Can we last?

April 7, 2022

United Nations – IPCC
Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

“The Working Group II contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses the impacts of climate change, looking at ecosystems, biodiversity, and human communities at global and regional levels. It also reviews vulnerabilities and the capacities and limits of the natural world and human societies to adapt to climate change.”   The report suggests that the window for change is increasingly a narrow window of opportunity to confront a dire situation getting worse, not better. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=25a28170-81c0-4c21-b86c-9818f34fa7e8  Related article: Washington Post Editorial Board (April 5, 2022)  Opinion: Actually, humanity can still avoid climate catastrophe  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/05/actually-humanity-can-still-avoid-climate-catastrophe/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions&utm_campaign=wp_opinions

Toronto Star – Anna Betty Achneepineskum
Why we are calling for the disbanding of the Thunder Bay Police Service – The Thunder Bay Police Service is incapable of conducting competent investigations into the deaths of Indigenous peoples.

This is one of those situations that is so grievous that one has to wonder how much further deterioration is necessary to prompt resolution.  The evidence of an ingrained racism in the Thunder Bay Police Services has been acknowledged by any number of official agencies to the point that disbanding the police is current redress.  “The documented racism and wilful blindness by the Thunder Bay Police and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board have convinced us that no Indigenous family faced with a tragic death of their loved one can trust the work of this police service. The message we hear is that our lives are worth much less. That we are third-class citizens in this community.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/04/05/why-we-are-calling-for-the-disbanding-of-the-thunder-bay-police-service.html

Lawyer’s Daily – Luis Millán
Reports of secret criminal trial have Quebec legal community in uproar

The case involved organized crime but not the Quebec Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions was not involved.  Without the identity of the judge, the prosecutor and the defence lawyer, and without a case number, the trail remained secret until an appeal was filed and records could not be found.  “The trial, which only came to light after the defendant chose to appeal the verdict before the Quebec Court of Appeal, did not have a case number and was never filed in the province’s judicial archives. As disturbingly, the names of the defence lawyer, the Crown prosecutor and the judge were excluded from the public record as were the offence, date and location of where the trial took place. Moreover, witnesses were interviewed out of court, and the parties asked the judge to decide the case based on transcripts.”  https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/criminal/articles/35041/reports-of-secret-criminal-trial-have-quebec-legal-community-in-uproar?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal

Ottawa Citizen – Samantha McAleese
McAleese: A criminal record shouldn’t follow people for life –

The question of pardons which became ‘record suspensions’ is still on the table and both are proving unsatisfactory for justice reform advocates like McAleese.  She wants buy in to the notion that once the sentence is served than the record is non-existent and thereby aiding in normal life purposes and goals around employment, life choices and careers.  ‘It’s time for a free and automatic “spent record” model — that is, removing the burden of a record for access to jobs and housing if individuals have successfully completed their sentence and lived in the community for years without new criminal convictions.”  The problem is inherent in the changes including mandatory minimums brought by the Harper government.  Time’s up for draconian. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mcaleese-a-criminal-record-shouldnt-follow-people-for-life

Basic Income Canada Tweet:

BREAKING: Progressive Conservative Premier @dennyking co-signed a letter with leaders of the PEI Green and Liberal parties urging the fed government to work with the province and introduce Basic Income. Basic Income is not left or right – it’s forward. #peipoli #cdnpoli  Cf letter itself @ https://twitter.com/ubi_works/status/1511367624214597635?s=03   Cf also Senator Kim Pate and Senate Bill 223 now at Second Reading:  S-233 44th Parliament, 1st session November 22, 2021, to present – An Act to develop a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income (Short title: National Framework for a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income Act)   https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/s-233   Related video: Basic Income Canada  CERB showed that Basic Income works. We have the data.  https://basicincomecanada.org/  (Scroll down for brief submitted for the next federal budget sign your support) NAIBG Evidence of employment commitment under the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit; Rachelle Pascoe-DesLauriers, Mt Allison University and Ysabel Provencher, Laval University   From Social Tax Expenditure to Basic Income   https://www.crowdcast.io/e/evidence-of-employment/register Related article: Irish Times – Jack Horgan-Jones   Artists to get €325 a week for three years under Government plan – Basic Income for Arts pilot scheme will see 2,000 people chosen at random for stipend   https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/artists-to-get-325-a-week-for-three-years-under-government-plan-1.4845154CPEP,

CPEP Tweet (Canadian Prisoners Education Project)

This semester, a group of students in “CRM 6391: Justice, Injustice and Resistance” at uOttawa looked into how the [prison] pandemic, along with the #COVID19 response of SolGen & jail administration, impacted the mental health of people imprisoned at the Ottawa jail.  Cf link for options:  https://twitter.com/CPEPgroup/status/1511325601273192449?s=03

Hannah Riley Tweet: A taste for killing?

Executing elderly people who have been incarcerated for decades is not public safety   Two elderly men are scheduled to be executed on April 21. #OscarSmith, 72, and #CarlBuntion, 78, are the oldest men on death row in Tennessee & Texas, respectively. #NotInMyName https://actionnetwork.org/letters/please-stop-the-execution-of-oscar-smith/.  Cf (https://twitter.com/hannahcrileyy/status/1511122419695689742?s=03

Washington Post – Jenn Abelson and Nicole Dungca
Broken Doors –

The link is to the trailer to a series of podcasts examining the ‘no-knock’ warrant in the US legal system.  The warrants allow police to literally smash in the front door and enter the residence without hesitation.  Equally serious are those cases in the frequent use of ‘no-knock’ where police raid the wrong place and injury or death occurs.  Episode 2, also at this link is 112 minutes long and called “‘Why y’all had to go in that way?’ A family confronts a sheriff after a deadly no-knock raid.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/interactive/2022/broken-doors/?itid=hp-top-table-main   Related article: John Jay College / The Crime Report – James M. Doyle  The Unfinished Business of Felony Murder   https://thecrimereport.org/2022/04/06/the-unfinished-business-of-felony-murder/

Worth Rises (US) Press Release
In a 9-2 vote, Miami-Dade Commissioners approved plan to make jail communication free

Long a focus in the rehab debate for the stubborn refusal to recognize the importance of family and loved ones in the process, and the prohibiting, even impoverishing impact, on those families forced to accept exorbitant rates and profit sharing between private prisons and the state Correctional authorities.  The costs, as prisons began to refuse s-nail mail, included the cost of video conferencing between the incarcerated and family.  This is a win for common sense and helpful rehab practices.  https://worthrises.org/pressreleases/in-a-9-2-vote-miami-dade-commissioners-approve-plan-to-make-jail-communications-free   Related article: Lawyer’s Daily (Canada) – David Dobson  Phone calls in prison  https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/criminal/articles/35019/phone-calls-in-prison-david-dorson-?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal  (Dobson is a formerly incarcerated person writing with a pseudonym.)