June 3, 2021
Blogger Paula Simons –
Senator Mary Jane McCallum, a residential school survivor, who was taken from her family at the age of 5. This is very hard to hear. Which is why you should hear it.
“I know that you love me…”
https://twitter.com/hashtag/215children?src=hashtag_click
Blogger Dr. Ronald E. Ignace The place where I hid out… https://twitter.com/tult7/status/1399933143868604416
Blogger Kristy Kirkup –
Senator Murray Sinclair: “Lots of similar sites…” https://twitter.com/kkirkup/status/1399904592440315909
Colour of Poverty / Colour of Change:
In honour of 215 Indigenous Children and in solidarity with Indigenous Peoples https://colourofpoverty.ca/2021/06/02/in-honour-of-215-indigenous-children-and-in-solidarity-with-indigenous-peoples/
National Newswatch – Canadian Press
U.N. seeks full probe of deaths of Indigenous students at residential schools https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2021/06/02/u-n-seeks-full-probe-of-deaths-of-indigenous-students-at-residential-schools-2/#.YLemXC16WfA
CTV News – Rachel Aiello
$27M will soon be available to communities to help locate children who died at residential schools: feds https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/27m-will-soon-be-available-to-communities-to-help-locate-children-who-died-at-residential-schools-feds-1.5452997
Brennan Center for Justice – Rahsaan “New York” Thomas
What Did You Call Me?
The link offers a reflective piece about a single focus: that of naming people condemned to prison, what the naming does, what it accomplishes and what harms come from the practice. The word is ‘inmate’, in olden days the term for a house guest, but today defined as a person confined with others in a prison or mental institution. The point may seem exaggerated to some but the use of names has long been a part of discriminatory practices, a way of dividing and separating the sheep and the goats, a way of defining people. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/what-did-you-call-me Related article: USA Today – Kristine Phillips Inmates sent home during COVID-19 got jobs, started school. Now, they face possible return to prison https://amp.usatoday.com/amp/7194735002?__twitter_impression=true&s=03 Related article: Safety and Justice (US) Blog: Crime rates and justice reforms https://twitter.com/safety_justice?lang=en
US Department of Justice – Bureau of Justice Statistics – Emily D. Buehler
Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2016–2018
The 27 page report includes all adult correctional facilities, state, federal and military with a representation of private prisons, but no youth facilities. The report identifies five types of incidents. What is surprising is that of the 27,826 allegations in 2018, only 1673 were judged substantive. The allegations were 58% prisoner on prisoner and 42% staff on prisoner. The report seems to leave as many questions as it answers. https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/svraca1618.pdf?utm_content=preaspi&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery Related article: Washington Post – Sylvia Foster-Frau Latinos are disproportionately killed by police but often left out of the debate about brutality, some advocates say Latinos are disproportionately killed by police but often left out of the debate about brutality, some advocates say – The Washington Post
CTV News – Canadian Press
Canadian military-goods exports dropped last year as sales to Saudi Arabia fell
Canada is still in the game of providing rogue states with blatant human rights violations a host of military procurements. Saudi Arabia, once denied eligibility for military equipment, is a primary beneficiary after a review of policy, and with light armoured cars. Says Project Ploughshares: “As there is credible evidence that Saudi Arabia has breached the laws of war in Yemen, and has gone so far as to illicitly provide these vehicles to proxies in that conflict, Canada’s continued arms exports to Riyadh is a breach of domestic and international law,” it said.” https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canadian-military-goods-exports-dropped-last-year-as-sales-to-saudi-arabia-fell-1.5451986
Toronto Star – Shree Paradkar
Kamloops residential school discovery challenges the myth of The Good Canadian — again
It is probably a stretch to indict an entire country on the basis of one incident, except that we all know this discovery of the 215 children in a mass grave in Kamloops is not an isolated incident nor are the many other elements that contributed to the genocide of Indigenous Canadians. What may be a stretch is the notion that we are either good or bad and nothing in between. This article may be helpful in discerning the path to some evil deeds and how we may resolve them to the satisfaction of the victims. “The Really Good Canadians, however, sometimes move on to action. But “just tell us what to do” doesn’t cut it when the First Nations, Inuit and Métis have already, through commissions and inquiries, told us exactly what to do, in painstaking detail…. And if we continue to behave as if Indigenous children matter less than our own, how different are we really from who we’ve always been? ” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2021/06/02/kamloops-residential-school-discovery-challenges-the-myth-of-the-good-canadian-again.html
Blogger Dan Gardiner: “The line of good and evil passes right through every human heart…” (A Commentary on Frank Lloyd Wright that has some application…) https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1400056640985092096?s=03
CTV News – Jim Bronskill. Canadian Press
Federal prison service improperly listened to inmate calls with lawyers: auditors
This item is based on an internal audit by Corrections Canada and leaves one wondering what an independent audit would reveal. Even as is, the audit report is saying that as much as 10% of the lawyer / client consultations have suffered eavesdropping. Additionally, the law requires that CSC notify when an “accidental” breech has occurred but the report found that there is no safeguard to ensure the notification. “Prison officials are not permitted to intercept privileged communications unless specific legal requirements are met. Privileged communications include correspondence and conversations between inmates and legal counsel, the correctional investigator, various elected politicians, consular officials, the federal human rights commission, and the information and privacy commissioners.” CSC appears to agree with the report’s assessment and recs, and says that it has a plan to correct the deficiencies to be implemented within a month. https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/federal-prison-service-improperly-listened-to-inmate-calls-with-lawyers-auditors-1.5452587
Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee from the National Right to Housing Coalition
THE RIGHTS TO LIFE, PROTECTION OF THE HOME & NON-DISCRIMINATION IN CANADA: Assessing the Housing& Homelessness Crisis in Accordance with Articles 2, 6, 17 &26 of the ICCPR
Periodically, the UN reviews the commitments made by member nations around the rights to which the host country commits itself. Canada is shortly to be reviewed on the issue of housing as a human right. The submission describes the current status of the issue and makes recommendations to the UN Committee to ask certain questions in a public accountability forum. The recs are found on p. 16, the list of the members of the coalition on p. 17. https://housingrights.ca/wp-content/uploads/ICCPRSubmission-NRHN-CERA-2021.pdf?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com Related article: Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness Medicine Hat achieves functional zero chronic homelessness https://caeh.ca/medicine-hat-functional-zero/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com
Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP – Ottawa) – Justin Piché
8,800 COVID-19 Cases Linked to Canadian Carceral Institutions by the End of May 2021
Here’s a summary on the status of the Covid-19 inside the prisons, updated to June 2, 2021. http://tpcp-canada.blogspot.com/2021/05/more-than-8100-covid-19-cases-linked-to.html