“Dear Sam, this is the story of how your mom got lost, where I went, who I’ve been, and who I am.” Check out this week’s weekend video about Heather, a young mother who lives with mental health issues, who, unable to find help, ends up in a forensic hospital after being found ‘Not Criminally Responsible on account of Mental Disorder’. It’s really nice.
oday, Abolition Coalition member groups from coast-to-coast will drive past sites of confinement and hold online caravans to demand freedom for prisoners and migrant detainees subject to the violence of the Canadian carceral state during the pandemic.
Delighted to present Wash your hands after reading this poem, by Antigonish poet Nanci Lee, and with a gorgeous illustration by painter Leya Evelyn. This is the first of the poems we selected after our call for poems and illustrators earlier this year. We have some catching up to do, so expect more than one poem a month for the next little while.
Last week (and well before last weekend’s mass shooting) we talked with NDP Leader Gary Burrill, about being a progressive party in opposition during a crisis, what COVID-19 reveals about the state of the province, and how to oppose the push for more austerity that will occur once the crisis is over.
Open letter signed by well over 50 Black scholars, community members, and allied academics and health professionals across the country, writing in support of Dr. OmiSoore Dryden and the need for disaggregated racial data collection during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robyn Bourgeois: “Addressing mass murder means taking a hard look at white masculinity and the normalization of violence. It requires that we refuse to dismiss mass murderers as mentally defective or a few “bad apples.” Instead, we must understand that the entire system of white masculinity is rotten. Because until we do, aggrieved white men will continue to commit mass murder and we will all continue to pay the price.”
Media release: Women’s Shelters Canada is asking for the RCMP and the federal government to acknowledge the gendered aspect of this weekend’s mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
Pressure has been mounting throughout the country for the release of prisoners and migrant detainees. While federal officials have delayed action, COVID-19 infections continue to spread like wildfire throughout Canada’s prison system. Stacey Gomez reports.
Two recent crosswalk incidents, causing injuries and death respectively, were the result of drivers turning right on a red light. These were not the first, and they won’t be the last. It’s time to act, writes Martyn Williams.
What really happened at Northwood? A government that made many cuts to long-term care, and architects of nursing homes have a lot of explaining to do, writes Judy Haiven