June 15, 2014
The Mainlander (Vancouver) – Aiyanas Ormond
The emergence of the neoliberal containment state in Canada | Part I
A fascinating analysis of the Canada we have become! The ‘containment state’ is the term Ormond uses to refer to the growth in repressive institutions and practices in Canada, largely as a means of control of those excluded from the mainstream of a comfortable economic life. While accepting that the Harper government has played a significant role in the growth of these institutions such as prisons and immigration detention practices, Ormond also insists that the approach pre-dates the present government by the frequency of appeal to terrorism and gang rationale for strengthening police and diminishing wealth re-distribution programs such as UI, welfare and immigrant resettlement. Part II to come. http://themainlander.com/2014/06/13/the-emergence-of-the-neoliberal-containment-state-in-canada-part-i Related article: Globe and Mail – Sean Fine Five fundamental ways Harper has changed the justice system http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/five-fundamental-ways-harper-has-changed-the-justice-system/article18503381 Related article: CTV News Sex workers rally across Canada to protest prostitution legislation http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/sex-workers-rally-across-canada-to-protest-prostitution-legislation-1.1869002#ixzz34evBJQIN Related article: Toronto Star – Jessica McDiarmid http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/06/14/sex_workers_protest_in_toronto_against_proposed_legislation.html
CBC News – Jason Proctor
Is neglect of the mentally ill leading to violence on Vancouver streets?
Vancouver has had a rash of street shootings with crowds of people as by-standers caught in the incident. In three previous shootings, all three shooters were eventually determined to be suffering from severe mental illness (NCR) and this latest appears to the a fourth incident of mental illness, prompting the question whether there is a connection with the 43% increase in admissions to St. Paul’s Hospital and the inadequacy of available mental health services. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/is-neglect-of-the-mentally-ill-leading-to-violence-on-vancouver-streets-1.2675062 Related article: Providence Journal (Rhode Island, US) – Stephen Erickson Writer’s tragic take on mental illness http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/commentary/20140614-stephen-p.-erickson-writers-tragic-take-on-mental-illness.ece
Globe and Mail – Sean Fine
Latest PM court move suggests Supreme Court appointment in making
Fine is wondering if an appointment from the Federal Court in Ontario to the Quebec Court of Appeal is the prelude to another Harper appointment to the SCC. Robert Mainville, an expert in aboriginal law, was one of the list of potential SCC appointees following the Nadon fiasco. There will be another SCC vacancy in December when Justice Louis Lebel retires. Critics say that, if true, the process is an effort to circumvent the SCC ruling. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/pm-moves-judge-from-federal-court-to-quebec-court/article19171876
Deseret News (Utah, US) – Amy MacDonald
Income inequality drives who gets elected
MacDonald looks at the question of where to find the greatest income inequality and whether the locales have Democrats or Republicans as representatives and senators in the US government. The tentative conclusion is that the more liberal locales have the greater disparity and the more liberal locales tend to vote democrat. The income disparity is already a clear thrust option by the Democrats for the next presidential election. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605025/Income-inequality-drives-who-gets-elected.html Related article: Huffington Post – Gary Stein Income Disparity and the Minimum Wage: Six Degrees of Separation to the Solution http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-stein/income-disparity-and-the-income-inequality_b_5457293.html
Newsmax (US) – Todd Beamon
Texas Rep. Documents Conditions for Illegals at Detention Center
The latest controversy around immigrant detention in the US lies in the number of children picked up and held in Texas detention centres until the numbers overwhelm and the detainees, even the unaccompanied children, are then sent to Arizona. State authorities for both Texas and Arizona are upset at the added burden federal detainees are placing on their individual state resources, especially when some of the children are picked up in Texas but eventually released in Arizona. It just ain’t working!
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/illegal-immigrants-texas-detention/2014/06/14/id/577071#ixzz34egndmWQ
Sun Sentinel (FL) – Howard Finkelstein
Fund treatment for mentally ill before jail
Broward County Public Defender Finkelstein brings an appalling accusation against the practice of mental health courts: it is so easy now that their existence is creating a streamlined process for incarcerating the disabled and the mentally ill, sometimes indefinitely. Rather than helping, he says, the court has become an albatross weighing down the mentally ill.” http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2014-06-12/news/fl-viewpoint-mental-health-court-20140612_1_health-court-mental-health-treatment-defendants