Suppose you own a number of giant prisons and you’re looking to expand your annual earnings. How exactly could you do that?
Well, you could cut maximize efficiency and minimize overhead, like any good corporation would do. As well, considering how you’re housing a massive population of inmates with practically no rights, it would be best to put them to work for slave wages. (more…)
Imagine if cops had to wear cameras where the video is streamed to a public database. How would they act with an unblinking and unbiased witness forever leaving them open to the people’s scrutiny?
Here’s my prediction: there would be less abuse of power. Police misconduct happens when they know they can get away with it. But under and ever-present eye to watch them, they’ll find it much harder to abuse the authority they’ve been entrusted with. (more…)
(‘Looks good, but do we really need a sink _and_ a toilet? Get rid of one or the other – and presto – room for one more guest!’)
Canadians are renowned for resilience in the face of adversity, able to bear freezing winters for the brief but sensational summers. It is this willingness to take the good with the bad which leads Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party to believe Canadians will stomach their new Omnibus Crime bill.
Bill C-10 – the government’s new crime legislation – lumps together nine previously introduced bills which never passed, now repackaged into one all-encompassing document.
However, you can forget taking any time to discuss the matter – the Tories have decided to limit discussion to just two days! This means the opposition parties will have their work cut out for them, trying to call attention to all the bill’s glaring problems in such a short period of time.
First, there’s the plan to crack down on Marijuana cultivation, imposing new mandatory minimum sentences for minor offenses. Come on, Harper, in a nation that boasts the highest pot usage in the developed world, you’re alienating a good chunk of the population (not that most pot-smokers are likely to vote Conservative).
But forget the votes. Instead, consider how the whole drug prohibition strategy has proven itself to be a complete and utter failure. Why throw more money into that hole? Just look at the thousands who’ve been slain along the Mexican borders – they’d still be alive if drugs were legalized and the criminal gangs were no longer fueled by the billions they earn off the black market.
If the Conservatives really cared about protecting society, they’d take a rational, proven approach, like decriminalizing all drugs. Portugal did it, and it’s been a resounding success 10 years on. Screw the DEAs and drug gangs… let them find new jobs!
But sound policies are not what Harper stands for. Instead, the priority seems to be to appease trade partners – like the US, who’ve been steadfast in their funding of the failed war on drugs for decades.
And where will all these newly criminalized Canucks be housed? Why, in Canada’s new super-prisons, of course. Taking another page out of America’s playbook, privatized prisons can be huge money makers offering juicy kick-backs, provided the population is willing to tolerate having minor offenders locked up with hardened criminals.
Last but not least, this new crime bill will let police gather information from ISP’s without the need for a subpoena. Right, because we’re all sure to be safer when law enforcement has access into the private lives of every single Canadian.
Meanwhile, the world’s economies are teetering on the edge, and crime across the nation is at a 20 year low, but Harper and his party seem intent on dropping a few billion bills to see a larger percentage of Canadians get imprisoned.
Sadly, the financial costs of bill C-10 may very pale next to the long term societal damage to be incurred should Canada continue to follow in America’s footprints – a path the Conservatives seem hellbent on sending us down.
With the looming threat of a UN recognized Palestinian state, Israel has to act quickly to violate as many human rights as they can before the International Community really slaps on the sanctions. That’s why they just approved a plan to relocate some 20,000 to 30,000 Bedouon into recognized settlements.
See, when you’re worried about the erosion of your own culture, it doesn’t matter if you cause it for someone else. By always being the victim, you have a catch-all excuse for any ethnic cleansing you may happen to cause.
The first to be relocated will be the approximately 2,400 Bedouin living in – surprise, surprise – an area east of Jerusalem, easing Israel’s plan to expand existing Jewish settlements. The mass eviction will eventually relocate the rest of the Bedouin living in other areas of the West Bank.
Wow. What a braindead idea, ripe for all kinds of immoral and illegal acts. Sure, the State of Israel is no stranger to committing atrocities. In fact, their entire nation was forged by forcing people from their homes.
But you’d think they would be content without their very own Trail of Tears.
Transgressions by the Israeli army in the occupied Palestinian territories will be divulged by a group of former soldiers in a campaign aimed at raising public awareness of military violations.
The mission is spearheaded by Breaking the Silence, an organization of former soldiers committed to speaking out unethical military practices.
This is excellent news for the Palestinian people. As more and more Israeli atrocities get dragged out into the light, so to will awareness grow regarding Israel’s persistent injustices and crimes against humanity, and the stronger the movement for a free Palestine will become.
Around twenty Jewish organizations, along with some prominent Jewish figures, have endorsed a letter calling for sanctions against Israel and a boycott of Israeli goods and institutions.
These boycotts and sanctions are “a moral tool of non-violent, peaceful response to more than sixty years of Israeli colonialism” which “rightfully place accountability on Israeli institutions (and their allies and partners) that use business, cultural, and academic ties to white-wash Israel’s responsibility for continuing crimes against humanity.”
In a related story, prominent ex-White House journalist Helen Thomas, who was fired last year for uttering anti-Israeli statements, continued her tirade this week, saying “I’m not anti-Jewish; I’m anti-Zionist. I am anti-Israel. It has taken what doesn’t belong to it. If you have a home and you’re kicked out of that home, you don’t come and kick someone else out.”
The world is waking up to the reality of the Israel-Palestine situation. As Israel gets exposed for their continued atrocities, the world will keep mounting pressure to help end the plight of the Palestinian people.
