The enemy of peace isn't only war, but also indifference - Pope Francis

The Pope hits the nail on the head, talking about indifference. From my reading and listening over the last few years it has become very clear to me that the opposite of love and the obstacles to love are less about hatred and malice and far more about selfishness, apathy and indifference. The goats in chapter 25:33 of Matthew's gospel were not condemned for their hatred or their malice, but their lack of caring. I suppose you could say, their apathy and indifference. This is equally true with the needy in your town as with the "hordes of men, women and children fleeing war, hunger and persecution, ready to risk their lives..."

Pope calls for peace, end to injustice in New Year's address (CBC News)

Pope Francis in New Year message: 'Now's the time to end indifference'

Frosty's tragic end

Please don't tell the girls, but Frosty has come to a tragic end. The details are too gruesome to put up on a public blog. Let's just say he suffered a dissociative disorder caused by El Niño involving his head and body. I suppose he lost his mind, you could say.

Frosty and friends in happier times
(c) 2015 Terry McCann

A Crisis of Junk Science

When the noble science of Science degenerates into junk science the ripples of scepticism resulting from feelings of betrayal and anger have the potential to become a tsunami.

"In the U.S., the Federal Bureau of Investigation admitted last April that hair identification testimony from its forensic scientists was flawed in 95 per cent of the 268 cases before 2000 it has reviewed so far. In 32 of those cases, the defendant was sentenced to death."

The above is from an op-ed by criminal defence lawyer, Daniel Brown, in today's Toronto Star.

Before Canadians feel too smug here's another snippet:

"Bad science is an alarming thread that runs through almost two dozen Canadian wrongful murder convictions exposed in recent years by the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted (AIDWYC). The roll call of errors in these cases includes clothing fibres mistakenly believed to match one another; experts who incorrectly concluded that dog bites on a dead child were knife wounds inflicted by her mother; inept autopsies that misinterpreted the cause of death; biology samples contaminated by a government lab technician; and hair samples that anchored a murder conviction, yet later turned out to be worthless."

The only consolation for Canadians is that Canada does not have a death penalty. Innocent people have not been killed; they have simply languished in jail while their children were removed and placed in group homes, foster care or adoption.

In his piece, Brown observes,

"Wealthy defendants are able to afford top lawyers and expert witnesses, but indigent accused or those from marginalized communities frequently bear the brunt of bad science evidence. They cannot match cases assembled by well-funded police and prosecutors, sometimes pleading guilty to obtain a reduced sentence in the face of superficially overwhelming evidence."

The Alchemist by Pieter Bruegel

Brown makes some conclusions that I think are predictable and precisely to my first point about scepticism:

At precisely the time we ought to be exercising heightened skepticism, a mistaken belief is developing that wrongful convictions are a thing of the past.

And again…

Judges must be better trained to weed out junk science and unwarranted opinions offered by experts. And they must warn juries about the perils of placing too much reliance on science or picking sides in a battle of experts.

This reminds me of manufacturers relying on inspectors to 'inspect in' quality. As W. Edwards Deming pointed out decades ago, that is far too late in the production cycle and way too susceptible to error. Would we fly to our vacation spots knowing the plane we are on did not have adequate requirements and design review, risk and failure modes analysis, verification and validation prior to 'inspection'? Heck, let alone fly, we don't even allow cars on the road that have not been built according to this process, and yet we trust that our 'scientists' all use correct scientific methods and design of experiment even though they often do not bother with peer review. Hello?


Read the entire op-ed here: Junk science is undermining our justice system

(Republished from my professional blog article of the same title at tcmc Quality Management Services)

Photo credit: http://www.wikiart.org/en/pieter-bruegel-the-elder/the-alchemist

Children without a voice

Writing his regular column for the Toronto Star Martin Regg Cohn's piece today is about the failure of Ontario's children's aid societies to properly protect some of the most vulnerable and needy children.

He concludes, "Unlike the grown-ups who get all the attention, kids can’t vote, and lack a voice. But they still need politicians in power to hear them."

True as this is about the children Cohn is explicitly writing about, I believe this to be even more cogently true about kids in the womb. Kids 'in utero' do not even exist as humans in Canadian law. They suddenly appear, Voila!, and enter into the ambience of law with human rights and freedoms when they pass through the magical birth canal, or, like rabbits from a hat, are yanked out by C-section 'deliverers'. Until that moment, these are the most voiceless kids on the planet.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch

You can read Cohn's column online here: Premier ponders blowing up our CAS mess. It's an excellent piece and I recommend it to Canadians living in Ontario. For non-Canadians, CAS is an acronym for Children's Aid Societies.

Picture credit: "The Scream" by Edvard Munch - WebMuseum at ibiblioPage URL: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/munch/munch.scream.jpg. 
Licensed under Public Domain via Commons

Abstract musing on favourite colours

Credit: www.allaboutbirds.org

Grey, brown, black and white
are not my favourite colouring colours
drab, boring, cold, depressing

yet on a chickadee delighting,
even playing.

A zebra...
magnificent, flaunting,
shy, demure, seducing.

Credit i.livescience.com/

Touching, hearing, seeing
creatures foraging, flying,
living, breathing, laughing, crying
dispel the abstract musing
on favourite colours
as dawn's awaking
dispels the sleeping dreaming.