Posts Tagged ‘crime prevention’

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The grieving mother of a murdered teen pleads for a stronger social safety net

Thursday, April 13th, 2023

Expanding the social safety net to address the root causes of crime therefore requires recognizing the vital contributions these organizations make to public safety — and providing them with stable funding to carry out their responsibilities. The vast disparities in government funding between police services and non-police organizations that work directly with people struggling with mental health, chemical dependencies and homelessness indicates that far more must be done to make this happen.

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Troubled life reveals gaps that led to murder

Thursday, April 13th, 2023

Failures of the health care system become problems the criminal justice system is expected to solve, even though it’s ill suited to do so. That said, the criminal justice system does play a role in issuing and enforcing orders for treatment and counselling… The only way we will solve these problems is by making a full-throated commitment to repair our frayed social safety net, to mend the gaps… and protect innocent people.

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A plan to end partner violence

Tuesday, April 11th, 2023

… far from protecting women and other innocent individuals, our over reliance on criminal justice might actually be increasing the risks for survivors of intimate partner violence… Given the control often exerted over survivors, the reports emphasize the need for economic security, housing, safe spaces and social and mental health services for survivors. And that in turn means ensuring consistent, stable funding for organizations that provide such assistance.

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Crime rates have more to do with social factors than number of police officers

Sunday, April 2nd, 2023

The only way to reduce random crime is to address the root causes of it, usually defined by social indicators: inequality, affordable housing, programs for young children and families. The provincial and federal governments are the only public institutions with the financial capability of addressing these issues, but as we have seen in the recently released budgets of both Queen’s Park and Ottawa, they seem uninterested in doing so.

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I was a victim of random violence on the TTC. Throwing money at the problem won’t make us safer

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023

My story is just one of many that reveals the systemic failure of our social infrastructure, and the ways in which we need to redirect our energies, efforts and money toward social programming and mental-health supports… to confront issues and traumas deeply rooted in our failure to meet the needs of marginalized people, and a system where a lack of support allows insecurity and mental illness to grow.

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Public safety comes from curbing violence, not just reacting to it

Monday, January 9th, 2023

Smart investment in tackling the root causes of violence reduces the need for police responses after the fact… It is time to get upstream of the emergencies. Not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it will alleviate the need for annual increases to policing that take away from so many other budget priorities.

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The toll of police work

Monday, October 24th, 2022

Due to tears in the social safety net, many vulnerable people fall through the cracks, and it then falls to police to pick them up. Police therefore become, by default, de facto doctors, nurses and social workers, as they have to deal with issues for which they’re neither qualified nor equipped: homelessness, addictions and mental illness. This adds enormously to operational stress — and to trauma — for overpoliced, vulnerable people who need care, not cops.

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Reforming our approach to drugs

Sunday, August 21st, 2022

… while study after study confirms that criminalization has no effect on drug usage rates, it has created a vast transnational network of organized crime… the federal government’s expert task force last year recommended an end to our century-long experiment with prohibition. As its “core priority,” the force recommended Canada “immediately develop and implement a single public health framework with specific regulations for all psychoactive substances, including currently illegal drugs as well as alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis.”

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B.C. and Ottawa are showing leadership in fighting the scourge of drug overdoses

Tuesday, June 7th, 2022

The exemption, which is authorized by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, will decriminalize possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy. Toronto has applied for a similar exemption, and the feds ought to approve it now… there’s abundant evidence that drug prohibition has little effect on how many people use drugs but plays a significant role in making an already risky activity even riskier.

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Forget motives. The Trudeau government is getting it right on gun control

Thursday, June 2nd, 2022

… it plans to introduce a national handgun “freeze” — not a ban — that will bar future sales, purchases, transfers and importation of handguns by anyone across the country… It would cap the number of handguns held legally by Canadians and prevent them from being sold or otherwise moved around. Over time it would reduce the number of legal guns that find their way into the illegal market and end up being used in crimes…

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