The caption or voiceover could intone, “Newfoundland and Labrador … find yourself, if you’re a woman, toiling in a 19th-century culture.”
This wasn’t a good week in the province for women, intelligence or 21st-century values.
At the House of Assembly, the tone was decidedly 1950s, as Premier Paul Davis implied it was inappropriate for female Liberal MHA Cathy Bennett to ask a question about a report regarding sex workers.
He may as well have said, “Who let that woman out of the McDonald’s kitchen?”
Davis’s odd rationale was that Bennett, being a woman, should not urge the release of a secret report that — if made un-secret and public — could endanger women.
The implication that it would somehow be acceptable for male MHAs to urge the release of such a report is another matter, but apparently it did not enter the premier’s brain before it sent signals to his tongue to start moving.
The RNC has refused to make the report about the province’s sex trade public because, the cops claim, doing so could endanger the female sex workers who participated in the study.
How exactly they could be endangered hasn’t been delineated, but, paternalism being what it is, the police and premier say the public should all be good little boys and girls, and accept that it is so.
According to Davis’s logic, girls, especially, should be quiet because demanding the report be made public could prove harmful to other girls. Show your concern and shut up.
It must be discouraging to the remaining 17 supporters of the Tories that their leader is inclined to such nonsensical thinking.
However, there is a way for Davis to extricate himself from his ridiculous comments. In the same scrum with reporters at the House of Assembly, he stated, “I don’t get it, but clearly the RNC has a concern about it and I respect that.”
Hold that thought, Mr. Premier. Concentrate on the first part: “I don’t get it.”
Set aside, for a moment, your ex-cop, former-cop, retired-cop persona and drop the “respect” for RNC secrecy.
As leader of all the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, tell your buddies at headquarters, “I don’t get it. We don’t get it. Release the report.”
And then hand-deliver a copy to Cathy Bennett, along with an apology and an invitation to go out for a Big Mac.
Baby bonus
The premier wasn’t the only one this week revealing that his attitude toward women dates from the middle of the last century. Educators were at it, too.
School officials at Ascension Collegiate in Bay Roberts told a 17-year-old student that she wasn’t allowed to bring her baby to the graduation ceremony.
Jessica Mason — showing more maturity than school administrators — had said she wanted to bring her daughter, Iyla, to the graduation ceremony because she was proud that, as a young mother, she was still able to finish school.
Ah, the modern world sure is, well, modern. Forty years ago, many girls such as Jessica Mason wouldn’t have finished school, because they would have been kicked out.
Some premiers and principals notwithstanding, attitudes have evolved, thankfully.
This week’s headline — “Teen mom can’t bring baby to grad” — probably prompted many readers to think, “That won’t last long.”
It didn’t. The next day’s headline read, “Teen mom will bring baby to grad.”
It remains a mystery how people with such antiquated ideas get into positions of authority. Anyone who has the answer, let me know. (Men only, please.)
Brian Jones is a copy editor at The Telegram. He can be contacted at [email protected].
The caption or voiceover could intone, “Newfoundland and Labrador … find yourself, if you’re a woman, toiling in a 19th-century culture.”
This wasn’t a good week in the province for women, intelligence or 21st-century values.
At the House of Assembly, the tone was decidedly 1950s, as Premier Paul Davis implied it was inappropriate for female Liberal MHA Cathy Bennett to ask a question about a report regarding sex workers.
He may as well have said, “Who let that woman out of the McDonald’s kitchen?”
Davis’s odd rationale was that Bennett, being a woman, should not urge the release of a secret report that — if made un-secret and public — could endanger women.
The implication that it would somehow be acceptable for male MHAs to urge the release of such a report is another matter, but apparently it did not enter the premier’s brain before it sent signals to his tongue to start moving.
The RNC has refused to make the report about the province’s sex trade public because, the cops claim, doing so could endanger the female sex workers who participated in the study.
How exactly they could be endangered hasn’t been delineated, but, paternalism being what it is, the police and premier say the public should all be good little boys and girls, and accept that it is so.
According to Davis’s logic, girls, especially, should be quiet because demanding the report be made public could prove harmful to other girls. Show your concern and shut up.
It must be discouraging to the remaining 17 supporters of the Tories that their leader is inclined to such nonsensical thinking.
However, there is a way for Davis to extricate himself from his ridiculous comments. In the same scrum with reporters at the House of Assembly, he stated, “I don’t get it, but clearly the RNC has a concern about it and I respect that.”
Hold that thought, Mr. Premier. Concentrate on the first part: “I don’t get it.”
Set aside, for a moment, your ex-cop, former-cop, retired-cop persona and drop the “respect” for RNC secrecy.
As leader of all the Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, tell your buddies at headquarters, “I don’t get it. We don’t get it. Release the report.”
And then hand-deliver a copy to Cathy Bennett, along with an apology and an invitation to go out for a Big Mac.
Baby bonus
The premier wasn’t the only one this week revealing that his attitude toward women dates from the middle of the last century. Educators were at it, too.
School officials at Ascension Collegiate in Bay Roberts told a 17-year-old student that she wasn’t allowed to bring her baby to the graduation ceremony.
Jessica Mason — showing more maturity than school administrators — had said she wanted to bring her daughter, Iyla, to the graduation ceremony because she was proud that, as a young mother, she was still able to finish school.
Ah, the modern world sure is, well, modern. Forty years ago, many girls such as Jessica Mason wouldn’t have finished school, because they would have been kicked out.
Some premiers and principals notwithstanding, attitudes have evolved, thankfully.
This week’s headline — “Teen mom can’t bring baby to grad” — probably prompted many readers to think, “That won’t last long.”
It didn’t. The next day’s headline read, “Teen mom will bring baby to grad.”
It remains a mystery how people with such antiquated ideas get into positions of authority. Anyone who has the answer, let me know. (Men only, please.)
Brian Jones is a copy editor at The Telegram. He can be contacted at [email protected].
