Dec 19, 2014
CBC News
Dalhousie president response: Dalhousie University president Richard Florizone
The controversy at Dalhousie around response to a public facebook degradation of a number of women by a male club of dental students. Professor Jennifer Llewellyn contributes to the President’s address (cf minute 25-32 and again at 37- 41). This issue is a RJ response in vivo with issues falling on both sides, concerns around victims and offenders, the choice of methods, and pro’s and con’s around the options. Several points of focus here: in the healing vs punishment concern, in the age of most of the offenders and victims, in the institutional stance for RJ vs a purely legal / criminal stance, the political overtones, particularly in the light of the recent scene on Parliament Hill. Another issue that hangs around the question is about whether RJ can deliver real resolution in serious and violent crime or is it just for shoplifting? http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/NS/ID/2641007730 (A 41 minute video press conference.) Related articles: CBC News – NS – Dalhousie misogyny – Dalhousie University president Richard Florizone announces steps he will take in response to sexually explicit Facebook posts http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/NS/ID/2641039783 Related article: CBC News NS – Dalhousie dentistry student calls restorative justice plan ‘shocking’ – Nova Scotia health minister could block licensing process http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousie-dentistry-student-calls-restorative-justice-plan-shocking-1.2877922 Related article: Toronto Star – Katrina Clarke Up to three in 10 women may have been raped, poll shows http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/12/19/up_to_three_in_10_women_may_have_been_raped_poll_shows.html Related article: Chronicle Herald (Halifax) Lezlie Lowe Restorative justice best course for Dal ‘Gentlemen’ http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/1258622-lowe-restorative-justice-best-course-for-dal-%E2%80%98gentlemen%E2%80%99 Related article: Chronicle Herald – Aaron Beswick Prominent Dal alumni may cut ties after controversy at dentistry school http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1258563-prominent-dal-alumni-may-cut-ties-after-controversy-at-dentistry-school
Toronto Star – Amy Dempsey
No hospital at new Ontario super jail; sick inmates kept in solitary
Would you believe? The brand new state of the art super-jail in Toronto – The Toronto South Detention Centre – has a 26 bed hospital wing, amply shown off when media got a tour before the opening in January. But, anyone who is sick – mentally or physically – is put into solitary confinement cells? At a time when a large part of the prison population is identified with having mental illness, when the population is aging and many are serving until sentence expiry rather than applying for parole. http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/12/18/no_hospital_at_new_ontario_superjail_sick_inmates_kept_in_solitary.html Related article: Two 1 ½ hour videos on a public forum on solitary confinement or administrative segregation from a recent University of Saskatchewan session with Paul Gendreau, Howard Sapers, and Kim Pate. Public Forum on Solitary Confinement, Parts 1 and 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yWhcpCSflE CBC The Current – Ashley Smith’s mother says it’s time to limit solitary confinement in prison http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/12/19/ashley-smiths-mother-says-its-time-to-limit-solitary-confinement-in-canadian-prisons
Ottawa Citizen – Mark Kennedy
Top aboriginal chief urges Harper to reconsider stance on inquiry
Newly elected Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde wants the feds to re-consider an inquiry on murdered or missing women, an issue that is getting to be a measure of the government’s intransigence on a key national issue. Recently Aboriginal Minister Bernard Valcourt made relations more difficult by suggesting that Aboriginals themselves need to do more about respect for women on reserves. Bellegarde pointed out that 73% of the general population in an Angus Reid survey want the inquiry. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/top-aboriginal-chief-urges-harper-to-reconsider-stance-on-inquiry
Globe and Mail – Grant Robertson
The pot stock bubble: Inside the rush to profit from medical marijuana
Dennis Arsenault, the CEO of OrganiGram, an upstart producer of medical marijuana based in Moncton, is genuinely puzzled over the valuation of his company, one of 15 federally licensed to produce medical marijuana in Canada, from its appearance on the Toronto TSX Venture Exchange. Originally, valued at $40 million and yet without significant profit to boast, the stock is now worth $120 million and growing after appearing on the TSX in August of this past year. Other medical marijuana growers have seen similar. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/inside-health-canadas-marijuana-stock-bubble/article22152087
Globe and Mail – Sean Fine
Same-sex marriage harms free speech, new Ontario judge wrote in 2012
One of the two judges recently named from Western University Law School, Bradley Miller, sees some far reaching implications for the acceptance of same-sex marriage in Canada: the “new orthodoxy” will mean those who object to it are treated as bigots and denied their rights as parents, workers, pamphleteers or religious believers. Miller, a constitutional law professor until Jan. 16, 2015, expressed his opinions in a conservative law journal in the US some two years ago. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/same-sex-marriage-harms-free-speech-new-ontario-judge-wrote-in-2012/article22136820