May 10, 2016
Globe and Mail – Gloria Galloway
First Nations leaders want to rethink residential schools agreement
There have been so many gaps in the compensation of the victims of the Aboriginal residential schools that the whole agreement needs to be reviewed, say the Assembly of First Nations Bill Erasmus. The agreement was the largest class action settlement in Canadian history but says Erasmus: “It’s time for a new agreement. We had practice on the first one. Let’s do another. Let’s tighten it up…we know the ups and the downs and the outs and the ins. So we can say, ‘Hey, let’s do this right.’” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/first-nations-leaders-want-to-rethink-residential-schools-agreement/article29948063/ Related article: APTN – Jorge Barrera Trudeau government eyeing NWT’s ‘collaborative consent’ model as part of UNDRIP implementation http://aptn.ca/news/2016/05/09/trudeau-government-eyeing-nwts-collaborate-consent-model-as-part-of-undrip-implementation/ (Link includes a PDF of the actual consent model.) Related article: CBC News N.L. residential school survivors’ lawyers reach $50M settlement with Ottawa http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/residential-school-case-update-1.3574080 Related article: Toronto Star – Melissa Pickles Attawapiskat’s woes not easily undone https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/05/09/attawapiskats-woes-not-easily-undone.html Related article: Ottawa Citizen – Elizabeth Payne ‘Systemic racism’ to blame for poor health care for First Nations: Ottawa doctor http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/systemic-racism-to-blame-for-poor-health-care-for-first-nations-ottawa-doctor
Ottawa Citizen – Andrew Seymour
Inmate who gave birth in segregation cell among speakers at forum on Ottawa jail
The forum is co-sponsored by a likely group – Mothers Offering Mutual Support or MOMS, an active group of advocates for solutions to the many problems plaguing the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre. The problems are well identified – overcrowding, understaffing, internal inertia in the programs, endless delays for lawyer and family visiting and court appearances, poor health services, excessive solitary – but are still without effective solution. The latest offered by the Ministry of Correctional Services is a full body scanner. The inmate mother Julie Bilotta gave birth to a son, Gionni Lee Garlow, on a mattress on the floor of a segregation cell. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/inmate-who-gave-birth-in-segregation-cell-among-speakers-at-forum-on-ottawa-jail (For info on the Thursday public forum in Ottawa, go to irenemathias9@gmail.com or http://www.momsottawa.com/# ) Related article: Ottawa Citizen – Catherine Solyom New allies in the war against extremism: Mothers of jihadist recruits http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/allies+against+extremism+mothers+jihadist+recruits/11901851/story.html Related article: Ottawa Citizen – Andrew Seymour High tech body scanner for Ottawa jail ‘reveals everything’ http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/high-tech-body-scanner-for-ottawa-jail-reveals-everything
Huffington Post (US) – Kim Bellware
Putting Moms in Prison Punishes Their Kids, Too – Family contact is crucial, but policy and poverty often keeps kids and parents apart
The article reveals that 2.7 million kids have a parent in jail in the US, a by-product of the practice of mass incarceration. That translates into 1 of 28 kids. Collete Payne, a community organizer with Cabrini-Green Legal Aid, says: “I know for a fact, when you send women to jail, it divides the family. “It hurts the whole community.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/moms-in-prison_us_572f7808e4b096e9f091bff6
Huffington Post (UK) – Helen Goodman
Setting out a New Agenda to Tackle Inequality: A Response to Mike Savage’s Social Class in the 21st Century
The article, based on a London School of Economics presentation by Goodman, shares the platform with Professor Mike Savage’s recent analysis of class and wealth in the UK society. Savage concludes that the society is growing in inequality, supported by a fantasy that there is more opportunity but more inequality. Goodman says: “So the political task is to build up and distribute more equally each category of capital.” She identifies specific tasks for each of six areas of unequal categories of capital: Jobs, housing, redistribution, education, culture, social networks and geography. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/helen-goodman/inequality_b_9870204.html
Emergency Management News (US) – Kimberley Arseneault
Using Social Media in Emergency Management
The article looks at the use of social media by local government in the unfolding of local emergency. There are both positives and negatives, both getting attention in Canada’s media in the light of the Fort McMurray evacuation of almost 90,000 people. Social media in itself is not enough but there are clear patterns to its positive use. http://edmdigest.com/news/using-social-media-in-emergency-management/
ThinkProgress (US) – Esther Y. Lee
Private Prison CEOs ‘Pleased’ Their Earnings Soared From Keeping Immigrant Kids in Detention
Here’s a report card on the profitability of private prisons – GEO and CCA – in the US and their contracts with the federal government to provide detention for 35,000 per night: business is booming and both prison profitability aided it seems in particular by the immigration practice of detaining mothers and children fleeing the violence of South America. http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2016/05/10/3776565/cca-geo-first-quarter-earnings-report/