Oct 31, 2022
Canadian Press – Joseph Brean
Supreme Court declares parts of sex offender registry unconstitutional
“A law cannot deprive the life, liberty, or security of the person of even one individual in a way that is inconsistent with the principles of fundamental justice,” reads the judgment jointly written for a 5-4 majority by Justices Andromache Karakatsanis and Sheilah Martin. “As a consequence, laws that are broadly drawn to make enforcement more practical run afoul of (the Charter’s guarantee of life, liberty and security of the person) should they deprive the liberty of even one person in a way that registry. “Canada’s sex offender registry dates to 2004, but the law was changed in 2011 to add the lifetime rule, and to remove the discretion of judges and prosecutors. One reason for this change was that a Parliamentary review found the registry had low inclusion rates that undermined its use as an investigative tool.” https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/supreme-court-rules-mandatory-sex-offender-registry-is-unconstitutional/ar-AA13ujFZ?ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=38ffb56bceb54dc0d69f32cefc8570ae Related article: CBC News – Peter Zimonjic Supreme Court strikes down law requiring sex offenders to be automatically added to registry – Harper-era law required those convicted of two or more sex offences to be added to registry for life https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/supreme-court-sex-offenders-register-1.6632701 Related article: CTV News ‘No Canadian should be worried’: Lawyer explains how the sex offender registry is changing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIXZZVZc-ic Related article: Lawyers’ Daily – Cristin Schmit Litigation, law reform likely after SCC strikes down mandatory inclusion in sex offender registry https://www.thelawyersdaily.ca/criminal/articles/40730/litigation-law-reform-likely-after-scc-strikes-down-mandatory-inclusion-in-sex-offender-registry-?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal
Public Safety Canada
Minister Mendicino welcomes annual report from Structured Intervention Unit Implementation Advisory Panel
The panel led by U of T criminologist Anthony Doob was asked to examine the implementation of “structured intervention units,” or SIU’s, the federal response to the cruelty of solitary confinement. The current federal version of the policy is found on the Corrections Services Canada (CSC) website: https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/005006-3002-en.shtml Here is the CSC poster version: https://www.csc-scc.gc.ca/acts-and-regulations/092/005006-3002-en.pdf Here is the link to the minister’s press release: https://www.canada.ca/en/public-safety-canada/news/2022/10/minister-mendicino-welcomes-annual-report-from-structured-intervention-unit-implementation-advisory-panel.html
The Nation – Scott Hechinger
A Massive Fail on Crime Reporting by The New York Times, NPR – Sensational stories about a “spike” in murders offer a model of how not to cover criminal justice.
The US midterm elections have again raised the spectre of uncontrolled crime and the solution as harsh repression. Hechinger offers a forceful critique of both the New York Times and the National Public Radio for the simplistic presentations that ignore the facts of the criminal legal world. In September 2022, the FBI stats should decline in all crimes except murder, up over the previous year. “While police and allies have attempted to use the data to tie “bail reform” and racial justice protests to this past year’s rise in murders, those claims are contradicted by the geography of the rise in homicides, which occurred across the country: in red and blue states, in jurisdictions that have seen some measured wins for criminal and civil justice and those that haven’t, in jurisdictions that saw protests against police violence, and those that haven’t—and all despite massive police budgets.” https://www.thenation.com/article/society/crime-reporting-failure/
Toronto Star – Rick Salutin
From ‘copaganda’ to the convoy inquiry: Lessons to be learned – What would a more honest cop show look like? It might start by gleaning from this week’s hearings, where higher-echelon cops have been testifying.
Salutin first offers us TV copaganda and then takes the findings to the Convoy hearing in Ottawa. What would one expect to hear vs what really happened? “No top cop will say they couldn’t have solved the occupation of Ottawa without an emergency declaration. That’d be no way to get ahead, admitting you’re not up to the task. So we got avowals of how they all had a plan that could’ve worked, though the declaration definitely helped…The only one saying he couldn’t fix it with a brilliant plan was Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly, who lost his job.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/10/28/from-copaganda-to-the-convoy-inquiry-lessons-to-be-learned.html Related article: The Hill Times (Canada) – Rose Lemay Emergencies Act Inquiry is ripping the veneer off the myth of fair policing https://www.hilltimes.com/2022/10/31/emergencies-act-inquiry-is-ripping-the-veneer-off-the-myth-of-fair-policing/390223
New York Times (US) – German Lopez
More Equitable Justice – Racial disparities in incarceration have fallen.
Again the US mid-elections are stirring up the crime debate. Is there more crime, less crime, different crime, how do we keep stats and how does media report crime? Lopez is reporting a significant decrease in the number of Black persons incarcerated compared to white persons. To many, the decline in high disproportionality of the races in incarceration does not hold much cause for celebrating prison reform and the reform still must stand the electoral test. Lopez thinks that the falling imprisonment rate for Blacks indicates other measures catching up: “But long-term neglect of Black communities has led to social and economic imbalances. And violent offending, Johnson argued, “is the nexus where all the other disparities, all the other gaps” meet. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/briefing/prison-race-brazil-election.html Related article: Bloomberg (US): Justin Fox New York City Is a Lot Safer Than Small-Town America – Rising homicide rates don’t tell the whole story. When you dig deeper into data on deaths, you’ll find the more urban your surroundings, the less danger you face. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-07/is-new-york-city-more-dangerous-than-rural-america
The Walrus (Canada) – Julia-Simone Rutgers, Illustration by Glenn Harvey
Cops on Substack: How Police Are Using PR to Combat Criticism – New communication strategies by law enforcement reveal a crisis in public trust
Police departments are growing more skilled and committed to the use of the social media in presenting their messages to the varied and demanding public seeking issue review. Winnipeg Police appear to be making inroads into the use of their newsletter material on Subtrack, an increasingly popular platform for writers, journalists and analysts. “As the public grows increasingly critical of policing practices across North America, agencies have taken to traditional platforms as well as social media in an attempt to guard themselves against heightened public scrutiny, declining public trust, and a rising insecurity among their own officers. How police departments choose to respond publicly to the new pressures—whether by rebranding or through public-communication efforts—offers insights into their internal identity crisis.” https://thewalrus.ca/cops-on-substack-how-police-are-using-pr-to-combat-criticism/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=How+police+are+using+PR+to+combat+criticism&utm_campaign=Weekly+Newsletter+-+October+31
The Conversation (Queen’s) – Leah Levac, Jullian Crocker (both of University of Guelph)
New anti-poverty initiative focuses on lived experiences to help shape policy
Here’s a novel idea. Poverty has been around for so and resistant to so many expert solutions, how about a change in the experts. This recommendation comes in the light of an understanding that says that poverty is, in fact, legislated by what is proposed for cure. “Unlegislating” poverty demands a new course of action from the government. Addressing systemic factors that cause poverty, and focusing on the expertise of people living with poverty who understand acutely how public policies fail people, are essential… This call to action is part of an ongoing discussion about how public policy can be better developed with lived expertise. https://theconversation.com/new-anti-poverty-initiative-focuses-on-lived-experiences-to-help-shape-policy-192305?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20Canada%20for%20October%2031%202022&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20Canada%20for%20October%2031%202022+CID_ebd96576b532027cb0649ea235428791&utm_source=campaign_monitor_ca&utm_term=New%20anti-poverty%20initiative%20focuses%20on%20lived%20experiences%20to%20help%20shape%20policy