Given
that many fundamental questions in neuroscience are still open, it
seems pertinent to explore whether the brain might use other physical
modalities than the ones that have been discovered so far. In particular
it is well established that neurons can emit photons, which prompts the
question whether these biophotons could serve as signals between
neurons, in addition to the well-known electro-chemical signals. For
such communication to be targeted, the photons would need to travel in
waveguides. Here we show, based on detailed theoretical modeling, that
myelinated axons could serve as photonic waveguides, taking into account
realistic optical imperfections. We propose experiments, both in vivo and in vitro,
to test our hypothesis. We discuss the implications of our results,
including the question whether photons could mediate long-range quantum
entanglement in the brain.
Introduction
The
human brain is a dynamic physical system of unparalleled complexity.
While neuroscience has made great strides, many fundamental questions
are still unanswered, including the processes underlying memory formation, the working principle of anesthesia, and–most fundamentally–the generation of conscious experience.
It therefore seems pertinent to explore whether the brain might
generate, transmit and store information using other physical modalities
than the ones that have been discovered so far.
In the present work we focus on the question whether biophotons could serve as a supplementary information
carrier in the brain in addition to the well established
electro-chemical signals. Biophotons are the quanta of light spanning
the near-UV to near-IR frequency range. They are produced mostly by
electronically excited molecular species in a variety of oxidative
metabolic processes in cells. They may play a role in cell to cell communication, and have been observed in many organisms, including humans, and in different parts of the body, including the brain.
Photons in the brain could serve as ideal candidates for information
transfer. They travel tens of millions of times faster than a typical
electrical neural signal and are not prone to thermal noise at body
temperature owing to their relatively high energies. It is conceivable
that evolution might have found a way to utilize these precious
high-energy resources for information transfer, even if they were just
the by–products of metabolism to begin with. Most of the required
molecular machinery seems to exist in living cells such as neurons. Mitochondrial respiration or lipid oxidation could serve as sources, and centrosomes or chromophores in the mitochondria could serve as detectors.
However,
one crucial element for optical communication is not well established,
namely the existence of physical links to connect all of these spatially
separated agents in a selective way. The only viable way to achieve
targeted optical communication in the dense and (seemingly) disordered
brain environment is for the photons to travel in waveguides.
Mitochondria and microtubules in neurons have been hypothesized to serve
as waveguides. However, these structures are too small and inhomogeneous to guide light efficiently over significant distances.
Here
we propose myelinated axons as potential biophoton waveguides in the
brain, and we support this hypothesis with detailed theoretical
modeling. These axons are tightly wrapped by a lamellar structure called
the myelin sheath, which has a higher refractive index than both the inside of the axon and the interstitial fluid outside (see Fig. 1a).
This compact sheath could therefore also serve as a waveguide, in
addition to increasing the propagation speed of an action potential (via
saltatory conduction) based on its insulating property. There is some indirect experimental evidence for light conduction by axons,
including the observation of increased transmission along the axes of
the white matter tracts, which consist of myelinated axons.
Myelin is formed in the central nervous system (CNS) by a kind of glia
cell called oligodendrocyte. Interestingly, certain glia cells, known as
Müller cells, have been shown to guide light in mammalian eyes.
Figure 1
3-D schematic representation of a segment of a neuron, and an eigenmode of a cylindrical myelinated axon.
(a)
Different parts of a segment of a neuron whose myelinated axon is
sliced longitudinally near the end of the segment. The inset depicts the
cross section in the transverse plane. Here r and r′ are the inner and outer radii of the myelin sheath, d is the thickness of the myelin sheath, and nmy, nax, and next
are the refractive indices of the myelin sheath, the inside of the
axon, and the interstitial fluid outside respectively. The compact
myelin (shown in red) terminates in the paranodal region near the Node
of Ranvier, with each closely apposed layer of myelin ending in a
cytoplasm filled loop (shown in light red). (b) Magnitude of the electric field of a cylindrically symmetric eigenmode (λ = 0.612 μm) of a (cylindrical) myelinated axon, with r = 3 μm, and r′ = 5 μm. (c)
A vector plot of the electric field showing the azimuthal polarization
of the input mode. For clarity in the depiction of the direction of the
field at different points, the arrow length is renormalised to the same
value everywhere. The adjacent color bar depicts the actual field
magnitude. (d,e) Electric field components along the Y (Ey), and Z axes (Ez) respectively.
An
interesting feature of photonic communication channels is that they can
transmit quantum information as well. The potential role of quantum
effects in biological systems is currently being investigated in several
areas, including olfaction, avian magnetoreception, and photosynthesis.
There is also growing speculation about the role of fundamental quantum
features such as superposition and entanglement in certain higher level
brain functions.
Of particular relevance is the “binding problem” of consciousness,
which questions how a single integrated experience arises from the
activities of individual molecules in billions of neurons. The answer to
this question might be provided by quantum entanglement, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts in a well-defined physical and mathematical sense.
The
main challenge in envisioning a “quantum brain” is environmental
decoherence, which destroys quantum effects very rapidly at room
temperature for most physical degrees of freedom. However, nuclear spins can have coherence times of tens of milliseconds in the brain, and much longer times are imaginable. Long-lived nuclear spin entanglement has also been demonstrated in other condensed-matter systems at room temperature. A recent proposal on “quantum cognition”
is based on nuclear spins, but relies on the physical transport of
molecules to carry quantum information, which is very slow. In contrast,
photons are well suited for transmitting quantum information over long
distances, which is why currently envisioned man-made quantum networks
rely on optical communication channels (typically optical fibers)
between spins.
Efficient
light guidance therefore seems necessary for both classical and quantum
optical networks in the brain. Is this possible in myelinated axons
with all their “imperfections” from a waveguide perspective? In an
attempt to answer this question, we have developed a detailed
theoretical model of light guidance in axons. We show in the next
section that the answer seems to be in the affirmative.
Countries as of 2019 that have outlawed all forms of corporal punishment of children.
Campaigns against corporal punishment aim to reduce or eliminate corporal punishment of minors
by instigating legal and cultural changes in the areas where such
punishments are practiced. Such campaigns date mostly from the late
20th century, although occasional voices in opposition to corporal
punishment existed from ancient times through to the modern era.
any punishment in which physical force is used and
intended to cause some degree of pain or discomfort, however light. Most
involves hitting ("smacking", "slapping", "spanking") children, with
the hand or with an implement – whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon,
etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing
children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears,
forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding
or forced ingestion.
History
Quintilian and Plutarch,
both writing in the 1st century A.D., expressed the opinion that
corporal punishment was demeaning to those who were not slaves, meaning
the children of the freeborn. In contrast, according to the classicist Otto Kiefer, Seneca remarked to his friend Lucilius,
"Fear and love cannot live together. You seem to me to do right in
refusing to be feared by your slaves and chastising them with words
alone. Blows are used to correct brute beasts".
However, according to Robert McCole Wilson, "it is only in the
last two hundred years that there has been a growing body of opinion"
opposed to corporal punishment.
Australia
Jordan Riak began working against corporal punishment when he was residing with his children in Sydney, Australia.
Corporal punishment was eventually banned in the public schools of all
Australian states, and the private schools of all states except Queensland.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, one of the earliest organised campaigns was that of the Humanitarian League, with its regular magazine The Humanitarian,
which campaigned for several years for the abolition of the
chastisement of young seamen in the Royal Navy, a goal partially
achieved in 1906 when naval birching was abandoned as a summary punishment. However, it did not manage to get the Navy to abolish caning as a punishment, which continued at Naval training establishments until 1967.
The Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishment (STOPP)
was set up in the U.K. in 1968 to campaign for the abolition of corporal
punishment in UK schools.
STOPP was a very small pressure group that lobbied government,
local authorities and other official institutions. It also investigated
individual cases of corporal punishment and aided families wishing to
pursue their cases through the UK and European courts.
The UK Parliament abolished corporal punishment in state schools in 1986.
STOPP then wound itself up and ceased to exist, though some of the same
individuals went on to form EPOCH to campaign to outlaw spanking, and
spanking in the domestic setting.
Individuals who have directly advocated against corporal punishment include, but are not limited to:
Kirstie Alley (b. 1955) - Actress - has stated her opposition to corporal punishment on numerous occasions, most notably on the Howard Stern Show
Nadine Block - wrote the bill which banned corporal punishment from public schools in Ohio in 2009
Blythe and David Daniel - Professors - advocate and teach children's rights and work for laws against corporal punishment
Blake Hutchison (b. 1980) - writer of Nobody's Property, independent filmmaker and videographer from Ohio who has made several often-controversial children's rights and anti-spanking videos on his YouTube channel. including one titled "Children's Rights Pyrotechnic Practice" where he sets fire to a copy of Michael Pearl's book To Train Up A Child.
Horace Mann - campaigned to ban corporal punishment from schools during the 19th century
Dr. Phil McGraw
(b. 1950) - Television Show Host has had episodes on his show dedicated
to showing the harm and/or ineffectiveness of corporal punishment.
Marcus Lawrence Ward
(1812-1884) - governor of New Jersey from 1866 to 1869, who signed into
law the public and private school corporal punishment ban during his
time in office, which is still in effect today.
Jordan Riak (1935-2016) - drafted the bill which banned corporal punishment from public schools in California in the 1980s
Daniel Vander Ley (b. 1982) - using the BeatYourChildren.com campaign and the "Fundamentalism - America's Premier Child Abuse Brand"
campaign, Vander Ley communicates directly with governments around the
world offering their constituents research about the negative effects of
corporal punishment and religious extremism.
In 2008, the UN Study on Violence against Children set a target date of 2009 for universal prohibition, including in the home, an aim described by The Economist the same year as "wildly unrealistic".
The Society for Prevention of Injuries & Corporal Punishment [SPIC] is an Indian organization advocating measures to stop corporal punishment in schools by making teachers and students aware of its dangers.
A leather cat o' nine tails pictured with a U.S. dollar bill for size comparison. A U.S. dollar bill is about 15 cm (6 in) long, so the total length would be about 75 cm (30 in).
The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to the cat, is a type of multi-tailed whip that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, notably in the Royal Navy and British Army, and also as a judicial punishment in Britain and some other countries.
Etymology
The term first appears in 1681 in reports of a London murder. The term came into wider circulation in 1695 after its mention by a character in William Congreve's play Love for Love, although the design is much older. It was probably so called in reference to its "claws",
which inflict parallel wounds. There are equivalent terms in many
languages, usually strictly translating, and also some analogous terms
referring to a similar instrument's number of tails (cord or leather),
such as the Dutch zevenstaart (seven tail[s]), negenstaart (nine tail[s]), the Spanish gato de nueve colas or the Italian gatto a nove code.
Description
The cat is made up of nine knottedthongs of cottoncord, about 0.8 metres (21⁄2 ft) long, designed to lacerate the skin and cause intense pain.
It traditionally has nine thongs as a result of the manner in which rope is plaited. Thinner rope is made from three strands of yarn
plaited together, and thicker rope from three strands of thinner rope
plaited together. To make a cat o' nine tails, a rope is unravelled into
three small ropes, each of which is unravelled again.
Variations
Variations exist, either named cat (of x tails) or not, such as the whip used on adult Egyptian
prisoners which had a cord on a cudgel branching into seven tails, each
with six knots, used only on adult men, with boys being subject to caning, until Egypt banned the use of the device in 2001.
Sometimes the term "cat" is used incorrectly to describe various other punitive flogging devices with multiple tails in any number, even one made from 80 twigs (so rather a limp birch) to flog a drunk or other offender instead of 80 lashes normally applicable under shariah law. The closed cat, one without tails, was called a starter.
Historical punishments
Naval types and use
The
naval cat, also known as the "captain's daughter" (which in principle
was used under his authority) weighed about 370 grams (13 oz) and was
composed of a handle connected to nine thinner pieces of line, with each
line knotted several times along its length. Formal floggings—those ordered by captain or court martial—were
administered ceremonially on deck, the crew being summoned to "witness
punishment" and the prisoner being brought forward by marines with fixed
bayonets.
Sailor being flogged with a cat-o'-nine-tails while four sailors are waiting for their turn to flog him.
During the period of the Napoleonic Wars,
the naval cat's handle was made of rope about 60 cm (2 ft) long and
about 3 cm (1 in) in diameter, and was traditionally covered with red baize cloth. The tails were made of cord about 6 mm (1⁄4 in) in diameter and typically 60 cm (2 ft).
Drunkenness or striking an officer might incur a dozen lashes, which
could be administered on the authority of the ship's captain. Greater
punishments were generally administered following a formal court martial,
with Royal Navy records reflecting some standard penalties of two
hundred lashes for desertion, three hundred for mutiny, and up to five
hundred for theft. The offence of sodomy
generally drew the death penalty, though one eighteenth century court
martial awarded a punishment of one thousand lashes - a roughly
equivalent sentence as there was no likelihood of survival.
A new cat was made for each flogging by a bosun's
mate and kept in a red baize bag until use. If several dozen lashes
were awarded, each could be administered by a fresh bosun's mate—a
left-handed one could be included to assure extra painful crisscrossing
of the wounds. One dozen was usually awarded as a highly sensitizing
prelude to running the gauntlet.
For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys,
a lighter model was made, the reduced cat, also known as boy's cat,
boy's pussy or just pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord.
If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would
suffer the punishment of the adult cat. While adult sailors received
their lashes on the back, they were administered to boys on the bare
posterior, usually while "kissing the gunner's daughter" (bending over a
gun barrel), just as boys' lighter "daily" chastisement was usually
over their (often naked) rear-end (mainly with a cane—this could be
applied to the hand, but captains generally refused such impractical
disablement—or a rope's end). Bare-bottom discipline was a tradition of
the English upper and middle classes, who frequented public schools, so midshipmen
(trainee officers, usually from 'good families', getting a cheaper
equivalent education by enlisting) were not spared, at best sometimes
allowed to receive their lashes inside a cabin. Still, it is reported
that the 'infantile' embarrassment of bare-bottom punishment was
believed essential for optimal deterrence; cocky miscreants might brave
the pain of the adult cat in the macho spirit of "taking it like a man"
or even as a "badge of honour".
On board training ships,
where most of the crew were boys, the cat was never introduced, but
their bare bottoms risked, as in other naval establishments on land,
"the sting of the birch", another favourite in public schools.
Flogging round the fleet
"The
severest form of flogging was a flogging round the fleet. The number of
lashes was divided by the number of ships in port and the offender was
rowed between ships for each ship's company to witness the punishment." Penalties of hundreds of lashes were imposed for the gravest offences, including sedition and mutiny.
The prisoner was rowed around the fleet in an open boat and received a
number of his lashes at each ship in turn, for as long as the surgeon
allowed. Sentences often took months or years to complete, depending on
how much a man was expected to bear at a time. Normally 250–500 lashes
would kill a man, as infections would spread." After the flogging was completed, the sailor's lacerated back was frequently rinsed with brine or seawater, which was thought to serve as a crude antiseptic (although it is now known that seawater contains significant microbial components).
Although the purpose was to control infection, it caused the sailor to
endure additional pain, and gave rise to the expression "rubbing salt
into his wounds", which came to mean vindictively or gratuitously
increasing a punishment or injury already imposed.
British Army
The British Army had a similar multiple whip, though much lighter in construction, made of a drumstick with attached strings. The flogger was usually a drummer rather than a strong bosun's mate. Flogging with the cat o' nine tails fell into disuse around 1870.
Whereas the British naval cat rarely cut (contrary to graphic
films) but rather abraded the skin, the falls (tresses) of the British
Army cat were lighter (around 3.2 mm (1⁄8 in))
and the string was in fact codline - a very dense material akin to
tarred string. Although the total whip would weigh only a fraction of a
naval rope cat, the thin, dense codline tresses were far more likely to
cut the skin.
It was also used elsewhere in the empire, notably at the penal colonies in Australia, and also in Canada (a dominion in 1867) where it was used until 1881. An 1812 drawing
shows a drummer apparently lashing the buttocks of a naked soldier who
is tied with spread legs on an A-frame made from sergeants' half pikes.
In many places, soldiers were generally flogged stripped to the waist.
Prison usage
The cat-o'-nine-tails was also used on adult convicts in prisons; a 1951 memorandum
(possibly confirming earlier practice) ordered all UK male prisons to
use only cat o' nine tails (and birches) from a national stock at Wandsworth
prison, where they were to be 'thoroughly' tested before being supplied
in triplicate to a prison whenever a flogging was pending for use as
prison discipline. In the 20th century, this use was confined to very
serious cases involving violence against a prison officer, and each
flogging had to be confirmed by central government.
Penal colonies in Australia
Especially harsh floggings were given with it in secondary penal colonies of early colonial Australia, particularly at such places as Norfolk Island (apparently this had 9 leather thongs, each with a lead weight, meant as the ultimate deterrent for hardened life-convicts), Port Arthur and Moreton Bay (now Brisbane).
Modern uses and types
Judicial corporal punishment was removed from the statute book in
Great Britain in 1948. The cat was still being used in Australia in 1957
and is still in use in a few Commonwealth countries, although the cane
is used in more countries.
However, some former colonies in the Caribbean have reinstated flogging with the cat. Antigua and Barbuda reinstated it in 1990, followed by the Bahamas in 1991 (where, however, it was subsequently banned by law) and Barbados in 1993 (only to be formally declared inhumane and thus unconstitutional by the Barbados Supreme Court).
Trinidad and Tobago
never banned the "cat". Under the Corporal Punishment (Offenders over
Sixteen) Act 1953, use of the "cat" was limited to male offenders over
the age of 16. The age limit was raised in 2000 to 18.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has been accused of torture
and "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment of prisoners, and in 2005
was ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
to pay US$50,000 for "moral damages" to a prisoner who had received 15
strokes of the "cat" plus expenses for his medical and psychological
care; it is unclear whether the Court's decisions were implemented.
Trinidad and Tobago did not acknowledge the Court's jurisdiction, since
it had denounced the American Convention on Human Rights several years
before the Court started hearing this case.
To run the gauntlet is to take part in a form of corporal punishment in which the party judged guilty is forced to run between two rows of soldiers, who strike out and attack him.
Etymology and spelling
The word originates from Swedish: gatlopp, from gata "lane" and lopp "course, running".[1] It was borrowed into English in the 17th century, probably from English and Swedish soldiers fighting in the Protestant armies during the Thirty Years' War. The word in English was originally spelled gantelope or gantlope, but soon its pronunciation was influenced by the unrelated word gauntlet, meaning an armored glove, derived from the French: gantelet. The spelling changed with the pronunciation. Both senses of gauntlet had the variant spelling gantlet. For the punishment, the spelling gantlet is preferred in American Englishusage guides by Bryan Garner and Robert Hartwell Fiske and is listed as a variant spelling of gauntlet by American dictionaries. British dictionaries label gantlet as American.
Predecessor in antiquity
Known as Xylokopia in Ancient Greece, used as a severe military punishment and Fustuarium (a Latin abstraction from the Latin fustis, a branch or rod) in the Roman military as a form of execution by cudgeling (clubbing).
It could also be applied to every tenth man of a whole unit as a mode of decimation.
Post-Roman usage
Spiessgasse (pike-alley), from the Frundsberger War Book of Jost Amman, 1525
A very similar military punishment found in later armies was known as
"running the gauntlet". The condemned soldier was stripped to the waist
and had to pass between a double row (hence also known as die Gasse, "the alley") of cudgeling or switching comrades. A subaltern
walked in front of him with a blade to prevent him from running. The
condemned might sometimes also be dragged through by a rope around the
hands or prodded along by a pursuer.
Various rules might apply, such as banning edged weapons,
requiring the group to keep one foot in place, or allowing the soldier
to attempt to protect his head with his hands. The punishment was not
necessarily continued until death. If so, he might be finished off when
unable to walk or if he managed to reach the end of rows. Running the
gauntlet was considered far less of a dishonor than a beating (with
exposure to ridicule) on the pillory, pranger, or stocks, since one could "take it like a man" upright and among soldiers.
In some traditions, if the condemned was able to finish the run
and exit the gauntlet at the far end, his faults would be deemed paid,
and he would rejoin his comrades with a clean slate. Elsewhere, he was
sent back through the gauntlet until death.
A Prussian cavalry variation was to beat the condemned with stirrup straps instead of rods.
It was also common practice in the French army, especially for thieves.
Also used in training, notably on military cadets, as in a scene in the movie Oberst Redl.
There was also a naval version of the gauntlet, notably used in the
Royal Navy as a punishment for minor offences such as leaving the crew
berths in an unsanitary state, or failing to return on time from leave.
The condemned was ordered to make a prescribed number of circuits
around the ship's deck, while his shipmates struck him with improvised
versions of the cat o' nine tails.
Runs of the gauntlet could also be preceded by a dozen lashes from the
boatswain's cat o' nine tails, so that any subsequent blows from the
crew would aggravate the lacerations on his back.
The effectiveness of the punishment would somewhat depend on the
popularity of the sailor being punished, and the seriousness of the
offence. In 1760 Francis Lanyon, a seaman aboard the guardship HMS Royal George,
was sentenced to three runs of the gauntlet, for failing to return from
leave. The crew clearly disagreed with the punishment, as the ship's
lieutenant later recorded that Lanyon received no substantive injury
from the process. The naval punishment of running the gauntlet was abolished by Admiralty Order in 1806.
Mild forms, not intended to cause permanent damage, have also been used on or by children.
In the early records of the Dutch colonial settlement of New Amsterdam
appears a detailed description of running the "Gantlope/Gantloppe" as a
punishment for the "Court Martial of Melchior Claes" (a soldier). It
states "... The Court Marshall doe adjudge that hee shall run the
Gantlope once the length of the fort, where according to the Custome of
that punishment the souldyers shall have switches delivered to them with
which they shall strike him as he passes through them stript to the
wast, and at the fort gate the Marshall is to receive him and there to
kick him out of the Garrison as a cashiered person where hee is no more
to returne ..."
In Sweden, running the gauntlet was also a civilian punishment
for certain crimes until the 18th century. The practice also persisted
in parts of Germany (mainly Prussia) and Austria as the Spießrutenlaufen, or "pike-run", and also in Russia, until the 19th century.
An example of the Royal Navy's variation of the gauntlet can be seen in the Hornblower film The Examination for Lieutenant,
wherein Acting Lieutenant Hornblower and Matthews take the role of
Master-at-Arms and Corporal and lead a sailor through the Gauntlet. The
sailor in question was carefully guided through by swordpoint - one
sword ahead of him (Hornblower's) to ensure that he did not rush through
the Gauntlet, and one sword at his back (Matthews') to ensure he did
not run away and was also moved through the Gauntlet. The film shows the
lacerations caused by the knittles were effective, with blood running
freely down the condemned man's back by the time a halt to the process
was called for by Captain Sir Edward Pellew.
In Outlander season 4, Young Ian Murray and Roger Wakefield both run the gauntlet for the Mohawk to determine if they are adopted into the tribe, or must remain prisoners.
Native American usage
A captive runs the gauntlet between Shawnee warriors.
A number of Native American tribes of the Eastern Woodlands culture area forced prisoners to run the gauntlet (see Captives in American Indian Wars). The Jesuit Isaac Jogues was subject to this treatment while a prisoner of the Iroquois in 1641. He described the ordeal in a letter that appears in the book The Jesuit Martyrs of North America:
"Before arriving (at the Iroquois Village) we met the young men of the
country, in a line armed with sticks...", and he and his fellow
Frenchmen were made to walk slowly past them "for the sake of giving
time to anyone who struck us."
Modern use
The original meanings of the phrase notwithstanding, the expression (to run) the gauntlet
has been applied to various less severe punishments or tests, often
consisting of consecutive blows or tasks endured sequentially and
delivered collectively, especially by colleagues such as roommates or
fraternity brothers. As these do not usually cause serious injuries,
only bearable pain, the rituals are sometimes eagerly anticipated by the
initiate as a sign of acceptance into a more prestigious group. Because
of this, Running the gauntlet is considered a Hazing ritual.
The phrase running the gauntlet has also been used, informally, to express the idea of a public but painless, ritual humiliation such as the walk of shame or perp walk, or to indicate a series of difficult trials that one must overcome. It is sometimes confused with the phrase run the gamut.
Fitness trail in communist Poland
During the days of the People's Republic of Poland, the Communist
authorities forced political dissidents, criminals, protestors, and
prisoners through a gauntlet-like process, which they called the "ścieżka zdrowia" (literally health path, but idiomatically used to mean early fitness trails).
In KOR, A History of the Worker's Defense Committee in Poland, 1976–1981, Jan Józef Lipski documents the experience of one such criminal during the June 1976 protests:
On the first day I walked the "path
of health" on the way from a truck to the police van, about 50 metres.
They ordered me to walk slowly so that each one could hit me. They beat
me with fists, clubs, boots. At the very end, I fell down. I couldn't
get up again under the hail of clubs... A "path of health" from the van
to the second floor... When they took us to get haircuts – another "path
of health" some 40 metres long, from the door of the room all the way
to the car... Yet another 10 metres in the corridor leading to the
table... Then, a "path of health" (10 meters) to cell number nine... to
the court in a prison truck; of course another "path of health"... then
again a "path" from prison to prison. I survived another "path of
health" in the morning when they took me to Kielce.
— Waldemar Michalski
Military custom
Similar practices are used in other initiations and rites of passage, as on pollywogs (those passing the equator for the first time;
includes a paddling version) or in aviation when a new pilot gets their
first license. It has also been used to "tack on" a recently promoted
enlisted person's rank insignia.
In one Tailhook Association convention for Navy and Marine Corps pilots, female participants were allegedly forced to run the gauntlet in a hotel hallway as male participants fondled them.
Sports
In certain team sports such as lacrosse and hockey, the gauntlet is a common name for a type of drill whereby players are blocked or checked by the entire team in sequence.
New belt promotion being celebrated by running the gauntlet of belts.
In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
when a student is promoted to their next coloured belt, they are
sometimes required to run between two rows of their fellow students as
they are struck by them with their own belts.
Goliardia
In University of Padua, where goliardia
is still an important part of college life, graduation is often
celebrated (among other things) by running the gauntlet as friends and
colleagues slap and kick the laureato (graduate or bachelor).
A war resister is a person who resists war. The term can mean
several things: resisting participation in all war, or a specific war,
either before or after enlisting in, being inducted into, or being conscripted into a military force.
In 2008 and 2009, the Parliament of Canada
officially adopted the term "war resister" to include those who are not
necessarily opposed to all war, but who selectively refused to
participate in the Iraq War. This practice was also adopted by various media in Canada at various times.
On November 9, 2010, Canadian writer Peter Smollett referred to people opposing World War I as "war resisters." Among the people he mentioned were Albert Goodwin and Siegfried Sassoon.
In international law, specifically the Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), there is discussion of "refugee status after desertion" as
being legitimate under international law. The Handbook states:
“171. Not every conviction, genuine though it may be, will constitute a sufficient reason for claiming refugee status after desertion
or draft-evasion. It is not enough for a person to be in disagreement
with his government regarding the political justification for a
particular military action. Where, however, the type of military action,
with which an individual does not wish to be associated, is condemned
by the international community
as contrary to basic rules of human conduct, punishment for desertion
or draft-evasion could, in the light of all other requirements of the
definition, in itself be regarded as persecution.”
Canadian law
The federal law-making body of Canada is the Parliament of Canada. The term "war resister" is used in the official documents of the Parliament of Canada: On November 22, 2007, a Canadian Parliamentary Committee "commenced its study of Iraq war resisters" This Committee work resulted in a motion which also used the term "war resisters" and which was passed twice by the House of Commons of Canada: on June 3, 2008 and on March 30, 2009. After the motion passed the first time, the media began to use the term "war resister," also.
There was some controversy when the Canadian Supreme Court
refused to hear the appeals of two American army deserters, Jeremy
Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, whose requests for refugee status were
denied. Both had deserted to Canada in 2004 after learning they were to
be deployed to Iraq. The high court, as usual, gave no reasons for its
refusal.
Earlier the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal upheld
the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) findings that the two did not
qualify as Convention refugees.
Both faced court martial and up to five years in jail as deserters if
returned. Lawyer Faisal Kutty argued that the IRB and the court appear
to have danced around the politically sensitive issues and existing case
law. Their arguments that they did not want to participate in an
illegal war and that they would be punished for acting on their
conscience was rejected by the IRB. The adjudicators held that they were
not conscientious objectors (because they were not opposed to wars in
general); the U.S. was willing and able to protect them; and that their
treatment would not amount to persecution.
Paragraph 171 of UN Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for
Determining Convention Refugee Status provides that where the type of
military action with which an individual does not wish to be associated
is condemned by the international legal community as contrary to rules
of human conduct, punishment for desertion could be regarded as
persecution.
In denying both claims, the adjudicators opined that the legal
status of the war in Iraq had no bearing on the analysis of paragraph
171. This determination was one of the issues on which the matters were
appealed to the Federal Court, but Justice Anne Mactavish, noted in
separate decisions (Hughey v. Canada [2006] F.C. 421 and Hinzman v.
Canada [2006] F.C. 420) that this question was not an issue before her
and did not have to be decided.
The duo's lawyer, Jeffrey House, says the decisions at both
levels were also based on the erroneous view that American jurisprudence
gives war resisters the right to seek a remedy if they question the
legality of a war. In fact, he argues that this is not true. The
leading case on the “political questions doctrine” which revolves around
whether people can challenge the legality of war based on their
conscience and international law was turned down by the United States
Supreme Court in Callan v. Bush. Given this situation, the U.S. is not
in a position to provide protection to resisters, notes House. House
himself was a war resister.
The existing case law from the Federal Court of Appeal, Al-Maisri
v. Canada [1995] F.C. J. No. 642, appears on point and yet was rejected
by Justice Mactavish as being of “limited assistance.” The case
involved a Yemeni who was denied status by the IRB. Al-Maisri
acknowledged he was prepared to fight for Yemen to protect it from
aggression, but was not prepared to fight for Iraq against Kuwait. Yemen
was an Iraqi supporter. The Court of Appeal held that “non-defensive
incursion into foreign territory” was within the ambit of paragraph 171
and overturned the IRB decision. “What is wrong for Saddam Hussein
should be wrong for the Americans as well,” says House, a Vietnam-era
draft dodger.
Justice Mactavish held that the legality of the conflict is
irrelevant when analyzing paragraph 171 when “one is considering the
claim of a low-level ‘foot soldier’.” Yet, Al-Maisri was also a ‘foot
soldier.’ Justice Mactavish admitted that “given the decision of the
Court of Appeal in Al-Maisri, it is fair to say that the issue is not
entirely free from doubt,” and proceeded to certify this question, which
gave the two an automatic right of appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Authorities in Canada and the U.S closely monitored the
politically sensitive case. Indeed, the case became the proverbial
public relations “hot potato” for the U.S. At the initial hearing, a
former U.S. Marine testifying in Hinzman's support stated that American
soldiers in Iraq routinely violated international law by killing unarmed
civilians, including women and children. Affidavits from two
international law professors confirming the illegality of the war and
reports from Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of the
Red Cross documenting the abuses and violations were also filed.
The Vietnam War had considerable effects on Canada – and Canada and Canadians affected the war.
The Canadian government did not officially participate in the war. However, it contributed to peacekeeping forces in 1973 to help enforce the Paris Peace Accords.
Privately, some Canadians contributed to the war effort. Canadian corporations sold war materiel to the Americans. In addition, at least 30,000 Canadians volunteered to serve in the American armed forces during the war. At least 134 Canadians died or were reported missing in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of American Vietnam War resisters emigrated to Canada to avoid the draft. Largely middle class and educated, they had a significant impact on Canadian life. After the war, tens of thousands of Vietnamese boat people were also admitted and became a unique part of Canadian life.
Beginnings
During the First Indochina War
between France and the Indo-Chinese nationalist and communist parties,
Canada remained militarily uninvolved but provided modest diplomatic and
economic support to the French. Canada was, however, part of the International Control Commission (along with Poland and India) that oversaw the 1954 Geneva Agreements
that divided Vietnam, provided for French withdrawal and would have
instituted elections for reunification by 1956. Behind the scenes,
Canadian diplomats tried to discourage both France and the United States
from escalating the conflict in a part of the world Canadians had
decided was not strategically vital.
Canada laid out six prerequisites to joining a war effort or Asian alliance like SEATO:
It had to involve cultural and trade ties in addition to a military alliance.
It had to demonstrably meet the will of the people in the countries involved.
Other free Asian states had to support it directly or in principle.
France had to refer the conflict to United Nations.
Any multilateral action must conform to the UN charter.
Any action had to be divorced from all elements of colonialism.
These criteria effectively guaranteed Canada would not participate in the Vietnam War.
At the start of the Vietnam War, Canada was a member of the International Control Commission
(ICC) overseeing the implementation of the Geneva Agreements, and thus
attempted to maintain an air of neutrality. However, the Canadian
negotiators were strongly on the side of the Americans. One
representative (Blair Seaborn, younger brother of Robert Seaborn)
was even involved in secretly exchanging messages between the U.S. and
North Vietnam on behalf of the Americans, with the approval of the
Canadian government. Canada also sent foreign aid to South Vietnam,
which, while humanitarian, was directed by the Americans.
Canada tried to mediate between the warring countries, aiming for a
conclusion that could allow the U.S. to leave the conflict honorably,
but also reportedly publicly (if mildly) criticized American war
methods.Text of a speech which Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson gave at
Temple University in Philadelphia in 1965 has debunked this widespread
rumor, with Pearson even stating "The government and great majority of
people of my country have supported wholeheartedly the US peacekeeping
and peacemaking policies in Vietnam."
Meanwhile, Canadian industry exported military supplies and raw materials useful in their manufacture, including ammunition, napalm and Agent Orange, to the United States, as trade between the two countries carried on unhindered.
"500 firms sold $2.5 billion of war materials (ammunition,
napalm, aircraft engines and explosives) to the Pentagon. Another $10
billion in food, beverages, berets and boots for the troops was exported
to the U.S., as well as nickel, copper, lead, oil, brass for shell
casings, wiring, plate armour and military transport. In Canada
unemployment fell to record low levels of 3.9%".
Although these exports were sales by Canadian companies, not
gifts from the Canadian government, they benefited the American war
effort nonetheless. The first official response to the economic support
being given to the United States military from the government was by Lester B. Pearson
on March 10, 1967 that the export of goods to their southern ally was
"necessary and logical" due to the extreme integration of both
economies, and that an embargo would also be a notice of withdrawal from
North American defense arrangements.
As the war escalated, relations between Canada and the United States deteriorated. On April 2, 1965, Pearson gave a speech at Temple University
in the United States which, in the context of firm support for U.S.
policy, called for a pause in the bombing of North Vietnam. In a perhaps
apocryphal story, when a furious PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
met with Pearson the next day, he grabbed the much smaller Canadian by
his lapels and talked angrily with him for an hour. After this incident,
the two men somehow found ways to resolve their differences over the
war—in fact, they both had further contacts, including later twice
meeting in Canada.
Canada's official diplomatic position in relation to the Vietnam War
was that of a non-belligerent, which imposed a ban on the export of
war-related items to the combat areas.
Nonetheless, Canadian industry was also a major supplier of equipment
and supplies to the American forces, not sending these directly to South Vietnam
but to the United States. Sold goods included relatively benign items
like boots, but also aircraft, munitions, napalm and commercial defoliants, the use of which was fiercely opposed by anti-war protesters at the time.
In accordance with the 1956 Defence Production Sharing Agreement, Canadian industry sold $2.47 billion in materiel to the United States between 1965 and 1973.
Many of the companies were owned by US parent firms, but all export
sales over $100,000 US (and thus, the majority of contracts) were
arranged through the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a crown corporation which acted as an intermediary between the United States Department of Defense and Canadian industry. In some cases Canadian defence contractors were even sent to the theatre of war to carry out company work such as when de Havilland Canada sent mobile repair teams from the Downsview (Toronto) plant to carry out depot level repair on battle damaged de Havilland Caribou aircraft that were owned and operated by the U.S. Army. Furthermore, the Canadian and the American Defence departments worked together to test chemical defoliants for use in Vietnam. Canada also allowed their NATO ally to use Canadian facilities and bases for training exercises and weapons testing as per existing treaties.
Between January 28, 1973 and July 31, 1973, Canada provided 240 peacekeeping troops to Operation Gallant, the peace keeping operation associated with the International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) Vietnam, along with Hungary, Indonesia, and Poland. Their role was to monitor the cease-fire in South Vietnam per the Paris Peace Accords. After Canada's departure from the Commission, it was replaced by Iran.
Canadians in the U.S. military
The Canadian Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Windsor, Ontario, commemorates Canadians who died fighting alongside American forces in Vietnam.
Toronto-born Peter C. Lemon served with distinction in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
In a counter-current to the movement of American draft evaders and
deserters to Canada, about 30,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in
southeast Asia. Among the volunteers were fifty Mohawks from the Kahnawake reserve near Montreal. One hundred ten Canadians died in Vietnam, and seven remain listed as missing in action. U.S. Army SergeantPeter C. Lemon, an American immigrant from Canada, was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for his valour in the conflict. (This cross-border enlistment was not unprecedented: Both the First and the Second World War saw thousands of Americans join the Canadian Armed Forces before the U.S officially declared war on Germany).
In 2015, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) produced a story remembering the Canadians who fought and died in the war.
According to that story, which ran eight years after the CBC story
referenced above, a Canadian veterans association estimates that 20,000
Canadians enlisted in the U.S. armed forces to fight alongside the
Americans, while some historians put the number as high as 40,000. Of these, an estimated 12,000 saw combat in Vietnam, and at least 134 were killed or declared missing there.
The 2015 CBC story paid special attention to Rob McSorley, a
teen-age Army Ranger from Vancouver who was shot dead by North
Vietnamese soldiers. Other Canadians who gave their lives and were recognized in the story include:
Thomas Edwin Fraser of the Six Nations Reserve in Ohsweken Ont.
Randolph Hatton from Toronto
Robert Wilson Holditch from Port Robinson Ont.
Bruce Thomas Kennedy from Espanola Ont.
Jonathan Peter Kmetyk from St. Catharines Ont.
John J. Roden from Halifax N.S.
Larry Semeniuk from Windsor Ont.
Murray Dean Vidler from Kerrobert Sask.
In Windsor, Ontario, there is a privately funded monument to the Canadians killed in the Vietnam War. In Melocheville, Quebec, there is a monument dating from October 1989 funded by the Association Québécoise des Vétérans du Vietnam.
American war resisters in Canada
American draft evaders (often referred to by the disparaging term "draft dodgers") and military deserters
who sought refuge in Canada during the Vietnam War would ignite
controversy among those seeking to immigrate to Canada, some of it
provoked by the Canadian government's initial refusal to admit those who
could not prove that they had been discharged from [American] military
service. This changed in 1968.
On May 22, 1969, Ottawa announced that immigration officials would not
and could not ask about immigration applicants' military status if they
showed up at the border seeking permanent residence in Canada.
According to Valerie Knowles, draft evaders were usually
college-educated sons of the middle class who could no longer defer
induction into the Selective Service System.
Deserters, on the other hand, were predominantly sons of the
lower-income and working classes who had been inducted into the armed
services directly from high school or who had volunteered, hoping to
obtain a skill and broaden their limited horizons.
Starting in 1965, Canada became a choice haven for American draft
evaders and deserters. Because they were not formally classified as
refugees but were admitted as immigrants, there is no official estimate
of how many draft evaders and deserters were admitted to Canada during
the Vietnam War. One informed estimate puts their number between 30,000
and 40,000.
Whether or not this estimate is accurate, the fact remains that
emigration from the United States was high as long as America was
involved militarily in the war and maintained compulsory military
service; in 1971 and 1972 Canada received more immigrants from the
United States than from any other country.
Draft evaders
Mark Satin (left) counseling American Vietnam War evaders at the Anti-Draft Programme office in Toronto, 1967.
Estimates vary greatly as to how many Americans settled in Canada for the specific reason of dodging the draft or "evading conscription,"
as opposed to desertion, or other reasons. Canadian immigration
statistics show that 20,000 to 30,000 draft-eligible American men came
to Canada as immigrants during the Vietnam era. The BBC stated that "as many as 60,000 young American men dodged the draft."
Estimates of the total number of American citizens who moved to Canada
due to their opposition to the war range from 50,000 to 125,000 This exodus was "the largest politically motivated migration from the United States since the United Empire Loyalists moved north to oppose the American Revolution." Major communities of war resisters formed in Montreal, the Slocan Valley, British Columbia, and on Baldwin Street in Toronto, Ontario.
They were at first assisted by the Student Union for Peace Action, a campus-based Canadian anti-war group with connections to Students for a Democratic Society. Canadian immigration policy at the time made it easy for immigrants from all countries to obtain legal status in Canada.
By late 1967, draft evaders were being assisted primarily by several
locally based anti-draft groups (over twenty of them), such as the
Vancouver Committee to Aid American War Objectors and the Toronto Anti-Draft Programme. As a counselor for the Programme, Mark Satin wrote the Manual for Draft-Age Immigrants to Canada in 1968. It sold nearly 100,000 copies overall. In 1970, Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot recorded his song "Sit Down Young Stranger" to express his views on Canada's acceptance of American draft evaders.
Quebec gay rights advocate Michael Hendricks (right) is one American war resister who affected Canadian life.
The influx of these young men, who (as mentioned earlier) were often well educated
and politically leftist, affected Canada's academic and cultural
institutions, and Canadian society at large. These new arrivals tended
to balance the "brain drain" that Canada had experienced. While some draft evaders returned to the United States after a pardon was declared in 1977 during the administration of Jimmy Carter, roughly half of them stayed in Canada.
Prominent draft evaders who stayed in Canada permanently, or for a significant amount of time, have included:
Mike Fisher – founding member of Heart, notable rock/pop band
Distinct from draft resisters, there were also deserters from the
American forces who also made their way to Canada. There was pressure
from the United States and Canada to have them arrested, or at least
stopped at the border.
The deserters have not been pardoned and may still face pro forma arrest, as the case of Allen Abney demonstrated in March 2006.
Another similar case was that of Richard Allen Shields: He had
deserted the U.S. Army in Alaska in 1972 after serving a year in
Vietnam. Twenty-eight years later, on March 22, 2000, while he attempted
to drive a lumber truck across the US-Canada border (in Metaline Falls,
Washington) he was arrested by U.S. Customs agents and jailed at Fort Sill.
He was discharged from the Army with an Other Than Honorable discharge in April 2000.
Other noteworthy deserters from that era include the following:
Michael Shaffer: "After six months in the Army, my application for
CO status was denied and I was told that I would be going to Vietnam. I
refused to draw my weapon and was ordered court-martialed. On Labour Day
1970 I was able to escape and cross into Canada ... During President Ford's Clemency Program
in 1975, I went to Fort Dix seeking the "Undesirable Discharge" offered
to deserters who turned themselves in. The Army decided that I wasn't
eligible and court-martial proceedings were resumed. With help from the
ACLU, I was released and two years later a Federal Court ordered the
Army to discharge me Honourably as a Conscientious Objector ... I
remained in Vancouver"
Mike Tulley - Edmonton, Alberta area sound engineer and social activist
Missing-text controversy
In
February 2009, text on how both draft evaders and resisters of the
Vietnam War were ultimately allowed to stay in Canada suddenly vanished
from the website of the Department of Citizenship and ImmigrationCanada."
Originally, the Government of Canada website had contained the following statements:
... Starting in 1965, Canada became a choice haven for
American draft resisters and deserters, ... Although some of these
transplanted Americans returned home after the Vietnam War, most of them
put down roots in Canada, making up the largest, best-educated group
this country had ever received.
The removal from the Citizenship and Immigration website occurred in the same month that its multi-party counterpart, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration was debating that issue: On February 12, 2009, that multi-party committee passed, for the second time, a non-binding motion reaffirming Parliament's earlier (June 2008) vote which recommended that the government let Iraq War resisters stay in Canada. A month and a half later, on March 30, 2009, the House of Commons of Canada again voted in a non-binding motion 129 to 125 in favour of the committee's recommendation.
The Vietnam War continued to resonate in Canada long after the war was over.
Vietnamese boat people
After the fall of South Vietnam in April 1975, hundreds of thousands of refugees, called boat people,
fled Vietnam and adjacent nations. According to Canadian immigration
historian Valerie Knowles, from 1979 to 1980 Canada admitted an
estimated 60,000 of these refugees, "most of whom had endured several
days in small, leaky boats, prey to vicious pirate attacks, before
ending up in squalid camps". Knowles says it was the highest number of boat people accepted by any nation, including the United States, during that period. The boat people constituted 25% of all newcomers admitted to Canada from 1978 to 1981. This created a substantial Vietnamese community in Canada, concentrated especially in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto.
Cultural and political shifts
The Vietnam War was an important cultural turning point in Canada. Coupled with Canada's centenary in 1967 and the success of Expo 67,
Canada became far more independent and nationalistic. The public, if
not their representatives in parliament, became more willing to oppose
the United States and to move in a different direction socially and
politically.
Agent Orange in New Brunswick
In 1981, a government report revealed that Agent Orange, the controversial defoliant, had been tested at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick. In June 1966, the chemical was sprayed over nearly 600 acres (2.4 km2) of forest inside the base. There are differing opinions about the level of toxicity of the site;
but, in 2006, the Canadian government said it planned to compensate
some of those who were exposed. As of 2011, some claims have been paid
but the administration of the compensation program has been criticized.
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