Sept 1, 2015
Vancouver Sun – Ian Mulgrew:
Ivan Henry’s lawyer lambastes Crown’s case – Vancouver police, prosecutors used unethical, ‘pathetic’ evidence against wrongfully convicted man
Ivan Henry spent 27 years in jail for conviction on 10 counts of sexual assault in the 1980’s. The conviction was reversed in 2010 and the lawsuit for compensation for faulty conviction has now started. Henry’s lawyer says: “The Vancouver Police Department and prosecutors used unethical, oppressive techniques and “pathetic” evidence to railroad Ivan Henry.” The B.C. Court of Appeal said that no properly instructed jury should have convicted Henry in the first place. Henry’s appeal was denied because there was no access to a copy of the initial trial transcript. http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Mulgrew+Ivan+Henry+lawyer+lambastes+Crown+case/11330752/story.html
IPoltics – Elizabeth Thompson
Two dozen secret cabinet decisions hidden from Parliament, Canadians
Democracy practiced in secret? A review of Orders in Council since 2004 shows that some 25 such orders were made and never recorded publicly as OIC’s are normally. Since last September, eight such orders are missing. Since forming a majority government in 2011, there have been 14 such OIC’s. No one knows what the missing OIC’s are about, just that there have been a significant increase in them. http://ipolitics.ca/2015/09/02/two-dozen-secret-cabinet-decisions-hidden-from-parliament-canadians/
Huffington Post (US) – Michael McLaughlin
California To End Solitary Confinement For Thousands Of Inmates – More than 500 inmates had been kept in isolation for more than a decade when the lawsuit was filed
California, as part of the settlement on a class action lawsuit, will end tomorrow the indefinite use of solitary in windowless and soundproof cells as a means of dealing with gang affiliations. Solitary can still be used for other purposes but for now at least the 500 inmates who spent more than a decade in solitary and the 78 who topped 20 years will be returned to the general population. The lawsuit was first filed in 2012. In total, all over the state prisons in California there are approximately 6400 held in solitary. Supporters are hopeful that this first step will result in an outright ban on solitary everywhere. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/california-solitary-confinement_55e5df4fe4b0aec9f354a7c9
The National Interest (US) – Brenda Seaver
This Is Why Global Income Inequality Is a Real National-Security Threat
Seaver’s explanation of global income inequality as a national security threat is not normally identified as such but she insists that there are political consequences for the perceived inequality. She insists there are four repercussions to accentuated income disparity: border and immigration tensions, transnational organized crime, terrorist recruitment, and challenges to the global order. Seaver is a National Security Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-global-income-inequality-real-national-security-threat-13747
Restorative Justice Ted Talks
Here are three links for video talks delivered at TED or at Simon Fraser University:
Daniel Reisel: The neuroscience of restorative justice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJYY2p0QIc&list=PLTNxuPvprfM44BQz-l9p2t5zzr4_ydFbX&index=1
Simon Fraser’s Brenda Morrison What is restorative justice? Director of SFU’s Centre for Restorative Justice explains https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJYY2p0QIc&list=PLTNxuPvprfM44BQz-l9p2t5zzr4_ydFbX&index=1
SFU Natalie DeFreitas Rethinking the Impact of Traditional Justice: Natalie DeFreitas at TEDxVancouver https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx4ExrPT8Wg&index=3&list=PLTNxuPvprfM44BQz-l9p2t5zzr4_ydFbX
(Ed note: Both Brenda and Natalie are Smart Justice Network Canada directors.)
Vancouver Sun -Harsha Walia
Opinion: Why does Canada jail migrants? Changes in immigration policy have had devastating effect on families
Walia, a founder of No One Is Illegal and a graduate of UBC Law, reports that since 2005 to March of 2015, at least 4,392 children have been forced into detention and she wonders how did we in Canada get here to this place of detention for children and mothers. Even after the hurdles of immigration, permanent residency and citizenship are becoming temporary and conditional, all while the federal government seeks to expand the Temporary Foreign Worker program. http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Opinion+does+Canada+jail+migrants/11330390/story.html Related article: Human Rights Watch (US) – Antonio Ginatta Dispatches: Silencing US Immigration Detainees https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/08/31/dispatches-silencing-us-immigration-detainees