Raymond Sheppard: Cleaning up racist policing
Long time anti-racism activist Raymond Sheppard offers up some ideas on meaningful long-term police reform.
RCMP
Loophole allows illegal street checking practice to continue in Nova Scotia
After street checks were determined to be illegal in October 2019, Mark Furey, the Justice minister at the time, put a stop to the practice. Case closed, you might think. Time to move on. Unfortunately no, says Vanessa Fells of the African Nova Scotian Decade for People of African Descent Coalition (ANSDPAD).
Press release: Nova Scotia government can commemorate March 21st by eliminating street checks “exception”
News release: Thirteen community organizations call on government to ban illegal practice on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. After countless reviews, reports and public meetings, the Nova Scotia government finally directed police to end the practice in October of 2019. But there was a glaring exception to the directive: police were still permitted to conduct street checks if they judged that an individual was involved in “suspicious activity.”
SIRT investigation finds police killing was justified, but questions remain
he Serious Incident Report Team (SIRT) has found that the killing of a civilian by RCMP police in Eastern Passage last summer was justified, given the circumstances. However, the SIRT summary report, as is so often the case, raises questions that remain unanswered. Meanwhile, media in Nova Scotia typically merely echo the SIRT conclusion.
One of Wortley’s most crucial recommendations has fallen out of view
We don’t really know what’s happening with the Wortley recommendation that race data be collected on all police interactions with civilians, and that’s not good.
“This feels deeply personal to me” – Academic tackles African Nova Scotian interactions with police
If you’re African Nova Scotian and live or work in Halifax, Dartmouth or the surrounding area then Jessica Bundy would very much like to talk with you about policing. Bundy is a young African Nova Scotian academic working on a project on the African Nova Scotian experiences with policing in Halifax and urban Nova Scotia.
PSA: Seeking interview participants: African Nova Scotian experiences with policing in Halifax
PSA: “I am interested in hearing more about African Nova Scotians’ experiences with policing, including how they felt about the street check inquiry and ban, and how their experiences with police impact their lives.”
Judy Haiven: A letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki
Judy Haiven on what she learned teaching a two-day workshop on sexual harassment and sexual assault to new RCMP recruits in Regina in the nineties. It didn’t go well…
“This fight isn’t over, not by a long shot” – Forest protectors face criminal charges
We spoke with Nina Newington, one of the forest protectors who were arrested while defending mainland moose habitat in Digby County from destruction. “I understand that for many people the arrests have been discouraging, but gosh, most struggles take a long time and many people around the world take far greater risks than we have taken and fight for far longer.”
Press release: RCMP charges survivor of gendered violence and the April Massacre
Press release from Wellness Within: That the RCMP would charge a victim of gendered violence- a victim who herself survived the massacre through luck, resilience, and persistence- in one of their first public actions in response to the massacre is glaring evidence of the institution’s inability to consider sex and gender in their work.