Today we hear that yet another young woman has been found to have faked having cancer, receiving sympathy and financial support as she pretended to be going through treatment for her alleged disease.
My own father was diagnosed with cancer this past year, and after surgery and chemo and radiation treatment - watching him struggle with the results of this insidious disease, as you might expect my response to this woman's charade is disgust and revulsion. Far from seeking sympathy, my father's dignity and pride insisted on avoiding expressions of sympathy. He actively sought out being treated as if everything was fine. He avoided discussions of his illness - not because he was in denial, but because he was keenly aware that life is potentially short, and time spent being sad is time wasted. So we talk about hockey and camping and, well, living.
On the other hand - we see this this new "cancer faker". She truly is a piece of human garbage that deserves to spend time in jail, and who deserves to be shunned by any decent members of society.
She wanted attention? So give her none. I would hope anyone who was a friend is no longer a friend. I would hope that as she sits down at a table - any other right thinking people leave that table - and treat her as the rotting piece of humanity that she is.
She was charged last year - however, her conduct was not made public. Why? According to police:
Investigators stayed quiet about charging a Cambridge teacher with fraud out of concern for how the publicity might damage her.
“They didn’t want to do the media release for fear of her well-being,” said Insp. Greg Lamport of Waterloo Regional Police.Really.
I'm sure this isn't any special treatment. I'm sure they don't release the names of those accused of murder or sexual assault do they? Of course they do. And does anyone doubt that releasing the name of an accused child molester might impact on their "well-being"?
But in this case - she gets special treatment. Isn't that nice. We wouldn't want to hurt her feelings or have her opened up to public ridicule and scorn - I mean, all she did was to demean the true suffering and struggles of millions of people who actually battle cancer.
Nice.
And here's just a curious thought.
She is the third person discovered to have engaged in this type of reprehensible charade in the past year.
The others?
Ashley Kirilow and Jessica Leeder.
And what do they have in common? Well, they are all women. And they are all from Ontario.
Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
As I've said before, more and more our broader society is creating a culture of entitlement. Nobody is supposed to struggle or do without everything that they want.
So - then - my theory is that expectation, that sense of "entitlement" is so strong that when people aren't getting what they want, whether it's enough money or enough attention or enought "love", well, they will lie and steal that money and that attention.
And who would be most likely to have those expectations? Well, one imagines, it would be the people that society has been spending the most time building those expectations in.
People, to begin with, living in broadly "liberal" areas where the state has most clearly announced, "You should have everything you want." In Canada - that would be Ontario. Or maybe certain areas of the lower mainland in Vancouver.
And which of THOSE people are most likely to have developed expectations of being "served" their desires.
Well.
Maybe women.
Reading the leading family law decisions, particularly from our Supreme Court in the last couple decades, the message sent out is clearly that:
a) Acquiring a marriage certificiate is not only equal to 7 or 8 years of University, paydowns of tens of thousands of student loans and struggling for years to establish a business or professional practice - in fact it is superior. While the husband is expected to continue to go to work, day in and day out AFTER a separation - the Wife has no such expectation in order for her to be entitled to between 40 and 50 per cent of his income for an indeterminate time thereafter. The theory is that her work (which is not required in any sense to be proven) in the home is an equal contribution to the effort and expense to acquire a practice or business. However - as the husband is required to work for his money after the wife is no longer providing him any sort of service or assistance - the implied assumption is that her contribution was much greater - such that while he has to work for his share of the post-separatrion income - she has no such requirement. There was, at one point, what was reffered to as a "trilogy" of Supreme Court of Canada decisions (Pelech, Caron, Richardson) which put great emphasis on the Wife's obligation to do her best to support herself - however, with the changes in the Court - those decisions were effectively gutted completely in a piece of legal alchemy where the Court basically held in Mogue that "we didn't say what you say we said".
b) Lawyers, who wish to be paid to help the woman acquire those "entitlements" for their clients are greedy and self-interested and should be doing that work for little or no compensation - at least according to our Supreme Court's Chief Justice;
c) If the Courts can't shame the lawyers into working for free, well, then - the state should pay the shot for the woman to acquire those "entitlements".
(P.S. for an example of the system at work - see my blog earlier this week: here.)
So.
Then.
Is it any suprise at all that when a woman in Ontario isn't having all of her needs met, she feels free to engage in the worst sort of fraud to get what she wants?
Maybe it's time for a greater dose of "you make your bed, you lie in it".
Maybe it's time to tone down the message that "You CAN always get what you want."
And a good start would be sending these sorts of people to jail - and when they get out - never, ever, giving them a hand again. Looking for a job? Sorry, we don't hire scumbags.
Oh.
And if you walk into a McDonalds or Tim Hortons and you happen to see Breanne McGuire, Ashley Kirilow or Jessica Leader behind the til - walk out. And send a letter saying, "I don't provide business to people hiring scumbags."
To assist you in your effort to send the message - here are the current Ontario members of the scumbag club:
Breanne McGuire
Ashley Kirilow
Jessica Leeder