*THREAD*

In May 2009, Zarabi-Majd (Effy) began her career as a constable in Toronto Police Service (TPS)

Her early evaluations were glowing. Her superiors repeatedly praised her inter­personal skills

Described as amiable,
trustworthy and having a very pleasant personality

1/ Male cops routinely made misogynistic & humiliating remarks about her body and those of other female colleagues

They asked what sexual positions she liked and speculated whether she shaved her genitals

2/

*THREAD*

The Post office was ordered to pay nearly £60 million in compensation to 555 victims

But astronomical legal costs meant that hundreds of sub-postmasters still remain out of pocket and a lot have died before receiving justice.

#PostOfficeScandal Yet while the sub-postmasters and their families' lives were ruined, several prominent members who ran the three institutions responsible for the scandal — the Post Office, IT firm Fujitsu and His Majesty's Government - went on to much bigger and better things.

2/

*THREAD*
Seema Misra who is married to Davinder, took over the Post Office in West Byfleet, Surrey, in 2005

She noticed the Horizon computer system showed a shortfall of £80 on her first day of training

The trainer told her the accounts were never exact She didn’t understand why they wouldn’t tally, especially when it happened again the next day, but the trainer shrugged it off

Her books repeatedly failed to tally with her takings

She started suspecting everybody and even sold her jewellery to pay back the shortfall

2/

*THREAD*

A basic summary of the British Post Office scandal

In 1996 a new accounting system called Horizon was installed in the British Post Office Corporation

This system wrongly reported financial discrepancies at Post office branches

1/ Employees found themselves liable for these discrepancies and were asked to hand over personal money to make good the claimed shortfalls or else be prosecuted.

Over 700 sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted privately and publicly for theft, false accounting and/or fraud

2/

CBE is the highest ranking Order of the British Empire award and are supposed to be given to people to recognise a positive impact they have made in their work.

Doesn't Paula Vennells having a CBE for services to the Post Office make a mockery of the award?

#PostOfficeScandal Fiona McGowan killed herself after being charged with false accounting over £30,000 that went 'missing' from her Edinburgh branch. 

She was 47 when she was driven to end her own life in 2009

Her sons were 12 and 14

No honour in that

#PostOfficeScandal

*THREAD*

On 24 August 2019, a driver saw Ellijah McClain walking down the road and called 911 to report a “sketchy person who might be a good person or a bad person”

The caller said he was not in danger and saw no weapons, but noted Elijah was wearing a ski mask Elijah was 23 years old.

He suffered from anaemia so often wore a mask to keep warm

He was a newly qualified massage therapist

He had taught himself to play guitar and violin so he could play his violin for cats in a rescue shelter during his lunch breaks

2/

*THREAD *

A female prison officer was accused of having phone sex with a drug dealer

Accused of flirting with prisoners & wearing inappropriate clothing at work

Ruth was fired

The truth is she was a whistleblower

So they started a smear campaign to discredit her She had previously reported colleagues who colluded with inmates to tamper with prisoners' food.

Ruth told the jury that prisoners would order 'a special' for an inmate they didn't like - which would see corrupt prison officers spit or pour semen into their meals.

2/

*THREAD *

Daniel Morgan was born in Singapore on 3 November 1949

He worked as a salesman and travel guide, settling in Norwood, London, in his late 20s, married with a wife and two children.

#DanielMorgan In January 1977, Daniel decided to put his exceptional memory for details to use by setting up his own detective agency

On the night of his death, Daniel had a drink with his partner, Jonathan Rees, at the Golden Lion pub before heading to his BMW to return home.

#DanielMorgan

One of the most widely held beliefs about men and women is that since the beginning of time

Males hunt and females gather

Our early ancestors with big brains, tools & a lust for violence, bringing home the meat whilst women waited at home

The original nuclear family

*THREAD* This confirms the belief that women are genetically less likely to take risks or compete which make them less suited for business leadership

Less suited for "dangerous jobs"

Men are the providers which contribute to the gender pay gap

Men have always brought home the bacon

2/

I was on the bus one day with my small kids when an elderly man was verbally assaulted

Everyone got up & moved away

Except me

I sat next to him and created a physical barrier between him and the man screaming threats at him.

I was terrified but refused to leave his side

1/ The bus driver eventually stopped the bus & called the police

Abusive man gets off the bus

I give this old man my phone number & offer to be a witness

He said to me " Did you see how everyone moved away? Thank you for staying with me "

2/

If individual colleagues don’t understand what true allyship looks like, they end up being part of the problem.

Employees need to recognise their individual privilege & power to support and advocate for people with less privilege in order to drive change

*THREAD * The first step is to educate yourself

Listen to experiences of those in minority groups

Read up on systemic inequality

Second step is not to assume, dismiss, minimise or tell minority groups that you know best

2/

My parents owned and ran a Nursery school for years together in South Africa.

When my mum died, my dad decided to loan all the children aged 6 R100 each (about £10 back then)

Their task was to make things and sell them at a market stall at school.

1/4 They had to return the investment of R100 back to him and they used their profit to buy hundreds of books for orphaned children in Polokong Children's Village to create a library for them.

Polokong means "We are free"

My children and I went out and added even more books

2/4

*THREAD*
"Women and children first"

Despite chivalry on board the
#Titanic , men fare better than women in nearly all other maritime disasters

And it wasn't even on board the Titanic that these words were uttered for the first time either On 25th February 1852, HMS Birkenhead, a British troop ship was transporting soldiers destined to fight along South Africa's coast.

There were 643 passengers & crew aboard. Most of them from Scotland, including 25 women & 31 children, who were the family of the soldiers.