National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 8

NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, MAY 15, 2010 nationalpost.com CANADA A8 Academics to think deeply about the hijab at Toronto university conference The divisive issue of the Islamic veil will be the sub- ISLAMIC STUDIES comes after several European ject of an academic conference in Toronto next Veiled Constellations: The Veil, Critical Theory, Politics, Contemporary Society is being presented by the of Toronto and York University June 3-5, featuring a Canadian and international speakers. The conference billed as an open platform in which "organizers seek to month. countries have moved to ban and gate the role of academic research in challenging views that see face coverings and Quebec has University the veil and Islamic hijab as either inherently oppressive or lib- passed Bill 94, which prohibits range of erating." One paper, Chador Passport and the Empowerment of burka wearers from receiving is being Iranian Women under the Islamic Republic argues that wear- government services. investi- the veil has empowered women in that society. The event National Post The families of the victims of serial killer Russell Johnson fight his request to transfer to a medium-security facility Wounds reopened anet Conlin takes in notes, her handwriting black reams of book.

is notes, neat Her and easy to read. She confesses to making some spelling mistakes. Occasionally, Ms. Conlin stops taking notes and stares at the tall, heavyset man seated at the far end of the room. Stares until her anger begins to burn.

When it does, the tidy notes evaporate, replaced by choppy, three- and four-word sentences. Words Ms. Conlin prefers not to share. "The things that go through my mind, just looking at him," she says. "I wonder, how could I get under that table and unscrew his chair and tip him over? I have to think things like that, or else I get too angry." Murray MacKinnon's notebook is baby blue with a fish on the front.

It could fit in your breast pocket. It looks like a gift from a grandchild. Mr. Mackinnon feels an overwhelming sense of "disgust" when he sees the man at the far end of the room. Mary Lynn McBay does not take notes.

She sits a few chairs away from Ms. Conlin and Mr. MacKinnon with her hands folded in her lap. Sometimes her chin sinks to her chest. She will not look at Russell Johnson for too long, or too intently.

All she can see when she does is Relatives of the what happened to her sister, Glen Blair, Mel Luella, in the spring of 1977. from "When I look at him," Ms. McBay says, whispering. "All I ber of the public. can think about is what he did On the other: to my sister." Oak Ridge, an Johnson strangled Luella attorney from Jeanne George in her apart- son's attorney ment in London, Ont.

After himself. he did, he made her bed. Ms. The killer was George was 23 and engaged to handsome once, be married. Mr.

MacKinnon's builder's physique. sister, Dodie Brown, was a 49- atory prime, year-old mother of five. John- scale apartment son strangled her in her bed checking for unlocked before sodomizing the body. doors, climbing Ms. Conlin's cousin, Mary Cath- storeys to find women erine Hicks, was 20 when John- their beds.

son entered her apartment, Now, he is ending her life. over 60. Johnson The now 62-year-old serial an anti-androgen killer murdered seven women dramatically reduces between 1973 and 1977. He as- tosterone level, saulted at least 10 more, chok- sex drive. He ing several to the point of un- menopausal woman consciousness.

Psychiatrists occasionally dabs describe Johnson as a sexual head with a handkerchief. sadist, a lust murderer and a Johnson is necrophile. short-sleeved, Ms. Conlin simply refers to and wears a watch him as the "devil." wrist. His flesh Johnson's condition is as His brown hair is incurable as the scars borne "He looks like he by the victims' families.

Old about another 10 wounds that split open again Adair Hanna, a this week, as 15 of them jour- panion of Mel Davis. neyed from across Southern Mr. Davis was Ontario to Oak Ridge a come Diane Beitz's maximum security facility at when Johnson the Penetanguishene Mental on New Year's Eve Health Centre to look upon strangling Ms. Beitz the face of a killer. brassiere.

She was Johnson is legally entitled to her hands tied behind have his case reviewed annual- with pantyhose. Her ly by the Ontario Review Board. been sexually assaulted. He has long sought a transfer Almost 36 years to a medium security psychiat- Ms. Beitz, Johnson ric institution in Brockville.

His a stuffy room, fiddling latest hearing reconvened on with his glasses. Wednesday morning, just after arranges his pen 9, inside a portable classroom of papers in front at Oak Ridge. would often tidy To get to it, family members apartments following and visitors passed through Sometimes Johnson three barred doors, a metal notes, or whisper to detector and two locked doors. Suzan Fraser. Mostly Three rows of chairs were re- still.

He is an served for the victims' relatives. ence in the room. Behind the spectators were acknowledges the bookshelves lined with psychi- the victims' relatives. atric periodicals. In front of dresses their pain.

them was a conference table. looks over at them, On one side sat the board mem- looking at him. bers; two lawyers, a psychia- through him. trist, a psychologist and a mem- "Have you ever PARTIES REACH DEAL ON SECRET DOCUMENTS BY JULIET O'NEILL BY JOE O'CONNOR in Penetanguishene, Ont. I will keep coming back here as long as I'm able.

And when I can no longer come, my two sons will come in my place Susan Bihun, sister of victim victims outside the Oak Ridge facility. Clockwise from left are Merilyn Davis, Adair Hanna, Susan Bihun, Janet Conlin and Deanna McCarney. Below, his arrest, 30 years ago. The serial killer was found not guilty of murder by Brockville has female patients, and residents are not locked in their rooms at night. Johnson would, in theory, be held in a secure, all-male wing.

But he murdered women as they slept, a fact underlined by Janice Blackburn, the attorney for Oak Ridge. "There is a sleeping victim pool within the walls," she said. Dr. Bradford proved unable to provide an accurate measure of whether Johnson might reoffend, given an opportunity. The hearing heard how studies show recidivism rates for sexual offenders over the age of 60 to be 3.8%.

The doctor pegged the rate for sexual sadists at two to three times higher. Johnson, though, falls beyond categorization. There are no statistics for him, because there is nobody else like him. The enormity of his crimes makes him unique. "Serial sadistic sexually motivated homicide is very rare," Dr.

Bradford said. "There are no benchmarks to go by These people should stop living in the past. I've gotten on with my life. Why can't they get on with theirs? RUSSELL JOHNSON remorse for his crimes. Dr.

John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist who diagnosed Johnson as a sexual sadist upon examining him in 1985, would spend the day testifying. Dr. Bradford has a bald head, a white beard and a round belly. He looks like what he does for a living. A' familiar face to the families, many view him as a brilliant man motivated by "ego." Dr.

Bradford holds a senior administrative and clinical position at Brockville. Johnson would not come under his care were a transfer request approved. Johnson's present address is an all-male facility. OTTAWA Between 20,000 and 40,000 uncensored pages about Canada's handling of Afghan detainees will be secretly examined by a security-cleared, all-party committee under a deal announced yesterday. Expected to start in June, a panel of three jurists will act as arbiters, advising the eightmember committee of MPs on how to disclose "relevant and necessary" information to the public in a summary or other form that does not jeopardize national security.

The jurist panel rulings on disclosure are "final and unreviewable." "It's really an experiment and something completely new for the House of Commons and for the opposition to be able to see this type of document," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters in Quebec. Each party will assign two MPs. Only one MP from each party will be allowed to review documents at a secret location at one time. The agreement, reached between the government and the opposition, averted a parliamentary showdown in a sixmonth-old dispute between the parties over allegations top government and military officials turned a blind eye to a risk of torture faced by detainees transferred to Afghan custody by Canadian soldiers. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the target date of a formal memorandum of understanding is May 31, and MPs in other parties said the members and the three jurists on whom all parties must agree may be chosen by that time.

The NDP has ruled out approval of retired judge Frank Iacobucci, who has already been hired to review public servants' redactions (blacked-out passages) in more than 8,000 pages of documents. Redacted documents tabled so far range from notes by Foreign Affairs monitors who interviewed detainees at Afghan prisons, including one case where tools of torture were discovered, to emailed memos by Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin, who alleged last fall that his own warnings and human rights reports about torture by Afghanistan's police and security service were ignored by his superiors in government and by top military officials. The deal staved off an opposition threat of contempt proceedings, which could have paved the way to an election if an agreement was not reached by 1:30 p.m. ET yesterday. Canwest News Service BILL SANDFORD NATIONAL POST MacKinnon, Murray MacKinnon, a photo of Russell Johnson reason of insanity.

a lawyer for assistant Crown London, Johnand Johnson physically with a body In his predJohnson would buildings, balcony as high as 15 asleep in overweight, and takes lupron, drug that his tesdiminishing his perspires like a might and at his fore- dressed in a collared shirt on his left appears waxy. thinning. has gained pounds," says long-time com- about to bestepbrother ended her life in 1974 by with her found with her back corpse had after killing is sitting in around He carefully on a stack of him. He his victims' a crime. will take his lawyer, he just sits undeniable presBut he never presence of Never adNever even like they are Looking right looked into It is an opening Crown attorney Geoff Beasley exploits, much to the relief and gratitude of the audience behind him.

"Does it surprise you that someone you describe as remorseful has never once stood up at a board hearing and expressed remorse to the people sitting behind me?" Mr. Beasley asks. The question hangs in the air. Twisting. Tangible.

The answer says everything. Johnson has addressed the families in the past. Spoken at them, though not to apologize. "These people should stop living in the past," he said at a hearing a few years back, in a rare moment when he actually trained his eyes on the victims relatives. "I have gotten on with my life.

Why can't they get on with theirs?" They do. They live full lives, and by doing so, honour those they lost. Some are doctors. Others farmers. They have families.

Kids. Grandkids. Day two of the hearing is cancelled mid-morning Thursday. A board member falls ill in the night, and a decision is his eyes?" says Merilyn Mack- innon, Murray's wife. "There is no humanity there.

That is a horrible thing to say about a human being, but that's what I feel." Three major topics arise during Wednesday's eight-hour proceedings: the suitability of Brockville as a potential new home for Johnson; the murderer's probability of re-offending; whether he feels any genuine THE DEAL Highlights of the all-party deal, after more than two weeks of negotiations vis treatments." And there is no wavering among the family members, sitting there, as they do year after year, taking their notes, thinking their sad, angry, anguished thoughts. Praying the board keeps Johnson at Oak Ridge for the remainder of his life. "Most of the psychiatrists that have testified at these hearings have said for him to be released, to use their words, would be 'catastrophic," says Murray MacKinnon. "Why do we need a catastrophe walking among us?" Dr. Bradford believes the killer is remorseful.

That he "feels badly" about what he did. made to adjourn the proceedings until June 21. Johnson may decide to testify. He has in the past. Or he may stay silent.

For now, the portable classroom can go back to being a classroom. Exiting through the two locked doors and the three barred doors, the men and women who make this painful pilgrimage to Penetanguishene, time and again, to show the board they will never forget nor forgive gather on the front steps of a maximum security mental institution. They say goodbye. Exchange hugs. Laugh a little.

Put away their notebooks. Tell each other: See you in June. "I will keep coming back here as long as I am able," Mary Catherine Hicks' oldest sister, Susan Bihun, says. "And when I can no longer come, my two sons will come in my place." National Post I The committee will include one Member of Parliament from each party plus an alternate. I Each committee member must take an oath of secrecy and be granted security clearance.

I Committee will access all documents about Afghan detainees i in uncensored form. I More than 10,000 pages of documents could contain sensitive information. 1 The committee will forward information relevant to the investigation into the torture of detainees to expert arbiters. I The panel will be made up of three jurists, yet to be determined, who must be agreed upon by all members. I The arbiters will decide what can be released to the public and what must be kept confidential to protect national security.

National Post.