Kick 'im out, then kick 'im down.

One from Canada for the hysteria-inducing, false allegations file. He works, enthusiastically, at a war museum and, surprise, surprise, owns a couple of guns. This, apparently, makes him positively lethal, a regular Rambo, except not the good guy. The ex-missus says she's "afraid" of him, so he's got to be kept from his children.

Standard process: get him out of the house, then make wild accusations to keep him out and ruin his reputation. He now lives at the YMCA. He hasn't seen his children in nearly two years.

And the cops? They were just itching for a nice big fuss: empty brass shell casings became loose ammunition, a joke hand-grenade became a live bomb, BB-guns became rifles and a replica musket became an assault weapon. They must've had to change their pants after going through that house. It's a wonder they didn't describe the family car as an urban assault vehicle.

Shrinks? Oh, they had a field day. The children's shrink, who's never examined him, recommended the guns (which were in the house he couldn't enter in a safe to which he had no keys) be impounded because she feared a "murder-suicide situation".

Another shrink, likewise who had never examined him, said the guns shouldn't be returned to him because of his "psychological status", whatever that means.

Don't they have slander or libel laws in Canada?

Hysteria: [n] behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess.

An actual lawyer (unidentified, of course) in a rare moment of inexplicable honesty said: “In an ugly divorce, the first thing you have to do is put the spouse in a bad light. A common question is, ‘Has there ever been any sexual abuse of the children, has he ever threatened you, ever hit you, anything you’re scared of, can you even insinuate that he threatened you? Then we can probably get him out of the house and have him look bad in a court battle.” The ethics walk a fine line, she adds. “You don’t say, ‘Make it up,’ but, ‘Looking back, can you, in hindsight, say it may have been construed as a threat?'”

No, you don't say "Make it up", but you can say "It's your word against his, and they'll believe yours." Ethics? What ethics?

But no-one would ever make anything up.

Would they?

(Mind you, given all this, I have to wonder why he didn't just ask for the guns to be destroyed or sell them to clear the air.)

Tags: False Accusations, Divorce, Guns, Canada