Oct 29, 2021
Globe and Mail – Willow Fiddler
Former Thunder Bay police board chair files human-rights complaint against chief, other senior officials
Friday past Georjann Morriseau, an Indigenous person and former chair of the police services board in Thunder Bay filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal charging “rampant systemic discrimination.” The specific dispute stems from an effort to reform the police board from 2018: “The Office of the Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, oversight agencies, issued reports in 2018 saying the force and its board both had systemic racism ingrained at all levels. The police board was overhauled in the wake of the findings. Ms. Morriseau, a former chief of Fort William First Nation, was first appointed by the city to the police board in 2019 and became its second Indigenous chair later that year. Ms. Hauth was named the service’s first female police chief in 2018, shortly before the OIRPD’s findings of systemic racism.” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-former-thunder-bay-police-board-chair-files-human-rights-complaint/ Related article: APTN News – Brett Forester Justice Canada study finds own criminal courts stacked against Indigenous accused – Indigenous offenders were 30 per cent more likely to be imprisoned than white offenders says the report. https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/justice-canada-study-finds-courts-stacked-against-indigenous-accused/ Related article: Maytree Foundation Advancing Justice – “Guilty until proven innocent”: Tyrone’s story https://maytree.com/publications/guilty-until-proven-innocent/?mc_cid=3e9feef3cc&mc_eid=d3ca2ffb1f Related article: Washington Post (US) – Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff Border agents who made violent, lewd Facebook posts faced flawed disciplinary process at CBP, House investigation finds https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/facebook-border-agents-house-investigation/2021/10/25/b0d4f60c-3518-11ec-8be3-e14aaacfa8ac_story.html
CBC News – Ryan Patrick Jones
Food banks, already in crisis mode due to pandemic, are bracing for more visits as cost of living rises – Food Banks Canada HungerCount 2021 report calls for major overhaul of social safety net to reduce poverty
The food experts at Canada’s 4700 plus food banks have a new report saying that the high increases in the cost of food and the lower incomes among the poor people using the food banks are contributing to a considerable strain on food security. The report is citing strain in large cities but also in the more isolated places in Canada. Most who visited did so as a result of pandemic-related unemployment, the report says, with people from racialized communities making up a large proportion… Meanwhile, it said food banks in smaller urban centres were more likely to see people with disabilities and older individuals looking for food… “Much of the increase can be attributed to a greater number of people requiring more frequent visits to the food bank because of the combined impacts of low income and rapidly rising costs of living.” https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/food-banks-canada-hungercount-report-1.6226965 Full report: Hunger Count 2021 https://hungercount.foodbankscanada.ca/ (Report has five coping recommendations)
Crime Report (US) – Eva Herscowitz
How Philadelphia’s ‘Bail Advocates’ Reduced Pretrial Racial Disparities
Bail practices have long been understood as contributing significantly to discriminatory injustice since it is at the start the whole criminalization process. Bail has been known to impoverish people as well since it often involves bail bonds, debt and considerable extra expense for a poor family, frequently minorities. Since poor people mostly get public defenders, and since many public defenders are inexperienced, this study says that having a ‘bail advocate’, who knows the system and how to present the rationale for bail vs detention, may offer some resolution to automatic detention often seen when poor people are charged. “A growing body of high-quality research links pretrial detention to later adverse outcomes, including unemployment and recidivism,” says study author Paul Heaton of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. https://thecrimereport.org/2021/10/25/how-philadelphias-bail-advocates-reduced-pretrial-racial-disparities/
Blogger Russell Webster (UK)
What does lived experience work in criminal justice feel like? Nothing about us without us
In research just published in the British Journal of Criminology, authors Gill Buck, Philippa Tomczak and Kaitlyn Quinn present the results of their interviews with justice people involved in the peer mentoring system. Russell invites us to hear first-hand from people deeply immersed in the UK criminal justice system. “The authors summarise the benefits and risks of people with lived experience working in the criminal justice system from a range of different viewpoints. While some researchers highlight the benefits to both peer mentors and the people they support, others rise concerns about bullying and the exploitation of (frequently unpaid) lived experience workers… There is also a discussion of the risks of re-traumatisation and of the stigma that sometimes applies to people who are identified as a ‘user’ participant or ‘peer’ practitioner in the criminal justice context.” https://www.russellwebster.com/what-does-lived-experience-work-in-criminal-justice-feel-like/ Full Report: This is how it Feels: Activating Lived Experience in the Penal Voluntary Sector – Gillian Buck, Philippa Tomczak, Kaitlyn Quinn https://academic.oup.com/bjc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/bjc/azab102/6407608?login=true
Reminders:
National Restorative Justice Symposium 2021 https://www.crjc.ca/national-symposium (Nov 21-28)
Alberta Restorative Justice Association Nov 18, 19 Community Reconnection https://www.arjc2021.com/