Sunday, March 28, 2010

They Got Him In The End - Or Did They?

Dr Aubrey Levin, aka 'the Dr Mengele of Apartheid South Africa' has finally run foul of the law. 
 
He was arrested in Canada last week for abusing a Canadian man at his practice. It seems that old habits die hard. "Dr Shock" as he was called when he was a military shrink back in the old days, used to torture gay and lesbian military personnel to try and turn them straight. Amazingly enough, the folks at your local friendly neighborhood "ex-gay" ministry have been trying to that for decades too - and haven't been having much success either. 
 
Most intelligent people already know that it is nigh impossible to "straighten" what was made "skew" in the first place, to paraphrase an Afrikanerism. 
 
For those not smart enough to bluff their way out of Levin's grasp, (shouting "Praise the Lord, I'm cured!") he performed forced sex-changes on them - and according to some sources, many of these were intentionally botched.

Only one thing can define such actions to me - intense hatred.

I only just missed Levin during my own term in the South African Army - luckily he had already left by then. That said, I did my whole transition in the Army - and it was entirely voluntary, and it may surprise you that I received quite a lot of support from the organization as well as many of the senior persons whose various authorities I required to achieve this unmolested. 
 
It could have worked out very differently if I'd been to the army just a couple of years earlier, of course - of it 'Dr. Shock' was still there of course. As it was, I picked up lots of horrific tales from others who had been there - or still worked in the military medical environment during my visits, of days gone by. All of them told me how lucky I was to have missed them.

There is one other question that still bothers me - Levin at one point appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the early 1990's - WHY was he not charged and punished for his heinous crimes then? Why was he allowed to go free and carry on with his life at the expense of justice and the lives of more innocent people?

Was it because he only committed these crimes against White people?

Was it because he only committed these crimes against gay and transgender people?
 
Or was it because virtually no-one who appeared before the TRC or received amnesty for their crimes ended up in jail? Since I can't find anything public about Levin's sojourn before the TRC, or their pronouncements upon him, that part remains a mystery. Suffice to say, Levin up-sticks and left South Africa shortly afterwards, and skedaddled up to Canada.

Since first hearing about this, I've frequently wondered why did Canada allow this vicious criminal who destroyed the lives of upwards of 900 people, to emigrate into its respectable medical profession - and apparently to continue to spread his ugliness there?

Was it because Canada still doesn't seem to place much value on the lives of its own GBTIQ citizens - and transgender people have no legal protections and are still erroneously classified as "mentally ill" and have to jump through all kinds of unreasonable hoops and hurdles just to get their gender reassignment done?

I wonder how many lives he has destroyed so far, just in Canada?

What it would take for the University of Pretoria to retroactively strip this monster of his doctorate? Would they even do it? Public shame in the media for instance? I wonder - because clearly the knowledge that 900 hundred gay, lesbian, bi and transgender lives were ruined by this bastard doesn't seem to have tipped the scales yet.

I know of people in SA and elsewhere who are still calling their relatives and friends to tell them how drunk they are from celebrating that this creature has been arrested in Canada for his crimes.

All his crimes? No, not all. Not even some. It may surprise you to learn that he's been charged for just one case - his abuse of a 36 year old Canadian male patient. 
 
But... what about the 900 or so forced sex-changes during his time as OC of 1 Military Hospital? And all the torture and experiments strikingly similar to the activities of those Nazi mad scientists who experimented on their captives - aversion therapy for instance... What about the broken people who committed suicide because of what he did to them?

I would be inclined to celebrate too, if I believed for a moment that the charge in Canada was going to actually stick - or even remotely enough to ensure that he would never breathe free air again.

I too would celebrate if I thought he would actually face justice for all the deaths, misery and injury he is directly responsible for. Allegedly, of course.

I could think of a good reward for Levin - the 'Mengele of Apartheid South Africa' - hand him over to those he wronged - and give them carte blanche. After all, aren't they the ones who really deserve amnesty?

Is there any justice out there for people in their position?

Let's see what the Canadians do with him.

I think we should all be contacting the Canadian Embassy - and Canadian advocacy groups to demand justice and to raise awareness of just what that man has been up to - both here - and there in their country.

Here are some addresses, just in case you feel like doing so:

pret@international.gc.ca, Pretoria-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, info@parl.gc.ca, SpkrOff@parl.gc.ca, BrisoS@parl.gc.ca, info@cpsa.ab.ca, ttheman@cpsa.ab.ca, bward@cpsa.ab.ca, kgardener@cpsa.ab.ca, kmazurek@cpsa.ab.ca, kreed@cpsa.ab.ca, jswiniarski@cpsa.ab.ca, jlwright@cpsa.ab.ca, cmccann@cpsa.ab.ca, keby@cpsa.ab.ca, rdoyle@cpsa.ab.ca, lmoyles@cpsa.ab.ca, kstruski@cpsa.ab.ca, mstuffco@cpsa.ab.ca, sbarron@cpsa.ab.ca, msorochan@cpsa.ab.ca, dsunde@cpsa.ab.ca, bleisen@cpsa.ab.ca, kinsen@sen.parl.gc.ca, TTlali@justice.gov.za, Msibi@justice.gov.za, deputyminister@justice.gov.za, info@foreign.gov.za, molobisk@foreign.gov.za, Bassonh@foerign.gov.za, Hattinghl2@foreign.gov.za,
Edriese@foreign.gov.za, Mashabaned@foreign.gov.za, Rankhumisep@foreign.gov.za, Sitholer@foreign.gov.za,
sepanyamogalen@foreign.gov.za, Montwedip@foreign.gov.za, jacobsd@foreign.gov.za, debeerj@foreign.gov.za,

GLBTI advocacy groups in Canada:

EGALE (Equality for Gays And Lesbians Everywhere) egale.canada@egale.ca
OUTLooks Magazine, Canada http://www.outlooks.ca
Public Service Pride Network (PSP) Coordinator@publicservicepride.ca
Canadian Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual group ayronvillegas@gmail.com

References:

http://zagria.blogspot.com/2008/07/aubrey-levin-1940-army-doctor.html
http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/abfc46690a994d92814c9b4ef9aa6bd8/26-03-2010-10-19/SA_psychiatrist_held_in_Canada
http://listverse.com/2008/09/07/top-10-unethical-psychological-experiments/
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100328074402335C519301

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4 comments:

  1. ok - what about a formal complaint to Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Canadian Embassy here?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bravo. I'm on it, from Canada.
    http://gay-persons-of-color.blogspot.com/2010/03/aubrey-levin-aka-dr-shock-arrested-in.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. cool. I tried to post a "complaint" on the Canadian Human Rights Commission web page but it would not go thro'

    ReplyDelete