Ottawa shooter wasn’t a terrorist: he was a troubled man
Blaming a foreign enemy for your own shortcomings has been a popular policy for governments since the dawn of governance.
Stephen Harper’s repetitious employment of the term ‘terrorist’ is to dissociate Michael Zehaf-Bibeau from the mainstream of non-radicalized, non-politically deviant young Canadians.
It’s far easier to cast someone as an outsider than address the cause of such deviance.
The term itself, “terrorist”, has undergone some sort of semantic evolution since 9/11. The practical definition has become so broadly ambiguous that it is often misapplied, willfully or otherwise, by governments, civilians and combatants alike.
If “terrorism” is defined as “the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims”, then surely America’s drone wars would satisfy this definition.
The perpetrator in the Ottawa shootings was a crazed, troubled man who, so far, has only been proven to have had spurious links with terrorist organizations and cells.
Canada, along with many other countries including the U.S. and the U.K., must invest more money in treating the mentally ill and limiting the availability of firearms.
But most importantly, the West must create inclusive societies where migrant workers and their descendants do not feel excluded from an increasingly xenophobic, Islamophobic mainstream.
In his speech on Thursday, Harper reminded his compatriots that “Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks that we have seen around the world.”
A rather overdue realization for a Prime Minister of a country who, as the headline of a Glenn Greenwald article this week told us, has been at war for thirteen years—yet was shocked when one of their soldiers was attacked.
Bandwagoning onto U.S.-led “anti-terror” crusades throughout the Middle East will inevitably provoke an eventual response.
Attacks such as these, he remarked, are attacks upon “our country, our society, our values … as a free and democratic people who embrace human dignity for all.”
Whilst everyone agrees that the Islamic State employs savage methods as they spread terror, dehumanizing your enemy gets you nowhere.
“Fight against the terrorist organizations who seek to brutalize those in other countries, with the hope of bringing their savagery to our shores,” implored Harper.
“They will have no safe haven,” he told us.
By implicitly juxtaposing the dual notions of the savagery of terrorist organizations and the presumed civility of the people of these shores, he simply dichotomizes, alienates and offers nothing.
Harper, the man who eloquently concluded his speech by remarking that “today has been without question, a difficult day,” has no new ideas. His only solution to the attacks in Quebec and Ottawa this week is to bandwagon the U.S. into a new war of neocolonial implication as Bush’s War on Terror undergoes a renaissance.
This is not a solution, but a call to arms. If Western governments continue to use the tragic passing of men like Corporal Cirillo or Fusilier Drummer Rigby as the rationale for an escalation of the “war on terror”, simply because their murderer may have muttered, or indeed screamed “Allah Akbar,” then it is a war they will never win. It will only serve to perpetuate itself.
Psychology Association wants to see mental illness accepted
The sixth edition of “Montreal walks for mental health” took place this Sunday, Oct. 5, and for the second time the Concordia Undergraduate Psychology Association (CUPA) decided to take part.
A dozen Concordia students — four of which were CUPA executives — joined a total of 2,000 or so people who came under the banner of the Montreal walks for mental health foundation’s mission to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness. The walk allows the foundation to raise awareness and collect funds, giving them the opportunity to support various initiatives that offer services to people dealing with mental illness. The walk progressed for several kilometers and began downtown at Phillips Square.
In preparation, CUPA organized a two-day bake sale last week, with all money raised donated towards the event.
A number of students came to express their enthusiasm and support towards the initiative. “It was really amazing to witness the extent of people that came out to support mental illnesses. We are extremely proud of the amount of donations we were able to raise, and all the positive energy and words of encouragement we received,” said Elizabeth Duong, CUPA president.
“Today, awareness and education should be our priority. Our biggest challenge is to support families who live with mental illnesses through support groups. They also need assistance to help them use the right resources in the medical system,” said Annie Young, former president of Action on Mental Illness Quebec.
According to the organizers, one out of five Canadians will experience some form of mental illness during their lifetimes. Their objective is to eliminate the prejudices and stigma surrounding mental health problems and allow people to feel comfortable talking about them and seeking help when they need it without the fear of discrimination.
Grievances with the current state of things were shared at the march. Participants complained the health care budgets for mental health aren’t adequate to meet the needs. In the crowd, a Concordia counsellor mentioned how students tend to feel ashamed, and she stated that seeking mental illness treatments shouldn’t be more stigmatized than, for instance, seeking cancer treatment.
“As psychology students, the lack of awareness about mental health and the stigma associated with it is something that we gear our education and careers towards. The walk was an excellent chance for our students to meet and network with numerous individuals that felt the same way,” said Duong.
“The walk proved there is hope for victims and that they are not alone. This is the second year that CUPA participated in the walk, and will certainly not be the last.”
Before next year’s walk, make sure to pass by the Mental Health Awareness fair of Concordia, which will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 8, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the EV building.
Mike Santoro spoke of his experience living with mental illness and dealing with stigma on Feb. 12 in a talk hosted by the Concordia Undergraduate Psychology Association (CUPA) for Concordia’s Mental Health week.
Santoro spoke of how he has been living a full and happy life despite being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder for over 25 years. He began the presentation with a short documentary, entitled The 80/20 Project, created by himself and Daniel Gervais. The documentary showed his personal coping skills, as well as re-enactments of his history with mental illness. The meaning behind the title is simple: recovery from mental illness should depend 20 per cent on medication, and 80 per cent on other coping mechanisms.
During his talk, Santoro spoke of three steps that should be taken when helping people with mental health issues: listen, support, refer.
He explained that simply being there for someone, and listening to them, could have a very big impact on their recovery.
The next steps, support and refer, are also crucial.
“Don’t take everything on your shoulders if you are helping someone. Once you’ve supported them trust grows, once you have listened and you get that relationship, you refer [to professionals],” Santoro said. “Don’t get too involved unless you are a trained specialist. Refer them to what they need. Always follow up on the referral.”
After talking about these steps, Santoro spoke about how important his friends were to him. He explained that he had always been very open about his condition, and that the friends who had stuck by him throughout had become a part of his support group.
“If [my friends] saw me running naked down the street they wouldn’t think ‘Mike is crazy,’ they would think ‘something must be wrong, he needs our help,’” Santoro said.
Santoro said that he refused to accept that he had a mental illness for eight years. Because of that, he also refused to acknowledge that he needed help.
“I remember being in an isolation room at the hospital tied to a bed and coming to a realization. I started to think they might be right, maybe something is wrong with me. That is when I started to open up and accept the help around me, and things started to change. Before that nothing was really happening in my life,” Santoro said.
Santoro has lost track of the amount of times he has been at the hospital, often for months at a time.
“It was not easy to accept that I had mental health issues because I knew there would be labels, that people would treat me differently,” Santoro said.
Santoro spoke of his personal experiences with the stigma surrounding mental health. Once, for example, he was getting x-rays, and a nurse asked him what medications he was taking. When he told the nurse about his anti-psychotic medication, her demeanor towards him changed right away. Santoro said she seemed shocked and scared.
“I could feel that her stress level had gone down the second I left the room. That is the kind of thing people [living with mental health issues] deal with all the time,” Santoro said.
“When you ask someone with mental issues, they will say it’s harder to deal with all the stigma around mental health issues than it is to deal with the disease itself, Santoro said. “Excuse the expression, but that’s pretty crazy.”
According to Santoro, more and more people are talking about mental illness.
“When I started giving these talks, no one was talking about mental illness. Now, more people are talking about it, but [change] comes from us,” Santoro said.
Santoro gave some advice to Concordia students, telling them that they should not be afraid of talking about how they feel. He told them to use Concordia’s resources, and to talk to friends. He also reminded everyone of the importance of prevention.
“If you see a change in a classmate or friend, don’t be afraid of talking to people about it. Don’t be afraid to bring up the subject. Its important to care about the people around you, and to be open about it,” Santoro said.
Although attendance was low, those who were present took part in the talk, asking many questions and sharing their personal histories with mental illness, as well as their own coping mechanisms.
“…If its one person we can educate than its one person that can go out to the people they know and educate them in turn,” Janice La Giorgia, CUPA President, said. “The chances are we all know someone who has depression or anxiety, since they are very prevalent…the presentation was enlightening. It really gives you a new perspective of mental health issues.”
Santoro reminded the audience that mental illness does not define a person.
“[Mental illness] doesn’t mean your life is over. You can still live a good life,” Santoro said. “You will have to work a little harder, but if you stick to it and do what you have to do, you can advance and get to where you want to be.”
To learn more about Mike Santoro visit www.mikesstory.com.
Santoro posing with his daughter, Chelsie, and CUPA members (from left) President Janice La Giorgia, VP External Alexandra Buonanno, and VP Internal Stacy Pollack .Santoro was introduced by his 11 year-old daughter, Chelsie.
Clara Hughes, national spokesperson for mental health and Canada’s very own six-time Olympic medalist is leading the pack again, and has been doing so since 2010. Press photo
Talking, texting, tweeting, Facebook sharing — who doesn’t do this on a daily basis? These forms of communication through social media and the virtual world have become part of people’s daily lives. It’s so natural to interconnect in this way that it’s an almost automatic part of our daily routines. In effect, the fact that so many people do it is what drives Bell Mobility’s ingenious initiative in relieving the stigma and raising funds for mental health in Canada.
Clara Hughes, national spokesperson for mental health and Canada’s very own six-time Olympic medalist is leading the pack again, and has been doing so since 2010. Press photo
On Jan. 28, Bell will be donating five cents for every text message, long distance call, tweet #BellLetsTalk and Facebook share of the companies Let’s Talk image. This will add to their current fund of $62,043,289.30, which is being used to help raise awareness for mental health.
Clara Hughes, national spokesperson for mental health and Canada’s very own six-time Olympic medalist is leading the pack again, and has been doing so since 2010.
“We all have family members, friends or colleagues who will experience mental illness or we may struggle ourselves, as I have, yet most people impacted still won’t seek support because they fear admitting they need help,” Hughes explains on Bell’s website.
Oliver Aveline, an English literature student at Concordia, agrees with the initiative,“I see any attempt to help relieve the stigma is a step in the right direction. The concept is pretty genius too.”
While nearly a quarter of the Canadian population suffer from some form of mental illness, two thirds of them suffer in silence, in fear of being rejected from society. By limiting themselves from alleviating their pain, their issues worsen, thus sweeping the problems under the rug, so to speak, until there is no more room left to cover the problem up.
“I think that people are aware but do not know how to handle it,” says Stephanie Moutzouris, a science student at Concordia. “They would see someone with a mental illness as having a problem or being weird. If not explicitly told that this person has a condition, they would have no explanation for behavioral patterns and would not have enough knowledge to see the traits of a mentally ill person, just someone who is odd.”
According to Gabriella Szabo, the health promotion specialist at Concordia University, one in five Canadians are affected by some form of mental illness. Whether it be related to anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, schizophrenia, you name it, having 20 per cent of the population experience such an issue is something to consider.
Nevertheless, “there is hope with proper treatment,” she says.
“Some people see accessing mental health services as a sign of weakness or something to be embarrassed about,” Szabo explains. “I encourage everyone to view accessing mental health support as just another calculated, strategic, and efficient tool to make you more successful in your academic, professional, and personal life. Going to see your professor, reading your textbooks, joining a study group; mental health support is just another tool to ensure your success.”
In an effort to support students and other members of the Concordia community who may be struggling with mental health issues, Concordia will be holding several workshops, fairs and activities from Feb. 10 to Feb. 14.
Manage your Mental Health workshops
February 10-February 13 1:00-2:00pm at Counselling and Development office Room H-440 Henry F. Hall Building, Sir George William Campus
Let’s Talk: Mental Health and Wellness Fair
February 12 11:00-3:00pm
Abe and Harriet Gold Atrium of the Engineering Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (EV Building), Sir George Williams Campus
A Fair of the Heart
February 14 11:00-3:00pm
Mezzanine of the Henry F. Hall Building, Sir George Williams Campus
Mental support for war veterans who are back in Canada has always been an issue, though not always a priority.
Mental health problems in returning soldiers have been an issue since officials first discovered such a thing could occur following a traumatic event. Nowadays, the problem is better understood and taken care of, but the current measures employed are still not enough; therefore, not all World War II veterans have been as blessed as the three gentlemen who go to Branch 108 every Thursday to share a beer.
In the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 108 based in Châteauguay, three former soldiers – one from the air force, the navy, and the army – believe the medical conditions and support system surrounding Canadian soldiers have dramatically improved since their time in the Canadian Forces. They did not want to divulge their names for privacy reasons.
The three veterans were in excellent shape for their age, both physically and psychologically – a testament to their full recovery since World War II.
“I had sufficient support, [but] there may be a 100,000 other guys that didn’t get it,” reminded the former airman.
One persisting issue that stood out for the former soldiers is the lack of staff at St. Anne’s Hospital, exclusively for veterans of the two World Wars and of the Korean War – younger soldiers who’ve been on peacekeeping operations or in Afghanistan are not eligible.
“They’ve got so much room there, there are so many empty spaces, but it was always hard to get in,” said the former army soldier. “Veterans have tried to get in and they say there’s no room. They don’t have the staff for it, I guess.”
As the hospital patients thin out year after year, the provincial government is planning to take it over and use it as a civilian hospital instead.
Nevertheless, the three men praise the government for having put “more effort and more money towards the veterans” in recent years.
“There’s more being done for the veterans today than there was being done 70 years ago,” noted the former navy soldier.
Yet, despite these improvements, some veterans of Afghanistan have spoken out on poor medical and psychological support they’ve received once back in Canada.
In recent memory, two major cases have brought significant exposure to the issue: the ongoing fiasco following Cpl. Stuart Langridge’s suicide; and the statement given by Cpl. Steve Stoesz to CTV after being forbidden to do so by his superiors.
Cpl. Stuart Langridge committed suicide in army barracks in Edmonton in 2008.
It was his sixth suicide attempt. The story sparked outrage as federal authorities seemed uncooperative and even apathetic towards the soldier’s grieving parents.
Later, an inquiry was called to find out if the military indirectly played a part in his death. The investigation revealed he was not on suicide watch, but had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
Cpl. Steve Stoesz, on the other hand, made headlines earlier this year for going against a direct order from the Department of National Defense and speaking up about proposed cuts to mental health services for soldiers. He said he hadn’t been given the proper physical care upon his return and he wouldn’t accept it. Stoesz has been fighting against the medical system and Veterans Affairs ever since.
Amid this recent controversy, Federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced on Sept. 12 the defense department will invest $11.4 million more in mental health services for returning veterans.
According to MacKay, the money will fund the employment of four psychiatrists, 13 psychologists, 10 mental health nurses, 13 social workers and 11 addictions counsellors. More than 5,000 soldiers returning from Afghanistan are suffering from mental health issues, including over 3,000 diagnosed with PTSD.
“To compare World War II to Afghanistan is almost impossible,” said the former air force soldier of Branch 108. “There are ages of difference.”
Though that may be so in some respects, the fear, the nightmares, and the other mental traumas have branded veterans of all wars. During World War II, proper help for psychological recovery was still in its early stages and macho attitudes regarding the subject ran high.
Although the current understanding of mental illness has pushed the boundaries and changed perceptions to give way to a better support system, there are still deficiencies as demonstrated by the Langridge case.
Hopefully, the Department of Defence’s new investment will be used efficiently, and become the first step in providing adequate mental health care support for our veterans.
According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 1 out of 10 Canadians over the age of 15 will experience a dependence to either drugs or alcohol. Though there are numerous support groups out there to help deal with this disease, the rate will likely only increase unless steps are taken to help doctors learn how to help their patients.
The health care system in this country is not fully equipped to deal with the ever-growing problem of addiction. There are barely any training programs for doctors, nurses, and specialists when it comes to dealing with addiction in its many forms. This desperately needs to change, for it is disheartening to live in a society where people can’t get sufficient treatment for such a common and difficult disease.
Dr. Evan Wood is a Vancouver medical doctor focusing on inner-city medicine. This lack of training for doctors, said Wood, extends beyond the shortcomings of British Columbia’s system.
“The problem is typical of all Canadian provinces,” he said. “Dedicated and caring as they usually are, most Canadian physicians who consider themselves addiction medicine specialists assembled their knowledge about addiction treatment after completing their medical training.”
What Canada really needs are doctors and specialists who know exactly how to approach addiction and have formal training, as well as experience in the field. We need to teach physicians how to help people who are struggling with such deeply personal and psychological issues, using the latest scientific and therapeutic advances.
Wood has familiarized himself with many addiction centres in and around the country and believes that having a trained doctor when it comes to dealing with addiction can make all the difference.
“What was really eye-opening from my visit to [the Boston Medical Center’s Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit] was the impact that a skilled addiction medicine workforce can have in turning patients’ lives around,” he said.
Canada needs to invest more time and money in the creation of programs where such skills and techniques can be taught and developed. Hope is not lost though, said Wood, referring to a new initiative which could prove game-changing in the fight to improve addiction treatment.
“A potentially ground-shifting opportunity has emerged with the recent establishment of the American Board of Addiction Medicine,” he said. “The board has created guidelines for the development of addiction medicine fellowship programs enabling Canadian medical schools to create programs that are eligible for full accreditation.”
Now it’s Canada’s turn to invest more money and time, in order to create effective addiction training programs, and stop ignoring the larger problem at work.
If we were to live by the rules of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, one of the most popular reality competition shows on the tube, dropping more than half your weight over the span of a television season is nothing short of an extraordinary success.
And it’s inspiring, really, to see obese people who couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs be able to run a 10K after weeks of grueling exercising and dieting. The contestants’ weights keep dropping and they are rewarded almost immediately by receiving kudos from the show’s personal trainers and admiration and jealousy from their opponents. The contestants’ backgrounds and life stories (and the producers’ sneaky, strategic editing) make viewers feel like there could be a biggest loser in everyone.
Contestants exercise to better their health and their lives; the “biggest loser” also gets a cash prize. At home, viewers are treated to fat people’s families’ ecstatic faces at the contestants’ new svelte physiques.
“Look at how happy they are,” they must think. “If I get skinny, people will like me more, too.”
Victor Avon used to be obese. Today, he is closing in on his tenth year battling an eating disorder. At his heaviest, Avon was a 19-year-old college freshman tipping the scale at almost 300 pounds. After teenage years in high school that seemed like they would never end, he whispered to himself words that would change his life forever.
“It was March 4, 2002,” Avon remembers. “I was in my student dining hall and I remember I was standing in line at the grill and I said, ‘F it, I’m going to go on a diet.’ By making that decision, I pushed that first domino over. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
He continued, “I hated my body growing up because of how people made me feel and how I was treated, and because I couldn’t change myself. I couldn’t take control of my body and get that perfect body that everybody would love me with. I had a lot of self-hate. I created the eating disorder as a way to control what the world could see. I was going to get the body that everyone always made fun of me for not having. I’m going to be the person they always wanted me to be, and I’m going to be happy.”
Psychologist Anna Barrafato runs a support group for students with eating disorders at Concordia University’s Counselling and Development Centre. She says eating disorders can be triggered by many things, including a childhood trauma or a lifelong battle with one’s own body image. They can also happen when dieting turns into an obsessive fear about getting “fat” and an addiction to losing weight. She says eating disorders are sometimes developed as a coping method.
Avon describes his father and uncles as ultra-masculine, and when he wasn’t bullied by his schoolmates, his family constantly made him feel like he wasn’t good enough. He had no one to turn to, and he says his eating disorder turned into his best friend. It was also the only thing in his life he had complete control over.
Barrafato says that eating disorders undoubtedly transcend gender, race, culture and socioeconomic status. She says the belief that an eating disorder is a woman’s affliction dissuades men into seeking appropriate help when they are showing symptoms. Studies also show that people believe men obsessed with their appearance and weight are gay. The fear of being mistaken for a homosexual or thought of as unmanly is strong enough for some men with eating disorders to never admit they have a problem.
Avon’s dieting in 2002 spiraled out of control into anorexia nervosa, which he was not diagnosed with until 2006. When he finally sought help and checked into Princeton University Medical Center’s eating disorder unit, he weighed 130 pounds. “They were surprised I was still alive,” he remembers. “My body was shutting down. My fingers were blue. I weighed less than my mother.”
Avon’s body mass index went from 40.7 to 17.6. A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing the person’s weight in kilograms by the square of the person’s height in metres. By North American standards, a person with a BMI over 30 is obese, while a BMI under 18.5 is considered underweight. According to 2004 figures from Statistics Canada, more than 23 per cent of Canadian adults and 30 per cent of American adults were obese.
According to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in North America, anorexia nervosa is diagnosed overwhelmingly in females, with up to 90 per cent of cases seen in women. The National Eating Disorders Association, for which Avon is the male spokesperson, echoes that statistic: of the more than 10 million people struck by eating disorders in the United States, only 10 per cent—or one million—are men.
“I stuck with the old stigma that men can’t get eating disorders,” Avon recalls. “I didn’t think anything was wrong with me. It was easy to fool myself for a long time because of the gender issue. I had never in my life heard of a guy getting an eating disorder. I also had a lot of positive reinforcement, ‘You look great, you’re taking care of yourself, dropping some weight and getting healthy.’ I just thought that it was the lifestyle that I had chosen.”
Avon has written a book about his experience, My Monster Within: My Story, in which he describes the mental anguish he felt when he missed a workout. “If I decided to run 55 minutes one day, instead of 75, the backlash that came with that in my head―it was not normal. It was never an option not to exercise. It was never an option to change without severe mental anguish. It was a total belief that if I changed one thing I did for one day, that I’d wake up the next day having gained 100 pounds overnight. It was fear that people would start rejecting me again. It was the fear that everything I ever felt growing up would come flooding back and happen again.”
From 2002 to 2008, Avon severely restricted his daily food and calorie intake and exercised like a “madman, to the point that I have major joint problems today. The only things I ate for six years were: chicken breast, turkey breast, beef, broccoli and some cheese. That’s it.
“I got myself to the weight that I thought I would be happy with. My physical body changed, but everything up here,” Avon said, pointing to his head, “always stayed the exact same. I still felt like I was in my old body, so I had all the insecurities that I lived with. It never got easier. I was never happy.”
Avon was hospitalized for four months, where he met with therapists and psychiatrists daily. Patients were also required to attend group therapy sessions where they essentially had to be retaught how to eat again and why food is so important for the human body. Avon, now 29, considers himself on the road to recovery, a road he has been trekking since 2008. “I was so sick for so long; six years with the eating disorder, and for most of my life I had major body image and food issues. I don’t want to say that my wiring’s all messed up. It’s a goal of mine to be fully recovered, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen.”
Avon says he has been on the road to recovery since 2008. As a spokesperson for NEDA, he attended a conference on eating disorders in Los Angeles over the summer hosted by medical professionals in the field. While Avon’s goal is to raise awareness for men afflicted by eating disorders, he found it disenchanting when psychiatrists turned to his accompanying wife to ask her how long she was sick for, requiring Avon to interject.
According to Barrafato, eating disorders are lifelong struggles and “it takes a very strong will to say that you are okay with the way you look.”
“I don’t think I’m happy with the way I look,” admits Avon, “but I accept the body I have. I could stand in the mirror and pick myself apart if I wanted to, but doing that only fuels the illness. I know I will never have the perfect body that I once craved, so the way to live and be okay with myself is to accept the body I am given and do my best to keep it healthy, to not focus on the outside but rather the inside.”
