Constitutional challenge to sex work laws ‘succeeded before’ and will succeed again, says advocacy group
A sex worker advocacy group is pushing for reform to laws that endanger sex workers, using a decriminalization approach that some MPs say has their support. The Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform launched a constitutional challenge against the current sex work laws earlier this spring, seeking to strike down prohibitions against public communication […]
CSC should abandon its industrial goat farm fiasco
Scandal continues to brew over the Correctional Service Canada’s plan to convert its two Kingston-area prison farms into an industrial dairy goat operation for the commercial market (see “Scandal brewing over feds’ prison farm plans,” The Hill Times, March 8.) In fact, the brew is heating up. CSC itself is stirring the pot with its […]
An ‘assault-plus’: MP, Senator urge action amid rise in hate crimes predating pandemic
A British Columbia MP and a Senator are calling on Ottawa to send a “strong message” to ensure hate crimes are properly tracked, investigated, and prosecuted in the wake of a seven per cent rise in these crimes reported to police, and early data suggesting this is just a ripple compared to a pandemic-related surge […]
Gun control advocates trash feds’ bill, but it’s probably a winner anyway, say pollsters
Gun control advocates have slammed the government’s new gun control bill as ineffective, redundant, and a “capitulation to the gun lobby”—which is also thoroughly displeased with the bill. It might be good politics for the Liberals anyway, say pollsters. “Some might be disappointed, but most will see it as a step in the right direction,” […]
Torture ‘by another name’: Canada still keeps some prisoners in solitary confinement, ‘disturbing’ new data shows
Nearly 10 per cent of Canadian prisoners housed in “structured intervention units” are still being kept in conditions recognized internationally as torture, according to a new report based on data tracked by the federal prison authorities. Almost one-third of prisoners staying in these units were under conditions that qualify as solitary confinement, despite a Liberal […]
Statistics Canada ‘almost ready’ to launch consultations on effort to collect race-based data on crime
Canada’s national statistics agency says consultations have yet to begin for an initiative to beef up police officers’ efforts to collect race-based crime data, more than seven months after an announcement was made. Jeff Latimer, director general for health, justice, diversity, and population with Statistics Canada, told The Hill Times that discussions with academics, civil […]
Blair regrets months-long delay in directing RCMP to address access-to-information backlog
Canada’s Public Safety Minister Bill Blair only recently issued a directive that called on the RCMP to create a “comprehensive plan” for tackling a backlog of access-to-information requests, nearly three months since he promised action. Mr. Blair (Scarborough-Southwest, Ont.) told reporters on Nov. 17, 2020, that the RCMP would have three months to develop its […]
Dominant reflex of security and intelligence network ‘to keep info as secret as possible,’ should ‘hardwire’ transparency into day-to-day work, say experts
Canada’s first ever National Security Transparency Advisory Group, given the job of advising the deputy minister of public safety and other government officials on how to fulfill the 2017 National Security Transparency Commitment, has recommended that Canada’s intelligence and security community should “hardwire” transparency into it’s day-to-day work—and that for “enhanced transparency to be sustainable, […]
MPs scrutinize parole board following report on murder of Quebec woman
MPs questioned on Monday why the Parole Board of Canada appeared to be “absolved” of error in a recent report examining the murder of a Quebec woman by a man granted parole, pressing the agency’s chairperson to identify ways to ensure such tragedies are prevented in the future. On the first day of Parliament’s return […]
Correctional Service ‘abdicating’ responsibility in Quebec woman’s murder, say critics of response to internal report
The Correctional Service of Canada has promised to strengthen its community supervision policies after an internal report found it missed a number of warning signs before a parolee killed a woman—a response critics say comes too late and shows the agency is “abdicating” responsibility over the “catastrophic failure” of oversight. The CSC’s changes, which include […]
