Tragedy Spawns Insanity

I'm sure by now everyone reading this has heard about the horrific tragedy that occurred on a Greyhound bus last week in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. Tim McLean, a 22-year old carnival worker returning home to Winnipeg was brutally attacked by a deranged Vincent Weiguang Li, who stabbed, beheaded and consumed some of McLean's flesh before he was arrested by the RCMP.

This is certainly a horrible tragedy, both in the unnecessary loss of an innocent life and in the final, horrendous act of an obviously sick man. My opinion may not be popular, but Li was also a victim in this saga. He displayed increasingly erratic and disturbing behavior in the weeks leading up to this tragedy, but the Canadian Mental Health system has no ability to intervene until the subject is deemed a danger to himself or others – in this case with horrific consequences.

Apparently though, impact of this story on family, friends and our country was not bad enough for some. It seems that two groups deemed this tragedy a worthy target to advance their own causes. The first group, PETA, whom I normally tend to ignore as crazy, but relatively harmless certainly crossed the line. They attempted to publish the following ad in the local Portage Daily Graphic newspaper:

This has got to be an absolute all-time low for this organization. I can’t begin to fathom how they could justify placing an ad like this and inflicting even more pain and suffering on the family and friends of Tim McLean. I’ll make sure they get a link to this blog so they know we Canadians won’t put up with their vulgar, insensitive acts and I’d encourage you to write them with your thoughts as well – just go to www.peta.org/about/c-email_peta.asp to post your thoughts.

If PETA's attempt to exploit this tragedy hasn't gotten your blood boiling yet, perhaps you'd be interested in the activities of the Westboro Baptist Church, a small but fanatical religious based in Topeka, Kansas. The Phelps family, leaders of this church and operators of various websites including http://www.godhatesamerica.com/ and http://www.godhatesfags.com/, attempted to picket the funeral of Tim McLean. Why in the world would they do this you might ask? Well, it seems that they think that Canada is evil for editing their hate filled messages, allowing gay marriage and pretty much everything else we do. Their latest rant also accuses us of all being cannibals and highway decapitaters (sic) - I guess latest occurrence was the only one that made the papers? What makes their semi-literate, hate filled messages even worse are the fact that they spread them (and defend them) under the guise of religious beliefs.

Thankfully Mr. McLean's funeral was a peaceful, somber event - largely in thanks to both our diligent border guards who kept out most of the WBC nut-jobs and to the very large and rather angry group of over 200 local residents who formed a human wall around the funeral. I guess the folks from WBC fear both god and large, angry farmers with pipes, bats and pitchforks. Hate in any form is an ugly thing, but this particular example is as vile as it gets. I'd encourage you all write your local federal politicians to ensure that this group (including all of its members) is banned permanently from Canada.

This event has been tragic for all involved and my condolences go out to those who knew and loved Tim McLean.