July 21, 2022
Toronto Star – Jacques Gallant
Ottawa should fight toxic overdose crisis by giving users safe drugs, advocates say – “Without access to a regulated, safe supply, decriminalization alone doesn’t pose many opportunities to really steam the tide of overdose deaths that we’ve seen here,” said registered nurse Corey Ranger, president of the Harm Reduction Nurses’ Association.
This article puts into the spotlight an obvious but reluctant response to the problem of overdose from opioids and fentanyl: get rid of the uncertainty of impure and unknown strengths while providing a prescription like product to users. “Without access to a regulated, safe supply, decriminalization alone doesn’t pose many opportunities to really stem the tide of overdose deaths that we’ve seen here,” said Corey Ranger, president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association.” The proposed action at the same time should decriminalize addiction and treat addiction as a public health issue, removing drug use from the furtive and criminal context. https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/07/18/ottawa-should-fight-toxic-overdose-crisis-by-giving-users-safe-drugs-advocates-say.html?_cldee=qdvRyrEx_MaXh94TTfcfk7OIohTcUPWcIFBpVmiLf5UL0GO4wZPPovI3uKW2ceJF&recipientid=contact-c7d5c6afacb6ec11983e0022486dba55-a20bcde783464c6f88b2b7ac5d378963&esid=889e24f0-6507-ed11-82e6-0022486dfe16
Lawyer’s Daily – John Hill
Ontario Court of Appeal decision focuses on warrantless searches
“Before 1982 and the advent of the Charter, criminal lawyers paid little attention to how evidence was collected. If police chose to use illegal means of collection, it didn’t really matter. Crime prevention was considered of utmost importance. If an individual’s rights were trampled in the process, it was all too bad. What was important was to find criminals and see that they were locked up.” The article puts a historical perspective on the search and seizure practices of police vs the rights enshrined in the Charter and suggesting that the Courts are catching up to a more succinct definition of those individual rights. https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/criminal/articles/38059/ontario-court-of-appeal-decision-focuses-on-warrantless-searches?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal Related article: CBC News – Ariana Kelland More than 100 former inmates come forward for solitary confinement lawsuit – Lawyer Jim Locke says firm has been fielding calls from concerned family members, former inmates https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/hmp-lawsuit-solitary-confinement-lawsuit-1.6517924?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar
Toronto Star – Robert Benzie
Doug Ford to give greater, U.S.-style powers to mayors of Toronto and Ottawa – The dramatic change would dilute the influence of municipal councillors in Ontario’s two largest cities, ensuring far more authority for the mayors over financial matters and appointments.
Those alarmed about the strengthening of political autocrats and the exercise of democracy may see the beginning of a nightmare of power grabbing in this suggestion. The provincial government wants to give to two Ontario city mayors (based on a US model) more power – with a possible veto – to by-pass council members on issues that matter. “Ford, long a proponent of mayors having greater clout than councillors, wants the Toronto and Ottawa chief magistrates empowered to oversee budgets and act unilaterally if need be… Sources, speaking confidentially in order to discuss delicate internal deliberations, say the reforms are designed to improve city government and would be unveiled within weeks by Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark.” https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/07/19/doug-ford-to-give-greater-us-style-powers-to-mayors-of-toronto-and-ottawa.html Cf also update: Toronto Star – Robert Benzie Doug Ford says Toronto and Ottawa ‘strong mayors’ could only be overruled by two-thirds of council https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2022/07/20/doug-ford-says-toronto-and-ottawa-strong-mayors-could-only-be-overruled-by-two-thirds-of-council.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=bn_135611
Tweeter Alex Karakatsanis
Karakatsanis has been tweeting for some time about the inbred bias of many public media out- lets. In the case of the NY Times, many would regard it as the best and most reliable for truth in public media. Further, the paper is admired such that many of its practices become the standard for other media. Karakatsanis begs to disagree. “THREAD. I’ve been studying how the New York Times uses sources. If you look at many of its articles together, something disturbing emerges: NYT relies on police and corporate sources to subtly shape how we see social problems and solutions. I try my best to lay it out below.” https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1549133432550133761?s=03 Related article: Washington Post (US) – Erik Wemple Shocker: Almost no one trusts TV news https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/gallup-poll-confidence-media-new-lows/?utm_campaign=wp_opinions_pm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_popns&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F376b02f%2F62d7068ecfe8a21601f7c03c%2F597720279bbc0f6826c0ca16%2F16%2F68%2F62d7068ecfe8a21601f7c03c&wp_cu=fb96708e020cba40746ac3907d799fbc%7C47D0917CB1DA3119E0530100007F9CD3
The Council on Criminal Justice (US) – Task Force on Long Sentences
Long Sentences by the Numbers
This advisory group was founded recently to examine the implications of long and indeterminate sentences on mass incarceration. The stats are presented according to sentencing, incarcerated, release, and offence. There are further stats on race, gender, age and methodology. There is also a summary of key takeaways from the work to date. https://counciloncj.foleon.com/tfls/long-sentences-by-the-numbers/ Related article: JSTOR – Jamie Santa Cruz Rethinking Prison as a Deterrent to Future Crime – Time behind bars can increase the likelihood that someone will re-offend, research finds. In many cases, programs that rehabilitate, rather than punish, may be a better solution. https://daily.jstor.org/rethinking-prison-as-a-deterrent-to-future-crime/
Reason.com (US) – Gail Heriot
Volokh Conspiracy – Karl Menninger’s The Crime of Punishment
This one quote of Heriot’s historic memory of the famous Karl Menninger is worth reflection and weighing our own experiences with criminal legal justice: “The inescapable conclusion is that society secretly wants crime, needs crime, and gains definite satisfactions from the present mishandling of it! We condemn crime; we punish offenders for it; but we need it. The crime and punishment ritual is a part of our lives. We need crimes to wonder at, to enjoy vicariously, to discuss and speculate about, and to publicly deplore. We need criminals to identify ourselves with, to secretly envy, and to stoutly punish. Criminals represent our alter egos—our ‘bad’ selves—rejected and projected. They do for us the forbidden, illegal things we wish to do and, like scapegoats of old, they bear the burdens of our displaced guilt and punishment—’the iniquities of us all.'” https://reason.com/volokh/2018/11/21/karl-menningers-the-crime-of-punishment/ Related article: The Pew Foundation (US) – Public Safety and Performance Project – Crime and correctional control—any court-ordered supervision of an individual, whether in the community, as with probation or parole, or in a facility, such as a jail or prison—create substantial burdens for governments and taxpayers, as well as for people in confinement or under supervision and their families. But decades of research have revealed a range of strategies that are more effective for achieving public safety. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/public-safety-performance-project