Senator Anne Cools, a Pierre Trudeau appointee to the Senate, took considerable heat last March when she stated at an International Women’s Day Celebration  that “behind every abusing husband is an abusing mother.”

Were the feminists ever angry about that! Cool’s statement, in effect, discredited one of their dearest theories—namely, that women are not only helpless victims at the mercy of brutish men, but have no responsibility at all for what happens to them.

Senator Cools, a former social worker, was unapologetic about her failure to spout the politically correct line. Instead, she stood her ground, determined to let the truth out. In June, she sponsored a conference in Toronto on family violence in order that the “neglected” issues on the subject could be aired. These issues included abuse by both genders, false allegations of sexual abuse, false memory syndrome, and child access denial and parental alienation.

The keynote speaker at the opening session was Dr. Murray Strauss, a sociologist from the University of New Hampshire, and a leading authority on family violence.

Dr. Strauss found, from his research in the U.S. (similar results were obtained in Canada by Dr. Reena Sommer of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, another speaker at the conference), that there was not statistical difference between husbands and wives as to who initiated family violence.

However, according to Dr. Strauss, most surveys do NOT include assaults by women because either the issue has deliberately not been included in studies on family violence (for politically correct reasons), or if it was included, the data were subsequently deleted, thus resulting in a misrepresentation of the figures on family violence.

Dr. Sommer also made the point that the statistics provided to the public, media and to government officials by the feminist movement come from statistics they obtained only from women residing in women’s shelters. These figures were then extrapolated to apply to the general population. This, according to Dr. Sommer, has resulted in inaccurate and highly inflated figures about male violence. In fact, she stated her own studies indicated, as did those of Dr. Strauss, that there is no difference between the incidence of male and female violence.

Dr. Hazel MacBride, a child psychologist from Mississauga, Ontario, spoke about the need of children for both their parents, and referred to the extensive studies which indicate that when children are separated from a parent during childhood, they are more susceptible to depression and suicide in later life. The denial of access to a child by a parent, she states, is another form of child abuse. During her talk, Dr. MacBride related that her views were so politically incorrect, that after she addressed a women’s group about them, a complaint was actually made to the then Ontario feminist Attorney General Marian Boyd, who ordered an investigation of Dr. Macbride (fortunately, to no effect)!

Dr. Ian Begg, a psychologist from McMaster University in Hamilton, addressed the issue of “false memory.” He stated there were grave dangers in therapists helping clients recover lost memories of abuse. He claimed that it is not difficult for therapists to plant a memory in a client’s mind, but there is no way of actually knowing if these memories are true. In fact, Dr. Begg stated bluntly that modern science has no way to prove the truth of these memories at all. Thus, he suggests we must dismantle the tower of “psycho-babble” surrounding the issue of so-called false memory.

Toronto criminal lawyer, Alan Gold, who has defended men accused of abusing their children on the basis of so-called “lost memories,” reiterated that there is no scientific basis for recovery of these “lost” memories. According to Mr. Gold, this “lost memory” theory is a North American phenomenon only and is nothing more than “voodoo science.” He stated, however, that fortunately the courts are now becoming reluctant to hear so-called “expert” testimony from therapists at trials.

This conference on family violence has filled a very large gap in the public’s information about this very important topic. Judging from the comments of many of the men in the audience, they were very grateful that their childhood abuse and the issue of false accusations made against them have finally surfaced in the public debate.