March 16, 2923 – Islamophobia…
Angus Reid Institute (Canada)
Islamophobia in Canada: Four mindsets indicate negativity is nationwide, most intense in Quebec – 36% outside of QC have negative view of Islam, compared to 56% within la belle province
Angus Reid is confirming that Islamophobia is not just an American perspective but flourishes here in Canada as well. “A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds unfavourable views of Islam prevalent across the country at varying levels and highest in Quebec… Indeed, two-in-five Canadians outside of Quebec (39%) hold an unfavourable view of Islam. In Quebec that number reaches half (52%). These views take more concrete forms, however, than just the overall sentiment that the religion receives. Its followers face the risk of being unwelcome in a number of areas of Canadian society.” Also, the Angus Reid’s key findings towards the end of the report are important. https://angusreid.org/islamophobia-canada-quebec/
Ottawa Citizen – Farnaz Farhang, Samantha McAleese, Inez Hillel
Opinion: Ottawa’s response to mental-health crises shouldn’t include police – The city needs unarmed, trauma-informed civilian teams to care for people in crisis without conflating mental illness with violence.
This opinion pieces continues and clarifies the argument around what the role of police is in mental health crisis response and who should in fact respond. The opinion includes a rejection of the $!% million increase in city police budget and describes a failed effort by two city councillors to re-direct a portion of the increase to finance possible response from mental health as opposed to police. Recognizing the legitimacy of the issue, Ottawa police directed $2.65 million of the 2021 police budget to the formation of a “Guiding Council” made up of mental health agencies and police. Critics are looking for funding to go directly to the mental health intervention groups and service delivery without police. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/farhang-ottawas-response-to-mental-health-crises-shouldnt-include-police
Toronto Star – Moira Welsh
They had families, worked hard and grew old. Now they face their final years in poverty. Why are we failing older women in Canada? – A growing number of older women, especially those with careers that paid enough to get by but did not offer workplace pensions, live in a precarious financial position that can be brutally isolating.
“At the age of 80, after a career in non-profits, a master’s degree in linguistics and years spent teaching overseas, Sheilagh Hagens is entering the poverty of old age. It’s a place that is inhabited in many ways by women. After raising children and working lower-paying jobs with no private pensions, women in their senior years have a statistically higher risk of poverty than men. It’s all there in government data, even if the details get scant attention.” https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2023/03/16/they-had-families-worked-hard-and-grew-old-now-they-face-their-final-years-in-poverty-how-we-are-failing-older-women.html Related article: Homeless Hub – Steven Gaetz Implementing Duty to Assist in Canada: A Rights-Based Approach to Preventing and Ending Homelessness https://www.homelesshub.ca/blog/implementing-duty-assist-canada-rights-based-approach-preventing-and-ending-homelessness?utm_campaign=hh&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter
Law360 – David Dorson
Pleading guilty
David Dorson is a pen name of an individual who went through the entire criminal legal system – arrest, conviction, prison and parole – and who now writes opinion pieces for Law 360 (formerly the Lawyer’s Daily). He offers an opinion on recent movement by the federal government to create a second look system for cases in which the system has perhaps created a wrongful conviction; he also speaks about people confronted by the legal system who falsely confess to crime. Here’s his view of bail: “But even if you are not in jail, the uncertainty of waiting months for a resolution takes a toll not only on those accused but on their families. People may lose their jobs — as I did. Their spouses, children and other family members may be vilified — as happened in my case. On bail I was subject to a whole string of conditions that assumed I was guilty and that seriously limited how I could live. Your family may have to supervise you, never a good situation. And this can go on for months or even years.” https://www.law360.ca/criminal/articles/44875/pleading-guilty-david-dorson-?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal
CBC News – Power and Politics with David Cochane
Escalating calls for bail reform – Ottawa promises to tighten bail access as crime surges
Canadian provincial ministers of justice are demanding harder conditions as bail reform from federal Minister of Justice Minister David Lametti. The link is to a 6min47sec interview on the federal response to the provincial pressures. The link between denial of bail and crime prevention is suspect, especially given that 70% of those persons currently in jail are there from denial of bail. Some critics would suggest that denial of bail contributes to higher crime rates. https://www.facebook.com/CBCPolitics/videos/3291413907790150/
The Marshall Project (US) – Daphne Duret, Weihua Li and Marc Perrusquia
Aggressive Policing in Memphis Goes Far Beyond the Scorpion Unit – Data shows Memphis police arrested more people – mostly Black men – than other Tennessee cities.
The recent focus on specialized police response units such as Scorpion may distract from what the authors have found around regular patrol officers in Memphis (TN) and what passes for normal policing. Christopher Chapman, a former officer who is now a criminology professor at the City University of New York, says: “When there are cases where officers can violate people’s rights, and supervisors aren’t stopping it, then it’s not a far jump to go from that to shooting people and beating them almost to death.” The article shines some light on the back and forth of the argument that aggressive policing is the only and necessary response to crime. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2023/03/14/memphis-police-beatings-tennessee?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow Related article: Toronto Star – Lee Harvey Toronto police end extra patrols on TTC – Toronto police announced Jan. 26 it would boost its presence on the TTC to 80 officers, following a series of attacks. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2023/03/13/toronto-police-end-extra-patrols-on-ttc.html?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=404CAADEF7EB839FC77B1B04F0C251E1&utm_campaign=bn_171422
ABC News – Kiara Alfonseca
Man serving 400-year prison sentence exonerated after new probe finds wrongful conviction – Sidney Holmes was wrongfully convicted of an armed robbery.
The case is surprising for the confluence of several problematic issues. The length of the sentence for armed robbery was supported by the three strikes principle and the prosecutor at the time had asked for 825 years to eliminate the potential parole after 25 years in prison. Holmes served 34 years before his exoneration by Florida CRU: “The CRU found that there is “no evidence” connecting Holmes to the robbery besides a flawed identification of him and the vehicle involved in the robbery. The CRU found that witness identification of Holmes was likely a “misidentification,” partly due to the photo and live lineup practices commonly used by law enforcement at the time, which are “scientifically unreliable,” according to the state attorney’s office.” https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-serving-400-year-prison-sentence-exonerated-after/story?id=97849931
Tweet from Michael Spratt on Ottawa Police Thin Blue Line badges: “Wearing the thin blue line symbol, on or off duty is misconduct and it is a complete dereliction of duty for @OttawaPolice chief Stubbs to suggest off duty bad conduct is beyond his ability to reign in. twitter.com/arieltroster/s… (Cf also tweet from Ariel Troster on Ottawa Police response) Related article: Ottawa Citizen – Brian Deachman Are police on the wrong side of the thin blue line? – It appears that the Ottawa Police Association president is aware of the symbol’s transformation into a racist trope, making his defense of it one of either complete tone-deafness or deliberate provocation. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/deachman-are-police-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-thin-blue-line
BC Tyee – Daniella Barreto
Body Cameras for Police Threaten Public Safety – Especially for Black people.
Barreto is a nay-sayer to the notion that the Vancouver Police Department invest in the practice and the cost of equipping police with body-worn video cameras. The proposal suggests that the body cameras will ensure everybody’s safety. Not so says Barreto: “Among their many problems, body cameras don’t level the power imbalance between police and communities disproportionately harmed by police violence. As we have seen in body camera footage released Jan. 27 of Tyre Nichols’ fatal Jan. 7 beating by police in Memphis, Tennessee, the cameras record police violence — but they don’t stop it.” https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2023/02/01/Police-Body-Cameras-Threaten-Public-Safety/
Law 360 – Julie Matthews
Access to Justice: Moving beyond the assumptions
This is a hard reminder from the soon retiring head of the Community Legal Education Clinic in Ontario that the problems with public access to justice today are pretty much what they were at the turn of the century, a discouraging assessment by one who has long worked in the arena. “…we recycle the items on the agenda every few years, discuss the need for more data, and generally give ourselves credit for advancing the state of access to justice — even though it could be argued that we’ve mostly been putting band-aids on a system that is not serving the public well at all.” https://www.law360.ca/criminal/articles/44916/-access-to-justice-moving-beyond-the-assumptions-julie-mathews?nl_pk=40ed8ea4-637a-4d76-870f-04f0eeae7de8&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=criminal