Stolen Dreams …

Sept 24, 2019 

BBC (UK)
Greta Thunberg: ‘Leaders failed us on climate change’

A 16 year old Swedish girl has shaken a world audience with the urgency and proximity of global disaster from climate change.  Her remarks before the UN in New York follow an international student Friday-off school protest in powerfully emotional terms calling adults to account for indifference to our global plight.  The remarks have gone viral but it remains to be seen if they will serve to prompt action and countermand the indifference.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49795270  Related article: CBC News – Thomson Reuters   ‘How dare you’: At UN climate summit, Greta Thunberg slams world leaders in emotional address   https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/nyc-un-climate-summit-1.5293734   Related article: CNN News – Veronica Stracqualursi   Trump mocks teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg   https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/politics/trump-greta-thunberg-climate-change-trnd/index.html   Related article: CBC News – Aiden Geary   Supreme Court justices grilled by high school students in Winnipeg  https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/supreme-court-winnipeg-high-schools-1.5294709

WFLA (Florida) –
Florida grandmother outraged after 6-year-old arrested for ‘tantrum’

The officer involved has been dismissed from the police force but the question remains as to what possible perspective on law enforcement would allow the criminalization of a six year.  The case was duplicated that same day by the same officer and this first case terminated only just before the booking process and after handcuffs and mug shots.  What the actions say about police recruiting, decisions about who is fit to be a school police officer, decisions about policy and supervision, whether race was a factor, are all questions calling for the harshest illumination to preclude such outrageous abuse again.  https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/florida-grandmother-outraged-after-6-year-old-arrested-for-tantrum/amp/?__twitter_impression=true  Related article: WFLA News – Orlando officer fired after arresting two 6-year-olds  https://www.wfla.com/news/orlando-officer-fired-after-arresting-two-6-year-olds/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

CBC News – Andrew Kurjata
Inmates ‘riot’ at Prince George jail, take over elevator and damage building: union

Jails in BC have been simmering for some time and there is debate between the guards and the management over whether this latest incident was a ‘riot’ or just an incident prompting a lockdown.  Dean Purdy, vice-president of corrections and sheriff services for the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union draws attention to stress and tension among short staffed guards.  “Staff are burnt out, they’re feeling unsupported, and they’ve been predicting something like this would happen,” he said.  The prison holds 250 inmates and last year in BC assaults on prison guards reached 120 incidents, am all time high.   https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5294279?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar&__twitter_impression=true

Toronto Star – Debbie Douglas and Shalini Konanur
The national conversation we really need about racism in Canada

The black-face incidents are prompting a deeper analysis of the current election climate and suggesting that we need to recognize that racism in Canada needs a full public airing and that there are many factors that make up and define racism beyond the colour of the skin.  Our authors are well placed to offer some further insight: Douglas is ED of OCASI and Konanur the ED of the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, both in Toronto.  https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/09/19/the-national-conversation-we-really-need-about-racism-in-canada.html   Related article: Toronto Star – Bruce Campion-Smith,  Tonda MacCharles, Alex Boutilier and Alex Ballingall  Trudeau again apologizes for wearing blackface, admitting privilege comes with ‘massive blind spot’   https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/09/19/justin-trudeaus-election-campaign-rocked-by-past-incidents-he-acknowledges-were-racist.html   Related article: Toronto Star – Ed Tubb and Gilbert Ngabo   ‘Why did he think this was a good idea?’: In the GTA, complex reactions to Justin Trudeau’s blackface photos   https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/09/19/why-did-he-think-this-was-a-good-idea-in-the-gta-complex-reactions-to-justin-trudeaus-blackface-photos.html   Related article: BC Tyee – Ritika Goel   Trudeau’s Brownface Is a Symptom of a Much More Dangerous Disease   https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/09/19/Trudeau-Brownface-Symptom-More-Dangerous-Disease-Racism-Canada/   Related article: CBC News – Tejpal Singh Swatch   Why did it take a clueless white dude in brownface to get us to talk about race in this election?  https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trudeau-brownface-1.5293433

CBC News – Jessica Deer
Why Haudenosaunee won’t be voting in the federal election this October

After some effort to get Indigenous people out to vote in federal elections, in fact, the last time only about 6% of the Iroquois Nations responded.  “The Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Confederacy includes the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga and Tuscarora nations. Seven communities, mostly Mohawk, are located in southern Quebec and Ontario.”  Said Kenneth Deer, the secretary for the Mohawk Nation at Kahnawake and member of the Haudenosaunee external relations committee:    “We as Mohawks and Haudenosaunee, we don’t believe that we are Canadian or American citizens. We believe that we are sovereign people from before contact.”   Voting in the Canadian election, he said, would be a violation of treaty relations established with the Two Row Wampum belt.   https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/two-row-wampum-haudenosaunee-voting-election-1.5273605    Blogger Cindy Blackstock:  “The federal government was found THIS MONTH to be wilfully and recklessly discriminating against tens of thousands of First Nations kids contributing to child deaths and unnecessary family separation. Make this an election issue.” https://twitter.com/cblackst/status/1176108896030732290

Toronto Star (Vancouver) – Melanie Green and Tessa Vikander
Lawyers predict extradition case for Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou could take up to a decade and set Charter precedent

The apprehension and custody in Vancouver of Huawei’s executive officer Meng Wanzhoyu consequent to a US arrest warrant asking extradition is getting murkier as we go.  Now lawyers are suggesting ten years to resolve the legal and charter issues involved, raising a pressing issue for Canadian law: How could she possibly be held in custody – even house arrest – for ten years?  The underlying issue is the cost of continuing the resistance to the Canada Border Services.  She was first detained December 1, 2018; current status is a legal fight over disclosure before both a criminal trial and a civil lawsuit against CBSA by Ms Meng.   https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/09/23/court-will-hear-disclosure-arguments-in-case-of-huawei-cfo-meng-wanzhou.html

Toronto Star – Laurie Monsebraaten
Is Ford government reconsidering welfare cuts? Provincial directive fuels speculation

With the federal candidates offering more elusive benefits from tax cuts as a means to restore some kind of income equity, the Ontario government is increasingly suspected of designing cuts to the welfare system, already suffering from underfunding and inadequacy.  “City councillors in Toronto and Hamilton are so worried low-income families will become homeless without the benefit that they are poised to cover the cut from local reserve funds.”   The focus is on the Transitional Child Benefit which impacts about 32,000 children in the amount of $230 per child.  https://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2019/09/23/is-ford-government-reconsidering-welfare-cuts-provincial-directive-fuels-speculation.html