by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
December 3, 2004
On Wednesday a horrific apparent murder/suicide took place in Toronto’s west end. It began when a man called 911 at approximately 7:30 a.m. as police and emergency personnel arrived at the scene they had found that a husband, wife and two of their three young daughters had been stabbed. The husband, wife and three-and-one-half-year-old daughter had succumbed to their injuries while the two-year-old was rushed to hospital with stab wounds to her neck. The couple’s seven-month-old was not injured.
The next day, the front page of the Toronto Sun contained a one word headline--"Why?" But for the evening news on the day of the killings, Toronto’s City TV already had all the answers.
In the less than 12 hours that had elapsed between the early morning 911 call and the evening news, the following facts were known. The deaths had all occurred in the home and weapons were found, although the police would not say what these weapons were. The police refused to confirm that it had been a murder/suicide, although Det. Sgt. Chris Buck, when asked if the police were looking for suspects, hesitated and then said "no".
City TV News had learned that the deceased father, in his 911 call had said that he had been stabbed in the abdomen by his wife. Well, that’s all the City gang needed in order to come to the defense of the alleged killer mom. Despite the fact that co-anchor anne Mroczkowski led off the news by saying that it was "a horrendous case of unthinkable violence" the broadcast later quoted some unidentified neighbours as saying that the woman must
have been suffering from post-partum depression. That’s all that City TV needed to hear. Despite the fact that it hadn’t even been confirmed that the woman was killed her husband and daughter before taking her own life, the broadcast went on to show that it really wasn’t her fault. The news went from the crime to a piece on post-partum depression, interviewing women who had suffered from the condition. Surprisingly these women, despite their depression, never killed anyone. Yet the station went out of its way to justify and defend a woman who had allegedly just killed her husband and daughter. The newscast went on to show other heroes of the post-partum set, including Texas baby killer andrea Yates.
The fact that they would jump to provide a defense to the dead woman when the motives and the actual killer weren’t really known was despicable not to mention bad journalism. There is no way they would have attempted a defense of a man if he had been the killer. If they thought that a man had done it they would have gone on and on and on about violence against women and proudly announced upcoming candlelight vigils. But the pro-feminist reporters at City just can’t conceive of a woman killing her husband without putting up a staunch defense of her actions.
The family in this case just happened to be middle class whites, who lived in a trendy downtown neighbourhood. One wonders if City would have been so quick to rationalize this "unthinkable violence" if it had happened to a black family who lived in subsidized housing. Probably not.