Renouncing the Canadian Citizenship of Paul James
Dear Supreme Court of Canada Justices and the Right Honourable Prime Minister Justine Trudeau,
In line with Canada Soccer's annulment of my individual status as an inductee into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame I now respectfully request on this day January 9, 2020 the Canadian Government renounce the Canadian citizenship of Paul J James. As a homeless person in non receipt (by choice) of support payments it is not possible for me to pay or administer the process of doing so. In light of all that has been delivered it is an opportunity for you to honor for the first time, a request and wish from Paul J James.
There are no adequate words which could be spliced together which would to do justice to the oppression, stigmatization and abuse which has been delivered to one Canadian citizen through the Canadian politics of power, greed, wealth and unprecedented selfishness. With that said, below is a sampling of quotes - with the exception of the opening statement from Johann Hari - which have been made by Paul J James over the past 5 years in the pursuit of social justice on a global matter of such significance.
Following this correspondence a document will be sent outlining once again the background of Paul J James and supportive quotations from persons I have been most fortunate to have known during my life here in Canada. Finally, tomorrow, the remaining two contributions to the recent outline will be sent: Asking the Right Questions and Conclusions.
These documents like all those which have proceeded are for transparency to the Canadian public. In line with this many persons have been blind copied.
Respectfully,
Paul J James
RAT PARK Experiment
“It isn’t the drug – its the environment. An isolated rat will almost always become
a junkie. A rat with a good life almost never will, no matter how many drugs you make available to him. As Bruce put it: he was realizing that addiction isn’t a disease. Addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you – it’s the cage you live in”. Johann Hari (Chasing the Scream)
The Sporting Chance Clinic South West London, England
"At the Sporting Chance clinic in England James West asked why I was leaving soccer coaching and explained how important it was that I keep my employment. “They know you have a mental health condition; speak to them they will support you. You are a soccer coach". I left rehab days early to meet a commitment to speak for the History Department at the York University at their World Cup in Africa Conference December 2009
Departure from York University
"Gillian McCullough, manager of sport and recreation at York, stated as I entered the Sport York Offices, "Jenn hopes you have your head screwed on straight this time”, Within a minute of entering Sheila Forshaw’s office I was told by Jenn Myers that the decision to dissolve the master coach position into two full time coaching
positions had been made, and that I could apply for the women’s soccer position and my application would only be considered with other applicants, while the decision to hire Carmine as the men’s full time coach had already been decided. A month earlier Paul led the York University women's soccer team to their third OUA in 5 years".
December 8, 2009
Quotes/Statements
Paul J James
2014-2019
"Never did I think it was possible to love two creatures as much as I loved Ashley Anne Kelly and Maxie James…makes no difference that she has moved on with her life….Ill always feel the same and forever be sorry of the nightmare we lived…but so grateful to the support she provided in times of such dreadful pain and humiliation for the both of us…. ….. cant help how I feel…it is why I could endure such physical and psychological pain by channeling such intense dislike and anger of York University, Canada Soccer and Canadian Judiciary for their handling of the matter permitting such immorality to take place…..it was all so unbelievably unnecessary…no amount of money, level of apology will ever make a difference….
"At Canada's most esteemed institution you are not doing your jobs as privileged and honored Supreme Court Justices. You are not the guardians of Justice in Canada. Rather you are enablers of Injustice. The cause of much suffering delivered to Canadian citizens. You have and continue to let ALL Canadian citizens down".
"Supreme Court of Canada. It is not your right to be Supreme Court Justices. It is a privilege and honor for you. Start acting like it is. Canadians are losing their lives because of your incompetence and/or corruptness. Canadians have their lives ruined as a consequence of confronting social injustices to the complete advantage of the establishment class. And you sit back and do nothing. You live in an unrealistic world. A very sick world that you are a part of. You are enablers of evil acts against your very own citizens. You have no control over your troops who have taken such extreme advantage of their unworthy power and status".
"Intelligence is not your impediment. Nor is intelligence the impediment of the Canadian Judicial system. Character is the problem. Cowardice. Greed. Ethics. Immorality. Cheating. Bad Faith. Immature ideology. On the latter point. Canada has established its legal approach as the complete opposite of the litigious United States. And you have done so at the expense of a citizens liberty. Their purity. A nations purity. It has escalated to the point no one gets justice and organizations abuse their positions of power willfully. And it has reached epidemic levels. It has cultivated irresponsible behavior. Incompetence. Cheats. Bad (evil) Politics. Inequality. Crime. Arrogance. Willful Ignorance. Hierarchies of Incompetence. A wild, wild west. Cowboys/Girls with no scruples".
"Honorable Supreme Court of Canada Justices, York University, Bob Rae, Mary Ormsby, Canadian Politicians and the Canadian media you should hold your heads in utter shame. You have played your part. Don't worry about what is going on in other countries. In Canada, with such advantages the immorality is far greater as a consequence. Michael Kirby warned you all about Stigma back in 2004. And the Stigma of Drug Addiction threads everything. You have failed us. You have buckets of blood on your hands".
"Canada Soccer. To repeat one more time. I am ashamed of ever representing your organization and Canada as a nation both as a soccer player and as a soccer coach. Your decisions to handle my desperate requests for assistance over the past five years in the manner you have, has been as shocking as it has been disturbing. Morally and ethically, with particular consideration that the genesis of the health issue began under my tenure with the Canadian Soccer Association, you had a humanistic responsibility no matter how many years later, to assist responsibly, when called upon".
"Yet my requests for Canada Soccer to assist have been met not with honor but with a corrupt schadenfreude approach. With ridicule. With deceit. With collusion. With rolling eyes. The fact you never consulted the Board of Directors of Canada Soccer on the handling of the Paul J James circumstance including the annulment of the Canadian Hall of Fame status of Paul J James will forever live in the memory of how worthless persons like Paul J James really are".
"Paul J James will never remain in Canada. I will either die fighting for social justice or leave once justice is served. I will never live in a country where York University, Bob Rae, Mary Ormsby, the Toronto Star reside. The threshold of "acceptable abuse" has long passed.
"Societies can learn much from their top sporting coaches. On how to coach and galvanize people. How to solve complex problems. How to adapt. How to be passionate. How to deal with adversity and survive. To still find humor in spite of so much distress. And how to never give in. It has permitted Paul J James to still be breathing in December of 2019"
"Meanwhile in Canada from what I can see most Canadians at the establishment level do not excuse themselves from the dinner table as earlier as they should. A lesson in there somewhere for you, if you dare confront it. For the record I am not prejudiced on appearances. After starving myself for so long I would prefer to look portly the rest of my life rather than thin".
"The Stigma of Drug Addiction. "Most people have good, honorable, humane intentions when interacting with their fellow citizens. If however, you want to turn admirable people into unwitting discriminatory, prejudicial, judgmental citizens then simply inform them you live with a substance disability. The metamorphosis is breathtaking and cutting, facilitated by profound ignorance and bias erroneously conditioned onto our psyches as normal behavior when in receipt of such information. For the past three generations we have behaved towards persons in this unenviable group so poorly and inappropriately it now ranks as the most significant preventable immorality of our time".
"Oh! So now you are not mentally ill" Dave McDowell Head Soccer Coach Queens University Spring 2018. "I've never claimed to be mentally ill Dave" Paul J James Retort 2018
“Self-stigma cannot be quenched by poor treatment”.
"My circumstances today are not because of a substance disability but the reaction to the substance disability"
"Substance use at whatever level is unique to each and every person. The act itself is best understood as a learned behavior filling a psychological gap/need in a persons life developed over a persons life path. Every brain like finger prints are different and so are the environmental impacts of a person over a lifetime. Learning to mitigate a substance's potential harm should be first and foremost when educating and supporting a person in need of assistance. Abstinence is the plain and obvious ideal as no one wants to use regularly nor alone be dependent on potent substances. A person can learn to live with a substance of any kind, mitigate its harm in order to be productive members of society. All providing, that is, Stigma is annihilated which starts with dignity and respect not such dreadful stigmatization and abuse as delivered to Paul J James".
"Substance Addiction is not a Crime, Illness, or Disease. It is a psychological learned behavior/disorder fueled from a psychological need required to fill a psychological gap, influenced most profoundly from ones social environment. Labeling, diagnosing substance dependence as an illness/disease guarantees employment discrimination. Cementing substance dependence as a mental disability which can be lived with responsibly will improve the lives of millions of people encouraging more to seek help and assistance on how to live with their disabilities in a better way without threat of losing everything. It will dynamite a hole for the first time into the stigma of drug addiction and the devastating consequences it delivers".
"Substance Dependence is a psychological disability manifested as a mental health disorder born from an impaired choice(s) which develop into learned behaviors. A substance use disability once diagnosed can be recovered from with the right variables in place but more realistically people learn to live with their condition through mitigating negative consequences down to a minimum".
"Only by ruling against discrimination can you reject stigma and only by rejecting stigma can you make it unfashionable. Once rejecting stigma is considered fashionable then you can begin to confirm human dignity onto those who should never have been denied it in the first place".
"As experienced through the Paul J James story Stigma is used as a ruthless weapon to ostracize, punish, scapegoat, belittle, patronize, ignore, intimidate, ridicule, defame, slander, discriminate against those who need the complete opposite".
"The man-made social phenomenon permeates every level of Canadian society causing ongoing destruction. From York University to other academic institutions, from Canada Soccer to the Canadian Media to individual citizens to the Toronto Police to those remitted to care for those in need of support to Canadian Lawyers to Canadian CEO's to sporting athletes".
"From Catharine Zahn the President of CAMH to social worker at CAMH Sheldon Parchment, to the Canadian Parliament to the Conservative Party of Canada to the Canadian Judiciary to former friends to President of Canadian Inter-university Sport Graham Brown, to Donald McPherson and Richard Elliot two talented Canadian citizens to Rhodes Scholar Bob Rae to Andrew Scheer to Jagmeet Sing, to Pat Santini the list goes on and on as it touches every nook and cranny of Canadian society".
"Confronting and Reconciling the Stigma of Substance Disability is the pivotal challenge which must be undertaken in order to guarantee sustained positive change for future generations of our fellow citizens who through no fault of their own will be most susceptible to one day being assigned as a member of this highly oppressed segment of society. For the past three generations we have behaved towards persons in this unenviable group so poorly and inappropriately it now ranks as the most significant preventable immorality of our time”.
“Canadian society also needs to catch up on the reality of who we are as a nation of people. It appears we have cultivated a nation of too many liars, undermining wannabes facilitated through the edict of Machiavelli. (Paul James 2018)
"It is about time politicians discarded from their mantelpieces ‘The Prince’ and replaced it with something more relevant and useful. ‘New Earth’ by Eckard Tolle a Norwegian living in Vancouver for example. That is, of course, if you want civilization to exist beyond this current century”
"We suffer from antiquated language and thoughts which discriminates a person suffering a substance use disorder from a person suffering other mental or physical health issues – clean/dirty as opposed to well/unwell; hiding illness as opposed to having the human right to keep personal health issues private.
“On that note and pointed directly to you as the York University Board of Governors, if you do in fact govern with integrity, fairness, equality, dignity, and respect, then you will discover the Paul James file should be a time for deep, wholehearted regret, humility and immediate correction beginning with providing me the opportunity to present to you the nature and impact of the injustice which has been delivered and the reason(s) why you should correct it, which will prevent further harm to myself”. 2017
“In hindsight now all I needed was non-conditioned patience, compassion and kindness. Not to be ostracized, excommunicated, harassed, stigmatized, slandered, defamed, discriminated against, fired and removed from employment”.
"Eliminating Applicants significant intersecting social factors of disadvantage from the adjudication process was overtly discriminatory and patently unreasonable. You cannot separate substance use disorders from the social context in which those that suffer live on a day to day basis. Social consequences of a person’s substance use are inextricably intertwined in diagnosing, treating, and monitoring those that suffer. A claim filed during the one-year limitation period would be adjudicated with the totality of evidence including any social intersecting factors including paralyzing societal and self stigma. Constant rejection of the Linda Perlis medical evidence for one “contrived” deficiency after another unfairly discriminated against Applicant from accessing fair social justice. Even though Applicant satisfied each “deficient requirement” the Tribunal and Divisional court still refused to consider and acknowledge Applicants social intersecting factors of disadvantage. This bad faith adjudication not to consider the totality of Applicants claim discriminated and prejudiced against him when compared to those persons who submit within the one-year limitation period. This was patently unreasonable and violated Applicants right to be treated fairly and equally under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms". (Paul J James Memorandum of Argument submitted to the Honourable Court Summer 2016)
“Opening up looking for support and assistance with my poor health at York University proved to be an absolute catastrophic decision, which at each level exacerbated my health; my feelings of poor self worth, and thoughts on the absolute futility of being honest in regards to personal health and even of life itself”. (Paul J James HRTO Request for Reconsideration 2014)
“As I walked into the GOL TV studio on the Thursday (2009) where I would normally sit next to the host, I saw Jason DeVos. The two of them were waiting in their seats when I walked in. The writing on the wall had never been clearer...I thought about what I should do next regarding GOL TV. When I got off the bus, I called Chris Hebb and asked him directly, “Are you going to renew my contract?” After a short pause, “No, we are not.” (Cracked Open 2012)
“We have conducted a diligent review of the allegations set out in your letters of May 22, 2012” was York University’s June 27, 2012 reply to Kevin Robinson’s request for a private meeting to discuss my poor treatment while I was an employee at York University. After overcoming several significant impediments, this 60 page document, including 38 appendices, is my own due diligence in presenting the Human Rights claim against York University. (Paul J James HRTO Request for Reconsideration 2014)
"Stigma is not Just a Word. It is a word with devastating consequences" Video message to Justin Trudeau National Post January 2017
"Response to the question. Are you clean? "Yes. I showered an hour ago. What are you really asking?" 2015 onward.
"Each experience of Stigmatization as it relates to substance use is like being hit by lightening unless, that is, you conform to being oppressed. Then its like being punched and kicked in the face which is far less painful". Fall 2018
"As a nation Canada has not permitted the truth about substance disability to diffuse through to the Canadian population and as a consequence the stigma of drug addiction has become a “living animated machete". April 2018
"The past 8 years I feel as if I have been psychologically raped by York University, Canada Soccer and the Canadian establishment". January 2019
"Understanding substance disabilities as just that - a disability - then one should understand just like the person with a physical disability can work and be a productive member of society, well, so can a person with a substance use disability be employed and be a productive member of society. Such persons need to learn how to manage their health and to be respectful of employment parameters and likewise employers need to be respectful of ALL their employees human rights"
"The public interest in this matter cannot be underestimated as ALL Canadians, at a minimum, expect a judicial system which is transparent, impartial, honest, ethical, fair, responsible, accessible and above all JUST in order that, at the very least, future Applications to Human Rights Tribunals, the lower courts, and the SCC are adjudicated and judged on truth and integrity not untruths and improprieties. It is Applicants position that when the Canadian public including the Canadian government and Canadian sporting governing bodies become privy to the full set of circumstances and evidence which the Applicant has endured and provided to the Tribunal and lower courts respectively, they will be as appalled and disgusted as Applicant and those closet to Applicant who are aware of such circumstances. If Applicant's circumstances which includes a significant soccer background and education can be treated in such a repulsive way what does it say for other Applicants chances of seeking fair access to justice from lower disadvantaged circumstances? Established case law should be based on integrity and justice not deceit and injustice which in the latter instance harms the future of all Canadians. As it stands now Applicants' claim at the lower courts has already been used to recreate injustice through the ongoing use of tainted rationale. I do not and will not accept this nor should any other Canadian citizen". Supreme Court of Canada Affidavit
April 2019. The Long walk to Ottawa. 400 km in ten days. Day six arriving in Shabot Lake after walking 44 miles in one day. Shattered I open the TSN video highlighting a part of the walk. The following two lines appeared in the video presentation: "James began using Crack Cocaine as a college coach in 1998. In 2016 he became homeless"
It was a non starter. It completely stereotyped what we were fighting against. And it was wrong. I started using crack cocaine not as a college coach but a national team coach. It goes beyond implying that I was homeless because of crack cocaine. Which was false. It stereotyped the matter and made a mockery of the effort of the walk but also all the years of sacrifice and hardship which had proceeded it. Left untouched. No different from any other story of substance use narratives. It assisted York University. No different to the Toronto Star article. Paul J James became homeless as a personal decision to fight the injustice and after a decade of oppression, discrimination and overall abuse of my human right to live freely. To have let this stay would have been to let Canadian society completely off the hook. When I completed the walk a few days later I reviewed the video again having given breathing room to eliminate emotion. The second viewing confirmed the stereotyping. I requested TSN take it down which they did, a de-stigmatizing moment I respected. I then receive an email from Multi-Emmy winner Mike Young from California which ended with "I am sorry but I am out of the Paul James business".
Followed shortly after by an email from Mike's, PA, Kelly Kidwell which included "There are times that you have been your own undoing" No, we cannot climb inside your head and better understand the reasoning for your decisions, but I, for one, am saddened by your unwillingness to know that all victory has compromise. I handled the communication as best I could not replying to Kelly Kidwell's. The consequences were multi-layered as it highlighted the vulnerability of persons such as Paul J James. What they both didn't realize their communications were all the "further evidence" I needed that they had been in contact with Bob Rae. "There are times when you have been your own undoing" a near enough identical message from Bob Rae to Paul J James in January 2018 predicting just that - "your mind will be your undoing". An evil Thumbscrew tactic Bob Rae implemented from near enough the get go to make sure I would be obedient to his, "I can be stubborn too" because if I wasn't he was communicating he would "play" the mind card. It was when I first realized the lengths Bob Rae would be willing to go. The evilness. Another damned if you do. Damned if you don't. Mike and Kelly were not personally invested enough as human beings to recognize that Paul J James well being was not as important to him at that stage than the Truth of the subject matter which affects millions of others. Their willingness to not see what PJJ sees, hindered progress with penetrating stigma. Also. It showed how vulnerable PJJ and millions of others are. If people do not like what you say or if you do something not to their liking they will cut you off immediately with no thought as to how it affects you - being homeless with nothing, the indignity, not even an after thought. "My circumstances today are not because of a substance disability but the reaction to the substance disability"