Nov 9, 2023 – Diminish, ignore and discredit…

Toronto Star – Stephanie Levitz

‘I am not someone else’s product’: Female veteran blasts MPs after snub at parliamentary hearing – The treatment of a female Canadian Forces’ veteran at a committee hearing on Parliament Hill has prompted a rethink of how members of Parliament question survivors of trauma.

Most Canadians must be wondering why the Canadian Forces are so mired in gender discriminatory practices and sexual assault.  The exposé here may be indicative of the scope of the problem which appears to thrive as an unconscious component.  Parliamentary witness “Anna-Lisa Rovak said MPs did to her what she believes the parliamentary committee has done to female veterans for decades: diminish, ignore and discredit their experiences.”   The committee was examining trauma from sexual assault in the military.  https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/i-am-not-someone-else-s-product-female-veteran-blasts-mps-after-snub-at-parliamentary/article_5a1174a0-a59d-589d-8481-492454a5a000.html?li_source=LI&li_medium=Recommended Related article: TED talk – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie   We should all be feminists   https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_all_be_feminists/transcript?user_email_address=404caadef7eb839fc77b1b04f0c251e1&lctg=62d1a86e5473360814efc736 ((A 30 minute video with written text.)  Wellesley Institute Blogs on trauma in transit:  “We need affordable public transit, a trauma-informed approach to transit safety, and improved transit systems to mitigate climate change, say Wellesley researchers in this blog series.”  https://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/category/ttc/

Irvin Waller Tweet on the Correctional Investigator Report to Parliament.  “Yes high rates of victimization and high rates of criminalization for indigenous peoples are a national travesty but only blaming corrections, like the Canadian Correctional Investigator has done again, is not smart… What is smart is getting to know the proven upstream… https://x.com/IrvinWaller/status/1721563307591565831?s=20

Pennsylvania Captital Star – Kim Lyons (Nov. 3. 2023)

A proposed amendment to Pennsylvania’s constitution would change how the state considers pardons – ‘Pennsylvania, like so many other states, adopted a tough-on-crime approach to justice which is judged by many to be a failure,’ Rep. Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia) testified.

Having lived out the consequences of the tough-on-crime for some time, it seems that law makers om Pennsylvania have come to recognize the impact of long sentences, incarcerated seniors, mass incarceration and the pointless denial of second chance for many of the prison population.  “A former public defender, McClinton is the prime sponsor of HB1410. The bill would do away with the requirement that the state Board of Pardons has to vote unanimously to recommend a person for a commutation of their sentence or a pardon from the governor… My legislation returns it to the standard majority vote requirements, obtaining three out of five votes in order for the board to make a recommendation to the governor that a sentence be commuted or a pardon be issued,” McClinton said.”   https://www.penncapital-star.com/civil-rights-social-justice/a-proposed-amendment-to-pennsylvanias-constitution-would-change-how-the-state-considers-pardons/

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG)

ICLMG denounces Bill C-27 national security exemptions at parliamentary hearing 

A coalition of groups concerned about privacy rights have voiced concern about the implications of the exceptions to the privacy included in Bill 27 for government security services.  “Bill C-27, An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts, or the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate AI and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task.”  https://iclmg.ca/brief-bill-c-27/

Human Rights Law Center (Australia) –

Indefinite immigration detention unlawful: High Court rules

Twenty years ago, the High Court of Australia ruled that immigrants could be indefinitely detained even if there is no prospect that the detainee could be removed from Australia.  Now, the same High Court has reversed itself in declaring the detention unconstitutional.  “Indefinite detention ends today. The High Court has overturned a two-decades-old authority that allowed the Government to lock people up in immigration detention potentially for the rest of their lives. Today, the High Court held that the Government can no longer detain people if there is no real prospect that it will become practicable to remove them from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future. Detention in these circumstances is unconstitutional.”  https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2023/11/08/indefinite-detention-overruled

Solitary Watch (US) – Tony D. Vick

Voices from Solitary: I Need to Be Alone 

28 years in Tennessee prison brings a rather painful concession and commentary:  “I need to be alone, Please don’t leave me…”  Vick offers a contrast in what is derived from the experience of community in general population of a prison and what is derived in solitary.  Vick finds comfort in the words of theologian Dietrich Von Bonhoeffer, the German and Luther martyr from the Nazi era:  “Let [the person] who cannot be alone beware of community. Let the [person] who is not in community beware of being alone.”  Unlike Vick, for most, solitary has little redeeming value, especially if there are mental health complications or the solitary is lengthy.  https://solitarywatch.org/2023/11/07/voices-from-solitary-i-need-to-be-alone/

The Atlantic (US) – Lenore Anderson

The People Most Ignored by the Criminal-Justice System – Victims are rarely the priority of institutions focused on punishment.

The link offers a comprehensive report on the attention and services directed towards victims of crime – one of every four in the US over the last decade.  “Less than 10 percent of violent-crime victims get assistance from victim-services agencies, and two-thirds of all victims report never receiving mental-health or financial assistance. Many suffer further, losing their jobs due to injury, accumulating insurmountable medical debt, and assuming financial burdens left over from deceased loved ones—all while facing the health effects of the traumas they have suffered, such as chronic and debilitating stress, hypervigilance, depression, and insomnia.” As usual, the neglect is more pronounced for minorities, LGBTQ and youth – the most hurt the least helped. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/violent-crime-victims-criminal-justice-reform/675673/