Reconciliation is harder…

Nov 9, 2017

Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives – Senator Murray Sinclair
The truth is hard. Reconciliation is harder.

The link is a 50 minute and powerful speech by Sinclair celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the CCPA BC office.  The topic is the future of relationship with Indigenous people.  The link makes both a video and a slide presentation available for downloading.  Why is reconciliation with Indigenous people harder than just facing the truth.  Historically, says Sinclair, “Canada waged war through the use of love.”   The two sides currently are struggling and perhaps locked in different views in that one side sees rights, the other benevolence.   https://www.policyalternatives.ca/multimedia/senator-murray-sinclair-truth-hard-reconciliation-harder#sthash.WGGJCybX.uxfs   Slide presentation from Senator Sinclair:  (29 slides summarizing the talk) https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/BC%20Office/2017/10/CCPA-BC-2017-keynote_SenatorMurraySinclairReconciliation.pdf

Homeless Hub (Canada)
A Portable Housing Benefit as an Indispensable Component of Ending Homelessness in Canada

Advocates have generally arrived at the conclusion that many social helps work best if the recipients are also housed safely first.  What is needed after housing first?  The suggestion, a Portable Housing Benefit (PHB) is “called rent assistance, housing allowance, housing voucher, rent supplement, and various other terms. This briefing looks at chronic or episodic homelessness, what is necessary for stability, what the research says, and what recs follow the research.  http://homelesshub.ca/sites/default/files/OFHRN-CoI-Policy-Brief_Portable-Housing-Benefit-FINAL-23Oct17.pdf  (A 12 page down loadable pdf)

Blogger Russell Webster (UK)
Public & Private Probation under-performing in West Mercia

In the UK, government probation services have been using private companies to service probationers and first results just available suggest that both the government or public and the private probation services have been already found wanting, especially in West Mercia.  National Probation Service and private Community Rehabilitation Company were both found to require improvement.  http://www.russellwebster.com/westmercia-probation/

The Sentencing Project (US) – A Webinar
Raise the Age: The Past, Present and Future of Moving Youth Away from Adult Courts

One of the difficult questions in the American justice system is the proclivity to try youth as adults.  The age at which the state can switch the arena varies from state to state.  The growing movement has been to protect 17 year olds from the adult system, such that now, only five states still allow them to be tried as adults.  This webinar addresses the history, present status and future of juvenile justice and charging children as adults.  Register at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1843032563404297475

Government of Ontario
 Income security: A Roadmap for Change

The government has just released a new report on the issue of income security (186 pages downloadable PDF with an executive summary pages 3-23 at https://www.ontario.ca/page/income-security-reform#section-3 ).  The definition of income security is helpful:  essential health needs met, help raising children, employment support, safety at home, support if they have a disability, an effective safety net.  The report suggests three strong themes to be following in this issue:  investing in people, addressing adequacy, and respecting the experience of Indigenous people.  Full report:  https://www.ontario.ca/page/income-security-reform?_ga=2.102844096.116777174.1509628103-2023688940.1504455684

Abacus – Bruce Anderson
Political Risk & Climate Action

Abacus is a public opinion researcher.  The claim is that the attitude of the voting public is changing such that today the majority of Canadian voters would not consider voting for a climate denier or a candidate without convictions on response to climate change.  “The bigger political peril lies in appearing indifferent to a matter of widespread and growing public preoccupation.”   http://abacusdata.ca/political-risk-climate-action/

Medium.com – Christopher Zoukis
Washington State Names Former Inmate to Head Its Re-entry Council

Christopher Poulos has quite a list of credentials for the job of Executive Director to Washington State’s Statewide Re-entry Council, a council made up of diverse people “to study and make policy recommendations on a wide variety of issues, not just corrections and juvenile rehabilitation matters, but also housing, employment, education and other related areas.” But before acquiring the credentials, Poulos was a homeless drug addicted person who was convicted of drug trafficking and who served three years in prison. He, and others, think the conviction, and the jail time, his best credential.  https://medium.com/@czoukis/washington-state-names-former-inmate-to-head-its-reentry-council-e0a799e800c4