Watchdog calls out RCMP over ‘shocking’ backlog of access-to-information requests
The RCMP needs to present a “comprehensive strategy” to reduce an unacceptable backlog of requests for information, says a new report from the federal information commissioner. Information Commissioner Caroline Maynard, in a report tabled to Parliament Tuesday, called out the police force over its “inability to meet statutory timeframes” required under the Access to Information […]
CSC in ‘flagrant non-compliance’ of solitary confinement rules, prison watchdog says
The government is in “flagrant non-compliance” with the regime it brought in to end solitary confinement, says Canada’s prison watchdog, as critics renew calls for oversight in the wake of data revealing the law isn’t being followed most of the time. After a year-long back and forth with the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) failed […]
The opioid crisis: let’s learn from the success of cannabis legalization
Two years after its legalization in Canada, cannabis is moving from plant pariah to public policy precedent. Legalization is working. The early data from Statistics Canada shows a significant drop in users between the ages of 15 and 18. Quebec is now following the science by tightening its rules and prohibiting cannabis consumption by anyone […]
Adding a racial lens to the legislated review of the Cannabis Act
The story of the enforcement of cannabis laws in Canada is one of historical injustice and inequality. Indeed, it is undisputed by this government that one of the greatest injustices in our country is the disparity and disproportionality of the enforcement of cannabis laws and the impact this has had on Black communities, Aboriginal communities, […]
In continuing opioid crisis, cannabis can’t be overlooked as a life-saving measure
Long derided as a gateway to so-called hard drug use, recent scientific findings have raised the possibility that cannabis might be an off-ramp from the overdose crisis. While the coronavirus pandemic dominates headlines, the overdose crisis is about to enter its sixth year, having claimed the lives of more than 16,000 Canadians. Sparked by the […]
RCMP neck-hold review ‘ongoing’ four months after Lucki’s promise
The RCMP has not yet completed its review of the controversial carotid neck hold used by its officers to subdue people, four months after Commissioner Brenda Lucki pledged to reassess the use of a technique that can sometimes render those on whom it is used unconscious, and five months after George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black […]
‘Ping-pong’ gun politics continue to divide voters, as O’Toole courts GTA seats
Even during the worst health and economic crises in recent memory, gun politics are inescapable in Canada. A petition to Parliament calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) to reverse his May 1 decision to ban a list of guns that he described as “military-grade assault weapons” has garnered more than 230,000 signatures from […]
‘Like a criminal’: Canada-U.S. asylum agreement has a human cost, refugee says
Five years ago, a woman fled her home in central Africa, arrived in the United States, and days later headed for the Canadian border to seek asylum. A political activist who’d witnessed election fraud, she feared for her life after the militia killed her cousin and another activist. The 29-year-old thought that was the worst […]
Software likely to blame for CSC’s ‘unfortunate’ failure to report solitary confinement data, says watchdog
Technical issues and a new “Cadillac” software system to track inmates likely explains the Correctional Service of Canada’s failure to provide promised data to an independent panel monitoring the new system meant to end solitary confinement, says Canada’s prison watchdog. The challenge rests primarily with a new tracking technology the Correctional Service of Canada picked […]
What else is happening while we worry about COVID?
CHELSEA, QUE.—The pandemic, the WE controversy, and ongoing problems with the RCMP have given higher-than-usual profiles to a number of Justin Trudeau’s cabinet ministers—notably Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, and, for all the wrong reasons, Finance Minister Bill Morneau. But there […]
