(Also read prior posts “Assault” July 22, 2010, “Security Guards, August 8, 2009, ‘Threats” September 4, 2008)
I include this post because I think people should know what happens, in Canada, when they exercise free speech against the government. You will be threatened (life, limb, family, job…), intimidated and harassed, plus they will attempt to demean you, and will use diversionary tactics when they can’t prove that what is being said is false. I don’t say this to scare people off, to prevent them from speaking the truth, quite the opposite. It is only when more voices speak out that these threats against our rights, our democracy, our lives, will stop.
Someone told me at the beginning of my time in front of St. Paul’s Hospital that the degree to which they try to intimidate, harass and threaten you is a reflection of how close you are to the bulls-eye. I thank the person for the comment because it helped me over the years to withstand the abuse.
A man, while professing to agree with my handout, claimed that he did not buy into conspiracy theories. I find the use of the words “conspiracy” and “paranoia” very manipulative. If you want to demean someone and try to shut someone up those words are usually used. My response to this man was that since the politicians, and the catholic/medical business, refuse to tell us with whom they are sharing our information and how it is being used then obviously something unethical and morally illegal is going on. These questions are so straight forward there shouldn’t even be an issue about answering them honestly. So, until possibilities are proven to happen or not to happen, anything is possible. I try to keep an open mind to all possibilities.
They also tried the “I’m your friend” tactic. They would pretend they agree with what you are doing, act as if they are on your side so they can collect information on you and try to manipulate you. For example, a guy came up to me and said he was a doctor, agreed with everything I was saying, knew information was going all over the place, and so on. By now I had given up talking to medical people because my experience was that they just lie, con, and harass. But he knew information was going all over the place, and did I know what they were doing now so I was interested, he caught me. As I listened to what they were doing now I heard him talk about medical personnel and how they had to get immunized and a list was posted showing who was and who wasn’t immunized, etc. So he talked about the medical personnel, not the patients. All he seemed to care about was his own self-interest, not the patients. Then he said, what I believe was the real message, “everyone that walks by thinks you are striking, everyone who walks by thinks you are crazy, you can’t accomplish anything”, and so on. What I found interesting in his comments was:
- His assumption that he knows what everyone who walks by is thinking.
- People thought I was striking and thought I was crazy. I think that says more about him and the rest of the medical personnel than me.
- If I wasn’t accomplishing anything then the medical system wouldn’t have people like him constantly trying to persuade me to “go away”.
I don’t mind people debating the issue(s) or telling me I’m wrong if they can prove it. But these people have no facts, evidence or rational argument to dispute what I say so they attack the messenger, not the message. In fact, I would have loved to have had it proven that I was wrong. But my own experience, investigations such as the auditor general’s, and breach after breach proves otherwise. Actually I think they should change the word breach to a flood. When everyone’s information is being shared that is no longer just a breach. (see post Auditor General – PARIS report – 5/24/2010 and post Our Privacy Is Not Protected – Parts I and II – 12/27/2015 and 12/29/2015)
A man, walking by while I was at St. Paul’s Hospital, told me that if I pushed this issue too far “they” would put me in a padded room and then only god could help me. I wouldn’t have been surprised because that’s our so-called democracy.
When I first stood in front of St. Paul’s Hospital it was mostly men who came to “talk” to me. Some would try to be my friend, some would make comments like “looking for a date”. I wondered if they were using a typical government tactic that I call the “pimping tactic”. If a woman isn’t happy in her job (or whatever) just get her a man (or a second one) and get her F(well, you know the word) and she’ll be fine. That didn’t work so after a while, they sent the women to “talk” to me. That didn’t work either so it must have confused the hell out of their small minds. The women sometimes even had “handlers”. Example, a woman came to “talk” to me. Realizing that she was from the hospital I turned and walked away. When I turned around again I saw her ask, through gestures and voice, a male, standing on the steps of St. Paul’s Hospital, what to do next. He told her to come back to the hospital. When he saw me watching he weakly smiled and shrugged. I was at a public talk and the speaker said that they didn’t want anyone to be in the room who didn’t support public health care. I got the impression that it was directed at me and possibly a few other people. Some people have tried to claim that by raising awareness of what the medical system is doing that I am supporting private health care. That was another ploy to try to make me go away, to discredit me. I don’t support private health care and I have no doubt that their privacy issues are as bad or worse than the public sector. You could look at the medical system like a child. A child wants what it wants and will throw a tantrum to get it. If you want that child to grow/evolve into a decent human being/institution then it has to learn morals, ethics, integrity, caring, compassion, accountability, transparency and that it does not pick on those more vulnerable (only cowards do that). And, of course, a child/institution does not learn better behaviour if you ignore, or support, their wrong-doings. Its people who don’t care about the public health system who ignore/support their bad behaviour. Of course, those working in or running the catholic/medical system are adults but, apparently, they still need to be taught the values we want the institution to reflect. They do have a bad influence, the politicians, so this will be difficult.
It was obvious I had been researched. They would tell me information, that was suppose to be private, in a variety of areas non-medical. I assume the purpose was to intimidate me, as in ‘see we can access any information on you we want’. Example, I had responded, years ago, to a request for comments, by the government, on the privatization of Canada Post. The comment was suppose to be confidential. At St. Paul’s Hospital, a person had approached me at the same time as another person, but supposedly independently, yet both asked questions, for whatever reason, about my views on the U.S. As one of them was leaving, she had her back to me, then turned her head around and gave me a knowing look and, out of the blue, said that Canada Post would be privatized (this had not been part of our previous conversation). So I guess that’s a done deal although maybe not with Trudeau “in power”.* But I don’t think her comment was about Canada Post per se but about letting me know they had access to this confidential information. I was raising awareness that our privacy was being violated and they thought they could scare me away by continuously proving that I was right. Strange people!
I was threatened, intimidated, assaulted… and not just in front of St. Paul’s Hospital but I encountered this in the other areas of my life. This is just one example of the many things that happened, someone left a “gift” on my doorstep which I turned over to the police. I could take it because I believed in the necessity and importance of what I was doing. I actually found it fascinating, in a macabre way. I knew that it wasn’t about me but it spoke volumes about them. These are people who couldn’t refute what I was saying. So, instead they pulled every underhanded trick they could to make me go away. And this from people who claim to be caring, compassionate and democratic. I would stand there and wonder, my gawd, what are they doing to us that they have to go to such lengths to hide it. So, instead of scaring me away, they make me realize how important it was that I stay and raise awareness.
They said, and did, anything that they thought would intimidate me or embarrass or demean me. What they thought would embarrass/demean me was really a reflection of THEIR discriminations. It certainly told me a lot of what they thought of certain segments of the population. I wondered how these segments of the population were treated as patients (actually, I did find out a little bit -see “My Story”).
I reached a point where I thought they couldn’t shock me anymore and then they would do something that would shock me. Finally, I realized that I can’t think as low as they can sink. So each time they pull something that is even lower than usual I am shocked.
I had already planned on leaving B.C. for a variety of reasons such as the continual violation of privacy. I didn’t want to be sold/traded/bartered. So my illness didn’t scare me away but it did move the agenda up a bit (see future post “My Story”).
It certainly appears they have been trying to find something to hang me with, to blackmail me into going away. Since I haven’t totally disappeared I’m sure they will keep trying. It’s what they do to hide things. But who/what I am doesn’t matter, whether I’m evil or a bloody saint, what matters is whether the information I give out is true. And that is easy enough for people to determine besides the sources I provide. Ask the health system exactly who they share your information with, and the purpose, and when they won’t give you a real answer, ask yourself why. What information does the medical system collect on you, why, and is it necessary for your specific health concern? If they want information for any other purpose, why don’t they let you know and ask your permission? And, of course, there are the continual scandals proving that our information is not being protected.
You do have to use common sense when you ask them questions. When I was in front of St. Paul’s Hospital a person told me that she had asked the medical staff about whether her privacy was protected. And they said it was protected. Well, what did she think they would say? Seriously, to assume that the medical staff would admit that her information wasn’t protected, was being shared all over the place, was farcical. You have to get any answers in writing or, otherwise, tell them to prove it because they lie, as all the evidence proves.
*An aside – After I moved I contacted Canada Post regarding an issue with mail forwarding. I was told that, before they would look into the issue, I would have to give them my phone number or email address because they don’t communicate by mail. I read an article in the Globe and Mail titled Canada Post Head Makes Big Bet on his ‘winning horse’ , by Barrie McKenna, May 25, 2015, in which CEO Deepak Chopra chastised Canadians for not using mail. I wrote to the CEO Deepak Chopra about my issue and his hypocrisy. I received a response by mail. Was he selected as CEO to ensure Canada Post’s privatization?
January 27, 2016
SELF-ENTITLED
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms – Fundamental Rights:
Section 15.
- Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination (1)
The privacy act is a legal document.
Yet, the medical business has a two-tiered system, those who have the right to privacy (those with a sense of self-entitlement) and those who do not, those who are sold/traded/bartered/experimented on and those who are not. The self-entitled people, as selected by the medical business, have rights the rest of the citizens do not. The self-entitled people include medical personnel. That’s one of the reasons they don’t care about our rights because their rights are protected.
And isn’t it called discrimination when one group has privileges that is denied to another group.
I believe the two-tiered system, giving some people rights and privileges denied to others, is a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, a violation of the law, a violation of our fundamental rights. But, as we know, the medical business/government do not care about the rights of most citizens or the law.
Elites, Upper/Lower Class
I often hear/read the terms elites, upper/middle/lower class which imply that some people are better than others, that some people are “inferior”. It usually is used relative to money and power. I would hope people would find new words because some people are NOT better than others. For example, a person gains a lot of money by brown-bagging (Brian Mulroney, and others, were accused of this), and other unscrupulous means vs a person who wins a lottery and gives it away, not because they have a lot of money but they have enough and others do not. Who would you consider the better person, the elite, the upper class? I would hope that people would start using specific terms like the 1%, or people with more money or people with political control.
Sometimes the terms are used in relation to someone who is well-educated in political science or mathematics, etc. but who knows little or nothing about growing food, building a house, or social work and so on. So who is “more important” or is neither and each is simply educated in a particular area (school and/or self educated).
This also applies to the concept of social status; for example, doctors are usually considered to have a higher “social status” again due to money and the “job title”.
I find these terms arrogant, manipulative, a form of brainwashing, as well as archaic, baggage from the past that should be left behind. If the terms social status, elites, etc. referred to people with values such as morals, ethics, integrity they might be appropriate.. But they don’t. So – Let’s evolve and get rid of them.