Oct. 29, 2013
Toronto Star – Editorial
Whipping cash-starved native schools into shape won’t work – Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt unveils a punitive plan to whip aboriginal schools into shape
The heavy-handed plan has sparked instant resistance from First Nations as a plan which is needlessly confrontational, arbitrarily intrusive, without providing any of the funds to correct the long running financial shortfalls. With 515 schools to provide for, the list of those things assumed as part of the package in other districts but without resources for the Aboriginals is both long and long outstanding. This bill appears more of the same for Aboriginals. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2013/10/28/whipping_cashstarved_native_schools_into_shape_wont_work_editorial.html Related article: Canada.com – Mark Kennedy ‘Transformational’ aboriginal education reforms ahead, minister says http://o.canada.com/news/national/conservative-government-poised-to-unveil-transformational-aboriginal-education-reforms-minister/ Related article: Vancouver Sun – Mark Kennedy, Postmedia News Harper’s First Nation Education Act might continue assimilation, Shawn Atleo says http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Harper+First+Nation+Education+might+continue+assimilation/9008973/story.html
Toronto Star – Guest Commentary Catherine Latimer, Executive Director, John Howard Society of Canada
Conservative Victims’ Bill of Rights smacks of medieval justice – Ottawa’s proposed victims’ rights bill distracts from the real crisis in Canadian justice, and promises yet further regress.
Latimer is suggesting that the focus of the federal government’s victims’ rights is likely to bring our justice into a primitive reliance on vengeance and the rights of victims before the rights of the accused. Rather than an enlightened system based on the protection of the charter against the power of the state versus an accused, we may regress in the mistaken notion that victims rights may trump all others. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/10/27/conservative_victims_bill_of_rights_smacks_of_medieval_justice.html
Carleton University (Ottawa)
Call-Out for Participants and Contributions – Crowding and Conditions at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre: Causes, Consequences and Solutions
Crowding, violence, lack of health care, use of segregation, and other conditions at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre (OCDC) on Innes Road have been a frequent focus of public and media concern in recent years. The Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) is organizing a public forum about these problems, and is seeking input from those affected by the problems at OCDC. Court delays and problems with the bail system mean close to 70% of prisoners in Ontario jails like OCDC are now locked up just awaiting court dates.
Thursday, November 28, 2013 6:00pm. Southam Theatre B Carleton University
Contact person for more information:
Professor Aaron Doyle, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University, Office phone: (613) 520-2600 ext. 1914 Cell: 613-799-1954 aaron_doyle@carleton.ca
Law Times (ON) – Alan Shanoff
Social Justice: Real access to justice means reducing lawyers’ roles
Shanoff thinks that tinkering with the system is insufficient and that a number of solutions offered may not take us to real solutions either. The real problem, he says, lies in the lack of competent legal services at a reasonable cost. The chief problem lies in the affordability of legal services. But the CBA proposals seem to have little to do with lowering the price of legal services. So less involvement of lawyers and less costs for that involvement seem the only solution for fair access to law, especially for the poor. http://www.lawtimesnews.com/201310283551/commentary/real-access-to-justice-means-reducing-lawyers-roles?utm_source=responsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20131028_CLNewswire
Houston Chronicle
Arizona legal groups propose mental health database
The state bar association and the state Criminal Justice Commission want a database to track those under court imposed mental health treatment. The National Instant Criminal Background System (NICS) gets only about 10% of these cases from Arizona and background checks for gun permits is also compromised. One of the questions remaining is how and when does one who has had successful treatment get expunged from the system, particularly if there are already serious problem with current software and its management? http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Ariz-legal-groups-propose-mental-health-database-4930646.php
The Sentencing Times (US)
The Sentencing Project Newsletter November 2013
The project’s fall newsletter for 2013 has a summary of activities over the last year. Focused on finding ways to reduce reliance on incarceration, this newsletter notes a change in the ethnicity of female incarceration and offers a review of Eric Holder’s appeal for ending mandatory sentences for minor drug offences. The newsletter also summarizes the limitations placed on mandatory minimums and the conditions necessary to impose them.http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/Fall%202013%20Newsletter.pdf