One of the Worst Scandals of Our Time

Michaelle Jean, as Canada’s Governor-General, has come out against violence against women, calling it “one of the worst scandals of our time" (“Rising tide of violence against women ‘intolerable,’ GG says,” CBC News, Oct. 22).

Why only violence against women? Doesn’t violence against men matter?

The Governor-General was speaking at a conference in Montral dedicated to Athanasie Mukarw. Mukarw’s claim to this distinction? That, sixteen years ago in Rwanda, she was threatened with rape and death.

I have no doubt that such a threat must have been deeply traumatic for her, too. But I wonder why no similar thoughts are spared for her husband, who was tortured to death.

Threatened violence against women, it seems, is much more memorable than actual violence against men.

To cap it off, representatives of Fathers for Justice buttonholed Jean as she left the conference, asking for a hearing. She would not even agree to speak to them.

Is it proper for a Governor-General to so openly prepresent the interests of only half the Canadian population?