Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Whole New World

I'm not sure why this song from “Aladdin” pops into my head as I think about the G8/G20 summits. The sugar-coated lyrics set to dreamy music is in stark contrast to the pictures on the news of burning police cars, protesters-turned-thugs, and police in riot gear beating their batons against body shields as they slowly and doggedly move towards the crowds of people.

“A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming”

The motto of the security plan for the summits seemed to be “More and bigger is better.” So, walls were built, thousands upon thousands of policemen from across Canada were deployed, public transit was shut down, and normal, innocent people were seen as suspect.

As I was listening to the reports of the summit, I tried to think about alternative ways the Summits might have been held.

What if, instead of meeting secretively together to listen to the CEOs of the largest companies in the manufacturing and financial sector, the leaders of the world's richest countries would have invited the poorest people (of their own countries and of others) to bring their perspective to the conversation?

What if the leaders attending the G8/G20 Summit would have worked with protest groups ahead of time to understand what each others' interest were.

What if, when people were arrested, opportunity would have been given for them to take responsibility for their actions and to be held accountable to repair the damage they had caused?

What if …. The pragmatist on my right shoulder is practically rolling on the ground laughing – it's impossible, she hoots.

A whole new world … it's what we, who see Restorative Justice as an alternative way of relating in the world, hope for.

LCN

Monday, June 28, 2010

This truth won't set you free ...

The Globe and Mail published an interesting article on Wednesday, June 22nd. It’s called, “Truth in sentencing must come with truth in spending”. (Unfortunately, the Globe will only allow non-subscribers a limited time to view on line articles.) The article notes that Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page estimates that by 2015 – 16, the cost of running federal and provincial jails will rise to 9.5 billion dollars. Those costs are currently about 4.4 billion. Mr. Page believes that these increases will come as the result of changes to the prison population expected in the wake of the Truth in Sentencing Act. The government denies this will be the case. However even Public Safety Minister Vic Towes has also more than doubled his estimations on prison costs from an initial 90 million to 2 billion over five years.

“Why would the government not tell the truth about the Truth in Sentencing Act?”, states the Globe and Mail? That is a good question.

When the government, (any government) has an agenda, it seems that money is no object. The tough on crime agenda, which means putting more people in prison through laws like “Truth in Sentencing”, is like a speeding freight train gathering more and more steam. It is taking us on a ride that will cost us not just financially but socially as well.

Another good question is, when it comes time to pay for the tough on crime agenda, will the delivered goods be what we want?

This is not the first time the government came up with, what it thought was a good idea, only later to regret what it did. If the Government of Canada could turn back its clock, would they have created residential schools? In five or ten years down the road, when Canada’s prison population has exploded, will the government also want to turn the clock back to today?

MRJN

Friday, June 25, 2010

Where is there hope?

There is a saying: "if it bleeds, it leads". I am not sure who first spoke these words, but it seems to be true. Our media saturates us with painful, ugly details about people's misfortunes. Lives that are dumped into our criminal justice system. For many people, the cure can be as bad as the disease.

Our system is designed on the idea that the victim and the offender are removed from the process of dealing with a problem. Instead, two lawyers battle wits in front of a judge. To be fair, the system has been responsive to the needs of victims. And there are greater efforts to help offenders change their behavoiour. However many believe the current system has a long way to go.

Restorative justice is an alternative model of doing things differently. The work of Dr. Caroline M. Angel is a good example of this work in action. These efforts are hopeful.

MRJN