… relatively by charities and especially by Government?
(c) 2016, Davd
This is not the first time I’ve written on the importance of men—regular men of average and higher ability and willingness to contribute. It ought not be the last; men have been much less valued than women this century, and our ecological problems are worse because men’s skilled labour is too often replaced by crude heavy machinery. “Society” needs to value men, old as well as young, “for everyone’s good”, and men need to value ourselves until society smartens up.
This particular piece is published now because the the US Election is over and the Canadian Government Inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is “back in the news”. The lives of women and girls are important, i agree—my point is that the lives of boys and men are equally important.
It’s published on Christmas Eve partly because the CBC News website posted the story of a “really nice”, 5x year old man dying in an alley in Vancouver, apparently of cold. There’s no mention of Mike Illing being aboriginal, the name isn’t one i associate with Native or Metis people—but I don’t know one way or the other. He was just a man, not a hard drug user, discarded by “society”; and if he’d been a woman his chances of survival would have been better1.
Justin Trudeau has declared that he is a Feminist; and his Government’s relative lack of attention to indigenous men who are victims of crime, seems to confirm that he is. The Canadian Government weather forecast website had a link to his Government’s planned inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women, for several weeks shortly after he became Prime Minister. An alien from another solar system, reading that weather site to learn more about Planet Earth, could readily have believed that many more Aboriginal women than men were murdered in the recent past.
What recent evidence I’ve seen indicates that the reverse is true; and that’s consistent with the criminology i learned and taught 3-5 decades ago. Ontario data reported by the CBC, an organization i read to be Feminist rather than androcentric, show that many more Aboriginal men than women were missing and murdered during
1978-2014, according to an Ontario Provincial Police report2; but the headline of the CBC story was “8 of 54 murders of aboriginal women remain unsolved, …”.
It’s not precisely a false headline, but it could be misleading, since the text of the story states that 126 Aboriginal men were murdered within OPP jurisdiction. 39 Aboriginal men and 8 women were missing, according to the same report. More than twice as many men as women were murdered, nearly five times as many men were missing, but the women are the focus of the media attention and the Government inquiry.
If that doesn’t manage to be “glaring,” that sex difference in concern about murder and violence more generally—the reason is some kind of tolerated gender inequality.
Applying the Genders-Reversed test—If missing and murdered men were getting the attention and many more women were missing and murdered?—would that be glaring? Would Feminists yawn? or shrug?
The question is rhetorical. The answer is obvious. Indeed, decades of Feminist lobbying and centuries of chivalry are why an inquiry into the less victimized sex, but not into the plight of men, is in the news.
It may be chivalrous, it may represent the success of Feminist lobbying—but equality, it’s not.
Men are human beings. If more indigenous men are murdered and missing—and missing and murdered indigenous women get the attention—the treatment we get is less human than we are. If even a few men die of cold trying to sleep outdoors in December, and all the women get sheltered; the treatment we get is less human.
As a moral assessment: We and our well-being (or lack of it) are being neglected, and have been for years.
As a question: Why don’t men’s lives matter as much politically and culturally, as women’s?
I intend to address that question, “why” as well as “what”, this winter…
… and if i have a rather sombre Christmas this year, it’s partly in sympathy with Mike Illling, and with Earl Silverman, and with thousands of others. Jesus, whose birthday is being remembered, said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my [fellow men], ye have done it unto me.” It’s customary, is it not, to give gifts to the birthday person first and foremost?
Those who revere the Bible can read the OPP report and the CBC’s stories, about indigenous men and about Mike Illing3, as saying Jesus Christ is being neglected this December. Muslims can consider whether Islam’s call to give alms, is being well enough heeded. Buddhists can reflect on their faith’s injunction not to harm another human being, nor put him in harm’s way.
Those worried about the ecological condition of Planet Earth, could think about what Mike Illing and men like him, what unemployed Indigenous men, might have been able to do to help, and why their capabilities haven’t been respected, put to work, and rewarded. That neglect is something that could change, any time.
Men’s lives matter. The more “Society” pretends they don’t matter, the more “society” will suffer for the injustice we feel; and also for lack of what we could contribute.
Notes:
1. For instance, the Red Cross and UN World Food Program distribute food only to women.
2. The link in the story, to the OPP report which was its main source, produced an error message indicating the address no longer exists. A successor report was found by the everyman webmaster; it stated:
• Between 1957 and 2014, there were eight (8) missing Indigenous females reported to the OPP who remain missing.
• Presently, there are 40 cases that involve missing Indigenous males, since 1956.
• For the period of 1964 to December 2014, inclusive, in OPP jurisdiction:
— • There were 54 homicides involving Indigenous females
— • Eight of which remain unsolved for a clearance rate of 85.2 percent.
• For the period of 1978 to December 2014, inclusive, in OPP jurisdiction:
— • There were 126 homicides of Indigenous males
— • One of which remains unsolved for a clearance rate of 99.2 percent.
• From January 1, 2010, to December 31, 2014, inclusive, the OPP CIB overall homicide clearance rate was 92.3 percent (155 homicides, 12 unsolved).
Note that while the time span from which the missing men and missing women were last seen, is the same; the 126 homicides of indigenous men represent a shorter time span [37 years] than the 54 homicides of indigenous women [51 years]. Adjusting for time span, indigenous men in OPP territory suffered 34.1 homicides per decade, over three times the women’s 10.6.
3… and many other men will die on Canadian and US streets this winter, with no hard drugs involved (something the CBC story specifically reported about Illing.)
