The price of speaking up.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=fd5ca89f-aa05-42fa-a710-c23633241bab

It would seem that Myriam Bédard will be spending Christmas in jail. Not only will she be in jail, but she will be there on foreign soil away from the majority of her family and her daughter.

Who is Myriam Bédard? She has been an athlete that brought glory and honor to her country 12 years ago. She is also a mother of a 12 year old girl, and a few years ago, was the key whistle blower in something called the sponsorship scandle. Canada's big political scandal into government misspending, inappropriate spending, and just millions and millions of missing or unappropriated money.

During the inquiry she would reveal things like [quote]Ms. Bédard makes the announcement that her resignation from Via Rail was forced upon her, after her whistle-blowing role in the Sponsorship Scandal.[/quote]

[quote]Ms. Bédard says that Canadian Formula 1 race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve was secretly paid to wear a Canadian logo.
She also says that former VIA Rail Canada president Marc LeFrançois told her that the advertising firm Groupaction was involved in drug trafficking, and that her partner Nima Mazhari persuaded former prime minister Jean Chrétien not to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq.[/quote]

Since that resignation she has had a business that she opened close down 6 months later.
Her husband Nima Mazhari, who is charged with theft and possession of stolen property in the disappearance of up to 20 paintings by Canadian artist Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, valued at 100,000 dollars. They are both saying the charges are false.

He also says that they are being prosecuted by the Canadian Justice System.

Most recently they both took themselves and her 12 year old daughter to the United States, her ex husband decided to say that she had violated the terms of their custody hearing and decided to have a Canada-wide arrest warrant t issued for her. She was arrested in the United States. Even though she had told several agencies that she would be in the States, and she had also advised her family. The ex had been out of the country at the time. Her primary reason for being in the states was to "to denounce Canada's "bureaucratic terrorism"

Myriam Bédard seems to have had just one series of unfortunate events since trying to ask questions about misspending. She has said that she feels that the government is against her. "Bureaucratic terrorism." Her husband has had his reputation tainted and now she has been arrested.

These unfortunate series of coincidences might be just that, but for someone who was an Olympic hero to Canada, who had previous to her asking questions, lead a very charmed life, she and now her husband seem to be experiencing a great deal of misfortune.

The second example that I wanted to pull up is the Menezes whistle blower, she was the person who revealed the truth about what the police had actually done to Jean Charles de Menezes. He was the terror suspect shot on the train in the UK, except he was not a terror suspect, he was just an innocent person on his way to work, that had the misfortune to encounter the police, or to be the target of their rage and fears about terrorism.

After his death it was reported that he ran from the police, that he was wearing a heavy jacket that had wires coming out of it, that he might even have grabbed someone and held them as hostage. All these scenarios were just a lie to discredit an innocent man, that the police had shot without reason 7 times in the back of the head.

The real story went something like he left his apartment, he was followed, he walked into the train station, wearing a jean jacket, bought a paper, walked calmly through the station, he waited on the platform, got on the train, and then calmly sat down in his seat. He was then dragged from his seat, shoved back down, eventually pulled from his seat by the police, thrown to the ground and shot 7 times in the back of the head, and one time in the shoulder.
That is the real story of [Jean Mendez], however if left to the police to cover for their misdeeds, it would have been something quite different.

What of the whistle-blower(s) who spoke up?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,200-2170685,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/menezes/story/0,,1774680,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/menezes/story/0,,1825038,00.html

Well since she had had to sneak out the documents of what really happened to show to the world, they used this reason to suspend her, and make her feel forced to quit. She would have her apartment raided by 10 police officers, be ruffed up, arrested, on no real charges, she would loose her house, and a series of other things, as a warning to others about speaking up, or telling the truth.

[quote]Lana Vandenberghe, who worked for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said that ten officers broke down her front door in a dawn raid. She was placed in a cell without food or access to a lawyer for eight hours by bullying officers who told her that she would go to prison.

Despite the ordeal, Ms Vandenberghe, who lost her home, her job as an administration secretary and was treated for depression after being arrested, said that she would do it all again to expose the deliberate police “cover up”. [/quote]

The sad part is that this is something that the public needed to know. These people were all too happy to let an innocent man not only be slaughtered without cause, but then they were all too happy to frame him after his death and to make him look like he had been doing something illegal when they shot him 8 times, 7 in the back of the head. The police also will not face any charges for this slaughter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5359500.stm

The other sad part is what of the whistle blower, instead of having the public rallying around her, and cries for her reinstatement, the public that benefited from her disclosure, did very little if anything to protect her. She lost everything for telling the truth, however the public who protested over the shooting, and the subsequent search for the truth, does not seem to have really to this woman's defence, when it came time for her to be prosecuted by these members of the police.

Myriam Bédard should have Canadians parading the street for her courage in telling the truth and standing up. They were all too happy to laud and praise her as a hero for her gold metals, however when she basically did the same thing for the country, so that we could find out how many millions were being misappropriated, I don't see the same kind of rally and support happening for her.

It just seems that the price for speaking out is it's own reward or worst, no rewards at all, but months or years of prosecution and very little support. There are hundreds if not thousands of other examples of people blowing the whistle, thousands benefiting from the disclosure, even filing lawsuits over the disclosure, but there is often very little rally or support for the people who bring these truth to the public eye.

Should the public not try to do their best to protect those who have gone out of their way to speak up, to alert them to the truth of the things that are happening around them? However there is no such gratitude. In fact it almost seems to be the expected result for speaking up, the public almost seems to accept the fact that this will be the consequence, however they are willing to do very little if anything to see that this changes. To stand around and rally and support whistle blowers.

The same way they are willing to rally and parade for a couple of gold medals, should be the same way they are willing to rally and support people who go out of their way, and often risk their lives to share the truth with the public.