New Media

Hanging is too good for parasites who commit these kinds of crimes:

Philip Garrido, 58, a convicted rapist and the suspected father of her children, and his wife, Nancy, 55, are being held by police on suspicion of kidnapping to commit rape. Bail has been set at $1 million (£600,000).

Police said that Ms Dugard had spent the past 18 years as a virtual slave, sheltered from the outside world in a hidden compound behind a grey, one-storey house in the semi-rural town of Antioch. Police described the compound as a “backyard within a backyard”, accessible only through a series of outhouses and tarpaulins.

This is far from the first time we’ve heard of these kinds of horrific crimes carried out over years and even decades. There was the case of the Austrian “dungeon dad” Josef Fritzl. Every so often, a monster is revealed whose crimes are so atrocious and extensive that our system of justice simply cannot deliver a level of justice commensurate with their deeds.

When someone is proven guilty of such irredeemable evil and cannot possibly be trusted to live in society, what is the point of keeping them around in prison? For such cases, isn’t capital punishment appropriate?

There’s no doubt the Olympics in Vancouver will impose fewer curtailments on freedom than the last one in Beijing, but that may not be saying much.

A great zinger from BC Civil Liberties Association executive director David Eby on free speech concerns in the run up to the 2010 Olympics (Vancouver Sun):

Rule 51 of the IOC Olympic Charter prohibits any “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.” Not exactly the stuff of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, but then again, nobody elected the IOC to protect democracy.

Vancouver has to abide by Olympic rules, so Vancouver Sun’s Daphne Bramham reports “Vancouver’s council recently passed an omnibus bylaw amending dozens of existing laws. Among the changes are the creation of so-called free-speech zones and blocks of the city… where no political pamphlets, leaflets, graffiti or “non-celebratory posters” will be allowed”. They mayor still insists that the whole city is a free speech zone, but at the very least, citizens are confused by the disconnect.

In an Olympic-style comparison of civil liberties violations, with gold representing something like, say, raping and torturing incarcerated protesters, thought-policing signage rules and police security screens might not get you to the top of the podium. But this is the kind of competition where you really don’t want to even be the runner-up.

Predictably, we’re seeing a lot of hot air from world political leaders who refuse to cooperate at the G8 summit discussing greener policies climate change targets. What’s changed now is the exact source of that hot air.

The USA’s President Obama has rightly backed targets to cut emissions by 17% by 2020 and 83% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels (Of course, in the USA, not everything a President wants gets done – we’ll see if the Senate approves). So now the world’s worst polluter per capita (except us carbon-spewing Canucks) are off eco-defenders’ hate-mail lists, at least for the moment. But developing nations, where fast population growth and gradually-rising living standards are quickly boosting carbon footprints, still aren’t buying in.

India’s rep says reaching climate change targets should not be borne on the backs of the developing world’s poor. This is shorthand for saying that since the developed world got to enjoy the benefits of high living standards from rampant resource exploitation, pretty much guilt-free before the recent green revolution, then India, China, Indonesia and all the rest of the developing world – most of the planet’s population – should be able to exploit resources and emit carbon to their heart’s content, at least for the next 100 years or so.

Bad idea. We’re already seeing evidence of climate change, and guess where the worst of it is happening? Drought in Africa, murderous heat in India, mass flooding in Bangladesh, crop failures in Asia… while developed nations have the resources to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, developing nations don’t. They’ve got huge incentives to cut back on their carbon output right now. These nations want their people’s living standards to continue to rise. But doing nothing about climate change means sitting back and watching their land turn into deserts or their cities to be reclaimed by the sea.

The excuse from developing nations previously has been that they couldn’t be expected to lower their carbon footprint when even the rich nations couldn’t afford to do so.

Now that the wealthy nations have stepped up, the rest of the world will need to do their part.

This doesn’t necessarily mean curtailing the developing world’s economies. Carbon can be reduced through better efficiency. Smarter uses of resources, better public transportation, recycling programs, better enforcement of regulations protecting nature preserves, moving away from the disastrous suburbian model we’ve largely adopted in the West… all of these will help. All that’s required is the will.

The summer is almost here and it’s a nice time to be living in Mount Pleasant. Looking forward to lots of walks and bike rides around the nicest neighborhood in Vancouver.

Gregor Robertson’s election in Vancouver has a faint parallel with Obama’s election in the USA, in that the new boss has some huge problems to fix, and a fairly strong mandate for change in terms of voting percentage (despite the poor voter turnout overall).

Robertson has stated his first priority is homelessness, as it should be, but the way he is tackling it should raise some eyebrows. In his own words:

“Job number one is calling together an emergency task force on homelessness and working on solutions to getting people off the street into a safe place to live as quickly as possible.” (Vancouver Sun)

Emergency task force? The homelessness issue has already been studied to death by the outgoing mayor and council. There is already a plan — actually, it’s called the Vancouver Homeless Action Plan (naturally). We don’t need more planning sessions to come up with ideas: We need implementation.

How about this? The cops escort social workers and medical health professionals into the downtown eastside and other affected areas of Vancouver, conducting a census of the mentally ill and the hopelessly addicted. Empower these teams to take these people off the streets for a more thorough mental health evaluation. Those found to be suffering from mental disorders making them useful only for the predators and criminals stalking their neighborhood are hospitalized and given therapy and a roof over their head. These people are to be released back into society only when they can demonstrate the ability to function without posing a threat to themselves or others.

That would be a start. Until the criminal justice system in this country allows local judges to harshly sentence the predators in our city that prey on the defenseless, that may be all we can hope for in the short term. But it would be a start.