Valid point. My dad tells me that when he was younger he was virtually incapable of playing without having first knocked back a rum and coke (or two). 
Historically, I’ve always saved it for the post-game celebration/drowning of sorrows.
The CanaDoper Café (2012 edition of The great, ongoing Canadian current events and politics thread.)
There are a couple of rinks in Montreal, but I really don’t have the time or money (well, mostly the money) to play, and it’s the wrong time of year anyways. Maybe one day, even if it’s just a one-off game with friends! I do like drinking… 
Has anybody been following the Michael Rafferty trial? The latest (as of this writing) from the Globe and Mail is here. Christie Blatchford is following the story too; a collection of her most recent columns on it is here.
Warning: While both links are technically SFW as they are mainly text with simple and ordinary photos and courtroom sketches, the text descriptions are quite graphic. As they come from established news sources, I don’t think they warrant the two-click NSFW rule, but be aware that what you read could be disturbing.
In a nutshell: It is alleged that Tori Stafford, an eight-year-old girl, was snatched off the street in Woodstock, Ontario, and sexually assaulted by Michael Rafferty. Then the girl was murdered. Terri-Lynne McClintic pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in this matter, and was convicted on that charge. Michael Rafferty has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is currently occurring.
Just wondering if anybody has been following this in the news; and if so, if you have any comments.
I’ve been following the transcripts. When that monster chastised McClit or whatever her name is for kidnapping a girl that wasn’t young enough, a 8 year old girl is too old for him apparently. I nearly threw up. What both of them did to her was abhorrent. I know she’s going to get in 25 years, not life and he will probably get a lesser charge. Which makes me even more sick. I really hope they put him in general population in Kingston Pen but I have a feeling he’s going to be Bernardos bunk mate in PC.
Both of them are freakn’ monsters. If I was the father of that poor little girl… I’ll leave it at that.
Now that the Gregson trial is over with (in Ottawa) this story has moved to the forefront on news radio.
I mean what can you say about this? Luring an 8 year old to a car with promises of seeing a puppy, and then raping her and bludgeoning her with a hammer? Christ.
Yeah, I’ll go on the record and state that I am firmly against this.
It was that little girl’s first time ever walking home from school by herself. What a world.
Except for poor little Tori, all the adults in this case were/are hopelessly broken people.
It is news like this that seriously causes me troubles as a parent. My brain knows such things are vanishingly rare, but my little guy is 6 now and some day over the next few years I’m gonna have to get him to walk home from school alone, have him be more independant. Hell, I was walking home alone when I was seven or so.
I know every Doper is gonna say "free range! Free range! But it is tough.
We were talking about this at a dinner I was at this weekend and crime statistics show that our children are much safer than we were but thanks to our technology advances we just know more than our parents did.
40 years ago when a child like Tori was abducted and killed only those in her immediate neighborhood would know. Now the entire province is treated to daily updates, most of the country is aware and anyone worldwide could be. Instead of making decisions based on the incidents that are actually happening in our immediate area we’re exposed to crimes that occur world wide and we’re not ready yet to mentally filter that volume of information.
It’s hard, very hard to talk yourself through to a logical reaction. You see your childs face on every injured child who is the same age or an age she’ll soon reach or who likes something she does. We’re fighting genetic conditioning to protect our offspring from a host of threats that we’re being shown that don’t actually exist in our locality. To make matters worse, every person around us who hasn’t worked through this process reinforces the media’s message that you’re risking your childs life by letting them walk to the corner alone.
The real losers in the situation are our children who at some point in their life have to suddenly develop the skills to look after themselves all at once instead of gradually througout their lives.
Huh? He’s on trial for first degree murder, and the case against him is as solid as a case can be. How can he get a “lesser charge”?
She’s trying to take the fall for it. I don’t think the jury will go for it.
That’s putting it mildly!
Yeah, I heard about this trial the day that I allowed my 8-year-old to walk over to a friend’s house (about 500 metres, across a major street) without parental involvement.
I know that letting her have that freedom is the right thing to do but, damn, it is hard to remind my lizard brain.
I have terrible visions of what could happen to her.
No she isn’t. She said in testimony they planned that years ago, but she’s a Crown witness testifying against him and is openly stating under oath that he is a murderer.
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We were talking about this at a dinner I was at this weekend and crime statistics show that our children are much safer than we were but thanks to our technology advances we just know more than our parents did.
[/QUOTE]
A few years ago my parents, who like in Kingston (where I grew up) were complaining about my sister and I raising our kids in the Toronto area because it allegedly wasn’t safe.
As I explained to them, and went to some pains to provide evidence for, kids are in fact SAFER being raised in big cities. If my child’s safety was the only deciding factor I would actually be better off leaving Burlington and moving smack downtown. I won’t go into the numbers here but it basically boils down to the facts that
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The crime rate isn’t really higher in big cities, at least in Ontario, than it is in small towns. and
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The #1 threat to a child’s health is automobile accidents and kids are in cars far more often the further they live from a major urban center.
No matter how much I say this, though - even though they acknowledge that I have my facts correct - they cannot even begin to change their mind about it because it’s so counterintuitive.
Fear trumps logic.
My main (realistic) fear is that the kid would be hit by a car, while walking, riding a bike, skateboarding etc. I’d imagine that such accidents would be more common in big cities due to traffic density, but I have no figures for this.
Eh?
What this then?
No she isn’t. She’s openly stating under oath that he raped Tori but she murdered her.
True.
Though I can’t imagine it makes any legal difference which one of them actually swung the hammer.
Do you guys watch the show “Bubble Wrap Kids” at all? She does a pretty good job of sorting out the fear from the reality, that your kids have to live in the world and grow into independence, and that terrible things do happen but they’re very unlikely.
Sorry talking out of my ass again. Either way when the media eventaully reports he got a life sentence I’m still going to end up screaming at the tv that 25 years without that chance of parol isn’t a “life” sentence in this country. Unless he gets dangerous offender status.
I think if it was he who had killed her. I think she might end up doing less time, since she’s a women.
Other related news remember that Doctor in Quebec who stabbed his kids to death in 2009 ? Well 2 years later they say he’s fit to return to society. He wants new kids and return to practicing medicine.
“They” being the psychiatrist testifying in his favour before the commission, who of course would say this. We’ll see what the commission decides, but it could take months. Also, his acquittal for reasons of mental incapacity has been appealed and we could see a new trial being held. It’s a very complex situation that isn’t served by overly simplified three-sentence summaries.