is no research evidence to suggest benefit from the procedure that outweighs the risks of performing the procedure," said college registrar Dr. Dennis Kendel. More ..
"Exploiting deprived children for entertainment is sickening"
The Ottawa Citizen, by Dave Brown, February 22, 2002
In a rare look at afternoon television this week, I found deprived children being used for their entertainment value.
The experience left me with a sick feeling.
While channel surfing looking for Olympic coverage, I happened upon the Maury Povich Show, and stayed there for the better part of an hour. For the benefit of those who aren't exposed to afternoon television, here's an example of what you're missing.
Mr. Povich has found DNA testing is an entertainment tool. Mothers of fatherless children are invited to go public to get the cost of a DNA test covered. They name the man they believe impregnated them, and the ball is in play. The man is tracked down for a DNA sample and is interviewed. They show denial and great fear of paternity and the financial responsibility that goes with it. Refusing the sample may be a good idea, but that wouldn't get them on television. These guys have not been taught to get their thought processes above their zippers. More ..
The Los Angeles Daily Journal
Shouldn't Men Have a Choice, Too?
The Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal, U.S., by Glenn Sacks, February 18, 2002
Parents lobby for public school with feminist slant
Go grrrl curriculum': Emphasis would be on studies,
not boys, at all-girls' school
NATIONAL POST, By Heather Sokoloff, February 12, 2002
Raise age of consent to protect youth, activists urge
Capitol One, By Liam Gerofsky, Jan. 18, 2002
OTTAWA Diane Sowden's daughter ran away from home and was lured into prostitution at the age of 13, after getting involved with a 27-year-old man.
"I went to the police to get her back and they said they couldn't do anything because there was no proof that they were sexually active."
"At 14, she became pregnant. So I went back to the police and said, 'She's pregnant.' And they said, 'Well, it's too late to do anything now, because the legal age of sexual consent is 14.'"
That was almost nine years ago and Sowden says she could not believe 14 was the legal age of consent in Canada.
The Criminal Code states that a person between 14 and 17 can consent to sexual activity as long as: no relationship of trust, authority or dependency exists; there is no payment or offer of payment for sex; and there is no anal sex. More ..
