One of the responsibilities of the police that could be eliminated is the role of social work and responding to mental health crises. As we’ve seen far too often in Canada and across the world, the police are untrained and ill-equipped in social work. The success of these examples in
Continue readingTag: black lives matter
Northern Currents –: Edmonton City Council votes to Defund the Police
The Edmonton city council voted to cut the 2022 Edmonton Police Service (EPS) budget by $10.9 million last Wednesday. EPS will still be allocated $385 million next year. I guess more armoured vehicles are out of the question next year? Defunding the police is the correct path for Canada to take, and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: State Of The Union
I found the following on Facebook, written by a Black man named David Gray. For those interested in going deeper into his post, I have provided links to all the victims of police and /or white violence/racism he cites in his post. I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare
Continue readingNorthern Currents: Want to defund the police? One gigantic problem: they don’t care
Share this article: At this point, we are all aware of what it means to defund the police. It simply means moving money and tasks away from police departments and then funneling that money into new social programs that can properly deal with public health issues. One example of this could
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Why Is Big Oil Funding Police in Canada?
Image adapted from a photo by Jason Hargrove on Wikimedia THE TROUBLING FINANCIAL CONNECTIONS BETWEEN BIG OIL AND POLICE Dylan Penner 2 weeks ago Big Oil is financing police foundations in Canada to the Read more…
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: People are getting their racist and confederate tattoos removed. Today I’m not that guy
BILLY WHITE WORKING AT HIS SHOP, ROSE TATTOO, IN ZANESVILLE, OHIO. (PHOTO BY LOCK 10 PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY OF BILLY WHITE) In the last few months, tattoo artists, laser removal specialists, and anti-hate speech advocates Read more…
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thatcher brouhaha: When your slippery opponent’s on the ropes, maybe you should focus on keeping him there!
When you’ve got a slippery political opponent on the ropes with a completely legitimate issue, what’s it profit a New Democrat to stand up in the Legislature and create a massive distraction from the fight the party’s winning with one that has no advantage for it? This is what NDP
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: What’s Going On?
YouTuber David Doel was saying all the cops had to do to win mass public support was to come out and do nothing. They couldn’t even do nothing. They threatened charities, faked being poisoned, all while slashing tires, shooting eyes, gassing people, clubbing them, breaking old men’s heads, and playing
Continue readingThe Daveberta Podcast: Episode 56: Police problems and what meaningful accountability could look like in Alberta
Calls to defund and abolish the police have become a mainstream conversation in reaction to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer and countless other murders and examples of systematic racism and violent behaviour by police forces against Black, Indigenous and People of Colour across Canada and
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Defund The Police is catching on
Cops DO have time to:– Check your ID if you're Black or Indigenous – pursue drug users despite cannabis being mostly decriminalized – kill people during welfare checks– break down your door in error while doing a raid in the suite downstairs– shoot journalists in the face — Saskboy from
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Justin Trudeau Sends Donald Trump Another Silent Message
They have been marching all over the world to remember George Floyd, and denounce police brutality and anti-black racism.They have been peacefully demonstrating in Canada too, from coast to coast to coast… And in Ottawa yesterday, Justin Trudeau spoke powerfully again without saying a word.Read more »
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not A Pleasing Reflection
Yesterday’s post revolved around the painful reality of Black people having to tell their children, often at a very young age, the harsh facts of racialized life and the things they must do to protect themselves from state violence. Truly heartbreaking, but it would be a mistake to believe this
Continue readingNorthern Currents: Let’s De-fund the Police in Canada too. But what does that mean?
Share this: In the wake of the murder of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with 3 other police standing idly by without intervening, growing support for calls to defund the police have surged throughout the USA and Canada. But what does it mean to defund the police?
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Donald Trump and the Road To Fascism
Donald Trump has been in an absolute frenzy all week, firing off more tweets than he ever has before. And never sounding more delusional and more dangerous. It all began when it was revealed that he had been rushed into a White House bunker And people started calling him
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Lesson In Empathy
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus Finch famously tells his daughter Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” That statement, that call for empathy, may sound obvious,
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Why Black Panther’s Wakanda Is the Black Utopia We’ve Been Waiting For
Wakanda, the advanced fictional East African nation in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther film, is the the Black utopia imagined by the African diaspora and its allies since the trans-Atlantic slave trade. And Black Panther is the powerful, intelligent and compassionate Black superhero whose time has arrived. The post Why Black
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Fighting Back
Colin Kaepernick, the young NFL quarterback about whom I have previously posted, has shown remarkable integrity and fortitude dealing with the furor following his decision to ‘take a knee’ rather than stand for the U.S. national anthem. His action, to protest the brutalization of Black people at the hands of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: His Name Was Patrick Harmon
Only a failed nation perpetrates the kind of atrocity depicted in the following video. While difficult to watch, what other choice do we have but to bear witness? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Days, There Does Seem To Be A Small Sliver Of Hope
Watch the following video, and you’ll see why. Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: 7 Reminders for White Parents Talking to Their Kids About Police Killing Black People
When White parents talk to their children about police killings of Black people, they create future White co-conspirators/allies for primary forces working against racism, the prison industrial complex and other injustices, such as Black Lives Matter. The post 7 Reminders for White Parents Talking to Their Kids About Police Killing
Continue reading