Liberals: 27.8 (+1.1)
NDP: 16.0 (-1.0)
Green: 13.4 (+2.2)
Bloc Quebecois: 9.8 (+0.6)
Undecided: 14.7
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Today's Ekos poll numbers
Conservatives: 33.1 (-2.8)
Liberals: 27.8 (+1.1)
NDP: 16.0 (-1.0)
Green: 13.4 (+2.2)
Bloc Quebecois: 9.8 (+0.6)
Undecided: 14.7
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Liberals: 27.8 (+1.1)
NDP: 16.0 (-1.0)
Green: 13.4 (+2.2)
Bloc Quebecois: 9.8 (+0.6)
Undecided: 14.7
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
Street shocks will always be a problem, Hydro says
Generally people wear shoes and that saves them from being zapped -- but somehow it seems odd that live electric plates cannot be somehow eliminated:
Street shocks will always be a problem, Hydro says
Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff reporter
Electric shocks from live handwells and hydro wires are "going to be a problem forever," a Toronto Hydro spokeswoman said Wednesday.
While an incident Monday involving a dog in Riverdale was "unique," the problem itself is never going away, said Tanya Bruckmueller.
Schroeder, a 5-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, was zapped by contact with an old street-light wire buried under asphalt and cement on Danforth Ave. near Jones Ave. The dog collapsed and convulsed before being pulled to safety.
"We've made sure the wire is completely disconnected and removed, and we're going to put another pole there," said Bruckmueller.
A dog was killed in November 2008 near a light pole around Keele and Annette Sts.; another was electrocuted after stepping on a live metal sidewalk plate last January.
Pet owners in Liberty Village and Yorkville have also reported that their dogs had been shocked, although less severely, by live wires or handwells. (Handwells are the metal covers in the sidewalk that provide crews access to utilities.)
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/747316--street-shocks-will-always-be-a-problem-hydro-says
Street shocks will always be a problem, Hydro says
Lesley Ciarula Taylor Staff reporter
Electric shocks from live handwells and hydro wires are "going to be a problem forever," a Toronto Hydro spokeswoman said Wednesday.
While an incident Monday involving a dog in Riverdale was "unique," the problem itself is never going away, said Tanya Bruckmueller.
Schroeder, a 5-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, was zapped by contact with an old street-light wire buried under asphalt and cement on Danforth Ave. near Jones Ave. The dog collapsed and convulsed before being pulled to safety.
"We've made sure the wire is completely disconnected and removed, and we're going to put another pole there," said Bruckmueller.
A dog was killed in November 2008 near a light pole around Keele and Annette Sts.; another was electrocuted after stepping on a live metal sidewalk plate last January.
Pet owners in Liberty Village and Yorkville have also reported that their dogs had been shocked, although less severely, by live wires or handwells. (Handwells are the metal covers in the sidewalk that provide crews access to utilities.)
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/747316--street-shocks-will-always-be-a-problem-hydro-says
Copts massacred leaving Church
Copts in Eygpt face some very real dangers -- this is a dreadful but all to common story:
Egyptian gunmen attack Church, killing 7 people
www.cbc.ca
Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egyptian as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people, the church bishop and security officials said.
Egyptian gunmen attack Church, killing 7 people
www.cbc.ca
Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egyptian as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people, the church bishop and security officials said.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Violence against Aboriginal women
From the Wawatay News:
http://www.wawataynews.ca/archive/all/2010/1/7/Violence-against-Native-women-must-end-NWAC_18880
Since 1970, the Native Women's Association of Canada has 525 documented cases of murdered or missing Aboriginal women and girls.
... 43 per cent of these reported cases have occurred since 2000.
...
They are three times more likely to experience violence and five times more likely to die from violence than non-Aboriginal women.
NWAC and Ontario Native Women's Association have held the Stolen Sister's vigil to raise public awareness of the lateral violence against Aboriginal Women.
"The high levels of racialized, sexualized violence directed against Aboriginal women in Canada is a national and international shame," said Beverley Jacobs, former president of Native Women's Association of Canada.
"We urge governments in Canada to recognize these threats and take concrete action now."
...
Anita Neville, official opposition critic for the Status of Women and Todd Russell, M.P. Official Opposition Critic for Aboriginal Affairs wrote a letter calling for help.
The letter was addressed to the Honourable Robert Douglas Nicholson.
It read, "We are calling on you to initiate a government-funded, public investigation into how and why the number of missing and murdered women and girls from the Aboriginal community is so unacceptably high…."
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
http://www.wawataynews.ca/archive/all/2010/1/7/Violence-against-Native-women-must-end-NWAC_18880
Since 1970, the Native Women's Association of Canada has 525 documented cases of murdered or missing Aboriginal women and girls.
... 43 per cent of these reported cases have occurred since 2000.
...
They are three times more likely to experience violence and five times more likely to die from violence than non-Aboriginal women.
NWAC and Ontario Native Women's Association have held the Stolen Sister's vigil to raise public awareness of the lateral violence against Aboriginal Women.
"The high levels of racialized, sexualized violence directed against Aboriginal women in Canada is a national and international shame," said Beverley Jacobs, former president of Native Women's Association of Canada.
"We urge governments in Canada to recognize these threats and take concrete action now."
...
Anita Neville, official opposition critic for the Status of Women and Todd Russell, M.P. Official Opposition Critic for Aboriginal Affairs wrote a letter calling for help.
The letter was addressed to the Honourable Robert Douglas Nicholson.
It read, "We are calling on you to initiate a government-funded, public investigation into how and why the number of missing and murdered women and girls from the Aboriginal community is so unacceptably high…."
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
Harper not looking to call new election
We'll see:
David Akin, Canwest News Service
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper doused speculation that he's gunning for a general election this spring, telling Canwest News Service in an interview that he'd rather govern than campaign.
"I have no desire to have a spring election and I don't think anybody does. I certainly don't think the public does," Mr. Harper said in the interview in his office in Langevin Block on Parliament Hill.
Mr. Harper has made those kinds of statements before, though, and yet, in the fall of 2008 went against the spirit of his own fixed election date law and asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, saying that the opposition parties were blocking any advance of his government's agenda.
But when he was asked to assure Canadians that, so long as this spring's budget gets the support of the House of Commons, he would not force an election, Mr. Harper said neither his party nor, he believes, the opposition parties want a campaign this spring
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
David Akin, Canwest News Service
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper doused speculation that he's gunning for a general election this spring, telling Canwest News Service in an interview that he'd rather govern than campaign.
"I have no desire to have a spring election and I don't think anybody does. I certainly don't think the public does," Mr. Harper said in the interview in his office in Langevin Block on Parliament Hill.
Mr. Harper has made those kinds of statements before, though, and yet, in the fall of 2008 went against the spirit of his own fixed election date law and asked the Governor General to dissolve Parliament, saying that the opposition parties were blocking any advance of his government's agenda.
But when he was asked to assure Canadians that, so long as this spring's budget gets the support of the House of Commons, he would not force an election, Mr. Harper said neither his party nor, he believes, the opposition parties want a campaign this spring
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
Senator Tory?
CFRB Toronto this afternoon suggested that John Tory might be appointed as a senator.
Certainly there are worse appointments -- I haven't always agreed with Mr. Tory on the issues (gosh, big surprise there!) but he is a decent compassionate man with the interests of society close to his heart. He'd be a good appointment and a good Senator.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
Certainly there are worse appointments -- I haven't always agreed with Mr. Tory on the issues (gosh, big surprise there!) but he is a decent compassionate man with the interests of society close to his heart. He'd be a good appointment and a good Senator.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
Ontario Court of Appeal considers Grant
R. v. Blake, 2010 ONCA 1, released today, is one of the first significant considerations of the Supreme Court decision in R. v. Grant (2009), 245 C.C.C. (3d) 1 (S.C.C.). As such it is a helpful review and application of the new test for exclusion of evidence for breaches of Charter rights or freedoms:
[21] In Grant, the Supreme Court of Canada took a judicial wire brush to the 20 years of jurisprudential gloss that had built up around s. 24(2) and scrubbed down to the bare words of the section. Chief Justice McLachlin and Justice Charron, writing for the majority, observed at para. 67 that “[t]he words of s. 24(2) capture its purpose: to maintain the good repute of the administration of justice”. They continued at para. 68:
The phrase “bring the administration of justice into disrepute” must be understood in the long-term sense of maintaining the integrity of, and public confidence in, the justice system. Exclusion of evidence resulting in an acquittal may provoke immediate criticism. But s. 24(2) does not focus on immediate reaction to the individual case. Rather, it looks to whether the overall repute of the justice system, viewed in the long term, will be adversely affected by admission of the evidence. The inquiry is objective. It asks whether a reasonable person, informed of all relevant circumstances and the values underlying the Charter, would conclude that the admission of the evidence would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
[22] The majority identified three lines of inquiry that are relevant to the identification and balancing of the interests at play when s. 24(2) is invoked. According to the majority, the trial court must examine the seriousness of the Charter-infringing state conduct, the impact of the Charter violation on the Charter-protected interest of the accused and society’s interest in the adjudication of the case on its merits.
[23] The inquiry into the nature of the state conduct that resulted in a Charter breach seeks to place that conduct along a continuum of misconduct. As explained in Grant, at paras. 72-74, the graver the state’s misconduct the stronger the need to preserve the long-term repute of the administration of justice by disassociating the court’s processes from that misconduct. That disassociation is achieved by excluding the evidentiary fruits of the state misconduct.
[24] The trial judge found that the police acted in “good faith” in their attempt to acquire legal authorization for the search. I accept that finding. The police were clearly aware of the need to obtain a warrant and proceeded accordingly. They cannot be said to have acted negligently or in ignorance of any of the applicable Charter requirements. A finding of “good faith” obviously reduces the need for the court to disassociate itself from the state conduct that resulted in the Charter infringement, and supports the admissibility of the challenged evidence.
[25] Not only do I agree with the trial judge’s finding of good faith on the part of the investigators, I can see no possible criticism of the police conduct on this trial record. Throughout the process that culminated in the seizure of the evidence, they acted exactly as they were obligated to under the law. They were required to obtain a warrant before entering the residence. They did so. They were required to make full disclosure to the justice of the peace. There is no suggestion that they did not do so. The police, and later the Crown, were legally obligated to protect the identity of the confidential informants by removing all material from the information that could identify the informants before making that material available to the defence. They did that. Given the manner in which the s. 8 claim was litigated, the police acted not only in good faith, but as required by the law. The police conduct in this case does not fit anywhere on the misconduct continuum described in Grant, at para. 74.
[26] The police conduct in this case is somewhat analogous to the conduct considered in cases where the police have gathered evidence according to the law as it was understood at the time the evidence was gathered only to have the law changed or declared unconstitutional at some subsequent point, but before the evidence is tendered at trial: see e.g. R. v. Duarte, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 30, at pp. 59-60; R. v. Wijesinha, [1995] 3 S.C.R. 422, at paras. 55-56. In those cases, the police acted not only in good faith, but in accordance with the law as it stood at the time. Under the Collins approach, real evidence obtained in this manner was inevitably admitted.
[27] The nature of the state conduct resulting in the constitutional infringement in this case seems to fall outside the paradigm described in Grant. If it is within that paradigm, it is clearly at the far end of the spectrum favouring admissibility. The appellant has not availed himself of the various options open to him that would potentially have allowed further assessment of the police conduct. In these circumstances it would be inappropriate to presume that the police did anything other than conduct themselves in accordance with the applicable legal rules.
[28] The second line of inquiry directed in Grant – the impact of the breach on the Charter-protected interest of the accused – points strongly toward exclusion of the evidence. As the trial judge observed, this was a “very serious breach” of the appellant’s constitutional rights. The appellant had a high expectation of privacy in his own residence. That privacy was compromised by an intrusive and extensive police search. The powerfully-negative impact on the core of the appellant’s legitimate privacy interests creates the risk that the admission of the fruits of the search could bring the administration of justice into disrepute: R. v. Grant, at paras. 76-78.
[29] The seriousness of the impact of the breach on the appellant is not mitigated by the fact that the police may have had reasonable and probable grounds when they obtained the warrant, but were unable to demonstrate those grounds at trial because of the confidential-informant privilege. The Crown chose to proceed on the redacted information. The assessments of whether there was a breach and of the impact of that breach on the appellant must be measured against the substance of that redacted information. Assessed from that perspective, this was an extensive, unjustified search of the appellant’s home.
[30] The third arm of the inquiry mandated by Grant looks to society’s interest in an adjudication of a criminal trial on its merits. As indicated in Grant at para. 82:
The fact that the evidence obtained in breach of the Charter may facilitate the discovery of the truth and the adjudication of a case on its merits must therefore be weighed against factors pointing to exclusion, in order to “balance the interests of truth with the integrity of the justice system”.... [Citation omitted.]
[31] Society’s interest in an adjudication on the merits is seriously undercut where highly reliable and important evidence is excluded. The evidence in issue here, particularly the crack cocaine, was entirely reliable and essential to the Crown’s case. The charge is also a serious one, although as the majority point out in Grant, at para. 84, the seriousness of the charge will “cut both ways” when assessing society’s interest in an adjudication on the merits.
"Nude" scanner won't scan children
According to media reports:
"Travellers under 18 will be exempt from Canada's peek-a-boo body scanners amid international fears that the resulting images would amount to child pornography."
Perhaps this shows, as well as anything, the "theatre" that is being put on for the public.
Ignoring the very real opportunity to conceal items in childrens' clothing (say in a diaper), there have been many examples of children used as suicide bombers (to my mind the children had little to do with the matter and I use the term "suicide" with caution).
Thus:
"Sri Lanka Army sources said that the LTTE had sent a child suicide bomber to attack the Army 55 Division frontline yesterday (Feb 4, 2009). According to the sources, the child suicide bomber possibly between 13-16 years of age had exploded himself around 8.30 PM after reaching the soldiers in guise of a civilian seeking refuge with them. "
Now, granted, there is no corroboration for this Sri Lankan report, but other reports from South Waziristan report training of children as young as seven years old to be suicide bombers. More generally see for examples of children being made bombers in the middle east:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_suicide_bomber
The point is that not scanning minors is preposterous if there is any real purpose beyond show to the scans.
"Travellers under 18 will be exempt from Canada's peek-a-boo body scanners amid international fears that the resulting images would amount to child pornography."
Perhaps this shows, as well as anything, the "theatre" that is being put on for the public.
Ignoring the very real opportunity to conceal items in childrens' clothing (say in a diaper), there have been many examples of children used as suicide bombers (to my mind the children had little to do with the matter and I use the term "suicide" with caution).
Thus:
"Sri Lanka Army sources said that the LTTE had sent a child suicide bomber to attack the Army 55 Division frontline yesterday (Feb 4, 2009). According to the sources, the child suicide bomber possibly between 13-16 years of age had exploded himself around 8.30 PM after reaching the soldiers in guise of a civilian seeking refuge with them. "
Now, granted, there is no corroboration for this Sri Lankan report, but other reports from South Waziristan report training of children as young as seven years old to be suicide bombers. More generally see for examples of children being made bombers in the middle east:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_suicide_bomber
The point is that not scanning minors is preposterous if there is any real purpose beyond show to the scans.
When is the record of an offence deleted from CPIC for conditional and absolute discharges?
When an accused receives a discharge after being convicted they can say they do not have a criminal record. But there is a notation on police records that remains for a period of time.
With a conditional discharge, the person's records in CPIC are not expunged until three years after the completion of the terms of the conditions set out in the probation order.
As an example, if a person was granted a conditional discharge on March 1, 2009 with conditions for 12 months (like keep the peace and be of good behaviour), then the date of expunging would be 12 months + 3 years = March 1, 2013.
Alternatively, an absolute discharge would be one year after the date the discharge was imposed. Using the same example, the date of expunging would be March 1, 2010.
See Section 6.1 of the Criminal Records Act:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/C-47/page-3.html.
With a conditional discharge, the person's records in CPIC are not expunged until three years after the completion of the terms of the conditions set out in the probation order.
As an example, if a person was granted a conditional discharge on March 1, 2009 with conditions for 12 months (like keep the peace and be of good behaviour), then the date of expunging would be 12 months + 3 years = March 1, 2013.
Alternatively, an absolute discharge would be one year after the date the discharge was imposed. Using the same example, the date of expunging would be March 1, 2010.
See Section 6.1 of the Criminal Records Act:
http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/C-47/page-3.html.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Full Pundit
Chris Selley is quite right -- Canada had a lower crime rate in the 1960s. I should have said something like "Canada is safer now than it has been for nearly 40 years". Of course, what's interesting is why the crime rate was so much lower in the 60s? Was it a common shared morality? Or the economy? Or was much crime unreported (eg spousal abuse, residential schools, impaired driving). Regardless, I was wrong and that's a fact!
"Also in the Star, James Morton argues very reasonably that sending people to prison for purposes of rehabilitating them and deterring other criminals simply doesn't work. That isn't news to us, nor is the fact that politicians in Ottawa simply don't give a damn about what works and what doesn't, so long as they're seen to be "tough on crime." But Morton kind of loses the plot when he talks about our declining crime rates. Canada is not "safer than ever," as he says. Our violent crime rate, for example, remains much higher than it was in the 1960s."
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/04/chris-selley-s-full-pundit-happy-new-year-now-who-s-ready-for-an-election.aspx
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
"Also in the Star, James Morton argues very reasonably that sending people to prison for purposes of rehabilitating them and deterring other criminals simply doesn't work. That isn't news to us, nor is the fact that politicians in Ottawa simply don't give a damn about what works and what doesn't, so long as they're seen to be "tough on crime." But Morton kind of loses the plot when he talks about our declining crime rates. Canada is not "safer than ever," as he says. Our violent crime rate, for example, remains much higher than it was in the 1960s."
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/01/04/chris-selley-s-full-pundit-happy-new-year-now-who-s-ready-for-an-election.aspx
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
It’s not prorogation, on its own, that puts us on the path to despotism.
It’s not prorogation, on its own, that puts us on the path to despotism. It’s the cumulative weakening of our democratic defenses, and more important, of our democratic instincts. Each new precedent conditions us to accept the next, and the next, to the point that if we ever do arrive at the end of the Tyranny line, no one will even know, let alone care: we will have nothing left to compare it to. (We scoff at such overheated rhetoric now, but if Canadians in the 1950s had been presented with the package of changes that have occurred since then in the way we are governed, they would have risen up in revolt.)
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/05/stop-or-ill-tour/
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/05/stop-or-ill-tour/
What a train wreck!
Lawyer apologises for abusive tactics
January 5, 2010 04:01:00
Tracey Tyler
Legal Affairs Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/iphone/news/ontario/article/746050--lawyer-apologizes-for-abusive-tactics
A turbulent murder case that cost a Superior Court judge his career took another strange twist Monday when a former defence lawyer admitted to professional misconduct and apologised for what was described as the worst display of incivility ever seen in a Canadian courtroom.
Kevin Murphy, 52, was suspended from practising law for six months, but not before a thrashing by the head of a Law Society of Upper Canada disciplinary panel.
...
Murphy, who since 2008 has been employed as a lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, admitted to verbally abusing witnesses and making unfounded accusations against opposing lawyers at a notorious murder trial that began more than a decade ago in Ottawa.
The woman at the centre of the case, Julia Elliott, was charged with killing and dismembering Kemptville-area mechanic Lawrence Foster, whose body parts were found floating in the Rideau River in August 1995.
As two years of pre-trial motions ground on, Murphy accused lawyers for Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General of coaching witnesses, deliberately misconstruing evidence and conspiring to frame his client.
...
"Shakespeare's comment in the Taming of the Shrew – 'strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends' – applies here," Stern told the panel. "People don't understand that. But that's what makes the (legal) profession a profession."
Krishna said while there was "a terrible dereliction of duty" by Cosgrove, Murphy's role in the episode has also come at great cost to the law society, which has spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to prosecute him. Murphy was ordered to pay $10,000 toward those costs.
January 5, 2010 04:01:00
Tracey Tyler
Legal Affairs Reporter
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/iphone/news/ontario/article/746050--lawyer-apologizes-for-abusive-tactics
A turbulent murder case that cost a Superior Court judge his career took another strange twist Monday when a former defence lawyer admitted to professional misconduct and apologised for what was described as the worst display of incivility ever seen in a Canadian courtroom.
Kevin Murphy, 52, was suspended from practising law for six months, but not before a thrashing by the head of a Law Society of Upper Canada disciplinary panel.
...
Murphy, who since 2008 has been employed as a lawyer with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, admitted to verbally abusing witnesses and making unfounded accusations against opposing lawyers at a notorious murder trial that began more than a decade ago in Ottawa.
The woman at the centre of the case, Julia Elliott, was charged with killing and dismembering Kemptville-area mechanic Lawrence Foster, whose body parts were found floating in the Rideau River in August 1995.
As two years of pre-trial motions ground on, Murphy accused lawyers for Ontario's Ministry of the Attorney General of coaching witnesses, deliberately misconstruing evidence and conspiring to frame his client.
...
"Shakespeare's comment in the Taming of the Shrew – 'strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends' – applies here," Stern told the panel. "People don't understand that. But that's what makes the (legal) profession a profession."
Krishna said while there was "a terrible dereliction of duty" by Cosgrove, Murphy's role in the episode has also come at great cost to the law society, which has spent between $300,000 and $400,000 to prosecute him. Murphy was ordered to pay $10,000 toward those costs.
20,000 reported to have joined anti prorogation Facebook group since last week
Now if I could get 20,000 people to read my blog!!!
TORONTO_ More than 20,000 people have joined an anti-prorogation group on Facebook following Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to suspend Parliament for two months.
Published reports say the site was created by Christopher White, a University of Alberta student upset by Harper's decision to suspend Parliament until after the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
The site is called Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament. It is urging people to contact their MPs to get back to work.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
Death penalty
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/us/05bar.html?em=&pagewanted=print
Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Victim impact statements
R v Cook, 2009 QCCA 2423 is a useful decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal.
The Court found that aggravating or mitigating factors on sentencing can be found by a sentencing court based on victim impact statements. Presumably such evidence, not being subject to cross-examination, has to be treated with caution.
The decision was released mid December but only came to my attention today.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
Canada’s Parliament during the 1988 Calgary Olympic Games
“It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they decided to prorogue Parliament... I’m sorry if I sound a little cynical. This is a government (for which) the rules of engagement don’t apply. They’ll move the goal post, change the boundaries and bribe the referee.”
- Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay commenting on unfounded rumours that the Liberal government planned to prorogue in 2005 (Nanaimo Daily News, July 18, 2005)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down Canada’s Parliament for nearly three months, until after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.Prior to Mr. Harper’s decision to shut down Parliament, the House of Commons had a scheduled break week from February 15-19, 2010 – during the first week of the Vancouver Olympics.
Let’s compare this with the last time Canada hosted the Olympic Games – in 1988.
The Calgary Winter Olympic Games were held from February 13-28, 1988.
In 1988, Parliament sat for four weeks from January 17-February 12, and then had a one-week scheduled break week adjournment from February 15-19 – coinciding with the first full week of the Calgary Olympics. Parliament then resumed sitting again on February 22 – which means Canada was able to govern itself at the same time as the Olympic Games were underway.
Then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney spent 10 days at the Calgary Winter Olympic Games, without having to shut down Parliament. He attended the Opening Ceremonies on February 13 and remained in Calgary for six more days during the scheduled break week. Mr. Mulroney then returned to Ottawa, before coming back to Calgary for the last weekend of the Olympics (February 26-28) and the Closing Ceremonies.
- Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay commenting on unfounded rumours that the Liberal government planned to prorogue in 2005 (Nanaimo Daily News, July 18, 2005)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken the unprecedented step of shutting down Canada’s Parliament for nearly three months, until after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.Prior to Mr. Harper’s decision to shut down Parliament, the House of Commons had a scheduled break week from February 15-19, 2010 – during the first week of the Vancouver Olympics.
Let’s compare this with the last time Canada hosted the Olympic Games – in 1988.
The Calgary Winter Olympic Games were held from February 13-28, 1988.
In 1988, Parliament sat for four weeks from January 17-February 12, and then had a one-week scheduled break week adjournment from February 15-19 – coinciding with the first full week of the Calgary Olympics. Parliament then resumed sitting again on February 22 – which means Canada was able to govern itself at the same time as the Olympic Games were underway.
Then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney spent 10 days at the Calgary Winter Olympic Games, without having to shut down Parliament. He attended the Opening Ceremonies on February 13 and remained in Calgary for six more days during the scheduled break week. Mr. Mulroney then returned to Ottawa, before coming back to Calgary for the last weekend of the Olympics (February 26-28) and the Closing Ceremonies.
Two Alberta MLAs join Wildrose party
Two legislature members from Alberta's governing Progressive Conservatives are crossing the floor to the fledgling Wildrose Alliance, and they may be just the first to change parties. Rumours are that more will follow shortly, perhaps this week.
Calgary-Fish Creek MLA Heather Forsyth and Airdrie-Chestermere MLA Rob Anderson announced the move Monday morning at a Wildrose Alliance news conference.
It is amazing just how fast the mighty Alberta Progressive Conservative Party is falling apart -- something we should all remember... .
Calgary-Fish Creek MLA Heather Forsyth and Airdrie-Chestermere MLA Rob Anderson announced the move Monday morning at a Wildrose Alliance news conference.
It is amazing just how fast the mighty Alberta Progressive Conservative Party is falling apart -- something we should all remember... .
Giovanna
Knut and Giovanna are now together -- she is much older than him and more a mother figure than anything else -- but it's good to socialize Knut.
Inmate slain at Don Jail
For the third time in two months, an inmate has died in suspicious circumstances at a Toronto jail. Kevon Philip, 24, died in hospital Saturday afternoon after corrections officers found him unconscious at the Toronto (Don) Jail. The media reports I heard spoke about "obvious signs of trauma" -- he was beaten to death presumably by other inmates.
What is most troubling here, at least to me, is the sense that there is a breakdown of order at the jail. I have spoken to inmates who have told me there are areas where the guards "don't go". Now, I will admit to being very cautious about accepting what inmates tell me but maybe this time it's true?
Toronto Star story at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/745512--inmate-slain-at-don-jail
What is most troubling here, at least to me, is the sense that there is a breakdown of order at the jail. I have spoken to inmates who have told me there are areas where the guards "don't go". Now, I will admit to being very cautious about accepting what inmates tell me but maybe this time it's true?
Toronto Star story at: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/745512--inmate-slain-at-don-jail
I thought it was humour to suggest an annual proroguing of Parliament
But it seems that the Conservatives are seriously thinking of it!
Government sources say they are contemplating formally shutting down Parliament at the end of every year, so the government can start afresh with a throne speech and a budget.
That way, the argument goes, the public will have a clear idea what the government plans to achieve for the coming year.
But the trouble with frequent proroguing is that it disrupts parliamentary activity. Committees are disbanded. Legislation moving through Parliament is killed. And the work that MPs were elected to do in Ottawa is not being performed.
The government's decision to prorogue, for example, effectively undoes all the work MPs have carried out in the last year on a huge package of proposed legislation designed to get tough on crime.
See full story here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i2t8zd2OvdHQYLcF4FfkDh0eST2g
Government sources say they are contemplating formally shutting down Parliament at the end of every year, so the government can start afresh with a throne speech and a budget.
That way, the argument goes, the public will have a clear idea what the government plans to achieve for the coming year.
But the trouble with frequent proroguing is that it disrupts parliamentary activity. Committees are disbanded. Legislation moving through Parliament is killed. And the work that MPs were elected to do in Ottawa is not being performed.
The government's decision to prorogue, for example, effectively undoes all the work MPs have carried out in the last year on a huge package of proposed legislation designed to get tough on crime.
See full story here: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i2t8zd2OvdHQYLcF4FfkDh0eST2g
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Great line from Ottawa Citizen
Prorogation got Harper out of a tough spot last year. It seems he's willing to make it an annual holiday tradition.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/mobile/opinion/editorial/Cynical+leadership/2394180/story.html
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
Public urged to `kick, scream' in protest
Susan Delacourt
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is urging Canadians to "kick and scream" in protest against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament for the next two months.
...
"We need to kick and scream at this insult to democracy – because that is what it is. We need to support each other, efforts by other parties, non-political leadership," May wrote.
"Harper's move this week is premised on the assumption that enough Canadians simply do not care about democracy or the role of Parliament. ...
"In the interests of democracy, let's hope this time his cynicism has miscalculated."
Governor General Michaëlle Jean should be consulting with opposition parties to take their assessment of the situation, May added in an email to the Star on Thursday.
May's comments came amid an initial wave of negative media commentary in reaction to Harper's decision, announced Thursday, to prorogue the current session of Parliament and keep the doors closed until March 3.
There was near-unanimous editorial condemnation of the decision in Thursday's media, including a front-page editorial in one newspaper and hundreds of critical comments logged on the websites of the Star and other major media outlets.
The decision means more than 30 pieces of legislation die on the order paper and dissolves the parliamentary committee probing the transfer of Afghan prisoners by Canadian troops
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is urging Canadians to "kick and scream" in protest against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament for the next two months.
...
"We need to kick and scream at this insult to democracy – because that is what it is. We need to support each other, efforts by other parties, non-political leadership," May wrote.
"Harper's move this week is premised on the assumption that enough Canadians simply do not care about democracy or the role of Parliament. ...
"In the interests of democracy, let's hope this time his cynicism has miscalculated."
Governor General Michaëlle Jean should be consulting with opposition parties to take their assessment of the situation, May added in an email to the Star on Thursday.
May's comments came amid an initial wave of negative media commentary in reaction to Harper's decision, announced Thursday, to prorogue the current session of Parliament and keep the doors closed until March 3.
There was near-unanimous editorial condemnation of the decision in Thursday's media, including a front-page editorial in one newspaper and hundreds of critical comments logged on the websites of the Star and other major media outlets.
The decision means more than 30 pieces of legislation die on the order paper and dissolves the parliamentary committee probing the transfer of Afghan prisoners by Canadian troops
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
April 13, 2010 Election?
I don't think so -- I still think the fall of 2010. But worth a read:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/spector-vision/mark-april-13th-in-your-new-2010-calendar-as-election-day/article1416553/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/spector-vision/mark-april-13th-in-your-new-2010-calendar-as-election-day/article1416553/
"Tough on Crime" needs scrutiny
Fiorello La Guardia, the mayor of New York in the 1930s and '40s, said, "There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets." La Guardia made a profound point in a simple way. Some things are not political. There is a right and a wrong way to keep streets clean; the same can be said for criminal justice.
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/744712#article
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/744712#article
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Compromise, not justice, leads to settlement
In any successful negotiation, no side achieves all it sets out to gain. For certain, no one will be satisfied if negotiations concentrate on matters of justice, which inevitably lead to worn-out arguments that cannot be won by either party to the negotiations.
The man who should have won the Peace Prize - Denis Mukwege
The war in the Congo is the worst since Adolf Hitler marched across Europe: it has killed more than 5 million people and counting. ... One favourite tactic is to gang-rape a woman and then shoot her in the vagina. For years these women were simply left to die in the bush. But one man – a soft-spoken Congolese gynaecologist with a gentle smile – decided to do something mad, something impossible. With scarcely any equipment and no funding, he set up a secret clinic for these women.
He was told he would be killed by the militias for undoing their "work". The threats said his own daughters would be murdered if he didn't stop. Everyone thought he was mad. But he knew it was the right thing to do. He became the Oscar Schindler of the Congolese mass rapes, saving the lives of tens of thousands of women. In the midst of a moral Chernobyl, he showed that the best human instincts can survive and, in time, prevail. It is rumoured he was number two in the Nobel Committee's list for the Peace Prize. He should have won.
War on drugs
Foreign Policy has an interesting OpEd on the failed war on drugs. Here's the link and a brief quote:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4861
The Washington consensus on drugs rests on two widely shared beliefs. The first is that the war on drugs is a failure. The second is that it cannot be changed.
...
This "it doesn't work, but don't change it" incongruity is not just a
quirk of the U.S. public. It is a manifestation of how the prohibition on drugs has led to a prohibition on rational thought. "Most of my colleagues know that the war on drugs is bankrupt," a U.S. senator told me, "but for many of us, supporting any form of decriminalization of drugs has long been politically suicidal."
As a result of this utter failure to think, the United States today is
both the world's largest importer of illicit drugs and the world's largest exporter of bad drug policy. The U.S. government expects, indeed demands, that its allies adopt its goals and methods and actively collaborate with U.S. drug-fighting agencies. This expectation is one of the few areas of rigorous continuity in U.S. foreign policy over the last three decades.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4861
The Washington consensus on drugs rests on two widely shared beliefs. The first is that the war on drugs is a failure. The second is that it cannot be changed.
...
This "it doesn't work, but don't change it" incongruity is not just a
quirk of the U.S. public. It is a manifestation of how the prohibition on drugs has led to a prohibition on rational thought. "Most of my colleagues know that the war on drugs is bankrupt," a U.S. senator told me, "but for many of us, supporting any form of decriminalization of drugs has long been politically suicidal."
As a result of this utter failure to think, the United States today is
both the world's largest importer of illicit drugs and the world's largest exporter of bad drug policy. The U.S. government expects, indeed demands, that its allies adopt its goals and methods and actively collaborate with U.S. drug-fighting agencies. This expectation is one of the few areas of rigorous continuity in U.S. foreign policy over the last three decades.
Friday, January 1, 2010
After Detroit Near-Attack, Is Afghan Strategy The Right One?
In light of the rumours Canada's mission in Afghanistan may be renamed but continue much as before it makes sense to consider the broader issues:
After Detroit Near-Attack, Is Afghan Strategy The Right One?
The failed bombing of a Detroit-bound airplane by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has raised a ton of questions - from what holes there are in airline security, to how he wasn't picked up before on suspicion of terrorist activity. But, to me and the forces in or heading to Afghanistan, one of the most pressing questions is why we're sending nearly every Marine and Soldier we have to Afghanistan, when Abdulmutallab and a Somali man arrested for plotting a similar attack last month apparently had no real connection to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
Indeed, as now has been widely reported, Abdulmutallab received materials and training in Yemen, a largely lawless, poor country just south of Saudi Arabia. The Somali man, picked up in Mogadishu, seems to have been wearing a similar device as Abdulmutallab, suggesting he received his materials and training from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as well.
Yes, the United States has done some right things to address the threat from this region - sending over $40 million in aid to Yemen last year to fight the squalid conditions in which many Yemenis live, and contributes to an atmosphere that breeds terror, and nearly $70 million in counter-terror funds, to help the government directly combat al-Qaeda. Those funds are expected to increase this year, as well they should.
Clearly, however, money is not enough. It's not enough to fight al-Qaeda in Yemen, or anywhere else throughout Africa, or any region in the future where al-Qaeda takes foot. The United States and its allies have the right to work in conjunction with governments to strike al-Qaeda camps and leaders, or do it ourselves if the in-country government is unable to.
That leads me back to Afghanistan/Pakistan. Yes, the region is still a major center of al-Qaeda activity, and yes, our military must be involved in the region to strike at the terror network. But, given the ability of al-Qaeda to spread and pop up in areas around the globe where we are not present, it simply doesn't make sense anymore to engage in a long-term counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, which focuses on beating back insurgents rather than al Qaeda, and securing the country at large. That strategy relies on nearly every troop we have, and could have many of them stuck there far past President Obama's 2011 deadline, given Richard Engel's recent report on NBC that Afghan security forces are nowhere near ready, and may never be.
To assert dignity is to lose it
Rex Stout: 1935
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
It is silly but fun
Lake Superior State University has a list of words and phrases overused and so banned -- so all "tweet" words (twittersphere, retweet, tweetaholic etc etc) are banned:
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
Father Raymond J. de Souza: A rough decade for justice
Perhaps only a priest can say these things? So see Jeremiah 34: 17 -- he spoke difficult truths:
"Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. "
"The system is corrupt. Not the corruption of bribing a judge, but rather the deeper corruption of a system which seeks convictions rather than the truth. It is the corruption of a system that puts innocent people in jail."
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
OPP head Fantino could face charge of threatening public officials
Of course, it's largely meaningless because the Crown can simply end the prosecution by saying there's no reasonable prospect for conviction. Unless the mandamus goes to the Court of Appeal -- and then the case becomes even less likely to be prosecuted:
OPP head Fantino could face charge of threatening public officials
Kenyon Wallace and Matthew Coutts, National Post
Julian Fantino, the Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, must face an accusation that he illegally tried to influence public officials by threatening them, a Criminal Code offence, a court has ruled.
A judge has ordered a justice of the peace to issue a charge against Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino, after the former Toronto police chief sent an allegedly threatening email to Caledonia politicians
Under Ontario Superior Court Judge David Crane's Dec. 31 order, Commissioner Fantino will face one count of attempting to influence a municipal official in relation to an April 7, 2007 email to Haldimand County's mayor and councillors. In the email, Commissioner Fantino warned the politicians not to support anti-occupation protests. The Comissioner wrote that he would hold the county accountable for any injuries suffered by OPP officers during protests by a group known as "Caledonia Wake Up Call."
...
In August of this year Justice of the Peace David Brown refused to issue a summons to Commissioner Fantino for allegedly violating Section 123 (2) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which states it is an offence to influence or attempt to influence a municipal official in municipal activities by means of threats. In his ruling Justice of the Peace Brown stated "there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this email was perceived as threatening by the Mayor and by Councillor Grice." He ruled he could not determine whether the threats influenced the politicians acting in their official roles and therefore refused to issue the summons.
However, Ontario Superior Court Judge Crane said in his ruling Thursday that determining whether or not evidence existed that the Mayor and County council were influenced by Commissioner Fantino's letter was not an essential element in deciding whether to issue a summons. He therefore ordered the justice of the peace to sign the charge brought forward by Mr. McHale in a process known as mandamus, a rare order compelling a lower court to perform its duties properly.
James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
www.jmortonmusings.blogspot.com
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