IT'S BIZARRE OUT THERE

There are times when we here in The Tribune's editorial department
peruse the Canadian Press wire service and just shake our heads in disbelief.

Here are a couple of examples.

It seems that researchers at the University of Lethbridge and the
University of Toronto are launching a project that will involve
enlisting the aid of 180 sex offenders in a study.

Over the next two years, those involved in the study will be paid a
nominal fee to study computerized images of fully clothed children
and then discuss their sexual and emotional reactions.

Not surprisingly, the study has generated an ethical debate between
academics who believe it could be beneficial and victims groups that
want the key thrown away when pedophiles are sent to jail.

Put us into the latter category.

This is yet another example of how the rights of victims continue to
be trampled by people - academics in this case - who seemingly live in bubbles.

Carrie Kohan, the founder of Mad Mothers Against Pedophiles, has
experienced the dread of knowing a convicted pedophile was stalking
her two-year-old daughter.

She, of course, questions whether such a study could eventually help
cut down on the number of attacks on children and how honest the
pedophiles taking part in the exercise will be.

"Once they're released, that's almost like releasing someone back
into the candy store - a sugar addict back in the candy store. So
it's a dangerous situation for the children. Their whole purpose,
their whole crime is centred around a manipulation of lies and
getting what they want. How do you trust someone whose whole criminal
background is based on lies?"

Precisely.

Then there's the story of Dr. Thomas Kerr, a research scientist at
the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

Kerr, who has published several studies on the positive impact of
Vancouver's safe-injection site for drug users is outraged that
somebody could have the audacity to call the site a failure.

Colin Mangham has written two commentaries against harm reduction in
the Canadian Medical Association Journal and the Canadian Journal of
Public Health. He says Insite, where addicts inject heroin and
cocaine under the supervision of a nurse, basically treats drug use
as a right instead of the focus being placed on prevention.

"Treating drug use as simply a lifestyle option to seek ways to help
people use drugs non-problematically is not really defencible
scientifically or socially." And he's absolutely correct.

As wonderful a country as ours is, it can get quite bizarre out there at times.

These are but two examples of that but believe us when we say there
are many more that come across the wire every day.