Silent no more, aboriginal women in Canada, 1,200 missing and murdered, 54% more likely to suffer assault, abuse, threats of violence, The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, Fred Talbot: TV weatherman hid history of child abuse

Silent no more
How do you tell the story of aboriginal women in Canada today? You can do it with horror stories and grim statistics: 1,200 missing and murdered; 54% more likely to suffer assault, abuse, threats of violence. You can do it with politics: national outrage, political roundtables, calls for a formal inquiry.

Or you can reach out to the people most directly affected and give them the tools to tell their stories. This unique project put cameras in the hands of 12 aboriginal girls from Maples Collegiate in Winnipeg and taught them how to document the reality of their lives. We took the conversation to the frontlines.
Here’s what the girls had to say. We all need to listen....

At least half say someone in their family has been sexually abused. Some talk about what their own mothers endured. Every single girl says her grandparents suffered abuse at residential schools....

what it’s like for young aboriginal women to just go on, day-to-day, in the shadow of the headlines. What it’s like to face grim statistics about your future: 54% of girls like you will be sexually assaulted, beaten, choked or threatened with a gun or a knife; you are four times more likely to be victims of a homicide....

The RCMP report on murdered and missing aboriginal women released last May showed how close the majority of victims are to perpetrators; 40% of aboriginal women die at the hands of spouses or boyfriends, 23% are killed by family....

1,181 documented cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women....
http://news.nationalpost.com/silent-no-more/

Kids In Detention Have Spoken Their Minds About Australia In The New “Forgotten Children” Report
By Justin Pen 12/2/2015
The Report’s findings are shocking, including that “prolonged detention of children leads to serious negative impacts on their mental and emotional health and development.” Within the last 24 months, 167 babies have been born in detention. The average length of detention for children and their families is one year and two months. There have been hundreds of incidents of actual or threatened self-harm....

According to the detainees, water is a rare and precious resource. Several used their submissions to discuss its scarcity and, consequently, the minute-long showers they have to take. Last January, Guardian Australia reported water pumps at Manus Island had broken down, forcing a thousand men in detention to shower with bottled water.

Medical care is also reportedly sporadic. In 2013, a group of doctors wrote a 92-page “letter of concern” that alleged “numerous unsafe practices and gross departures from generally accepted medical standards” were a regular occurrence at the Christmas Island detention facility....
http://junkee.com/kids-in-detention-have-spoken-their-minds-about-australia-in-the-human-rights-commissions-new-forgotten-children-report/50970  

The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention (2014)

Australia currently holds about 800 children in mandatory closed immigration detention for indefinite periods, with no pathway to protection or settlement. This includes 186 children detained on Nauru. Children and their families have been held on the mainland and on Christmas Island for, on average, one year and two months. Over 167 babies have been born in detention within the last 24 months. This Report gives a voice to these children.
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/forgotten-children-national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/forgotten_children_2014.pdf


Fred Talbot: TV weatherman hid history of child abuse
By Tom Mullen BBC News  13 February 2015

Former television presenter Fred Talbot found fame aboard a floating weather map in Liverpool's Albert Dock, but behind his quirky on-screen persona a history of child abuse lay hidden.

The 65-year-old, who has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage boys, trained as a biology teacher in the 1960s.

During his trial Talbot claimed he left teaching to pursue a media career, eventually becoming the light-hearted weatherman seen on ITV's This Morning programme.

But the real reason was more sinister. Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard he had resigned from his job at Altrincham Grammar School after propositioning two schoolboys during an astronomy session at his home....

After a three-week trial, the jury convicted Talbot of indecently assaulting two former Altrincham Grammar schoolboys during school trips between 1975 and 1976. Both boys are thought to have been 14 at the time.

He was cleared of eight other charges of indecent assault.

During one school trip in the 1970s, Talbot was said to have staged a naked orgy involving 10 drunken schoolboys on a canal barge, before sexually abusing one of them on board....

He was also spoken to by police in 1992 in connection with the allegations, although no further action was taken at the time....
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-31323793