June 24, 2016
Global News – Leslie Young
A ‘radical act’: Edmonton police’s experiment showed recruits how it felt to be LGBTQ in the city
Edmonton police was training officers about vulnerability. Conceding that most police are male and white, Sgt. Stephen Camp, the training officer invited two of the male recruits to walk a few blocks holding hands. What follows is an interesting and personal reaction of the two recruits to a street response largely outside their experience. http://globalnews.ca/news/2769719/a-radical-act-edmonton-polices-experiment-showed-recruits-how-it-felt-to-be-lgbtq-in-the-city/
Montreal Gazette
Sent by mail: RCMP make first seizure of synthetic drug W-18
How do you smuggle drugs into Canada? Easy, if they are synthetic and powerful, you put them in the mail. RCMP in Quebec have seized 8 grams of a powerful synthetic drug mailed to a street address in Laval from China. The drug is usually mixed with other synthetic drugs and sold on the street as morphine or oxycodone pills. RCMP describe the drug as “extremely powerful, toxic and dangerous.” http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/sent-by-mail-rcmp-make-first-seizure-of-synthetic-drug-w-18 Related article: Victoria Times Colonist – Louise Dickson Pill-press crackdown needed in B.C., police say http://www.timescolonist.com/life/pill-press-crackdown-needed-in-b-c-police-say-1.2281992
Canadian Mental Health Association (Ontario)
New mental health resource encourages ‘out of the box’ thinking
Here’s a challenge for you. Perhaps you know how to accommodate a person who has a physical disability. What do you know about how to accommodate a personal with mental health issues? Here’s a series of nine questions and suggestions, most of which would not likely occur to you unless prompted. http://ontario.cmha.ca/news/new-mental-health-resource-encourages-box-thinking/
Human Rights Watch – Kenneth Roth
Defending Human Rights Values under Attack
The article, by the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, suggest that more than ever before the values undergirding human rights are under frontal attack throughout the world. He defines those values as: “to see the humanity in each individual, respect and value differences, and treat others with the respect that we want them to give us.” Roth thinks that personal and collective insecurity prompt denials of human rights. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/22/defending-human-rights-values-under-attack
Toronto Star – Wendy Gillis and Shannon Kari
Three senior Toronto officers sue Attorney General in rare case
The case was dismissed and the two judges delivered scathing rebukes to the arresting officers for beating the prisoners. Now in a most unusual turn around, the three policemen involved are suing the Attorney General for negligence and for damages to their reputation. The case dates from a 2009 armed robbery. The officers allege that “that by the time the case arrived at the Court of Appeal, the Crown knew there was “compelling evidence” that assault allegations against the officers were a “complete lie and fabrication,” yet took no action. https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2016/06/24/three-senior-toronto-officers-sue-attorney-general-in-rare-case.html
Turtle Island News (ON)
Liberals Form Indigenous Caucus to Push Indigenous Issues
Nine Indigenous MP’s have decided that it would be easier to offer an Indigenous reaction or perspective on the various issues when they are asked to consult than for each one to respond individually. The new independent caucus sees itself as a starting point for the impact of anticipated legislation and policy. http://theturtleislandnews.com/index.php/2016/06/23/liberals-form-indigenous-caucus-push-indigenous-issues/
VERA Institute of Justice (US)
Reimagining Prison
An hour and a half video from Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania that has resulted from an 18 month effort to examine the purpose of prison and whether the system is achieving those purposes. The project over the next 18 months will seek to re-jig the vision according to the insight will then look to shifting goals. The technique asks people the critical questions on line to send comments which are reflected publicly for those attending. A panel of four experts are asked who one or two things would they change if the expert had the power to do so, how they would re-imagine the prison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TWOGUgLvE (The greetings take the first 20 minutes and then the session starts.)