Nov. 19, 2021
Restorative Justice Week – Nov. 21 – 28
Theme: Centering those harmed
Restorative justice is to be victim centred and address all kinds of harm, even the most serious. Yet, restorative justice is still not widely accessible and sometimes RJ falls short of its full potential.
The European Forum for Restorative Justice (EFRJ) thus chose as their theme for RJ Week 2021: The potential of restorative justice for victims
Read EFRJ’s statement and position paper on the European Commission’s Victims Rights Directive – the first binding EU legislation on restorative justice and its implementation.
In Canada, the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights (CVBR) says every victim has the right to information about the services and programs available to them, including RJ programs. This is a step forward. Yet more is required. As stated in “Getting Fair Outcomes for Victims in Canada’s Criminal Justice System”: “One challenge is that the CVBR provides only that a victim has a right to information about RJ “on request”.
But if a victim doesn’t know about RJ in the first place, how could they possibly know to inquire about it? The CVBR is also silent with respect to whose role or responsibility it is to provide such information to victims.”
We join EFRJ and others in calls for more accessibility to restorative justice.
Events / Links: All the events and the links for these events, and others nationally and internationally can be found at: https://mailchi.mp/29153da45f6c/rjweek2021?e=70082725aa
For the National Symposium on Nov. 20, 21: Registration and program https://www.crjc.ca/national-symposium
Toronto Star – Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press
Coalition pushes for automatic sealing of a criminal record if no new convictions
The Fresh Start Coalition consists of “the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Black Legal Action Centre, the Indigenous Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, and the John Howard Society of Canada, as well as many smaller community organizations.” The member groups are frustrated and concerned about the changes from pardons to record suspensions but also seek to seal criminal records unless there is a re-offence. The coalition says that the current practice is messy, difficult to access, expensive, and most of all, discourages applicants trying to get on with their lives. https://www.thestar.com/politics/2021/11/17/coalition-pushes-for-automatic-sealing-of-a-criminal-record-if-no-new-convictions.html
The Conversation (Queen’s University) – Amy Swiffen and Kris Millett
Terrorism laws target racism, but what about racism in the legal system?
At first say the authors the terrorist laws confronted the white supremacist movements. Then the surveillance and focus shifted to the Muslim communities. Now critics of the laws have turned to the question of how to cope with governments and courts exercising a racism embedded in the process of justice itself. “One way to think about the debate is to see the legal category of terrorism as dividing violence more than stopping it. If the state is itself sexist and racist, it remains so even if it defines white supremacist and misogynistic violence as terrorism. The key is to understand that the goal is not to stamp out white supremacy and misogyny, but to manage it.” https://theconversation.com/terrorism-laws-target-racism-but-what-about-racism-in-the-legal-system-170942?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20November%2018%202021&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20November%2018%202021+CID_077db98f70143e4913d1ffa4ed374bbd&utm_source=campaign_monitor_ca&utm_term=Terrorism%20laws%20target%20racism%20but%20what%20about%20racism%20in%20the%20legal%20system
Toronto Star – Jason Miller
More women are being strangled, attacked with weapons in domestic violence, say Peel police. ‘Something has changed’
With an uptick in the number of strangling attacks on women, Peel Regional Police are insisting that the change in the frequency is because something has change. “Peel police Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich says the increase in those charges “tells us that something has changed,” suggesting the pandemic, and the financial, social and mental strain caused by months in lockdown, have played a role.” What is equally alarming around the increase, say the experts, is that strangling assaults often lead to death at some point in the immediate future. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2021/11/18/more-women-are-being-strangled-attacked-with-weapons-in-domestic-violence-say-peel-police-something-has-changed.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Juda Oudshroon Tweet: Police funding portions
The tweet concerns the funding of the Kitchener Waterloo police, especially the percentages of the property tax dedicated to police services, and the current request to add a further 35 officers to the force. The numbers are glaringly bad for comparison with other municipal services but may well be typical in other jurisdictions as well. https://t.co/UAZ33ou0aG
The Sentencing Project (US)
Parents in Prison – This fact sheet provides key facts on parents in prison and policies that impede their ability to care for their children when released from prison.
The link offers a downloadable pdf fact sheet on the care and nurturing of children while parents are in prison and when they are released. “Overview: In 2016, 47% of people in state prisons and 57% in federal prisons were parents of minor children. Most parents in prison are fathers (626,800 fathers compared to 57,700 mothers). The number of fathers in prison increased 48% and the number of mothers in prison increased 96% between 1991 and 2016.” https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/parents-in-prison/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=db5a7c43-7662-4e48-83e8-c687c6f0801e Related article: ABC News – Luke Barr DOJ finds Bureau of Prisons failed to apply earned time credits to 60,000 inmates – The inspector general fears inmates could have received sentence reductions. https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-finds-bureau-prisons-failed-apply-earned-time/story?id=81204260
Jim Stafford on a 11 point list of economic commentary on inflation: twitter.com/jimbostanford/… (From a tweet by Alex Himelfarb)