Mar 4, 2014
CTV News
Cost of violent crimes topped $12 billion in 2009: Justice Canada study
Justice Canada has examined five different violent crimes in 2009 in this latest study on the cost of violence. The study excluded spousal violence, already done in a separate study ($7.4 billion) but includedevery case of assault, criminal harassment, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault and other sexual offences from 2009.http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/cost-of-violent-crimes-topped-12-billion-in-2009-justice-canada-study-1.1710447#ixzz2us6ReXsw
Toronto Star – Leslie Ferenc
Canada failing homeless youth, report charges – Stress on emergency assistance, not prevention, solves little in the long run, professor says.
Prevention is the key but Gaetz also advocates for providing safe housing – as opposed to shelters – while also offering homeless youth a series of services calculated to support transition into adulthood: mental health, harm reduction and legal services for those in conflict with the law. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/03/03/canada_failing_homeless_youth_report_charges.html Full Report: Stephen Gaetz – Coming of Age: Reimagining the Response to Youth Homelessness in Canada http://www.homelesshub.ca/comingofage#sthash.H2bA0btd.dpuf
CBC News
Residential school survivors want government lawyers turfed
An Ontario Supreme Court judge has faulted the lawyers for the government for withholding documents that could collaborate the abuse claims. “We have completely lost faith and trust in the DOJ lawyers whom [a judge] has found were the people in the federal government who withheld the documents about abuse of children at this school,” says spokesperson Edmund Metatawabin. Efforts to have the government provide complete narratives and to amend those proven incorrect are also stalled. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-school-survivors-want-government-lawyers-turfed-1.2558462
Digital Journal
Study reveals Fort McMurray crime rates well below Alberta, Canadian averages
Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University has completed a study over 10 years of the crime rates in Fort McMurray that reveals a substantially lower crime rate when compared with either Alberta or Canada. The rates were in break-entry-theft, robbery, sexual assault, marijuana distribution; only in the area of prostitution was there a comparable rate. Boyd notes that there has been a 47% decline in crime, that Stats Canada leaves out about 40% of the population, claiming them to be transient and that crime studies need about 10 years to be reliable. http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1769258#ixzz2uvxRxyVP
Ottawa Citizen – Kate Heartfield
Rethinking Canada’s prostitution laws
The Supreme Court has given the Canada one year to re-write Canada’s criminal code dealing with prostitution, laws that do not put sex workers in danger. This article looks at language, the Nordic model, and the philosophy at play in the options available. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/Column+Rethinking+Canada+prostitution+laws/9558662/story.html
Sun Sentinel (Broward, Fl) – Michael Mayo
Police become first responders in mental-health crisis
Based on the notion that police are often first to deal with mental illness, southern Florida counties are training their police and certifying them as Crisis Intervention Team members after a week long intensive session. Besides the specific laws around mental health, there are sessions with mental health crisis experts and seminars on the homeless, the elderly, veterans and those with developmental disabilities. http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-03-02/news/fl-mental-health-mayocol-b030214-20140301_1_de-escalation-techniques-crisis-intervention-team-mental-illness