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Little Miss Afghanistan- girls and women matter- humanity matters- why we were in Afghanistan- and on April 5, 2015 MILLION OF AFGHAN WOMEN ROSE UP.... AND MARCHED AND VOTED IN THE FACE OF THE TALIBAN BABY KILLING MACHINE... with their mommas and grandmas.... teaching the world a lesson.... in 2003 Afghan women screamed - 'Where are the women of this world...why don't they help us?"- AND IMAGINE voting in the millions these beautiful Afghan women proudly proclaimed.... 'We want to prove to the world that the foreign troops and ours... DID...NOT..DIE..IN VAIN... Good Morning freedom.
A Nova Scotia man who texted a photo that showed him penetrating a 15-year-old girl and flashing a thumbs-up while she vomited won't see the inside of a jail anytime soon. Instead, today a judge sentenced the man to 12 months probation.
The girl in the photo, Rehtaeh Parsons, faced vicious slut-shaming and harassment as a result of the photo. She later locked herself in a bathroom and attempted suicide. Her parents took her off life support three days later. She was 17 when she died.
Until recently, Parsons' name was smothered by a publication ban as she was underage when the photo was taken, and thus it qualified as child pornography. Her parents lobbied NS Justice Minister Lena Diab to lift the ban so her story could be publicized. In December, Diab removed the ban on the condition that Rehtaeh's name is respected. The young man who posed for the photo was also underage at the time. His name is still covered by the ban.
VICE Canada respected the ban while it was in place. You can read our previous coverage of the court case here and here.
Today, Rehtaeh's mother Leah Parsons said she was relieved the ban was lifted. "This morning when I started to get ready, that was the first kind of big relief I felt off my shoulders," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, today I don't have to remind people, I don't have to send out a notice to say her name today, we're actually allowed to say her name.' That was very debilitating. It's a relief."
During the sentencing hearing, the courtroom was packed with reporters tweeting Rehtaeh's name.
"Her voice was not heard when she struggled to be heard, but it sure is now," Leah Parsons told the court during her victim impact statement. "I was unable to console her as she crumbled emotionally after that photo was taken."
The man who appeared in the photo "displayed absolutely no respect" for Rehtaeh, judge Gregory Lenehan said in his ruling. "Ms. Parsons was treated as no more than a prop for his enjoyment."
In November, Lenehan handed a second young man, who snapped the photo, a conditional discharge. At today's sentencing, he said posing for the "sexually degrading" photo and texting it to two people warranted a harsher penalty.
"You lit the wild fire, so to speak, and it got completely out of control," judge Lenehan said to the man who appeared in the photo.
The young man cried when he first heard Rehtaeh died. "You should have been crying when she was alive," the judge told him.
When given a chance to speak Thursday, the man who posed for the photo said, "I have already apologized to Rehtaeh a few days after the picture was sent." He said he would like to apologize to her parents through his lawyer.
"This has had a huge negative impact on me," he said. He was bullied as a result of the photo, his lawyer told the court.
"Humans make mistakes," said the young man, who turned 20 yesterday. "I will not live with the guilt of someone passing away, but I will live with the guilt of the photo."
He said he hadn't failed Rehtaeh, but the justice system had failed her.
"This will be a life sentence for me," he concluded. "I am truly sorry."
Listing mitigating factors in the case, his lawyer said the man became well known after Anonymous activists in Halifax publicized his name. As a result, "he has to likely move away."
Following the sentencing, members of Halifax anonymous wearing Guy Fawkes masks yelled inaudibly at the young man's supporters as they left the courthouse.
"That kid pled guilty to having sex with her while she was vomiting out a window," he said. "Where's the consent? Where's the rape charge? How do you give consent when you are vomiting out of a window?
"The public had the right to know who the creeps are amongst them. Everybody has a right to know, in all honesty, even a young offender. And now he's not a young offender, so everyone should know who he is. Do you want to send your child to school with him? Would you trust your family members to be around him in a public spot? No. So the public has a right to know who these rapists are, who these sexual deviants are. I'm proud of Anonymous for doing what they did."
Now that the court case is over, former Ontario chief prosecutor Murray Segal is free to conduct his independent review of how police handled Rehtaeh's case. Leah Parsons said she planned to meet with Segal as soon as he's back in town.
"We've been waiting for [the review] more so than we've been waiting for the sentencing results," Parsons said. "We are curious and we've been wondering for three years now what are in those reports and what are the reasons that nothing was done when it should have been done and why no sexual assault charges. We look forward to seeing what the results are of the review."
Follow Hilary on Twitter.
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/no-jail-time-for-man-who-texted-photo-of-himself-penetrating-rehtaeh-parsons-while-she-vomited-273
----
“It’s very sweet to see how this film touches them and how they feel the loss,” said director, writer and producer Rama Rau.
“And that’s the main reason I made this film, so all of us can feel the loss of a young life (lost) for no reason.”
No Place to Hide tells Rehtaeh’s story through the people who knew her best. It’s about a 15-year-old girl who got drunk at a party, was allegedly gang raped and photographed. Months of relentless bullying online and inaction by authorities took their toll. At 17, Parsons decided to try to end her life. She died a few days later.
The nation was enraged. The hacker group Anonymous issued an ultimatum to police: make arrests or it would publicly name the boys. Two men were later charged and pleaded guilty to child pornography offences.
Rau trained as a writer-director in Mumbai, India and now lives in Toronto. No Place To Hide had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto in April. The 47-minute film also aired on Omni Television in Ontario. Rehtaeh’s father, Glen Canning, screened the film at several Ontario high schools in the spring.
Halifax audiences can see it at the Atlantic Film Festival on Sunday.
No Place To Hide started out as a cyberbullying film focusing on three teens who were allegedly bullied online: Parsons, British Columbia’s Amanda Todd and Saskatchewan’s Todd Loik.
“It’s why the film is called No Place to Hide because you can’t hide from the encroachment that social media has on our lives,” Rau said in a phone interview from Toronto.
“Really it was about suicide, teen agony, angst and other things.”
She booked film crews and flights to Halifax and Vancouver but, at the last minute, Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, said she couldn’t do the film. Rau continued on to Halifax and realized there was a story with many angles.
“I was so touched by this story because I think in a way we are all culpable, we all stand there and stare and watch these things happen,” Rau said.
“It could have been my daughter, and I think that was my main motivation in telling the story.”
It was not an easy one to tell. Rau said Cole Harbour District High School, where Rehtaeh was a student, wouldn’t talk and neither would the RCMP.
In the film, Rehtaeh’s parents describe what happened to their daughter and their frustrations with the justice and school systems.
One of her school friends said in the film that she witnessed Rehtaeh get bullied and girls “saying pretty much to go kill herself.” This was one layer that really shocked her, Rau said.
“For me, it was an eye-opener when I asked Rehtaeh’s friends who bullied Rehtaeh the most and they said girls.”
In her interview, Rehtaeh’s mother, Leah Parsons, said her daughter wasn’t allowed back in school, effectively re-victimizing her.
“Rape is the only crime I can think of where the victim becomes the accused,” Parsons said.
Rau also interviewed former Chronicle Herald reporter Selena Ross, who said she was fascinated by a train wreck of a case.
This is a film that needs to be seen in all junior high and high schools, Rau said. She’s working on an educational package to make this goal a reality.
“I think boys need to know more about it; girls need to be told to talk about these things.”
Rau won’t be attending the Halifax screening Sunday but said she expects anger and sadness after the credits roll.
“I think in Halifax it will be closer to home and will infuriate some people because there are two sides to this case … and a lot of people will say, ‘Well, she asked for it’ or ‘Kids these days,’ so I think there will be a lot of that. But I’m hoping in the larger picture it will at least get people talking and admitting we need to make the world a safer place for kids, at least talk more to our children about it.”
---
#1BRising - ONE BILLION RISING- no more abuses or excuses Women make up 64% of this good earth...
IDLE NO MORE CANADA
Canada
Military News: CANADA POLITICS- interesting China and Russia respect PM Harper
more than Obama, Kerry and the UNITED NATIONS PLAYBOY CLUB (NO GALS ALLOWED)
/beloved Afghanistan betrayed again by Pakistan and Iran/CANADA AFGHANISTAN
MOVIE -OCT. HYENA ROAD- troops thank Paul Gross/IDLE NO MORE /Women matter and
it's time for equality and education 4 all /Princess Di treasured the
brilliance of the disabled and incredible abilities of this world- Harry
follows
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- (Submitted to the Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, P.C., O.Ont., M.P., Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women)
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PDF (25 pages, 1.62 MB*) - Promising Practices: Healthy Relationships and Dating Violence Prevention Programs in Canadian Schools
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PDF (2 pages, 1.15 MB)*
Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report, 7th Edition
Women in Canada at a Glance: Statistical Highlights, 2012 - (Status of Women Canada) PDF (32 pages, 1.93 MB)* - available for order.
Women in Canada – A Gender-based Statistical Report, 2010-2011 (Statistics Canada) - available for order
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Women in Canada at a Glance: Statistical Highlights, 2012 - (Status of Women Canada) PDF (32 pages, 1.93 MB)* - available for order.
Women in Canada – A Gender-based Statistical Report, 2010-2011 (Statistics Canada) - available for order
Beyond Appearances: Brief on the Main Issues Facing Girls in Canada, 2013 (Girls Action Foundation, PDF format 1.44 MB)*
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http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/commemoration/index-eng.html
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No Jail for the Man Who Texted Photo of Himself Penetrating Rehtaeh Parsons as She Vomited
January
15, 2015
Staff
Reporter
A Nova Scotia man who texted a photo that showed him penetrating a 15-year-old girl and flashing a thumbs-up while she vomited won't see the inside of a jail anytime soon. Instead, today a judge sentenced the man to 12 months probation.
The girl in the photo, Rehtaeh Parsons, faced vicious slut-shaming and harassment as a result of the photo. She later locked herself in a bathroom and attempted suicide. Her parents took her off life support three days later. She was 17 when she died.
Until recently, Parsons' name was smothered by a publication ban as she was underage when the photo was taken, and thus it qualified as child pornography. Her parents lobbied NS Justice Minister Lena Diab to lift the ban so her story could be publicized. In December, Diab removed the ban on the condition that Rehtaeh's name is respected. The young man who posed for the photo was also underage at the time. His name is still covered by the ban.
VICE Canada respected the ban while it was in place. You can read our previous coverage of the court case here and here.
Today, Rehtaeh's mother Leah Parsons said she was relieved the ban was lifted. "This morning when I started to get ready, that was the first kind of big relief I felt off my shoulders," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, today I don't have to remind people, I don't have to send out a notice to say her name today, we're actually allowed to say her name.' That was very debilitating. It's a relief."
During the sentencing hearing, the courtroom was packed with reporters tweeting Rehtaeh's name.
"Her voice was not heard when she struggled to be heard, but it sure is now," Leah Parsons told the court during her victim impact statement. "I was unable to console her as she crumbled emotionally after that photo was taken."
The man who appeared in the photo "displayed absolutely no respect" for Rehtaeh, judge Gregory Lenehan said in his ruling. "Ms. Parsons was treated as no more than a prop for his enjoyment."
In November, Lenehan handed a second young man, who snapped the photo, a conditional discharge. At today's sentencing, he said posing for the "sexually degrading" photo and texting it to two people warranted a harsher penalty.
"You lit the wild fire, so to speak, and it got completely out of control," judge Lenehan said to the man who appeared in the photo.
The young man cried when he first heard Rehtaeh died. "You should have been crying when she was alive," the judge told him.
When given a chance to speak Thursday, the man who posed for the photo said, "I have already apologized to Rehtaeh a few days after the picture was sent." He said he would like to apologize to her parents through his lawyer.
"This has had a huge negative impact on me," he said. He was bullied as a result of the photo, his lawyer told the court.
"Humans make mistakes," said the young man, who turned 20 yesterday. "I will not live with the guilt of someone passing away, but I will live with the guilt of the photo."
He said he hadn't failed Rehtaeh, but the justice system had failed her.
"This will be a life sentence for me," he concluded. "I am truly sorry."
Listing mitigating factors in the case, his lawyer said the man became well known after Anonymous activists in Halifax publicized his name. As a result, "he has to likely move away."
Following the sentencing, members of Halifax anonymous wearing Guy Fawkes masks yelled inaudibly at the young man's supporters as they left the courthouse.
Two Anonymous protesters and Ivan Herritt, supporting Rehtaeh Parsons and her family at the Nova Scotia courthouse. Photo by Hilary Beaumont
Ivan Herritt, who showed up to support Rehtaeh's family and wore an Anonymous-branded hoodie but said he wasn't part of the group, said the court decision was "absolutely disgusting.""That kid pled guilty to having sex with her while she was vomiting out a window," he said. "Where's the consent? Where's the rape charge? How do you give consent when you are vomiting out of a window?
"The public had the right to know who the creeps are amongst them. Everybody has a right to know, in all honesty, even a young offender. And now he's not a young offender, so everyone should know who he is. Do you want to send your child to school with him? Would you trust your family members to be around him in a public spot? No. So the public has a right to know who these rapists are, who these sexual deviants are. I'm proud of Anonymous for doing what they did."
Now that the court case is over, former Ontario chief prosecutor Murray Segal is free to conduct his independent review of how police handled Rehtaeh's case. Leah Parsons said she planned to meet with Segal as soon as he's back in town.
"We've been waiting for [the review] more so than we've been waiting for the sentencing results," Parsons said. "We are curious and we've been wondering for three years now what are in those reports and what are the reasons that nothing was done when it should have been done and why no sexual assault charges. We look forward to seeing what the results are of the review."
Follow Hilary on Twitter.
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/no-jail-time-for-man-who-texted-photo-of-himself-penetrating-rehtaeh-parsons-while-she-vomited-273
----
Rehtaeh Parsons doc delves into years of torment
TORONTO - Glen Canning readily agreed when a
documentary filmmaker asked if he would take part in an in-depth look at the
tragic death of his teenage daughter, Rehtaeh Parsons.
In fact, Canning feels obligated to make sure as many
people as possible know about his daughter's alleged assault, the months of
bullying that ensued, and the suicide attempt that put her in hospital and led
to her death.
"I can't be silent about this," Canning says
during a recent stop in Toronto to promote the film at a series of screenings,
including one this Sunday at the Hot Docs film festival.
Since Parsons died in 2013, Canning has dedicated his
life to sharing her painful story by speaking at schools, sexual assault
centres, in front of news cameras — to anyone who will listen, really.
"It's not been the best job in the world, believe
me," says Canning, whose crusade includes forming the Rehtaeh Parsons
Society to address the prevalence of cyberbullying and youth sexual violence.
"It's an awful club to belong to but I didn't
think I had an option.... We do hear from people whose lives have been changed
by the story and that makes it worthwhile."
Rama Rau's 47-minute film, "No Place to Hide: The
Rehtaeh Parsons Story," includes home videos and photos of a young
Parsons, as well as interviews with friends and family members about the teen's
final years of torment.
Parsons's family alleged she was sexually assaulted in
November 2011 and bullied for months after a digital photo of the alleged
assault was passed around her school. Police said they looked into the
allegations but did not lay charges.
Child pornography charges were eventually laid after
Parsons died two years later. A 20-year-old man pleaded guilty to distributing
a sexually graphic image of Parsons, and another 20-year-old pleaded guilty to
making child pornography by taking the photo.
Canning says his daughter was failed repeatedly by
justice and health authorities and further victimized by online trolls who questioned
whether she was raped.
"A lot of people think that Rehtaeh's story's been
out there but the 'other side' has never been told," Canning says.
"We need to let people know that Rehtaeh's story
is the 'other side' — that she doesn't remember a lot of what happened. The
other side came from (her attackers), their words to each other, what they were
telling other students and the Facebook message they posted after Rehtaeh
died."
Canning says he put himself "in the zone" in
order to watch the documentary with an audience for the first time last Sunday,
but couldn't bring himself to view it again at another screening the next day.
Another screening took place Tuesday at a Toronto
school, where Canning again chose to skip the viewing and only attended the
question-and-answer session that followed.
It's these meetings with young people that make it
worthwhile to continually relive his worst days, he says.
Canning says a recent visit to Ottawa gave him hope for
the future, noting a group of high school boys formed an anti-violence group
called Man Up when they heard about Parsons's story.
"Isn't that the change we need to have? Isn't that
where it needs to begin?" he says. "You almost tear up because that
is everything we needed."
"No Place to Hide" is one of several projects
to tackle Parsons's story.
Canning says he also participated in two documentaries
for Japanese television shot last summer. And last month, he took part in
another for CPAC.
"I just can't be quiet about this knowing that
what happened to Rehtaeh was preventable," he says.
By Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
http://www.insidehalton.com/news-story/5598048-rehtaeh-parsons-doc-delves-into-years-of-torment/
-------
Rehtaeh doc stresses universal loss
Director hopes to promote dialogue on difficult subject that
touches ‘all of us’
Whether the audience is adults or teens, the reaction to seeing No Place to
Hide: The Rehtaeh Parsons story is always emotional, says the documentary
director.“It’s very sweet to see how this film touches them and how they feel the loss,” said director, writer and producer Rama Rau.
“And that’s the main reason I made this film, so all of us can feel the loss of a young life (lost) for no reason.”
No Place to Hide tells Rehtaeh’s story through the people who knew her best. It’s about a 15-year-old girl who got drunk at a party, was allegedly gang raped and photographed. Months of relentless bullying online and inaction by authorities took their toll. At 17, Parsons decided to try to end her life. She died a few days later.
The nation was enraged. The hacker group Anonymous issued an ultimatum to police: make arrests or it would publicly name the boys. Two men were later charged and pleaded guilty to child pornography offences.
Rau trained as a writer-director in Mumbai, India and now lives in Toronto. No Place To Hide had its world premiere at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto in April. The 47-minute film also aired on Omni Television in Ontario. Rehtaeh’s father, Glen Canning, screened the film at several Ontario high schools in the spring.
Halifax audiences can see it at the Atlantic Film Festival on Sunday.
No Place To Hide started out as a cyberbullying film focusing on three teens who were allegedly bullied online: Parsons, British Columbia’s Amanda Todd and Saskatchewan’s Todd Loik.
“It’s why the film is called No Place to Hide because you can’t hide from the encroachment that social media has on our lives,” Rau said in a phone interview from Toronto.
“Really it was about suicide, teen agony, angst and other things.”
She booked film crews and flights to Halifax and Vancouver but, at the last minute, Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, said she couldn’t do the film. Rau continued on to Halifax and realized there was a story with many angles.
“I was so touched by this story because I think in a way we are all culpable, we all stand there and stare and watch these things happen,” Rau said.
“It could have been my daughter, and I think that was my main motivation in telling the story.”
It was not an easy one to tell. Rau said Cole Harbour District High School, where Rehtaeh was a student, wouldn’t talk and neither would the RCMP.
In the film, Rehtaeh’s parents describe what happened to their daughter and their frustrations with the justice and school systems.
One of her school friends said in the film that she witnessed Rehtaeh get bullied and girls “saying pretty much to go kill herself.” This was one layer that really shocked her, Rau said.
“For me, it was an eye-opener when I asked Rehtaeh’s friends who bullied Rehtaeh the most and they said girls.”
In her interview, Rehtaeh’s mother, Leah Parsons, said her daughter wasn’t allowed back in school, effectively re-victimizing her.
“Rape is the only crime I can think of where the victim becomes the accused,” Parsons said.
Rau also interviewed former Chronicle Herald reporter Selena Ross, who said she was fascinated by a train wreck of a case.
This is a film that needs to be seen in all junior high and high schools, Rau said. She’s working on an educational package to make this goal a reality.
“I think boys need to know more about it; girls need to be told to talk about these things.”
Rau won’t be attending the Halifax screening Sunday but said she expects anger and sadness after the credits roll.
“I think in Halifax it will be closer to home and will infuriate some people because there are two sides to this case … and a lot of people will say, ‘Well, she asked for it’ or ‘Kids these days,’ so I think there will be a lot of that. But I’m hoping in the larger picture it will at least get people talking and admitting we need to make the world a safer place for kids, at least talk more to our children about it.”
---
#1BRising - ONE BILLION RISING- no more abuses or excuses Women make up 64% of this good earth...
IDLE NO MORE CANADA
BLOGSPOT:
Canada
Military News: CANADA POLITICS- interesting China and Russia respect PM Harper
more than Obama, Kerry and the UNITED NATIONS PLAYBOY CLUB (NO GALS ALLOWED)
/beloved Afghanistan betrayed again by Pakistan and Iran/CANADA AFGHANISTAN
MOVIE -OCT. HYENA ROAD- troops thank Paul Gross/IDLE NO MORE /Women matter and
it's time for equality and education 4 all /Princess Di treasured the
brilliance of the disabled and incredible abilities of this world- Harry
follows
---------------------
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