Sept 15, 2023 – On perspective…
Tweet from Heather Ganshorn on Gender change concerns: “There hasn’t been a single verified case of a child being given hormonal or surgical gender transition without their parents’ knowledge, but we’re now at 200 children in Calgary with E. coli poisoning due to lax public health measures, so maybe let’s get our priorities straight.” https://x.com/HGanshorn/status/1701612979303911595?s=20 Related article: CTV News (Montreal) – Joe Lofaro Ruling out mixed-gender bathrooms in Quebec schools disregards students’ safety: trans activist https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/no-mixed-gender-bathrooms-in-quebec-schools-education-minister-says-1.6558299 Related article: CBC News (NB/ Sept 5) Students face uncertainty as legal battle brews over N.B.’s gender-identity policy Province says mandatory to get parental consent before staff can use chosen names, pronouns for kids under 16 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/gender-identity-policy-713-pronouns-school-1.6954807 Related article: Global News (SK/ Sept 3) Saskatchewan joins New Brunswick in gender pronoun policy https://globalnews.ca/video/9937430/saskatchewan-joins-new-brunswick-in-gender-pronoun-policy Related article: Toronto Star (Sept 11) – Ben Cohen Doug Ford takes aim at Ontario school boards over ‘indoctrinating’ students on gender identity- Speaking to a crowd of hundreds of supporters and protesters alike at Ford Fest Friday evening, the premier said it’s a parent’s right to “listen and make sure they are informed when their children make a decision.” https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/doug-ford-takes-aim-at-ontario-school-boards-over-indoctrinating-students-on-gender-identity/article_48470d40-c925-5f1d-a757-24f9062d1b78.html Related article: Stephanie Taylor, Canadian Press / Toronto Star Saskatchewan considers notwithstanding clause to keep school pronoun policy change Moe mulls override clause for school pronoun rule https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-saskatchewan-considers-using-notwithstanding-clause-to-keep-school/?utm_medium=Referrer:+Social+Network+/+Media&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links Related article: Globe and Mail – Jennifer DeLeskie Parents should be defending children’s rights, rather than rushing to claim their own https://t.co/Trpd7B7LL0 Related article: Toronto Star – Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press Keep notwithstanding clause out of school pronoun policies: justice minister – Don’t use Charter override in pronoun debate: feds https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/keep-notwithstanding-clause-out-of-school-pronoun-policies-justice-minister/article_bd96b15b-5cb4-5828-bc44-0b12cf3b7583.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=canada
United Nations Human Rights Commission
Committee on the Rights of the Child – General comment No. 26 (2023) on children’s rights and the environment, with a special focus on climate change* (CRC/C/GC/26)
This latest UN document on the Rights of the Child identifies children in general but children with disabilities, minority and indigenous groups, and those children living within sensitive geographic areas with risk of serious environmental damages. “In this general comment, the Committee emphasizes the urgent need to address the adverse effects of environmental degradation, with a special focus on climate change, on the enjoyment of children’s rights, and clarifies the obligations of States to address environmental harm and climate change. The Committee also explains how children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child apply to environmental protection, and confirms that children have a right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.” https://reliefweb.int/report/world/committee-rights-child-general-comment-no-26-2023-childrens-rights-and-environment-special-focus-climate-change-crccgc26 (Full document – a downloadable 20 page pdf is available at link.) Related article: UN Secretary-General’s Report Outlines Rescue Plan for People and Planet – An assessment on progress with the Sustainable development Goals since 2015 “Produced at the mid-way point towards 2030, the report warns that “many of the SDGs are moderately to severely off track” and offers five recommendations to “rescue” the Goals by the 2030 deadline… The report calls on world leaders to come together at the SDG Summit and “deliver a Rescue Plan for People and Planet”. https://sdg.iisd.org/news/un-secretary-generals-report-outlines-rescue-plan-for-people-and-planet/ Related article: The Conversation (Queen’s) – Michal Perlman, Petr Varmuza, Samantha Burns Ontario needs to remove barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families https://theconversation.com/ontario-needs-to-remove-barriers-to-child-care-subsidies-for-low-income-families-208396?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%2015%202023&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20September%2015%202023+CID_3d6edf1c014db207a8d57e214e219253&utm_source=campaign_monitor_ca&utm_term=Ontario%20needs%20to%20remove%20barriers%20to%20child-care%20subsidies%20for%20low-income%20families
Catholic Mobilizing Network –
From Prison to Peacemaker: Felix Rosado’s Restorative Justice Transformation
“ Felix’s story is a reminder that restorative justice can be a catalyst for the redemptive healing that God desires for all of us… When we confront the harm we’ve caused and take steps toward repair, we can break cycles of violence, strengthen our communities, and pave the way for a transformed criminal legal system that honors human dignity… As Felix puts it, “It’s really a Gospel way of doing justice.”
Felix Rosado spent nine long years blaming everybody for his incarceration but himself. But then, two things happened: he rekindled his Catholic faith and learned about restorative justice. These two discoveries set Felix on an extraordinary journey of accountability and transformation.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFkal1XvDmk (A 4 minute video)
Law360 Canada – Jeffrey Hartman
Absence of rule of law integral to CSC’s operation | Jeffrey Hartman
Hartman reminds us that 30 years ago Mme Justice Louise Arbour “sounded the alarm that the rule of law remained absent from the Canadian penitentiary system.” Then Hartman offers an assessment of the impact of her warning and the current status of law breaking with the federal correctional services. He concludes his assessment of the present status with this very forceful query: “The long-standing refusal to firmly entrench the rule of law in Canadian prisons must be deliberate; that is simple Occam’s razor. So why can’t we just be honest about what we are doing? Why can’t just acknowledge that the purpose of punishment is to push people further into Agamben’s concept of bare life depending on the severity of their crime? Why fuss over prisoners’ rights if the very foundation — the rule of law — needed to reify those rights never existed in the first place?” https://www.law360.ca/accesstojustice/articles/50363
Peter Allard School of Law – Benjamin Perrin
Indictment the Podcast launches today (Sept 12) – with stories from inside Canada’s criminal justice system
There are already four podcasts available and with the intent of showing up the major problems with the criminal legal system by a distinguished jurist and former ‘tough-on-crime’ advocate whose stance has considerably reversed itself. “What can people who were incarcerated, and survivors of violent crime teach us about improving the justice system? Everything. Go behind-the-scenes of Benjamin Perrin’s upcoming book “Indictment: The Criminal Justice System on Trial” to hear their raw and gritty accounts, and from others on the frontlines.” https://indictment.simplecast.com/
Associated Press / Canadian Press (US) – Michael R. Sisak
Senators clash with US prisons chief over transparency, seek fixes for problem-plagued agency
The volatile nature of politics and prisons may leave us leery of talk of reform and transparency by the US Senate but they are calling on US Bureau of Prisons chief Colette Peters to live up to promises of transparency when she took office a little over a year ago. The Senate Judiciary Committee says “her lack of transparency is hampering their ability to help fix the agency, which has long been plagued by staffing shortages, chronic violence and other problems.” The Senate Committee has decided that the agency which has a staff of 30,000 and an incarcerated population of 180,000 with an $8 billion budget is badly underfunded in staffing, structural support staff and maintenance backlog. https://apnews.com/article/federal-prisons-colette-peters-senate-judiciary-committee-ca053cfe5170a755771392498153a420
National Catholic Reporter (US) – Carol Glatz
Pope calls out corporate ‘carewashing,’ covering up violations with charity
The term ‘carewashing’ may be new but the notion of burying serious injustices in a façade of corporate generosity is not. “Francis also harshly criticized the “ugly” and widespread branding strategy of “carewashing,” in which “entrepreneurs or legislators, instead of investing in safety, prefer to wash their consciences with some charitable work… Thus, they put their public image before everything else, acting as benefactors in culture or sports, in good works, restoring works of art or buildings of worship,” he said, and yet, they neglect the fact that God’s glory is the living person they employ.” https://www.ncronline.org/vatican/vatican-news/pope-calls-out-corporate-carewashing-covering-violations-charity
Worthwhile reflection from immigrant and guest columnist Wes Hall in the Globe and Mail: The compassionate values that make us Canadian must remain steadfast https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-compassionate-values-that-make-us-canadian-must-remain-steadfast/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter