Blogs by author

Blog entries by Bill Patrick

 
A couple of weeks ago – the day before International Women’s Day – Sarah Thomson, a newspaper publisher and former mayoral candidate for the city of Toronto, attended a celebrity-filled fundraising event, where she happened to encounter Rob Ford, her former political opponent, and the current (and controversial) mayor of that city. 

 

[Trigger warning: stories of sexual assault.]

 
The other day I heard about yet another domestic violence homicide.  And the news report sounded a hauntingly familiar refrain…

When do you follow the rules?

When do you break them?

Do you break the rules in order to do the right thing?

Even if breaking the rules will get you punished?

 
Quick! Name “the world’s oldest profession.”
 
 
In her brilliant 2008 essay “Men Who Explain Things: Every Woman Knows What It’s Like To Be Patronized By A Guy Who Won’t Let Facts Get In The Way,” Rebecca Solnit writes:

 

Late last month it was revealed that U.S. Olympic middle distance runner Suzy Favor Hamilton had also been supporting herself through an entirely different sort of physical activity. It turns out that this elite athlete was working as highly-paid “escort” in Las Vegas and in other U.S.