Smearing the thin blue line

Let’s say you’re from Afghanistan or Somalia and are new to Canada. You are eager to learn about the country and so, you pick up a newspaper. What do you see? Ex-police officer faces child porn, luring charges. Toronto cops face charges in grow-op raids. Ex-policeman accused of intimidating witness. And, of course, countless stories about how police are tasering innocent people everywhere.

What would you conclude? You’d think that police in this country are corrupt thugs just like they are back home. They carry guns and batons and, worse than that, attitude. Judging by what we see in the media every day, what else would you think? And then, when a crime is committed in your neighbourhood and the police come around to investigate, you want nothing to do with them.

Is the media waging a vendetta against the police? I would argue that the answer to that question is yes. And if the media is merely reporting the facts as they claim, then they aren’t doing a very good job of it, at least, not a balanced one.

Judging by the kind of coverage they get, police must routinely be going around brutalizing people, usurping the individual’s rights, and taking the law into their own hands because this is how they are portrayed, in newspapers especially. This is why one scribe will devote six months of columns to a case where a man is shot and killed while in police custody, and why when a black man is shot by Toronto police, Canada’s largest newspaper the Toronto Star will go into battle mode against the city’s ‘racist cops.’

Have I ever had a bad experience with a cop? Yes, the very first one, in fact. When I was 17 I was driving a girl home in my father’s car when another motorist went through a stop sign and hit us. I took the guy’s ID and insurance, and went home. In the morning, my father took a look at his car and called the police. An officer came to the house, insisted I had been high on booze and drugs the night before, and charged me for not reporting an accident. He was steadfast, and you couldn’t argue with him.

I had nothing good to say about that officer then, and have nothing good to say about him now. But to dismiss all police based on that one experience would be wrong.

If you get mugged on the street, who do you call? Do you call a lawyer? Nope. Do you call a social worker? Nope. Do you call your clergyman or maybe your Member of Parliament? Give me a break. You call a cop. And you call a cop because they are the ones looking out for us.

What would happen if, for even one day, there were no police? Why, it would be chaos. The bad guys would be even more brazen than they are now. Not only would they know that this country’s justice system is soft on crime, which it is, but there would be no one around to enforce what laws we have.

It wouldn’t be difficult to write a newspaper column about cops, and tear a strip off them every time out. Every morning you just Google ‘police brutality’ or check out the latest listing for any number of special-interest groups who have it in for the cops, then fill your space with raw emotion. Much of the material wouldn’t be based on fact, but as they say, why let facts get in the way of a good story?

What is fact is that, media aside, the huge majority of people in this country are very supportive of the police. And why shouldn’t they be? By and large, the police are first-class. They bust their butts trying to keep our streets safe, and it’s surprising that more of them don’t quit in disgust with what often transpires in the courts. I don’t know of any other profession that gives back more to the community than the police, and I’m not only talking about when they are on duty, but also when they are off duty.

Is there a more difficult job that carries such potentially fatal hazards than that of a police officer? Probably not. I wouldn’t do it for a living. I couldn’t put up with the crazy hours, and most definitely couldn’t put up with the frustration of pounding the beat and maybe taking considerable risk to arrest some dude only to see him back on the street half an hour later with a smirk on his face.

Naturally, any police who screw up should pay the price. Those who really are on the take, or who shoot first and ask questions later, or who are in the business of running grow-ups or any other type of illicit activity should not be wearing a badge, and I don’t believe that they will for very long. But are they truly representative of police per se? No.

I was at a wedding last week, and in one conversation the story about police being charged with running a grow-up reared its ugly head. “They all do it,” said one learned fellow, dismissing the whole lot of law enforcement in one fell swoop. 

Well, I would like to take all the cop-haters out there – and you know who you are – and drop them off in the highest-crime areas of the country, in the middle of the night, and let them fend for themselves. The group would include a few well-known criminal lawyers who never have a good thing to say about the police, at least one federal party leader who’s been an anti-police advocate since his days in municipal politics, not to mention an assortment of law professors, civil libertarians, activists with an axe to grind, and a whole slew of journalists who not once in their life ever had to stare down the barrel of a gun that was pointed in their face in some seedy alleyway.

Cops? God bless ’em.

 

Physician heal thyself

With all the talk about our healthcare system, we’re missing out on what may be its most pressing problem – the arrogance of some doctors. Awhile back I was referred to a dermatologist for a skin condition. Healthcare being what it is in Canada, it was months before I saw him. He took a few scrapings and said he’d send them to the lab to see what it is. Then he booked me for a second appointment, and said at that time he’d have the results and would examine me again.

This was the dead of winter and on the next visit it was very chilly. I booked the first appointment of the morning. The doctor’s staff was there, along with many patients, but he was not. Some 45 minutes later he waltzed through the door. I asked the receptionist why he was late and she said it was cold outside.

The doctor confirmed the condition, but couldn’t say what type it is. He didn’t examine me as he had promised, and shooed me out saying I should call if things get worse. A wasted visit, at least, for me.

Later I saw another doctor for a different problem. He said he could treat it. He booked me for three weeks hence and, as before, I chose the first appointment of the morning. Alas, I waited 30 minutes for his arrival. He didn’t examine me as he had promised, and only wanted to make sure I had come to see him. I was out in three minutes flat. Another wasted effort for me, another fee for the doctor.

Meanwhile, a small growth had appeared on my chest. My G. P. referred me to yet another dermatologist who said he could remove it with a spray, but it would take three sessions at fifty bucks a crack. It wasn’t covered. And he said he could get rid of those little polyps I had. “I’ll just snip ‘em off. It’s $160. I don’t take debit or cheques. Cash or credit card.”

He talked with the all-business demeanour of a retail checkout clerk, then checked out my earlier skin condition, which he concluded was definitely not what the first doctor had said. I agreed to the polyp removals, which cost $10 a snip. When including the spray for the growth on my chest plus taxes, the total bill was $220 for a 15-minute visit. Add $50 for each of two subsequent visits after that and the guy cost me $320. I realize this was an elective procedure, but the reason I went was to make sure the problem wasn’t serious. Never mind the fact that many years ago I had a growth removed, only then they managed to do it in one visit and it was covered. Strange how inflation infects not only economics, but our biological health as well.

Now let’s move to 2003 when SARS hit Toronto. Where were our leaders? Prime Minister Jean Chretien was golfing in the Dominican Republic. Ontario Premier Mike Harris was golfing in Arizona. Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman, who didn’t play golf, got interviewed on CNN where he asked, “What’s the WHO?” (The World Health Organization had issued a worldwide ban on traveling to Toronto). Over the next few weeks, 44 people died and Toronto was widely seen as a pariah. The perception, especially by US media, was that of a massive outbreak in the community, everyone in masks, people afraid to go outdoors, and “rampant fear and paranoia” on the streets.

The facts were that only hospital staff and patients were in masks, and notwithstanding the media coverage, it was pretty much life as usual. But Toronto’s handling of the situation was a classic in how NOT to do crisis communications. There was no single point of contact with the media. No clear concise messaging. No plan. And no leadership. But one voice of reason did emerge. Dr. Sheela Basrur.

Leadership is tested when times are tough and this diminutive woman – a doctor no less – shone like a beacon when all others failed miserably. She took control. She explained things in a way that people understood. She said to be calm.

Dr. Basrur was a physician who embodied the Hippocratic Oath, and not only during SARS, but during her entire life. After obtaining her medical degree, she visited such places as Nepal and India where she learned first-hand about preventive medicine. So she went into public health. Because of her, restaurants must now post notices in their windows saying if they passed or failed a health inspection. She helped make Toronto’s smoking ban in public places a reality. She developed a plan to tackle bioterrorism. And during SARS she led.

Three weeks ago she died at the age of 51 from a rare form of cancer. Though I never met her, I felt the same way I did when Terry Fox died. As if I had lost a friend.

The Hippocratic Oath, which I once thought all doctors adhere to, says, “In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients.” Today doctors visiting your house has gone the way of the dodo bird. But what’s that about attitude? Like regarding patients as being so inconsequential it doesn’t matter if you show up on time. Or citing your services as if they are a shopping list. Or would you please not dally so I can move on to my next customer. Whatever happened to doctors being people who care for their fellow human beings and, in the process, show a little compassion? A person like Dr. Sheela Basrur. Unfortunately, such physicians seem to be few and far between.