Feb 8, 2023 – Housing a right…
Toronto Star Editorial (Feb 6, 2023)
A judge’s ruling focuses attention on the homeless crisis – A court ruling that Waterloo cannot dismantle an encampment may oblige governments to do a better job of ensuring that people have shelter.
“Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice ruled last week that the Region of Waterloo cannot dismantle a homeless encampment on a vacant city lot in Kitchener because of lack of space in the shelter facilities.” Section 7 of the Charter Rights is the focal point of the ruling and several places have had similar rulings. Greg Cook of Sanctuary, a housing NGO in Toronto says: “I don’t think this will give everybody housing in the long term but I think it’s a step that forces governments, whether that’s municipal, whether that’s provincial, to do better as far as making sure that people have housing, which is really important.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2023/02/06/a-judges-ruling-focuses-attention-on-the-homeless-crisis.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a07&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=top_165777 Related article: Toronto Star – May Warren A ‘precedent-setting’ decision rules encampment clearing would violate Charter rights – An Ontario court said a Waterloo Region encampment cannot be cleared given a lack of shelter space. It could mean a more ‘compassionate approach’ in Toronto. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/01/30/a-precedent-setting-decision-rules-encampment-clearing-would-violate-charter-rights.html
Toronto Star Editorial (Feb 5, 2023)
Why we need to rethink mandatory criminal sentences
“Parliament passed Bill C-5 last November, thereby repealing 20 mandatory sentences — 14 in the Criminal Code, and all six in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.” The legislation speaks to sentences for some 20 crimes, a mere portion of those falling under the mandatory sentences. Police from across the country and premiers are asking for a harder-against-crime that seems to defeat what federal Minister of Justice David Lametti says have been the results of the mandatory sentences. “Mandatory minimum sentences have “resulted in longer and more complex trials, including an increase in successful Charter challenges and a decrease in guilty pleas, which has compounded the impact for victims, who are more often required to testify. They have failed to deter crime.” https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2023/02/05/why-we-need-to-rethink-mandatory-criminal-sentences.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a11&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=top_165777
BC Tyee – Meenakshi Mannoe
Nicole Chan Deserved Safety Within Her VPD Workplace – Her tragic death tells us we must do more for survivors of institutional sexual abuse.
BC and the Vancouver Police Department are in turmoil over the suicide of Constable Nicole Chan was died by suicide while on leave and confronting sexual abuse in the unresponsive VPD. Mannoe also says that there is a widespread problem with the RCMP and cites cases where a complaint even of long standing sexual abuse went nowhere for the victim. Mannoe also references a number of reports highlighting the extent or the problem and its resistance to solution. https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/02/06/Nicole-Chan-Deserved-Safety-At-VPD/ Related tweet from Prison Health (Canada) – On police sexual abuse: “City of London Police (UK) investigate 32 cases of sexual misconduct and violence against women by officers. The number of complaints against City of London Police officers jumped by a staggering 190% this financial year https://t.co/i1EiwENrOo
(https://twitter.com/Prison_Health/status/1622689083498631197?t=ajiP2mX-EbRln4-RHxMqxw&s=03)
National Post – Tom Blackwell
First Nations owed over $100B under 1850 Ontario treaty: Nobel-winning economist – Joseph Stiglitz is testifying in a Sudbury, Ont., courtroom why First Nations may have been short-changed under a revenue-sharing treaty signed in 1850
The courts have for some time already ruled that in the case of certain treaty obligations to First Nations before the 1867 Confederation the province of Ontario (around Sudbury) lagged in its stipulated payment. The Indigenous people think $35 million in compensation suggested by the province is so inadequate in real dollars that they asked Columbia (NY) economist Joseph Stiglitz to assess the real reparation: he thinks over $100 billion. “The two “Robinson treaties” with Anishinaabe communities north of the Great Lakes were meant to pay an annuity to Indigenous people in a vast swath of Ontario, augmented as the government’s revenue from logging, mining and other resource development grew over the years.” At the time, the province was pursuing the copper and iron ore deposits north of Lake Huron and Lake Superior. https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-nations-owed-100b-1850-ontario-treaty
Spring (Canada) – Jeff Shantz
‘Proactive policing’ and Canada’s Scorpions
The notion of ‘Scorpion’ police units focused on specific defined ailments of life the city comes from the Memphis experience in the death of Tyre Nichols, beaten to death by five of the police officers after a traffic stop. Shantz is suggesting that the mandate to the police is under the guise of ‘pro-active policing’ contextualized by underlying racism. Shantz reviews similar units created in Canada: Toronto, Regina, London, Thunder Bay, Owen Sound, Prince George. As one may expect the rationale for pro-active policing once accepted calls for an additional portion of the city budget for policing. https://springmag.ca/proactive-policing-and-canadas-scorpions Related tweet from Waterloo Regional Reallocate Group – On delayed hiring against full year budgets figures: “We find it very disturbing the @WRPSToday Police Services Board is purposefully budgeting for a surplus of at least $1 million this year. They are doing this despite the increased suffering many people are experiencing in our community. Here is how they are doing it…” https://twitter.com/ReallocateW
Tweet from Alex Karakatsanis – On Copaganda in the NY Times “Absolutely incredible. You can’t make this up. Just after I published the final article in this series about this very thing, the New York Times has just done it again: https://t.co/Tts1w8MzUr
(https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1622755267547914241?t=MX8kwaMezaG1rhQYRRZYMg&s=03) Related: Tweet from Alec Karakatsanis (US) (Cf Thread) – On Biased reports: “The New York Times told readers that an “independent” report concerned with police violence recommended increases in police budgets for training, surveillance, and cash for cops. The problem? The report was actually written by 6 former LAPD officials.” (https://twitter.com/equalityAlec/status/1622654844355108864?t=twqtfvp0BPJzd9Cii2S2bQ&s=03)
Tweet from Brandi Morin – On murdered women in landfill: “A Landfill Search Feasibility Committee has been established since December after the family of Morgan Harris, one of 4 Indigenous women slain by a Winnipeg serial killer, decried the Winnipeg Police Service refusal to search 2 landfills 4 their remains. What’s happening now? https://t.co/kvkLTG0iSc
(https://twitter.com/Songstress28/status/1622720914743001091?t=FELt5xzOjQJCJC6VX8xRwQ&s=03)
Tweet from Canadian Museum for Human Rights – On EI Jones and Prisons: “Jones’ work is based on prison abolitionism, feminism and anti-racism. She cites Oscar Wilde’s “Ballad of Reading Gaol” as the inspiration that informs much of her work.”
(https://twitter.com/CMHR_News/status/1622715998452285456?t=cj-kpoWqWapnCsscejqtRg&s=03)
Tweet from Prison Health (US) on Coty Prison Costs: How Much Do U.S. Cities Spend On Policing? https://t.co/twUphgB1I5 https://t.co/VLqbT9KiNn
(https://twitter.com/Prison_Health/status/1622963391022379009?t=BaFouezJ4zpyx3oX61YhSw&s=03)
Tweet from Beyond Prison Walls Canada – On Ion scanner failures: “When you gotta take extreme measures to ensure you get past the ion scanner. Every prison wife’s nightmare.” (https://twitter.com/prison_walls/status/1622901769876406272?t=znT8VN0klmMzTlbiaaKldg&s=03)
Bill Maher and former Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria “Rondo” Arradondo, a Black man, discuss the pattern of interaction between police and Black people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4FXr1O925o