On Tuesday, the sixth and final remaining manslaughter charge in the Boxing Day shootings that killed 15-year-old Jane Creba and wounded several others in 2005 ended in acquittal. Two others, who actually fired weapons, had previously been convicted of second degree murder. G.C., whose full name is withheld because he was a minor at the […] More »
Unrepentant on the eve of his extradition, B.C.’s Prince of Pot has one message: he’ll be back Marc Emery, Vancouver’s famous marijuana activist, has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the United States in a negotiated deal relating to his mail-order business that sold marijuana seeds throughout North America. We caught up with him […] More »
Canada has a problem: since the early 1980s, over 500 Aboriginal women have been either murdered or reported as missing. It’s a shocking figure that’s motivated a pair of self-identified “survivors of the sex industry” to form the Coalition Against Violence Everywhere, an organization dedicated to stopping the violence by challenging the common narrative that […] More »
It’s hard to read the story of Chris Skinner, the 27-year-old gay man who was beaten and then run over at Bay and Adelaide in Toronto just over a month ago, without feeling chilled. In addition to the obvious horror, there is something extremely disturbing about a violent attack you can’t pin an explanation on. […] More »
So our website bit the big one on Friday morning, which kind of cramped our plans for Legalization Week’s big finish. Everything seems to be working again, our apologies for the interruption. Without further ado, here it is, the call for legalization that I think might be the most controversial in the issue: Laura Kusisto […] More »
Our (totally made up, unofficial) Legalization Week continues today with Katie Addleman’s exploration of the drug trade, and the catastrophic effect prohibition has had on law enforcement, gang violence, addicts’ health, and community safety: Ounce for ounce, marijuana is worth more than gold, and heroin more than uranium. Yet it’s only as a direct result […] More »
The misbegotten “War on Drugs” has funnelled billions into the pockets of criminals, and drug use is higher than ever. We’re addicted to policy failure — time to kick the habit Shortly after Vancouver was named the host of the 2010 Olympics, Naomi Klein was seething about injustice again. “The Vancouver-Whistler Olympic bid presented the […] More »
Some stories are sad, and some are crazy. This one is both. One of the four RCMP officers involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski in 2007 has now been arrested over a hit-and-run death two weekends ago, allegedly a drunk-driving collision. Orion Hutchinson, 21, was killed in a crash between his motorcycle and a […] More »
Virgin Mobile wants Canadians to join the hunt for the most fearless among us. Know what we fear? Massive privacy invasion! The contest involves posting a one minute video of yourself, doing something fearless, on YouTube. Skydiving or swimming with sharks are listed as prime examples of activities fearless Canadians partake in. On November 19th, […] More »
Steven W. Beattie writes today on the Maisonneuve blog about “The Troubling Case of Roman Polanski,” arguing that the condemnations that have burst forth in the last couple of days following Polanski’s arrest is “a failure of one of the artist’s most significant attributes: empathy.” Polanski’s crime – and all its attendant issues of patriarchy, […] More »
The Ontario Government is using single mothers to sell a proposed funding increase to legal aid the public, but lawyers aren’t buying it. “Almost 70 per cent of family legal aid cases involve women making $22,000 or less per year. Nearly all of these cases involve children. This significant investment is critical to ensuring the safety […] More »