CKNW Editorial
for March 14, 2000

Two stories in the news have me profoundly disturbed - the Blue Edwards custody case and the matter of the 30 year old female Sechelt teacher who had, indeed by newspaper accounts is still having, an affair with a then 17 year old male student.

In the Edwards case I can only express the hope that this goes to the Supreme Court of Canada. I'm troubled by what seems to be the message the Court of Appeal is giving - if you are a bounder but a rich one, your wife will be given custody of your out of wedlock child ... and that one of the considerations will be that if the child is considered half black instead of half white, best it be brought up by black parents. The mother in this case is poor and as I understand it often unemployed. The child is often in care of his grandmother. Mr Edwards was under orders to pay $3500 a month maintenance and there seems to be no evidence that the child is not looked after.

There seems to be no doubt that when it comes to the question of stability, Mr Edwards has much to answer for. He spends a considerable amount of his time playing basketball overseas and is not known as a paragon of marital fidelity. If the decision had simply been that the mother was a poor mother - and I don't glean that from the judgment - and the father a very stable father - and there's hardly any evidence of that - then I could understand the judgment. What seems to be the case, however, is that the father is rich, his wife - the child's step mother - is a good mother to their children, and as black parents they will be better for the child whose is of mixed race.

As I say, it troubles me and I hope the matter gets to the Supreme Court of Canada.

I'm also disturbed by the story out of Sechelt and the oft articulated view that this female teacher ought to be treated as if she was male and the object of her affections, female. That, I think, ignores reality.

Whatever strides women have made I think it can fairly be stated that more often than not the male is the more aggressive of the species. Not always, but most times. I think that the reality is that the power a male teacher has is more dominantly expressed ... for one thing, it is nigh unto impossible for a female to rape a male and the converse is not true.

I don't make the case that this woman should go unpunished. You can't have teachers having affairs with their pupils. But what I do say is that each set of circumstances ought to be examined on its own.

In this case, the lad is now 18 - old enough to vote in a federal election and old enough to fight in a war ... old enough to be treated as an adult in court. And the woman is 12 years older.

Is there any evidence that the young man has been damaged by this relationship? That does not go, of course, to the question as to whether or not the teacher should be punished - she's been fired from her position incidentally - but certainly is germane as to the penalty she must pay.

But let me ask the awkward question - could these two be in love? Is that such an extraordinary thing to imagine? 30 is hardly ancient and some 18 year olds can appear and act much older. Is it just possible that we have here a genuine love affair?

If we do, again this does not exonerate a teacher for getting involved with her student, it should be considered in mitigation of punishment.

I was taught in school by a very fine man who had fallen in love with one of his students, they married, raised a fine family and had a good marriage. I have no way of knowing whether or not the teacher made known his feelings while his wife-to-be was his student. My only point is that when relatively young people are thrown together, sometimes love affairs as distinguished from sexual predations happen. Moreover, there are no rules about age differences ... where at one time it was invariably the male who was much the older, that's no longer necessarily the case.

Amor omnia vincit ... love conquers all ... as the Romans said ... and if this couple were motivated by mutual feelings of love ... I can only hope that the punishment meted out is well tempered with mercy.