Archive for the ‘Child & Family Policy Context’ Category
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Toews’s ‘child pornographers’ gaffe aside, Bill C-30 has real dangers
Feb. 23, 2011
the new bill, C-30, doesn’t invite police to monitor your every online move without a warrant. It does, however, require Internet companies – loosely defined – to cough up your name, Internet protocol address and a few other identifiers if the police ask for them, even without a warrant… “Investigations are going to change in character, to what we call fishing expeditions,” said Tamir Israel, a lawyer at the University of Ottawa’s privacy-minded Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic… What’s more, there is no guarantee that details uncovered in the course of this work will stay tucked away in police notebooks.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights
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Pensions: Harper gov’t pits generations against each other
Feb 26 2012
It knew Canada’s dependency ratio (the number of retirees relative to the number of workers) would soon start rising. Number-crunchers had been urging governments to wake up for years. Instead of doing that, the Conservatives increased federal spending, wiping out the $13 billion surplus they inherited from the previous Liberal government. Now they’re warning Canadians the country’s 60-year-old pension program is unsustainable.
Tags: budget, economy, pensions, standard of living, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
It takes two to raise a child
Feb 15, 2012
… the U.K. government announced its intention to amend the 1989 Children’s Act. Changes will include a “presumption of shared parenting” to ensure that children’s relationships with both parents continues after separation. Under the current adversarial system, as in Canada, legal custody battles almost invariably end with mothers gaining sole custody… ESP is objectively fair to both sexes and to children, and thus a win-win-win policy. Over 70% of ordinary Canadians prefer it.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living, women, youth
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In challenge to Ottawa, judge refuses to impose mandatory sentence
Feb. 14, 2012
An Ontario Superior Court judge has refused to impose a mandatory three-year sentence on a man caught with a loaded handgun, putting the courts on a collision course with the federal government’s belief in fixed sentences that provide judges with little discretion… Several months ago, in another major challenge in Ontario Superior Court, a similar sentencing provision was upheld in a firearms case, Regina v. Nur. That, combined with the Smickle ruling, could well result in a high-profile appeal that goes all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, rights
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Stephen Harper’s ‘tough-on-crime’ laws are more misguided than ever
Jan 29 2012
As more Canadians awake to declining crime rates, they will become less tolerant of senseless, ideologically driven justice policy and of bids to garner votes by fear-mongering. Provincial deficits and the prospects of cuts to health and education will reinforce that trend. Canadians might still rank crime as a big concern but it doesn’t top health care. Few will thank any government that closes a hospital to pay for a new prison.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
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Child poverty key issue
January 11, 2012
If governments want to put the economy at the top of their agendas, actions that focus on improving children’s’ well-being should be prioritized… The Canadian Pediatric Society said that child care, mental health and poverty are some of the key areas related to kids for which there are clear economic benefits to be had by taking action… Instead… the opposite has happened in recent years as youth issues have been pushed aside by governments in order to deal with the economy and Canada’s aging population.
Tags: ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
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Reducing both crime and imprisonment
Dec 14 2011
First, Canada does have too much crime. Far too many Canadians are victimized and the Department of Justice has recently estimated that the annual cost of crime is $100 billion. Second, victims are not well treated in Canada. Little is spent on victims and there have only been marginal improvements in this over the last several years, no matter which party is in power… the Conservatives are investing only token amounts in actually improving services for victims… increasing penalties and implementing mandatory minimum sentences does little or nothing to reduce crime or make Canada safer.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, featured, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Outsourcing justice for fear of offending the police
Dec 14 2011
I can’t recall as craven a display of intellectual dishonesty, political cowardice and legal myopia as in the last couple of years of rudderless stewardship at the attorney general’s ministry… In his latest report, Ombudsman André Marin details how Bentley failed to grasp his role as defender of the public interest — bending over backwards to protect the police from criticism and scrutiny… Leadership and justice are about more than taking the path of least resistance. We don’t elect politicians so they can hide under the skirts (or robes) of judges, or retired judges, every time police turn up the heat.
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Five things about crime and doing the time in Canada
Dec 3, 2011
Of the 262,616 cases put before the courts in 2009-10, 183,204 of the defendants were deemed guilty under the Criminal Code. Of that figure, 71,417 were sent to prison, 100,956 were put on probation, 8,281 received a conditional sentence, 6,699 were ordered to pay restitution, 28,757 were fined and 88,019 received some other kind of sentence… Ontario is also doing a lot more screening of cases to see if some can be handled out of court. “The ones that go forward in a jurisdiction that screens out a lot of cases tend to be more likely to have a prison sentence associated with them
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, rights
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
B.C. judge upholds Canada’s polygamy laws
Nov 23 2011
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has upheld Canada’s current laws on polygamy finding that there is reasonable belief that women and children are harmed in polygamous marriages and that the keeping polygamy illegal minimally impairs religious freedom… “… this case is essentially about harm,” wrote Chief Justice Robert Baumann… “This includes harm to women, to children, to society and to the institution of monogamous marriage.”
Tags: rights, women
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