Posts Tagged ‘crime prevention’

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Toronto council should approve injection sites: Editorial

Wednesday, July 6th, 2016

Deaths from overdose in Toronto are rising sharply; the latest statistics show they were up 22 per cent in 2014 to 252, from 206 the year before. There’s a good chance that many of those people could have been saved if they had been kept alive long enough to receive effective treatment for their addiction… Aside from saving lives, supervised sites should have a positive effect on the surrounding community. The reality is that many drug users will inject wherever they can in the absence of a safe, supervised place.

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Posted in Health Debates | 1 Comment »


Toronto board of health approves supervised injection sites

Tuesday, July 5th, 2016

The stories of Toronto residents who died of overdoses on Toronto streets were heard for hours by board of health members, told by their friends, family and support workers at an emotional meeting that saw an overwhelming push for what advocates say would be a life-saving measure. The board unanimously agreed, signalling a new approach to harm reduction as a public health problem — one that has yet to be implemented in Ontario.

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Speaking from the grave for supervised injection sites

Monday, July 4th, 2016

Supervised injection sites are safe, hygienic places where people can bring their drugs to inject while a nurse watches for signs of overdose or other complications. To operate legally, municipalities must seek exemptions for the sites under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act… Vancouver has two sites, Montreal is awaiting federal approval for multiple sites and Ottawa is considering one. Needs assessments are underway in London and Thunder Bay.

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Ottawa should name and shame offshore tax cheats

Tuesday, June 28th, 2016

The Americans have rightly determined that the public benefit of transparency outweighs the tax-avoider’s right to privacy. Canada should make public exposure a requirement of any deal it strikes with scofflaws. The benefits would be twofold: the naming and shaming deters other offenders, and the disclosure allows citizens to understand just how thoroughly they are being cheated — and thus how much work the government must do to restore tax fairness.

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Making parole decisions is one tough job

Monday, June 27th, 2016

Most offenders will, by law, be released after serving two-thirds of their prescribed sentence. That’s called Statutory Release. To be paroled earlier you must apply to the board… staff, charged with securing, shepherding… and… saving (many) of the broken people populating our country’s prisons, stand on the front lines of society’s punitive and rehabilitative efforts, an often-underappreciated service. And board staff members were some of the hardest-working people I’ve encountered

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CAS study reveals stark racial disparities for blacks, aboriginals

Friday, June 24th, 2016

… aboriginal children… are 130 per cent more likely to be investigated as possible victims of child abuse or neglect… and 15 per cent more likely to have maltreatment confirmed… black children are 40 per cent more likely to be investigated for abuse or neglect… and 18 per cent more likely to have maltreatment confirmed… On average… only 2 per cent of children are removed from their home due to sexual abuse and 13 per cent for physical abuse. The rest are removed because of neglect, emotional maltreatment and exposure to violence between their parents or caregivers.

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Different tax rules for wealthy and powerful

Thursday, June 9th, 2016

… 26 wealthy Canadians were offered full amnesty from prosecution or penalty after they were caught hiding at least $130 million in offshore tax schemes set up by the giant accounting firm KPMG… KPMG also appears to have gotten off scot-free, even though internal memos show that the firm planned to collect 15 per cent of all taxes dodged… Its tameness stands in stark contrast to the aggressive probing of the tax avoidance industry by a parliamentary committee in Britain and a congressional committee in the U.S.

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Want to address gun crime? Tackle root causes

Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

Bigger police budgets won’t solve the alarming rise in shooting deaths in Toronto… The people who carry guns do so, almost invariably, as part of the illegal drug trade… the vast majority of the participants in the illegal drug trade at its most violent street level come from desperately impoverished backgrounds. These, then, are the two causes of gun violence: illegal drugs and poverty.

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Parliament has fumbled assisted death from the beginning

Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

The Supreme Court has laid out criteria allowing assisted death for competent adults who provide clear consent, are enduring “intolerable suffering” and have a “grievous or irremediable” medical condition. There will be no rush by doctors to help assist the death of patients after June 6. Without a federal law, most would likely be hesitant to act with legislation looming.

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Ontario vows to overhaul child protection system

Friday, May 20th, 2016

The new report, written by three government-appointed experts, describes a muddled system where the government loses track of children taken into care, has no minimum qualifications for caregivers and allows a growing number of kids “with complex special needs” to be placed in unlicensed programs… The report, called Because Young People Matter, lays responsibility for the troubled system squarely at the doorstep of the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, noting it failed to put province-wide standards and mechanisms in place to ensure children receive high-quality care.

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