June 5, 2016
Toronto Star – Tondra MacCharles
‘Canadian society today is a more just society than it once was,’ top judge says
Beverley McLaughlin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada has voiced the opinion that Canada, in anticipation of its 150 anniversary of confederation, is a more just society. How do we get better? More respect between lawmakers and courts, more minorities, women and Indigenous appointed to the bench in the hope of better addressing the needs of low income and Indigenous communities. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/06/03/canadian-society-today-is-a-more-just-society-than-it-once-was-top-judge-says.html Related article: Globe and Mail – David Butt Toronto pot bust: Why criminal charges when the law’s in limbo? http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/toronto-pot-bust-why-criminal-charges-when-the-laws-in-limbo/article30208340/ Ottawa Citizen – Mohammed Adam Premier Wynne must step in on jail reforms http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/adam-premier-wynne-must-step-in-on-jail-reforms
Toronto Star – Azeezah Kanji
Islamophobia runs deeper than failed Tory election tactics
Muslim Conservative Uruzurum Heer stood up at the recent Conservative convention and denounced the election inspired anti-Muslim rhetoric. But says Kanji, a legal analyst and writer, the political rhetoric is not the whole story nor will anti-Muslim stereotypes around violence go away with a new leader or a new conservative party policy. Says Professor Deepa Kumar: “Islamophobia is an ideology that has come to be accepted as normal, as common sense, in the War on Terror era.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/06/04/islamophobia-runs-deeper-than-failed-tory-election-tactics.html Related article: Toronto Star (April 10, 2016) – Haroon Siddiqui How Harper systematically mined anti-Muslim prejudices https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2016/04/10/how-harper-systematically-mined-anti-muslim-prejudices.html
Globe and Mail – Denise Balkissoon
Sexual abuse: When calling the police isn’t an option
The problem is that the offender is a police officer. Balkissoon reviews the recent history of the situation in Val d’Or for Indigenous women and across the country where women acknowledge sexual assault but do not wish to confront the offender, often a repeat offender and often one supported by the closing of the ranks behind him. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/sexual-abuse-when-calling-the-police-isnt-an-option/article30099772/ Related video: Conversations that matter (SFU Centre for Dialogue) – Stu McNish Video: Sexual assaults and the adversarial nature of courts http://www.conversationsthatmatter.tv/ (24 min interview with former Chief Judge Carol Baird Ellan of the Provincial Court of BC discussing Ghomeshi case with Odlum Brown)
CBC News – Alison Crawford
Senate set to make major changes to RCMP union bill – Collective bargaining should mean ‘everything on the table,’ bill’s sponsor in the Senate tells Upper House
Bill C-7 is a response to the demand by the members of the RCMP for collective bargaining rights. The Bill is now in the senate and one former Mountie, Senator Larry Campbell, who introduced the bill in the senate is looking for sweeping changes because of the number of items excluded from negotiation. Campbell sees the paramilitary structure of the force as the prevailing cause of many of the current problems. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/rcmp-bill-c-7-senate-1.3615807
Toronto Star – Sunny Freeman
Sex robots to become a reality
Artificial intelligence is getting a surprising scope according to David Levy who thinks it is only a matter of time before we will date, love and marry robots, raising all sort of new social, ethical, legal and moral questions to date never imagined. Psychologist Kate Darling offers this insight: “The interesting thing is not the robots, it’s how robots reveal things about our own behaviour and psychology that we’re only just learning — including the question of whether sex robots are going to be a healthy thing or unhealthy thing for people.” https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/06/04/sex-robots-to-become-a-reality.html
Globe and Mail – Joe Friesen
Dispatches from an indefinite period in isolation
Richard Wolfe dies last week in a Saskatchewan prison, having spent much of life in jail and in solitary – 640 days actually. Wolfe had a notorious crime history, including the founding of a street gang in Winnipeg. This article is based on Wofle’s personal history and a series of letters between Wolfe and Friesen, and the impact of solitary over that time. When you are in solitary says Wolfe, “You start thinking more along the lines of ‘maybe this is it, this is how I’m going to end it.’ … Probably one of the main things down here is suicide, when somebody wants to hurt themselves.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/richard-wolfe/article30271455/
N.Y. Times (US) – Opinion Op ed (June 3, 2016) – Robert E. Rubin
How to Help Former Inmates Thrive
The question Rubin raises is often ignored but is also glaringly obvious: why do we spend so much on keeping people in prison and then so little in release and re-entry, often so little as to firmly establish the revolving door? Rubin offers five ways that the state might subsidize the re-entry beyond the usual $200, perhaps a bus ticket and a good luck wish. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/opinion/how-to-make-mass-incarceration-end-for-good.html?emc=edit_ty_20160603&nl=opinion&nlid=73203157