On 2 February 2018 I wrote to Hon. Maryam Monsef MP at her constituency office in Ottawa Canada. Her office thanked me for my letter and forwarded my correspondence to officials at Status of Women Canada for review.
My letter was written in response to the torture harms that were inflicted on the young children in their home in Edmonton and was entitled: Be Courageous Canada ~ include non-State Torture in your criminal code in 2018
As Canada does not yet have non-State torture named as a crime, in my letter I wrote “I can see also that it is time to include non-State torture as part of The Canadian Government’s It’s Time: Canada’s Strategy to Prevent and Address Gender Based Violence. It’s time to recognise, prevent and address non-State torture as a form of gender-based violence.”
Here is my letter:
The little children in Edmonton endured torture.
It doesn’t matter to the children whether the perpetrators were public officials or private folk like family or people in the community. It doesn’t matter to the children whether the perpetrators were wearing uniforms or ordinary clothes.
What does matter to children and adults who have suffered torture by private persons is that the human rights crimes of non-State torture are named and recognised. This means that as survivors of torture they can then be supported legally, and cared for with acknowledgement, respect, understanding and human rights based torture informed care. This is crucial for recovery and healing.
It matters to children and adults in our communities to know it is a fact that torture can sadly be inflicted by family and other private persons in the home and other private spaces. It is important to recognise torture happens in the home so all children and adults can talk and tell about torture as a named reality, for example a person can act as a witness to a child suffering in an environment of torture at home and tell so a rescue can be organised quickly.
But I don’t see the crime of torture listed in this CBC News Article Canada, 19 December 2017 in relation to what the little children in Edmonton suffered? Instead I see these criminal charges:
- Attempted murder
- Abandonment
- Unlawful confinement
- Criminal negligence by not providing medical attention
- Failure to provide the necessaries of life
California has a law on private torture that is being used currently reflected in the charges of torture in the case of the Turpin family.
Captain Greg Fellows of the Riverside county sheriff’s department is able to acknowledge the reality of the effects of torture he witnessed:
“If you can imagine being 17 years old and appearing to be a 10-year-old, being chained to a bed, being malnourished, and injuries associated with that. I would call that torture.” Turpin parents accused of torturing 13 children.. Guardian 17 January 2018
Be courageous Canada. These little children from Edmonton have been courageous beyond what many of us will ever know in enduring torture. Please be courageous back and meet their courage in surviving the unbearableness of torture with legal recognition of the torture they endured. Bear witness to their suffering and look torture in the eye. Stand up for the rights of all persons not to be tortured and include the crime of non-State torture in your criminal code.
To force a child to remain in a dark box for an extended length of time as was inflicted on the Edmonton children is torture. For a young child even a tiny length of time in such brutal and terrifying circumstances feels like forever. Repeatedly to force a child into a box, to beat them, break their bones, restrain them and starve them, deny them light and a toilet, all this is torture. This is to exist in an environment of torture.
Torture feels like you are dead and alive at the same time; in and out of consciousness with hopelessness. You are just existing, barely surviving and certainly not living life.
Torture is not the same as attempted murder in that the perpetrator does not necessarily intend the person they victimise to die. Their perverted pleasure in inflicting such violent acts is in inflicting torture to the point of almost death but not quite … and repeating this torture over and over.
In this CBC News Article of 12 January 2018, Les Block, a psychologist from Edmonton writes perceptively when he puts himself in the Edmonton children’s place..
“He speculated on the psychological impacts of being left inside a box in a dark barricaded room…”You would die in that moment,” said Block. “Psychologically they would die. Now they have to be brought back to life. They have to be resuscitated, and assisted and nurtured, and brought back to life. Because that part is a death.”
This is not a description of aggravated assault. This is a description of torture.
If you went to hospital with a broken leg and everyone ignored your leg injury and treated you for a skin condition you didn’t have instead, you would feel angry and ignored! This would matter and impact critically on your health, recovery and healing.
To misname torture as assault, confinement, neglect, abandonment and negligence, is to ignore the torture that took place. It is an insult and discriminatory to persons torture victimised and matters, impacting critically to the victimised tortured persons life, health and well being. It’s obvious that anyone who has suffered torture needs to receive both urgent torture informed care and appropriate criminal justice that fits the crime.
Be courageous Canada and recognise non-State torture. As Jeanne Sarson says in her Commentary: Torture by any other name is unacceptable in Truro Daily News 25 January 2018
“hiding the houses of horror that dwell in Canadian communities is no longer acceptable”
As Linda MacDonald says in this Truro Daily News Article 26 January 2018 Truro women continue to educate on non-State torture by Lynn Curwin,
“Most people don’t understand torture could be taking place in their neighbourhood,” … “They often think it only happens with those who are poor and uneducated. We need more education around this so people will start picking up on things, and we need people to understand that it’s still torture if the perpetrators are family.”
Support Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald at Persons Against Non-State Torture in Truro, Nova Scotia. Be courageous Canada and include non-State torture in your criminal code in 2018.
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