April 10, 2021
Guns in Canada
Firearms Legislation For Safer Communities – BILL C-21: An Act to amend certain Acts and to make certain consequential amendments (firearms)
Canada is still struggling with gun control and the most recent proposed legislation has generally been thought short sighted because it defers to the cities where handguns are problematic while the criminal code remains a federal preserve. The link is to the Public Safety Ministry where the outlines of Bill C-21 (most recent) and Bill C-71 (including a list of already prohibited assault are found) together with a link to several reports about firearms. The whole matter of changes to gun regulation is in abeyance for the moment. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/frrms/index-en.aspx Related article: The Conversation: Noah S. Schwartz – Proposed Canadian gun bill will create U.S.-style patchwork of firearms laws https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/frrms/index-en.aspx Related article: Policy Options – Blake Brown New gun-control legislation needs to control replica guns to keep Canadians safe https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2021/new-gun-control-legislation-needs-to-control-replica-guns-to-keep-canadians-safe/?mc_cid=78562fcf44&mc_eid=88d8ad4e97
NY Times (US) – Annie Karni
Biden Takes Initial Steps to Address Gun Violence
The rhetoric is the same and gun legislation is already dormant in the senate where two recent bills are awaiting 60 vote passage. The endless cycle of mass killings (4 or more victims) continues as we hear a new term ‘ghost gun,’ a home-made gun assembled from pieces, untraceable but none-the-less deadly, and another way around what regulations are already in place or perhaps even proposed. These Biden measures are again by presidential degree and unlikely to anything more than bargaining chips in the legislative games. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/us/politics/biden-gun-control.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage Related article: Vox.com – German Lopez America’s unique gun violence problem, explained in 16 maps and charts – In the developed world, these levels of gun violence are a uniquely American problem. Here’s why. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/boulder-colorado-mass-shooting-gun-violence-statistics-charts Related article: NY Times – Dan Gross I Helped Lead the Gun Control Movement. It’s Asking the Wrong Questions. A campaign galvanized by mass shootings and assault weapons will inevitably find itself in a dead end. But there’s a way out. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/08/opinion/politics/i-helped-lead-the-gun-control-movement-its-asking-the-wrong-questions.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage Related article: Mother Jones Mark Follman, Gavin Aronsen and Deanna Pan US Mass Shootings, 1982-2021: Data From Mother Jones’ Investigation: The full data set from our in-depth investigation into mass shootings. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data/ Related article: CNN – Biden calls for ban on assault weapons https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/04/08/gun-violence-reform-assault-weapons-president-biden-reform-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/
Globe and Mail – David Parkinson
A guaranteed basic income could be a stabilizing force for Canada
The link offers credible proof that the notion of a guaranteed annual income is beginning to take hold in both social and political circles. In fact, the Parliamentary Budget Office has had no less than four requests for assessments from individual MP’s. There is also considerable media support for the GAI. “The key numbers in the PBO report focus on the potential of GBI to lift low-income Canadians out of poverty. The study was patterned after Ontario’s 2017-18 basic-income pilot, which paid single participants up to $17,000 a year ($24,000 for couples), significantly less generous than the CERB. The PBO estimated that such a benefit would reduce the number of Canadians below the poverty line by 49 per cent.” https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-a-guaranteed-basic-income-could-be-a-stabilizing-force-for-canada/ Related article: Global News – Canadian Press Basic income program could cut national poverty rates in half, PBO says https://globalnews.ca/news/7743174/basic-income-canada-pbo/ Related article: Toronto Star – Kieran Leavitt Would a universal basic income help Canada’s lowest earners? It depends who you ask https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/04/07/would-a-universal-basic-income-help-canadas-lowest-earners-it-depends-who-you-ask.html Related article: International Federation of Social Workers – Social Platform ADEQUATE MINIMUM WAGES: Social Platform recommendations to guarantee adequate minimum wages in the European Union https://www.ifsw.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ifsw_europe_social_platform_position_adequate_minimum_wages_300321_final.pdf (An eight page downloadable pdf with 10 recommendations on criteria how the EU can achieve guaranteed annual income.) Related article: Basic Income Canada Network – Chandra Pasma and Sheila Regehr Some Policy Options for Canada (A 63 page pdf – summary available as well at link.) https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/bicn/pages/3725/attachments/original/1579707497/Basic_Income-_Some_Policy_Options_for_Canada2.pdf?1579707497
NY Times – Weiyi Cai and Ford Fessenden
Immigrant Neighborhoods Shifted Red as the Country Chose Blue
The link offers a shift in the American political perspective that confronts the demography of the country and the increasing separate ways, political and social, being established by young people as a perspective on the future – a shift to the right in immigrant neighbourhoods. The authors provide charts showing that while Biden won majority there was significant shift to Trump among Latinos in many precincts while Trump reduced his voters in white and Republican areas. Illustrations are drawn from electoral performance in Chicago, Florida, Texas, Philadelphia, NY, LA (including the Vietnamese population). https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/20/us/politics/election-hispanics-asians-voting.html Related article: Blogger David Frum The Great Replacement – the “replacement” of conservative Christians by their own liberal and secular children and grandchildren. https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1380521088153686024?s=03 Related article: America Magazine – Nicholas Misukanis The United States should consider reparations to Black Americans. Germany can show the way. https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2021/04/05/germany-reparations-holocaust-racism-us-240294
TV Ontario (TVO) – Unascertained: The Case of Soleiman Faqiri –
“On December 15, 2016, Soleiman Faqiri was found dead in his cell after an incident with a group of correctional officers. After suffering a schizophrenic episode, the 30-year-old was awaiting a mental health assessment at a Lindsay Ontario jail. He was pepper sprayed, shackled, and wearing a spit hood. Unascertained pieces together the timeline of Soleiman’s death and what really happened when guards entered the room.”
The first episodes of Unascertained are out now on TVO Podcasts and Apple Podcasts, please take the time to give them a listen:
https://www.tvo.org/programs/unascertained
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/unascertained/id1559615719?mt=2&itscg=80085&itsct=pod_tvo_unascertained Related article: Pro Publica – “NYPD Files” Wins Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting (Link to the full report NYPD Files included)
Toronto Star – Victoria Gibson
‘Cozy with police’? Controversial deals that allow officers to stop anyone at any time on Toronto community housing property should be abolished, says anti-Black racism probe
Most citizens would be surprised to learn that Toronto police and the Toronto Public Housing Corporation have reached a ‘deal’ that allows police to frisk and question people who live in public housing. Housing is the same as streets. “Known as “agent of the landlord” agreements or “trespass to property act authorization letters,” the deals came under scrutiny during a recent probe into how anti-Black racism has permeated TCHC, which began last September after global protests about racism and policing…Neither TCHC nor police will say how many have been in force over recent years, nor where they have been in the past.” Nor is it known if similar agreements exist elsewhere in Ontario or th3 rest of Canada. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/04/09/cozy-with-police-controversial-deals-that-allow-officers-to-stop-anyone-at-any-time-on-toronto-community-housing-property-should-be-abolished-says-anti-black-racism-probe.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=GTA&utm_content=policedealwithtch