On the night of November 27, 2000, when Canadians were going to the polls to elect a new government, a technician with the country's national television network accidentally broadcast some comments a male producer was making about a candidate's daughter-in-law. Speaking about Jυlіаnа Thіеssеn-Day, daughter-in-law of ultra conservative leader Stоckwеll Dаy, the unnamed producer announced - to the nation - that:

"This is Lоgаn Dаy's wife. I've never met her, but apparently she's got breasts that'd stop a -"

The technician cut the broadcast off there.

The network just about burst a blood vessel apologizing, and promptly suspended the producer for ten days without pay. He was ordered to phone Mrs. Day and apologize. Mrs. Day, who claimed she was "hurt and embarrassed" by the comment, agreed to "forgive" the producer for his "intolerable remarks", but agreed that he should "incur a reprimand" instead of losing his job. The producer has since been ordered to attend sensitivity training.

When I read about this story this morning at work, my first reaction was laughter. The man in question obviously never intended any harm, and had no way of knowing how inept his technician was when he made comments about the physical attributes of a woman in the public eye. Perhaps his comments were slightly inappropriate, if they offended Mrs. Day, but clearly he was merely expressing appreciation for her as any healthy man might do.

But then the story began to bother me. I couldn't stomach the backflips the network was performing in order to humiliate, chastise and punish this man for liking women. The "sensitivity training" they're sending him to sent a chilld down my spine, reminiscent as it is of an Orwellian kind of thought control wherein the thought police re-educate undesireables until their attitudes become politically correct. What kind of person would actively endorse "training" men so that they no longer like women?

I got my answer when I went downstairs for a coffee.

I was accosted by a woman in the hallway, who pinned a white ribbon on my shirt and handed me a pamphlet that read "Nаtіоnаl Dаy of Remembrance and Action on Vіоlеncе Agаіnst Women." The pamphlet was produced by the Secretary of State and a government group called Status of Women in Canada, in honour of the 11th anniversary of the massacre of 14 young women at the Ecоlе Pоlytеchnіqυе in Montreal.

On Dеcеmbеr 6, 1989, Mаrc Lеpіnе lined up 14 female engineering students and shot them dead before turning the gun on himself. It was a heartless and horrific tragedy, a black spot on our history unlikely to be forgotten by anyone in this country.

But not for the right reason.

Groups like the Status of Women in Canada don't want to honour the memory of the slain women or call attention to security issues or vilify a violent murderer. They use this anniversary to advocate special treatment for women, as if it's only violence against women that ought to be stopped, that violence against everyone else is alright. They use it to reinforce the idea that women are weak, defenseless, victimized and abused, so frail and feeble that we have to enact special laws and goverment departments and wear little white ribbons to protect them.

From who? From big, bad, lusty, violent men.

Men who need sensitivity training, for example.

Men who like women and like their sexuality, and would never dream of hurting a woman. Men whose "crime" is appreciating the stirring sexuality and special beauty of a voluptuous young woman.

If, as a society, we continually berate men for liking women, if we punish them for it, deprive them of two weeks' pay for it, humiliate and degrade them for it, we shouldn't be surprised when these men start hating the thing they once loved. If we tell men often enough that they are perverted scumbags for liking women, then pretty soon they'll start to believe it themselves. And if they believe they're evil for liking women, is it so hard to imagine that they'll start believing women are evil too?

And do we really expect them to lie down and take it when we distribute pamphlets hinting that every one of them is a brute who needs to have his face rubbed in it by white ribbons worn just above breasts he isn't supposed to look at?

Punishing a man for liking women leads to men punishing women for being likeable. If that woman with the white ribbons really wanted to prevent violence against women, she would have been on the phone to that national network demanding that the man be reinstated.

I didn't wear that white ribbon. But I did smile warmly at the men looking at Playboy in the store across from my office. I'll side with them anyday.