July 7, 2022
Toronto Star – Steve Buist and Rachel Mendleson
Unjust invasions happening across Canada as police mislead courts, bungle warrants and violate suspects’ rights – On more than 40 occasions, judges took serious action to correct the police conduct, including dismissing charges or tossing evidence.
This article is a chilling tale of how police themselves have conducted themselves in apprehending criminals and later producing faulty evidence in court, in this case a search warrant filled with misrepresentation and lies by the police officials applying for the warrant. “A Torstar investigation has found dozens of cases over the last decade where police have misled courts to obtain search warrants that were later found to have violated the Charter rights of people facing charges.” https://www.thestar.com/news/investigations/2022/07/05/how-police-deception-is-leading-to-unjust-invasions.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=F8239A84543BECA6A1C40B187542D68C&utm_campaign=frst_133085
The Tyee (BC) – Anne Levesque and Malorie Kanaan
How Canada Can Uphold the Rights of Children – We’re not in line with global human rights law for children, says the UN. But it’s not all bad news.
Canada in recent months has been examined on its human rights performance as regards Indigenous children and the results seem mixed but not all bad. The UN nor the authors are suggesting there is enough good news to rest on our laurels but “One of the committee’s key recommendations advised Canada to establish an independent mechanism for monitoring children’s rights by receiving, investigating and addressing complaints by children in a child-sensitive, child-friendly manner… The Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Canada in 1991 and the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history, recognizes children as rights bearers.” https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/07/05/Upholding-Rights-Canadian-Children/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=050722 Related article: Toronto Star – Heather Scoffield Is the First Nations’ compensation deal just another hollow victory? Let’s hope the deal to compensate Indigenous families is not a hollow victory, like so many other milestones in the protracted battle for fair compensation for Indigenous families, Heather Scoffield writes. https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/07/04/is-the-first-nations-compensation-deal-just-another-hollow-victory.html
Blogger Alex Karakatsanis (US)
Karakatsanis is wondering why the journalistic world continues to let police avoid questions about what they actually do and the public safety implications of what they do. This series of questions for journalists to the local police chief could likely help considerable in accountability issues as well as funding / defunding issues. “THREAD. Police are rarely forced to talk about what they actually do. This is a failure of journalism and governance. I’ve updated my list of questions to ask *any* police chief. Do you know a local reporter or anyone in local government? Here are things they can ask:” https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1544328070034751489?s=03 Blogger John Pfaff Mental illness is a much stronger predictor of being the VICTIM of crime than the perpetrator of it. https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1544328070034751489?s=03 Related blog: Russell Webster (UK) – Can the Courts Deter Children from Crime? (An examination of the theory of deterrence in law and sentencing policy by Laura Janes, formerly legal director of the Howard Society UK) https://mailchi.mp/russellwebster/can-the-courts-deter-children-from-crime?e=10ab936adc
Alberta Prison Justice Society –
The Society is anticipating a refusal by public defenders to take on sexual assault cases because the time, energy and expenses that are required to defend far surpass the allocation of the fees from the public defender offices across the country. “It begs the question whether sexual assault law will become akin to family law files, where a significant number of lawyers flat out refuse to take Legal Aid certificates because the work involved massively outweighs the compensation that an already taxed system can offer.” The reference to family law recalls that in recent years the prohibitive cost of lawyers leave many family members with no recourse other than acting as their own lawyer, a reality that generates endless delays and often impoverished justice. What will it mean for justice if the trend continues for sexual assault as well? Peter Sankoff Criminal Appeals Lawyer – “The costs of defending sexual assault charges, already expensive, has gone up exponentially. And for Legal Aid? Some lawyers, already unwilling to take those files, will be even more reluctant because of hidden costs.” https://twitter.com/PrisonApjs/status/1544512239276683264?s=03
Maytree Foundation (Canada)
Five Good Ideas
Maytree is publishing their 19th Season of Good Ideas over a range of pertinent issues for non-profits: Creating a successful hybrid workplace, Greater governance – making bad boards better, Building community-labour relations, Influencing public policy, Getting your communications fundamentals in order, Using human-centred design for social change, and others. https://mailchi.mp/maytree/wrapping-up-season-19-of-five-good-ideas?e=d3ca2ffb1f
Prison Policy Initiative (US)
New data: Low incomes – but high fees – for people on probation – People on probation are much more likely to be low-income than those who aren’t, and steep monthly probation fees put them at risk of being jailed when they can’t pay.
Remember debtor’s prison? We are almost back there again. This link offers a perspective on the role of fees around probation, its contribution to mass incarceration, the impoverishment from criminalization in the legal system. Over 3.6 million people are on probation in the US. Using the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which now includes questions about probation payments, the Initiative reveals that the overwhelming majority of probationers is also low income and unable in many cases to pay the fees, a secondary punishment well beyond the actual court sentence. Two pointed conclusions: “Nationwide, two-thirds (66%) of people on probation make less than $20,000 per year; nearly 2 in 5 people on probation (38%) make less than $10,000 per year, well below the poverty line.” https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2019/04/09/probation_income/
The Guardian (UK) – Nesrine Malik
Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell review – the case for defunding the police – This compelling book from a lawyer and writer who grew up amid violence argues that prevention is better than cure
The review of this new book by St. Louis and Harvard lawyer political activist is winning rave reviews for its passion and clarity. “What underpins this demand is the belief that by the time the police get involved in a situation, it is too late. They end up violently suppressing the symptoms of social breakdown rather than treating the disease. Reducing policing in order to decrease crime sounds counterintuitive, but a new book by Derecka Purnell largely succeeds in explaining why “abolition”, as she puts it, makes sense.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/21/becoming-abolitionists-by-derecka-purnell-review-the-case-for-defunding-the-police (Available on Amazon for $35)