Nov. 24, 2016 "The strangest tale of horror, forgiveness and love": Today I found this article by John Doyle in the Globe and Mail:
Look up the phrase “We live in hope and die in despair,” and you’ll find it described as an old adage. Well, like a lot of old adages it isn’t accurate or universally true. Most of us hope to never reach despair and we hope that even from bitter failure and loss, something positive emerges.
In certain circumstances, of course, we react in terrible anger and many people want retribution, and that is what our criminal justice system tries to weigh, day in and day out.
As a society we tend to ebb and flow on the issue of punishment and retribution. There are times when we despair and times when we hope, desperately, for the inherently benign to emerge after horrific crimes are committed.
John Kastner’s extraordinary, award-winning documentaries have dealt emphatically with this issue. His Life with Murder, released in 2010, dealt with a mother and father faced with the reality that their son stood accused of murdering his sister.
Not Criminally Responsible, made three years ago, was a fine and vividly illuminating documentary – and something of a sensation at Toronto’s Hot Docs festival – about the rehabilitation of Sean Clifton.
The man, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic with an obsessive-compulsive disorder, had stabbed and almost killed a woman, a stranger to him, in Cornwall, Ont. In the doc, the woman’s family came to know and forgive Clifton.
Not Criminally Responsible: Wedding Secrets (Thursday, CBC, 9 p.m., on Firsthand) is an astonishing, at times mind-boggling, sequel to the story.
If you are in search of hope, of glimmers of benevolence and enchantment in the world, watch this. It is, as it states at the start, about “a wedding born of a terrible act of violence. Most of those involved will be coming to the ceremony.”
First, some context, which is duly delivered in the documentary. Sean Clifton stabbed the young woman, Julie Bouvier, six times. She almost died.
Clifton was placed in a forensic psychiatric facility and put on heavy medication. He was paranoid and, says a doctor, “had the worst case of OCD I ever witnessed.”
Julie’s family wanted him kept in hospital. That is the natural response of a victim or a victim’s family.
When Clifton showed extraordinary improvement, after many painful years for everyone, eventually he was released and supervised, but on his own for part of every day. Julie’s family was devastated.
In the first Not Criminally Responsible doc, footage of Clifton’s recovery was shown to the Bouvier family. They were transfixed and astonished by his OCD rituals. They came to terms with the fact that the man who had injured their daughter was very, very ill.
Julie went to the Hot Docs screening. On TV, she said of Sean Clifton, “You can’t help but feel sorry for him.” But she struggled with the idea of meeting him.
Meanwhile, in the intervening time, John Kastner continued to document Clifton’s life and struggles.
Clifton had admitted that he got his girlfriend pregnant when he was 15. The child, Jonathan, was put up for adoption.
Clifton hoped his son would contact him and he waited, as the first documentary made his case famous. But the adult Jon McMahon didn’t want to meet him, didn’t want to watch the doc all the way through and wrote to the filmmakers asking about the pros and cons of possibly meeting his father.
Eventually, Sean and Jon met. A bit wary of each other, but Jon began to help Sean with mental-health issues.
Then Jon met Julie Bouvier and “an improbable friendship” grew between them.
While this was being chronicled, Jon met Nicole Rogers, a producer on Not Criminally Responsible. As Nicole says, “It was the closest thing to love at first sight I have ever experienced.”
And that is the “wedding secret” that emerges eventually from this tangled tale of anger, violence, grief, acrimony, fear and forgiveness.
Jon and Nicole invited the Bouvier family, including Julie, to the wedding, which took place this past summer.
What ensues is profoundly important as an insight into what the heart can deal with.
There is no showdown, no great drama.
There is only evidence that the heart is a complicated thing, that the adage “Life is full of surprises” is more apt than “We live in hope and die in despair.”
The program is also a reminder, as it is meant to be, that the criminal-justice system cannot embrace all the complexities of life and human nature.
May 18, 2017 "Netflix’s new true-crime series, The Keepers, is an unsettling stunner": Today I found this article by John Doyle in the Globe and Mail:
It was 1969. The movie Easy Rider was in theatres and much talked about. It offered a counterculture perspective and it shocked and disturbed some people, especially people living traditional lives in traditional ways.
In the suburbs of Baltimore, at Archbishop Keough High School, things were very traditional and sedate. Many of the teachers were priests or nuns and the students lived in neighbourhoods where doors were left unlocked and trouble or trauma was rare.
One of the most popular teachers was a nun, 27-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik. She taught English and the students, especially the Grade 11 girls, adored her. One November evening, Sister Cathy went to a shopping mall and disappeared. She was found dead two months later. She had been murdered; her killer was never found.
The Keepers (streaming Netflix Friday) is a seven-part docuseries examination of the case. It’s a true-crime epic more disturbing than Netflix’s monster hit Making a Murderer but just as gripping.
It begins as a close look at the Sister Cathy case and then expands subtly but dramatically to examine something troublingly deep – a possible cover-up of abuse by the Catholic Church in Baltimore.
This is one bracing, compelling and sometimes horrifying binge watch.
The first suggestion that there was more to the Sister Cathy murder comes early on. Shortly after she disappeared, Joyce Malecki, age 20, also of that same Baltimore neighbourhood, was abducted while shopping, and killed.
The likelihood of the crimes being connected seems high. But then something else shifts the narrative in a profoundly unsettling direction.
Viewers, still puzzled by the Sister Cathy case and wondering about Joyce Malecki, are introduced to Jean Wehner, a woman now 64, who was, for some time known as “Jane Doe” in the complex web of revelations and suspicions in the Cesnik murder.
Ms. Wehner claims that while she was a student at Archbishop Keough High School, she was abused and raped by priests there.
Her most breathtaking but perilous claim is that her principal abuser at the time, one Father A. Joseph Maskell (who died in 2001), took her into the place where Cesnik’s corpse was decomposing and told her: “This is what happens when you say bad things about people.”
Father Maskell, we eventually learn, was once the chaplain for the Baltimore County Police Department and other Baltimore-area law enforcement agencies. And to further intrigue viewers of The Keepers, it should be known that in February of this year, police exhumed Maskell’s body in search of DNA evidence.
However, what is utterly absorbing about The Keepers is that such issues as DNA, science and high-tech detective work rarely arise. This is the story of middle-aged or elderly people who have pursued the Sister Cathy case for years and years.
They go to the library and search for documents. They search for people on Facebook. If they find them, they try to meet in person and they take written notes. Part of the power of The Keepers is its acknowledgement of these people.
The first we meet is Tom Nugent, a rumpled sixty something journalist who came across the case in the 1990s and wrote a long magazine piece about it. We meet him in the attic of his house, a room strewn with countless boxes of paper files and cuttings, as he searches for notes.
“What is the past? What was it?” he says at one point on the matter of understanding everything involved in a cold case. He also says, “The story is not the story of the nun’s killing. The story is the cover-up of the killing.”
Nugent is very familiar with two others involved in solving the case. They are retirees Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, who were, in their youth, taught by Sister Cathy.
The past is alive to them and it’s why their research into the murder developed from a hobby to an all-out investigation into it. They are extraordinary figures viewers get to know well. And they are more engaging than the super-smart cops you find in most TV series about solving crimes.
And there are cops involved in The Keepers, too. Elderly men, some cagey and rueful, others emanating fear about what might be disclosed if the full details surrounding the Sister Cathy case and the original investigation of it are exposed at last.
There is no narrator, no host to jolt the viewer into connecting the dots. There are only these people, weary and hurt, heroic in their devotion to unravelling the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, decades ago.
Made by Ryan White (who also made the great documentaries Serena and The Case against 8), The Keepers is fascinating, but not exactly easy escapist viewing.
It’s a slow-burning examination of a community, a church and a city’s gradual fall from grace.
Gripping, certainly, but if you binge watch, be prepared for the second episode, in particular, to stun you into anger, rage and tears.
It’s about what Sister Cathy might have known and why she was killed on a night that some who knew her remember going to see Easy Rider.
Comments:
LSnap
4 days ago
The May 19th Netflix release of “The Keepers” will mark 13-years to the day of the death of Jesuit Fr. James Chevedden in San Jose, California. Fr. Chevedden’s sudden death was a suicide or a staged suicide during the tenure of Fr. Thomas Smolich, California Jesuit Provincial. Fr. Thomas Smolich subsequently had an office in Washington, DC for 5+ years as head of the USA Jesuit Order. In 2016 Fr. Smolich was International Director of Jesuit Refugee Services.
Fr. Chevedden lived in Los Gatos, California where Netflix is headquartered. The California Jesuit Order, headquartered in Los Gatos, paid a $1.6 million settlement in regard to Fr. Chevedden’s death. The police did a sloppy investigation of the death.
Although Fr. Chevedden was buried in a non-Jesuit cemetery, the Jesuit Order put a headstone with his name in a Jesuit cemetery.
Rich Mole
4 days ago
Good to know about "The Keepers", but shame on you, John Doyle...TOOO MUCH information!
I stopped reading about half way down the column. I get it. No need to spoil it.
This week's theme is about TV:
"‘The Rookie: Feds’ Canceled By ABC After One Season"/ "‘The Good Lawyer’ Not Going Forward As ABC Passes On ‘The Good Doctor’ Spinoff"
"‘Home Economics’ Canceled At ABC, ‘High Potential’ Moves To Fall 2024"/ "‘Welcome To Flatch’ Canceled At Fox After 2 Seasons"
Dec. 4, 2023 "An 11-year-old girl is going viral on TikTok after showing off luxury outfits including a $124,000 watch and a $31,000 handbag": Today I found this article by Sawdah Bhaimiya on Yahoo.
An 11-year-old girl has caused a stir on TikTok and divided users' opinions as videos of her showing off her luxury items including a $124,000 watch and a $31,000 Hermés handbag have gone viral.
Moo Abraham, nicknamed the "billionaire's daughter" on TikTok, is the daughter of Emily and Adam Abraham, the founders of a London and Dubai-based second-hand luxury goods store called Love Luxury, which buys and sells products like handbags, watches, and jewelry.
Emily Abraham said that although viewers think her daughter is spoiled, "she doesn't get to have everything she wants."
She said: "So what we do is we allow her to invest in pieces that we know are good investments, that if she wants to put her little bit of earnings or her pocket money into an item, that when she's older, that item's still going to be worth some money."
She insists that her family of three "are just normal people," who worked extremely hard to get to where they are.
"I also have to say that the cost of living crisis is going on, and we are very aware of that but in the same breath if we have worked hard for what we have, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to share our life experiences," Emily Abraham said.
She added: "People who maybe would never get to come to Dubai, maybe never get to see the fountains, may never get to go on an airplane, may never get to go in a flashy car. They are kind of living that life through us and it's a form of escapism for a lot of people."
My opinion: I was neutral about this. Moo had a bodyguard who stopped the reporter, but Moo said: "Oh, it's alright." She was polite and didn't seem stuck-up. It's a good thing she has a bodyguard because she could get mugged with all that expensive jewelry
Dec. 5, 2023 "Shoppers discover boxes of Cheerios, bags of Loblaws chips that weigh far less than advertised": Today I found this article by Sophia Harris on CBC:
Jocelyn Dilworth of Toronto posted the other video. She said she bought two bags of No Name ripple chips at Loblaws-owned No Frills in September, and weighed one of them after noticing it was much lighter than the other bag.
CBC News has independently verified Dilworth's lighter bag of chips weighs 103 grams — almost half the 200 grams printed on the bag.
"It was frustrating because we're all trying to save wherever we can," she said. "[You] buy the cheapest products in that store, and then you get home and it's not what you paid for. You were misled."
Dec. 1, 2023 Creating Connection Edmonton: There was a Meetup last month. My friend Denny went there and said it was mainly seniors who were there, but it was positive.
I attended the Meetup this morning from 10am- 11am. This was mainly seniors, and some in their 40s and 50s. Everybody was very kind. I met 8 people.
The questions go around and answer:
1. I love......
2. I thank.....
3. Future: your concerns
4. What do you hope for?
5. What would you support?
6. What can you do in the next week to make a difference personally?
A lot of the answers were: "I love my friends and family."
The concerns are climate change, inflation, etc.
We talked about consumerism and I told them about my blog post:
"Thrifting, regifting and bargain hunting: The etiquette of gift-giving on a budget"/ "'Pre-loved doesn't mean second-best': Young Canadians thrift holiday gifts"
Self- checkouts: We talked about this, and they expressed the same opinions I have read in the comments on the news articles like:
"I like having a cashier."
"Why do I have to do someone else's job?"
Henry's hangout: There were 5 of us there. I bought No- Name ripple chips from Shoppers Drug Mart. We ate the whole bag.
Henry
Tyler
Shiya
Amir
I met Amir and 3 of Henry's neighbors. We ate eggrolls that Henry made for us. Shiya brought bite- size quiches of bacon and cheese. They both taste good.
We played Monopoly Deal card game. Henry won. They talked about how this game is kind of luck and strategy.
Shiya drove me home and I thanked her.
Charity: Shiya said that she met a South- African woman and she wasn't wearing a warm coat. They lived close by so she gave her an old winter coat she had. Shiya had a winter coat for herself. Aww... that's so sweet.
Dec. 6, 2023 "Build Confidence: Overcoming Adversity through Effective Communication": I went to this Meetup online. There were 9 other people there.
Join us at Aimcrier Toastmasters for a "Journey of Resilience: Overcoming Adversity through Effective Communication"
On December 6th, we'll be orchestrating a narrative of resilience, sharing how to articulate life's challenges through effective communication. Embrace the harmonies of strength and perseverance in our interactive session.
Date: Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Time: 7:00 PM (Mountain Standard Time)
Location: Regular location, the Library at St. Albert Catholic High School (33 Malmo Ave, St. Albert, AB T8N 1L5) or online on Zoom (Register for the link)
Unite with individuals exploring speaking exercises, impromptu challenges, and receive invaluable feedback. Network within a community dedicated to personal growth and influential communication. Witness the transformation of doubt to assurance! Join the Aimcrier Weekly Toastmasters Meeting to refine your rhetoric, fortify your conviction, and deepen connections. Eager to see you there!
Details
Why this theme?
Life's unpredictable rhythms demand resilience. Our session offers a chance to:
- Harness communication as a tool for resilience.
- Cultivate strategies to articulate adversity eloquently.
- Reinforce connections through shared stories of perseverance.
Toastmaster of the Evening:
Nonkosi will guide us through stories of adversity, demonstrating the power of resilient communication.
Join this hybrid meeting to engage in discussions that underscore the resilience within and around us. We welcome you to participate, whether in person or virtually.
My opinion: This was average. I have attended Toastmasters online once. I have attended a lot of of those online Table Topics in 2022.
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