8thcyn

Author, Actor, Fangirl. Candidate for Queen of Canada. Opinionated, and always right. I may suffer fools, but I'll never do it gladly. #LongCOVID #LongHauler

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

Dear @Sportsnet - given the insane amount I have to pay to watch the @BlueJays play, it would be great if I didn't then have to be annoyed by political propaganda every five minutes.

[Emily Lowan @Emily_Lowan]

Instead of building affordable homes, bringing down the costs of groceries, or securing our fresh water as droughts get worse — our government is celebrating a handout to TELUS to build AI data centres in the heart of Vancouver.

I talked w/ CBC about our core concerns👇 #bcpoli

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

@MarkJCarney NO IT IS NOT. Start listening to actual Canadians who are saying NO instead of short-sighted corporate shills

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

Seriously @KiSS925 ? You're asking why people aren't going to concerts anymore? During the worst cost of living crisis in my lifetime? When unemployment is horrendous & your parent company is laying off 1000s? When Ticketmaster is using "surge" pricing and tickets cost $ 100s?

[Peggy Blair @peggy_blair]

Ungloved. No nurse in the room. An expert witness testified these examinations fell far outside neurological practice. Judge decides the expert witness's testimony has frailties and is biased and dismisses the testimony of 41 women, none of whom had ever met before the trial.

[𝓐𝓵𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓜𝓲𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓵𝓵𝓮 𝓓 🇨🇦 @Miss_Allison_D]

It is extremely messed up that when you become disabled and had to prove it, the systems default belief is that you are faking it. Who the fuck would fake having a disability and for what purpose? There is literally NO BENEFIT!

[Diana Alastair💚🤍💜 ⚢ ❌❌✡️ @sappholives83]

You’re a woman who’s having migraines and blackouts. You’re afraid, worried, and it’s taken months to get an appointment with the neurologist in whose office you’re sitting, Dr. Jeffrey “Scott” Sloka.

When Dr. Sloka comes in, the nurse leaves, which is weird, but you’re here for a neurology appointment, so you shrug it off. The doctor asks you some questions, and then he tells you he needs to do a vaginal exam and a breast exam.

You don’t understand why, and he doesn’t explain. You want to refuse, but what if you make him angry? What if he refuses to continue the appointment? This is Canada; you waited for five months for this appointment, and your symptoms are getting worse — so you consent, even though you still don’t understand why he wants to examine you in this way.

Once you’re undressed, Dr. Sloka begins the exam by telling you to remove your gown and stand completely naked with arms and legs spread. The nurse still hasn’t come back, but the doctor proceeds anyway. He says something about checking for lumps, but that doesn’t make any sense; he’s a neurologist, not an ob/gyn.

Then you notice that he isn’t wearing gloves.

During the breast exam, he touches you in ways that make you uncomfortable, and that are not a part of an ordinary breast exam. The vaginal exam is worse: the exam lasts an exceptionally long time, and the doctor inserts his ungloved fingers. The nurse still hasn’t returned.

After the appointment, you feel dirty, soiled. You know deep down that you were assaulted, so eventually you work up the courage to file a report.

It opens a floodgate.

By the time the trial starts, Dr. Sloka has already lost his license, having pled guilty in front of the licensing board. He is facing 48 separate charges for the sexual abuse of his patients.

Woman after woman testifies to this man’s inappropriate behavior. Multiple women testify that Dr. Sloka touched them inappropriately and intimately while not wearing gloves; they describe vaginal exams, rectal exams, and breast exams involving contact that had nothing to do with checking for lumps. An underage girl cries as she describes being pressured into a vaginal exam while her mother was banned from the room.

48 counts. 48 victims. 41 women and girls who took the stand to testify about the abuse they endured.

And one more woman: the Crown’s key expert, Toronto neurologist Dr. Vera Bril. She testified that vaginal, rectal, and breast exams are “far outside our standard of practice,” and “far, far outside” of what neurologists typically do. She stated that these intimate exams were “not necessary” for treating or diagnosing the neurological issues presented by the victims. When the judge retires to deliberate, a conviction seems certain.

Except that’s not what happens.

The judge - Justice Craig Perry - discounts the testimony of all 42 women. He singles out Dr. Bril’s testimony in particular as suffering from “profound frailties,” and accused her of displaying “bias.” He dismisses the victims’ testimonies as well, citing “inconsistencies,” even though none of said “inconsistencies” touched in any way on ex-Dr. Sloka’s guilt.

He accepts ex-Dr. Sloka’s claim that the assaults were medically necessary exams, even though Sloka admits to having performed many of them ungloved, and cannot explain what these exams had to do with any of his victims’ symptoms.

In the end, Justice Craig Perry acquits ex-Dr. Jeffrey “Scott” Sloka on all 48 counts, choosing to believe a (male) defendant who had already admitted his guilt in front of the licensing board over 41 (female) victims and an expert (female) neurologist.

And they say the patriarchy is dead.

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

Hey @FedExCanada you don't need to call me THREE times in less than an hour to pay a duty charge. I paid it as soon as I could sit down to do it. One voicemail will suffice. Or at least wait a couple of hours? It wasn't even scheduled for delivery until tomorrrow.

[Chris Glover @chrisglover]

Ford is wasting $1 billion taxpayer dollars a year on private-for-profit agency nurses instead of hiring full-time nurses.

At the same time, he is handing our public not-for-profit hospitals a $1 billion structural deficit telling them to make cuts.

#OntHealth
#ONpoli

[Barney Panofsky's Best Intentions @mynamesnotgordy]

Trump announces he will not increase tariffs on Canadian products if Mark Carney gives him Carney's standing ovation from Davos.

[TDot Resident @TDotResident]

Amazing how the spa and the tunnel and the 413 never “run out of cash”… just daycares and schools and hospitals.

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

@MrJerryOC For your time on My Secret Identity?? (So loved you in that when I was growing up!)

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

@Travisdhanraj Lyrics get changed. Updated. It happens. Get over it.

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

Davis Schneider looks like a vice cop who’s forced to bat in a World Series game due to several fucked up circumstances occurring while he’s working undercover in a bad 90s movie I rented at Blockbuster.

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

@CraigBaird That’s what I said! Maybe it was his ghost lol

[Charles Prepolec 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 🇩🇰 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @sherlockeditor]

@fordnation The Notwithstanding Clause is not a frivolous tool for wannabe dictators like you, and other MAGA Con Premiers, to trample Charter Rights of individuals. Don't kid yourself, we see you pushing a unity crisis to undermine Canada for Trump. You've always been in Trump's pocket.

[TDot Resident @TDotResident]

@fordnation You have used (or threatened to use) the Notwithstanding Clause for:
1) Cutting Toronto city council during an election
2) Forcing salary caps on nurses
3) Limiting how unions and 3rd parties can make attack ads against you
4) Ripping out bike lanes

You are a joke.

[Dean Blundell🇨🇦 @ItsDeanBlundell]

Live by the sword, I guess....

[Greg Brady @gregbradyx]

Who asked this & how do we honour him?

[8thcyn @8thCyn]

I think one of the most fascinating thing about watching The Gilded Age, or studying the history, is how oblivious our current "robber barons" are to the fact that it still came to an end eventually.